Is the US still the best place to live?

Depends. A heart attack in the US can cost over $1 million to survive, and can very easily bankrupt small business owners and those in the middle to upper middle classes.

Cost of living has been increasing at rates that engineer compensation has not kept up with at all, especially in cities.

In many EU countries, you get 35 days of paid vacation mandated by law, along with 6 months to over a year of maternity and paternity leave. In the US, you get no such guarantee, and undercurrents of the Protestant work ethic are very well and alive in our culture. Sometimes new hires are expected to not take any paid vacations for the first first year of their employment. There's also a strain of private authoritarianism when it comes to employment in the US, by default, some employers treat their employees like property, and can seemingly dictate the terms of employees' off-time. Stemming from this are expectations of being on-call, but without the benefits of things like accruing overtime, being paid time and a half or with handsome bonuses that workers elsewhere tend to demand. All in all, workers' rights in the US are dismal compared to many first-world countries.

Truthfully, if I were younger and didn't have ties to the US, I would look into emigrating to the EU if they'd take me.

Was it ever?

Social atomization, hyperconsumerism and a generally blighted physical environment (who-gives-a-fuck suburban sprawl nearly everywhere) are what define your life in most parts of this country, if you don't earn a high enough salary to offset their effects. That, and the relentless "life == work" mentality exhibited even in other comments in this thread.

I'm in Canada and the US is very appealing to me. More money, more personal freedom, better healthcare, more choice of food and other goods. I understand there is lots of disparity and some people are very badly off there, and I hear bad things about certain cities (but I'd want to do my own research before I believe what I read online). Overall though, if you're well off, the US is very appealing.

Just to add, recent events have made the US even more appealing, but the "brain drain" from canada is very real and people have been moving to the US to make a better life for themselves for decades. I don't believe anything has changed

Unless you are in the Bay Area, NYC, or similar, the salaries aren't that much higher. You also have to weigh that against the lack of social services. Sure you can make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, but that can be easily wiped away by a major medical event or chronic illness. By very few measures is the US the best place to live, but those indices also combine large swaths of very different regions.

FYI, I currently live in SF, but have worked elsewhere in the US and made considerably less. Maybe the difference isn't so stark now with the rise of remote work. But I do think remote work will ultimately lead to another wave of outsourcing, especially as the barrier for tech continues to decrease.

I think this one is going to be entirely subjective. It depends on what you want and what your priorities are.

Yes. Strong IP. Colossal market. Access to capital. Talent pool. State of the Art R&D. As well as the culture of "doing big things" ;)

But there is a major headwind in location / real estate / cost of living. I was really intrigued by a recent poster who said $150k was enough for a 3 year run rate for their entire team in India!

Are the (significantly) higher salaries worth it?

Higher?? You'd have to be joking. When most people need several jobs to make ends meet?

When there is no single-payer health-care for the average joe? When a brief visit to an emergency room will set you back thousands. And if you don't have a job, it's very probable that you won't have any health insurance either. In other countries, a you can have a triple cardiac bypass for zero out-of-pocket expenses.

When people have very little paid holiday leave per year, if at all? In some countries, they get four to six weeks holiday per year, paid at normal (or higher) wage rates.

When waiters and waitresses have to survive on what tips they get, instead of getting a reasonable living wage and tips are extra on top.?

When many roads, bridges, schools, hospitals are in bad states of disrepair because there is no money for the infrastructure?

When many of the country's airports look like 1960s hangovers from the third-world. Have you seen modern airports in the Middle East or Asia?

The US is nowhere near the 'best place to live'. Sorry.

Check out the 'most livable places' list 2021:

1 - Norway; 2 - Ireland (tie); 2 - Switzerland (tie); 4 - Iceland (tie); 4 - Hong Kong, China (SAR)(tie); 6 - Germany; 7 - Sweden; 8 - Australia (tie); 8 - Netherlands (tie); 10 - Denmark.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/best-coun...

Very large place and most of its advantages don't require being here.

For developing nation immigrants, US can be appealing.

For natural/existing US citizens, the US is a good starting point to leverage in more developed nations.

Salary discussion is a bit limiting, better to just be rich enough. Have capital. If you must live off of what you earn you just want to earn more from one area and spend less in another area, so the answer to that is “yes”.

Folks would totally salary arbitrage if it was easy, but there's a few hoops to jump through (payroll allowing it, mail forwarding, timezones with coworkers, new languages, new bureaucracies). Not to mention the caring for older family members usually moves up in priority as they age.

I think it is but the edge is slipping. If you're willing to do freelancing / consulting you can work your way up to US prices in Europe or with more effort in Asia.

I would be interested in hearing what place might eventually (or now) be the US but better.

The US I grew up in felt a little more naviely optimistic and ambitious which I would like to find more of.

Lately it seems like I mostly meet extremely capable people who have access to massive capital and they choose to live a quiet life and retire rather than build stuff. Which is fine...but not what I'm looking for.

India seems like a compelling possibility. Maybe Nigeria in a couple years?

It's worth pointing out too how much this depends on city too.

SF used to be the place that still had all that stuff but I've heard it's pretty tough to live there now.

I lived two years in the US as an exchange student, it was pretty fun and that’s what allowed me to learn English.

But I was not really impressed. Recently someone offered me a position in FAANG company, I refused despite the high salary.

In my humble opinion, your country is too diverse that it’s starting to hurt, you are being polarized over trivial stuff and social interactions are too shallow (I prefer opposite countries where it’s harder to engage with people but where discussions get a lot deeper)

Also the American dream is not really appealing to me, I have lived in 5 countries (for at least a year), the US is the one I enjoyed the least

"If you could take your salary and live in a different country..." Spain (?) perhaps, because Spanish culture may have a better work/life balance and coastal Spain is similar to coastal California climate-wise. I haven't been on a date in years and suspect many U.S. men in tech are in a similar situation. Also almost any conversation would be engaging/interesting/humbling because Spanish is not in my primary language and that provides an incentive to be more social.

Moving to Canada from the USA extended my expected life span by 4 years. 4 YEARS! That's only the average. Sheesh.

Actuary tables are kinda the end all be all for living:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe...

But if you have more specific considerations there's likely stats on that.

I don’t think it ever was in general? I was offered a green card and a high value job in California. I decided to accept a job in Australia instead. That was the right choice for me. But YMMV of course. I think it depends on your personality, job situation etc. whether the US is the right choice for you or not.

It never was? We are just good at advertising because that’s what runs this country.

Regardless of the salary, I have never seen a place as beautiful as the West Coast, specifically the cities of San Diego, LA and SF. It still gives me goosebumps and watering eyes today when I land there. It might be that I am conflating the opportunities that the area has given me with the actual beauty, but I don’t think so.

And I was born and raised in the beautiful Mediterranean coast in Europe.

You just answered your own question. No one ever asks if (any other country) is the best

It was maybe before the WWII, what are you looking at? Over-priced lousy food, living on a 1M+ cardboard box? The diversity is pretty is only skin deep, people living there are pretty much all the same, same hobbies, etc...

What an absurde premise.

Depends on whether you are white or not. US is great for white people and for immigrants from certain countries. Probably suboptimal for others but in terms of economic opportunity, it's the best for everyone.