To begin with, if there was this supposed country where everything is great, everyone would want to live there.
The questions is rather what fits you best?; which country can you go to and adapt fast and easy?
For example where as for many people looking for employment, Italy or Sweden seem like paradise because how well workers have it, for me living in those two countries would be hell due to Sweden’s cashless society (as if EU wasn’t strict enough ) and Italy’s social capital requirements for SRL.
Sweden’s cashless society
That’s a great tool against tax evasion, corruption and grey economy. Who would have anything against this?
100 % govt surveillance, and boring 
Emir wrote:
That’s a great tool against tax evasion, corruption and grey economy.
In theory, having a system to record every monetary operation people do does help combating fraud.
However make no mistake, this has nothing to do with fraud, its all about controlling the people’s income
Every thing i do, i have to pay money.
Im paying money to deposit, to withdraw, transfer, to do b2b (like paying utilities), pay for stuff
To be fair its less predatory for physical entities then it is for companies.
Im am literally paying money to pay money.
Im also losing money every year while the banks make money with my money.
The yearly deposit rate is lower then the yearly inflation rate where as credits have a monthly interest rates.
And its not like i can just invest the money because the banks wont allow me to just withdraw everything and invest in different businesses and buy real estate.
On top of that banks cooperate with each other to not compete with deposit and interest rates and they do it in a way to avoid anti-competition regulation, you can check for yourself the deposit rates for the banks in your country (in mine they vary with about 1%).
The only reason people are using banks its because people have to, this is from where the banks get their power from, and doing what Sweeden has makes this phenomenon 1000% worse
Its pure insanity.
JoeMama_the_Pilot wrote:
The only reason people are using banks its because people have to, this is from where the banks get their power from, and doing what Sweeden has makes this phenomenon 1000% worse
In Sweden, this is actually not driven by the government but by the banks (to save on the cost of handling cash) and by the consumers (by the convenience of not having to carry cash). In fact, the government has for some time now seriously discussed introducing legislation to force all bank branch offices to accept cash.
But of course, Sweden is a high trust society – both in how people trust each other and in how they trust authorities. So far that trust has mainly been warranted.
Having relocated from the US a number of years ago, I also understand your sentiment. As others have said, it’s mostly a matter of personal priorities and preferences. I brought my kids (10, 9, and 6 at the time) to the Netherlands, and it’s been the best decision of my life. I have no plans to return. I also managed to learn to speak Dutch fluently in my 40s, so I don’t agree that it’s impossible to do so. But it is a lot of work, especially in a country where you can mostly just speak English.
What do I like about it here?
What’s less nice:
I know people say you should consider moving to another place in the US, but other than language similarity I think people don’t realize how big of a deal this is. The cultural differences and impact on children can be nearly as jarring as an international move. I do agree that Southern California is both off the charts expensive compared to many places in the US, but he mentioned other factors that won’t change based on where he lives. I think it would be good to tease out how important the US-specific factors are.
AdamFrisch wrote:
which country or region would you personally chose where the quality of life aspects and cost of living coincide into a happy medium?
Consider the south of Portugal, a very relaxed place.
- 3000+ hours of sun per year. Subtropical climate with ocean breeze.
- very reasonable prices, high quality of food. Fruit, veg and fish unlike the imitations sold in N of Europe
- no less than +10C at night in winter, +15 during the day
- relaxed, polite people, murder rate 1/10 of the US (valid for most of EU)
- english spoken widely because of tourism
- oldest unmoved country border in Europe and not really a target for ICBMs
On the down side:
- need to leave in July and August because of the holiday season and the heat
- difficult for GA. Few strips. Forget a hangar. Lucky if you’re able to park at all in high season.
Airborne_Again wrote:
In Sweden, this is actually not driven by the government but by the banks (to save on the cost of handling cash) and by the consumers (by the convenience of not having to carry cash). In fact, the government has for some time now seriously discussed introducing legislation to force all bank branch offices to accept cash.
Exact same thing in Norway. But, as late as 2019 a law came that forces cash as one form of payment. It’s a criminal offence not to accept cash in a grocery shop for instance. It’s a bit more complicated though, as many transactions today are meaningless/impossible with cash (internet shops is one example). With relations to banks, transactions will be done by bank transfer unless a written agreement exist, or you specifically ask for cash. The bank is free to add fees for cash transfers. This they always do of course, so small amounts becomes stupid (you could end up paying more in fees than the value of the transaction). And why would you want to do larger transactions with cash, when everything is much easier with card/phone/chip regardless?
JoeMama_the_Pilot wrote:
In theory, having a system to record every monetary operation people do does help combating fraud.
Even in theory you simply replace the possibility for fraud by fellow sisters and brothers by sure fraud by government …
oldest unmoved country border in Europe and not really a target for ICBMs
A friend is planning to move to the Spanish mountains (s. coast) exactly for that reason; he seriously thinks there will be a nuclear war. But for now he lives on the Isle of Man because of the tax benefits 
murder rate 1/10 of the US
That point, while statistically true (in the sense that if a man eats a chicken and another eats no chicken, both have eaten 0.5 of a chicken) may be wasted on anyone who has made a productive life in the US, because he will be living in, and paying for, a pleasant low crime area.
Personally if I was the OP I would do all possible to just move within the US. A move done primarily to reduce living expenses tends to backfire in the long run by trapping you, and kids tend to hate it unless they are very small and just want to feed ducks. Some vast number of Brits have discovered this to their cost and are either coming back or would like to but can’t afford it because they spent the money “made” on cheap booze The US has a big range of cultures and a big range of cost of living options, while you don’t need to learn a new language and don’t need to learn subtleties in the use of language and subtleties in the local culture. Also most of Europe is pretty crap for GA flying.
