Comment by the_sleaze_
1 day ago
They've been incentivizing it for years. Talent passport, EU Blue card and the Tech Visa. As I have heard they'll pay you to move there.
Expect 50% salary and taxes that will make your eyes water. French bureaucracy is kafkaesque even in 2026.
Other than that I agree I'd love to move there.
Taxes are not really an issue because of the services you get out of it: free healthcare, free education for your kids, etc.
But yes, salary before taxes is much lower than in the US. If your goal is to make as much money as possible, either stay in US or move to a different European country (Northern Europe or Switzerland).
As a software engineer in the US you're not really worrying about access to health care, and have access to public schools as well.
> As a software engineer in the US you're not really worrying about access to health care
You're "not really worrying" ... whilst you are in a job.
There fixed that for you.
As I am sure you are acutely aware US is the home of lay-offs and is generally easy to fire people.
If you loose your job in the US it becomes panic stations because you loose that precious employer-paid healthcare overnight.
Meanwhile in Europe ? Take your time job hunting a new job, healthcare is still free.
1 reply →
What happens to your health insurance if you get too sick to work?
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I left the US, not because I was worried about healthcare for myself or my family, but because of how I felt it reflected on me that I was fine choosing to stay and cash a large check every month while others around me had to worry about healthcare.
What if you get laid off?
"Health Insurance Is Now More Expensive Than the Mortgage for These Americans" - https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/aca-health-insurance-c...
"free"... as in paid for with high taxes
"In 2024, the United States spent an estimated $14,885 per person on healthcare - the highest healthcare costs per capita across similar countries. For comparison, Switzerland was the second highest-spending country with $9,963 in healthcare costs per capita, while the average for wealthy OECD countries, excluding the United States, was $7,371 per person."
"Despite spending nearly twice as much on healthcare per capita, utilization rates for many services in the United States is lower than other wealthy OECD countries."
"In fact, the United States spends over $1,000 per person on administrative costs — approximately five times more than the average of other wealthy countries"
"Despite higher healthcare spending, America’s health outcomes are not any better than those in other developed countries. The United States actually performs worse in some common health metrics like life expectancy, infant mortality, unmanaged diabetes, and safety during childbirth."
- https://www.pgpf.org/article/how-does-the-us-healthcare-syst...
But in the other hand you don't have to worry about mass shootings. You can freely walk (mostly) wherever you want without risking your life (that is not normal in most of the world). And you're not going bankrupt because of a minor/medium medical condition.
Europe is a _very_ different place.
Not everything here is so bad.
> But in the other hand you don't have to worry about mass shootings.
I don't fear mass shootings any more than I fear terrorist perpetrated subway or event bombings.
> you're not going bankrupt because of a minor/medium medical condition
Medical debt and the discourse around it is interesting. Not having insurance is the fundamental issue, medical debt itself is legally mandated to be negotiable. As in they are legally required to find a negotiable payoff price that will work for your personal financial situation, similar to school debt. I pay $70/month for school debt and will for the next 25 years. Is that a lot? Yes. Does it matter to me? Not so much. I could be wrong about the medical debt, but I don't think i am.
> You can freely walk
This is huge and something that would drastically improve my quality of life in a substantial way. Love Europe for this. Love.
> They've been incentivizing it for years.
There is also NGI Sargasso which had EU grants being awarded to collaborations between parties in the EU and the US, working on internet innovation projects. Looks like that funding program has closed. Not sure if these open calls were slashed by the Trump government.
https://ngisargasso.eu/