I went to the US for y2k , and was there for 5 years.

I came home with the exact same amount of money as I had when I left. And I also got a deep understanding for the absolute depths of cruel poverty in the US and for safety nets they don’t have.

Do it. You’ll never be the same, and you’ll really appreciate Canada better.

We did it for four years. Washington state in the Seattle are is very nice. We met a lot of great people and we have fond memories.

Having said that it was clear early on this was not going to be permanent. Imagine taking your kids to the local park and seeing a sign that said no guns allowed in this park. Wait, guns are allowed in some parks? WTF. That was just a head scratcher. I found it genuinely hard to be in a place where I was decidedly middle class and so many people were so poor and with no benefits at all.

I remember once chatting with a cashier at the grocery store over the weeks as she was pregnant. One day I stopped seeing her and figured she had her baby. Two weeks later she was back. No maternity leave. She took her full two weeks of vacation and that was it. Shit.

Or the conversation I had with a cab driver who talked about still being in debt because his FIL was sick and avoided getting medical attention because none of the family had medical coverage until he had to be admitted.

The medical system is a confusing shambles of insanity. That’s if you have good coverage. Once our daughter was sick and the childrens hospital directed us to a closer clinic. We went. There was a discussion about possibly admitting her but in the end she went home. A few days later she was worse so we ended up going to the children’s hospital and she was admitted. Turns out the near by clinic was not in our medical coverage group and it cost us nearly $1000 out of pocket. Not fun but doable. The thing is, she was two nights in the hospital where we were covered. If we had admitted her the first day at the wrong hospital it would have cost us at least $10 000.

The whole system is a fucking nightmare of land mines and no one has any clue what any particular thing will cost you.

I just couldn’t be happy under those conditions. Side note I’m not happy with the slide in equality here in Canada either BTW.

My job is in high tech and they pay was no better, just even. We lost money on selling buying houses, but that’s just timing. I kept track of taxes paid. After medical expenses it was only a 5 percent savings and one medical emergency would too that the other way. Yes, I had great medical coverage.

It’s not without risk. You’d have to see how much money you’d make, your cost of living including healthcare costs. Weigh them against the benefits including simply a change of scenery or sense of adventure, if it’s worth it then go forth!

Might not be worth if you already have kids, for reason some people there only care about kids when inside a womb.

The whole American political and justice system is so messed up. Look carefully at the city and state you are relocating to, they’re all different.

I sometimes want to go there but many things happening lately make me hug my city of Toronto a little tighter.

Nah. Don’t feel like being caught up in one of the 15 mass shootings per day where the government will try to brush it off and blame it on trans people.

I may be dirt poor in Canada, but at least my trans neighbour and I are both safe when we leave our places.

nope. lol. Not unless my salary doubles, at minimum, and that’s just to make sure I don’t go bankrupt from healthcare.

That place is a shit show.

No, im really not. There is too much darkness, and too much hate.

The gun culture, “freedumb” insanity, and lack of basics such as healthcare make me view it fairly close to the third world. the only they thing have better there is more buying power.

No. Their cost of living is insane, plus I have T1D, which would be a pre-existing condition under their insurance schemes. Not insurmountable, but would be an ongoing issue. Plus their culture is intolerable.

Nope, I’m happy to sit up here in ol’ Canada, living high on the hog, taking advantage of a 1.32 USD/CAD exchange rate.

Thought about it very seriously for a long time. I did grad school for planetary science and there’s almost no market for that degree in Canada. But in order to work in the US in the space program, you need permanent residency in order to even have a crack at getting security clearance.

Had $10k US set aside for the immigration lawyer. Started interviewing at new space startups in 2015.

Then I was in Seattle for an interview and it was too expensive to get a hotel near the company. Since I had a car rental, I took a hotel an hour south – a roadaide hotel for $200/night. Can’t be that bad for $200, right? Got there and it was kind of shitty. Being if an adventurous sort, I went outside and sat in front of my room in the evening and chatted with the locals – the hotel was full of people on the dole for various reasons. Every single one of them was a republican. They all thought Obama was coming for their guns. They railed against anything socialist while, ironically, being the absolute dregs of society and we’re wholly supported by said system. I couldn’t understand it. This isn’t the hip Seattle I was expecting…

Then 2016 happened and I said “hmm, maybe I’ll wait.” Then the child detention thing happened and I said “I kind of feel like I am trying to immigrate to Germany in 1936…” and I took a look at myself. I decided to use that money as a downpayment on a house in Winnipeg and start a scientific equipment business. I’m not making instruments for spacecraft, but close enough. At least I’m no von Braun.