PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Quality of life USA/EU (Easyjet/BA/Ryanair)
Old 22nd May 2018, 21:22
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FlyTCI
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
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I am a green card holder and have spent ten years on and off in the US, but I decided to move back to the Europe four years ago after having been away for a total of 13 years straight. I too hated having to cross the Atlantic to visit my family, especially once my siblings started to have kids and I missed the European way of life, in my view a simpler way of life.

I have a job allowing me to live anywhere in the world as I work a one month on/off schedule and I chose to live in southern Europe. After 2.5 years I decided to move to one of the few places in Europe with minimal tax (~9%) and with a great quality of life, something I personally never achieved in the US. I guess I just enjoy being around more like minded people and not living in what I feel nowadays, unfortunately, has become a police state, without the majority of its citizens realising it.

For someone who really feel they belong in the US, and very likely feel money is the most important thing in life, then the choice is easy. Stay in the US and reap the awesome benefits a major carrier over there currently (and most likely for a good while) will provide you with. I think few, if any pilot jobs in the world, matches those at the upper end of the spectrum in the US. At the moment I still have my GC, but I am moving closer and closer to the decision to give it up to get out of Uncle Sam’s long reaching tax grabbing hands.

I will most likely not make the kind of money currently on offer in the US, but, I make more than enough to live a comfortable life, and as long as I can stay on this level or higher I will retire quite comfortably too. Combine that with, to me as a European, a feeling of a more “resl” QOL back in Europe I personally couldn’t be happier. Sure, I would probably die in a bigger house sorrounded by more toys and more money in the bank had I stayed over there, but to me there’s more to life than “stuff”.

Before I get jumped on by defensive Americans who feel they live in the greatest country on earth, I perfectly understand and respect that they feel that way and that’s great, but we all see things through slightly different lenses which is what creates diversity on our planet. I feel like I have found my way home, despite not living in my country of birth, and I have no regrets.

It’s not an easy decision you face, and honestly, you very likely won’t fully know whether or not you made the right decision until you lie on your death bed, but that goes for many decisions in life. Best of luck no matter which path you choose.



Last edited by FlyTCI; 23rd May 2018 at 04:16.
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