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Comment by munksbeer | Hacker News Reader

I'm always surprised at someone born with a foot up advantage, voluntarily moving from California to somewhere like Ireland. The weather is atrocious, salaries low, cost of living very high, etc.

Sure, it's a fun adventure, but maybe just for 6 moths to a year.

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People in America talk so much about how certain people have "privileges" over others, when one of the biggest privileges in the world - and one of the most sought after - is being American. I can see this clearly having grown up outside the US, but I'm often stunned when people here don't realize that. Even a poor person in the US is fairly rich by world standards, even if compared to big chunks of Europe.

A close friend of mine did this about 25 years ago, and he considers it one of the best things he's ever done. His description of Ireland is "if you ignore the weather, this place is as close to a paradise as I'm likely to see".

It may not be for everybody (nothing is), but it is for some.

I loved it for five years but after having kids it was horrible, for me at least. Holland has been vastly superior.

In 2013 I had a flat across from Dublin castle for €800 a month and the craic was, indeed, mighty.

If you’re born in California it’s easy not to realise how special it is.

The weather is nice. Economic opportunity is crazy good, network effects are weirdly magical. Housing crisis is fucked. Traffic is fucked. Government is excessively bossy. SF planning department is corrupt and pathological.

I left and don’t regret it one bit. Different strokes for different folks.

I just came across a comment of yours (1 yr ago) on setting up an LLC in California as I'm about to pull the trigger/looking for recommendations on who to choose for formation/setting up etc

You mentioned not to do it in SF! This thread is kinda of connected - do you mind elaborating on why not to setup your LLC in SF?

The food is pretty damn good too.

Agreed with the first half of your comment. However

> Traffic is fucked. Government is excessively bossy. SF planning department is corrupt and pathological.

Traffic is horrible everywhere, unless it's a few European cities with great public transport. But their governments make CA govt look tame by comparison.

> SF planning department is corrupt and pathological.

Couldn't agree more. Though it is easy to avoid SF and stay in the nicer parts of SFBA.

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