[dopamean]

being rich is pretty great almost anywhere in the world including the nordic countries. it's only "better" in america if you value having a huge gap between you and the poorest people in the country.

[the_fall]

I think the US is markedly better for people in certain professions who want to become rich. This is obviously not true for the general population, but the amount of cash that's chasing profits in tech means that a non-trivial percentage of SF Bay Area techies have a shot at financial independence (let's say, $10M in the bank). This is certainly not true for IT workers in most of the EU.

But if you already have enough to never need to work again, you should be fine in almost any liberal and politically stable country, and there's something to be said about moving to a lower CoL place where you can afford a nicer home, etc.

[bachmeier]

> a non-trivial percentage of SF Bay Area techies have a shot at financial independence (let's say, $10M in the bank)

You can become financially independent in most parts of the US. You definitely do not need $10M. $1.5M is enough. If you want a lavish lifestyle or you want to have complete control over where you live, of course that will require more, but financial independence means only that you have enough to cover the bills and live a modest but comfortable lifestyle.

[qwerpy]

Agree, many of my peers are on track to reach financial independence around 45. No compromises needed: Nice large home, good schools, safe neighborhood, plenty left over for luxuries and travel. I don’t know of anywhere else in the world where fairly normal but hard-working people can reliably do this (provided you got lucky enough to get hired at and survive a FAANG for ~10 years).

From here we can then move to a lower CoL place or stay put, whatever makes sense for our families.

[trimethylpurine]

CoL is very low in the US and QoL is very good. Just obviously not near the coast. For some reason many Americans forget that most of America is not in San Francisco.

[drysine]

>financial independence (let's say, $10M in the bank)

In Russia $1M gives you financial independence for life

[cocoto]

Completely false, the money to help the poorest people comes from the rich ones, so you are poorer if the gap is smaller. But at some point too many poor people can make a country hard to live for the richest (crimes for example)

[mullingitover]

This statement is equally true if you swap poor and rich.

[mmooss]

> money to help the poorest people comes from the rich ones

It comes largely from the middle and working classes, who pay a higher tax rate than wealthy people.

> many poor people can make a country hard to live for the richest (crimes for example)

I'm not convinced that poverty causes crime. It might be lack of public services, such as health care, shelter, food, education (creating social mobility), safety net, etc.

[michaelmrose]

The richest or the merely rich can trivially insulate themselves from meaningful risk even in crime ridden hell holes. As far as the rest of us in the US crime has been on a steep decline for decades regardless of the blip in 2020.

There are only ever too many poors in America by virtue of inequality.

[WarmWash]

Being rich in the US has the benefit of giving access to the widest array of utilities meant for rich people.

[kakacik]

You should travel a bit my friend. Ever been to Monaco? Switzerland? And few others. Tons of americans there/here, but they are mostly not coming back and have strong political opinions to base such decisions on. Once you are not poor, whatever it means, folks get very different priorities.

There are no trends of rich people thinking about moving to US from here in Switzerland for example, unless they want really to start some startup and already aim very high (but then Asia offers much more for less money, there is no US moat I could see). US as a country these days is mostly despised, thanks to your current government and its behavior.

Of course some US folks see it differently but but thats emotional view of home-is-always-best. Or literally prefer heavily class-based society based on wealth - we don't do that in Europe anymore.

[CGMthrowaway]

Looking at migration trends for billionaires (so not billionaire creators but rather billionaire magnets) over the last 30 or so years - synthesis of various sources:

Top attractors are London (non-dom era), Singapore, Dubai, Miami, Austin, SF, NYC, Hong Kong (pre-[1])

Top repellers/outmigration are London (post-abolition of non-dom), Moscow, Hong Kong (post-[1]), China, high-tax zones in Europe, India, developing nations

For places that are in both lists but at different times, you can see the massive impact of public policy (non-dom tax haven, Chinese hand)

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Hong_Kong_national_securi...

[ifwinterco]

SF and NYC are the surprising ones there, because the rest are low tax (0-25% income tax, give or take).

Goes to show it is possible to tax people quite a lot and still be an attractive place to live, but you do need to bring something special (which in 2026 means "be the centre of the world for either tech or finance").

If you're good at that stuff but still very much second tier (London), the tax rate seems to matter a lot

[glitchc]

It's better to be rich in the US because you can cut ahead of the line in virtually every segment if you have the money.

[Analemma_]

Why would you think this exclusive to the US? This is true everywhere (arguably it’s true tautologically, it’s practically what “being rich” means).

[HPsquared]

A random person living in America has a higher chance of becoming rich than in most other countries.

[michaelmrose]

This is untrue.

Here is a measure of upward mobility. We are 27 out of 82 right below Lithuania

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

[jghn]

However, despite the fact that we live in a country full of temporarily embarrassed millionaires, it is still a low %age chance of actually happening