Reasons you wouldn’t move to US

[Preiu]

Dh has been offered a job in the US. The increase in salary would put us into a completely different wealth bracket but I really don’t want to move.

• fear of home invasion with guns
• school shooting - guns in general I guess
• American exceptionalism attitude annoys me
• Being away from family
• Not having Europe on doorstep

Can I ask if you have any other reasons

While the reasons not to are compelling, particularly that of Trump, I would be very intrigued to look into a move to the States. Especially New England, which has a particular draw for me. Ultimately I’d want to drill down on the finances, taking into account all the extra bills such as health insurance and housing taxes (or whatever they are) plus likely cost of energy bills etc. I’d also want to know what job prospects there are for me (are you planning to work out there, op?)

I love walking so I think I’d find that aspect quite difficult but I love the thought of the open spaces, positive attitudes and enriching experience it would have given my children when they were younger.

Guns

Food in the UK is quite good these days though hot weather summer fruits like peaches are better in the US (Brits moving here, know that the best fruit comes from a farm stand and not Safeway! Same for tomatoes; supermarket ones are awful, but proper locally grown ones are divine because of the hotter summers in most of the country.) It's really not what it was decades ago. I miss M&S ready meals still. I think the US is too big to make the logistics of refrigerated ready meals very practical. There are minor things I'd pick on, like why can't Americans label potatoes by variety instead of just baking, white, or red? And while I like an American biscuit, that sausage gravy is horrifying and makes me grateful not to eat pork.

But sometimes people will come into these threads and say American food is all garbage and tasteless and poor quality, and that's also nonsense. (I also notice they never say it about Canada, which has a lot of the same products, and that's partly what convinces me that it's prejudice.)

OP, 10 years ago, I was a bit appalled to hear my 12 year old nephew in London was doing gun lockdowns drills
Now my DD is starting a job in Sept teaching English (11-18, in her own old school).
We are in rural Dorset and some children come to school on tractors. They do gun lockdown drills.

🙄 at the posters ' guns aren't a problem in my state'. You live in a country where the biggest cause of child death is by a gun, and nothing is ever done to change this statistic.
You might feel safe where you live, but you are willing to turn a blind eye to this appalling statistic.
I'm not anti American, I've visited many times and will be doing so again later this year and will have a great time I'm sure, and I won't be paranoid about being shot.
The point is I wouldn't live in a country that is so complacent about gun control.
Plus you put sugar in bread 🤢

No, what people have said is that the risk varies substantially. Which it does. How can you compare Massachusetts to Mississippi? The stats are clear.

(Also, Americans are not all complacent. When they try to pass gun laws, the Supreme Court overturns them.)

School shooting drills more than anything- false alarms are very common.

healthcare, though I suppose you could easily be covered on that front

car centric culture and not being able to walk anywhere

the politics, unless there is a dramatic turnaround between now and the election. But could never live in a trump supporting state

The sheer ignorance many some Brits display is astonishing. They seem to think the US (or Australia) are the same size as Britain, and therefore the same all over.

The willy waving in this thread is ridiculous.

I've just come across a reason today. Apologies if it has been mentioned.

They have vending machines for bullets.

I actually had to Google as I have never seen such a thing.

Of course it's Texas. And I will say straight up that there are at least two dozen reasons I would never live in Texas.

(Yes, there are things I don't like about America. Several of them are sitting on the Supreme Court.)

What would bother me is Guns, healthcare, taxes and women's rights. But the main reason I wouldn't move there if I had kids is the school system. I would worry every day about whether they are safe and what they are learning. Buying my child a bulletproof backpack and making sure their shoes don't light up so an active shooter doesn't see them would be my worst nightmare.

They add sugar to everything! The supermarket quality food is really poor, but if you can afford to shop at Wholefoods instead it’s more in line with U.K. food quality and standards for animal welfare.

That’s so unnecessary given you can walk into any Walmart or Dicks and buy any weaponry you want from cross bows to automatic weapons.

And you can't understand why that might be - given the ignorant comments on here from the Brits who seem to think they are living in some sort of uptopia.

I seriously fear for the UK given the stupidity of many of its residents, who are so thick that they think the whole of the US is exactly the same. I imagine that the majority of them have spent no more time in the US (if any) than a week 20 years ago. It's the same with any thread about living in a country which isn't the UK, they are all found wanting. I'm surprised the entire world's population isn't trying to move to the UK to live, it's such a paradise - apparently.

Again, for the complete and utter idiot not in the back but who can’t see beyond the end of their own nose and actually read what people are saying (which says a lot about you if we’re going down the judgemental route that you insist on)…I didn’t say guns aren’t an issue, I very clearly stated guns are an issue and need controlling. I simply said it doesn’t scare me and it wouldn’t stop me moving there.

I have lived and worked there. I think it’s an amazing country in many ways. And still go several times a year for work and family.
it is huge.
But the gun culture is everywhere-
and while there are more guns in the south than the NE for example, and some cities have less crime than others- the fact remains that guns are everywhere and the crime rates are statistically huge compared to Europe.

which is why we chose not to move our family there.

I wouldn't, I prefer the way things are in the uk. Transport, health.
In the USA you have to own a car, driving culture should be declining, not pushed like you're weird for not driving. Obviously, NHS. The cost of health insurance would eat up any increase in salary.

They’re an aggressive nation, the USA. It goes hand in hand with the whole ‘ greatest country in the world- god bless ‘Merica- world police- protect freedom- if you want my gun take it from my cold dead hand’
culture.

If you heard people speaking as ignorantly about the UK as people do about the US here, you'd be blunt. And I've done the same when I've heard Americans talk this way.

Health insurance does not necessarily eat up salary differences. It's little things like that that also show ignorance. As a practical matter, you need to calculate the full value of the salary package, because benefits like health insurance make a big difference towards total compensation. The amount the employer contributes to your premium varies. I know people whose entire family premium is covered, 100%, by their employer. now that's a major perk, but the actual cost of healthcare is not uniform and needs to be calculated. It's very annoying, especially as you are calculating both the cost of the premium and then your out of pocket cost, and should be done differently, but it's the sort of practical detail that makes a difference when making a decision.

You don’t get Europeans running around saying that THEIR country is the best in the world, somehow magically blessed by god.
I have had this conversation with American’s who seem genuinely perplexed that no, I don’t think the USA is the greatest country in the world.
Nor do I think MY country is the greatest in the world.
Because I don’t think there is A greatest country…

You don't. I don't. I have absolutely come across Europeans who think their country is the best in the world. Americans didn't invent chauvinism or exceptionalism, though some of them would like to think they did.

Can I just point out the OP wanted reasons NOT to move, so that is what people are saying. We are not slagging off the country, just giving reasons.

If the OP had asked for reasons to go live in the USA then that is what people would be saying.

Thank you for pointing out what Americans seem to not fathom. (And we’re the ignorant ones right?)

I morally object to living in a country that does nothing about kids getting shot at school. You’re all ok with it. We get it loud and clear.

That’s not ignorance that’s having morals.

I don’t think the UK is great either for what it’s worth. But I’d rather live here for all the reasons listed.