Gen Z Doesn't Just Want to Travel Abroad, They Want to Move There

[DFW]

25. Return on my tax dollars (or euros)?? Hah! I wish.

Here in Germany, I am in the supposed 42% + 5% (i.e. 47% plus plus), essentially 50% tax bracket. You don't have to earn a fortune to get there. Once you hit about $100,000, you're there. In return, I get----ZERO. No health care, no social security, no pension, no NOTHING. Just the right to pay, and since there are holes in the Double Taxation Treaty with the USA, I get hit for about 67% total on my income taxes. As of last year, I finally do draw US social security, of which GERMANY, not the USA, takes 50%.

When I first moved here, I checked out what health insurance was available, since my employer and remuneration were still in the USA. I was quoted €30,000 a year for health insurance, but given the option of keeping my US Blue Cross, which pays for exactly nothing.

If you do move, make sure you know what the ground rules are before you go. Asylum seekers get more for coming here with nothing than I do for paying the German government a solid five figures in taxes every four months, plus 19% value added tax on everything I buy.

One thing they did NOT give me a hard time about was my language test. Since my wife is German, and we have always spoken German together from day one--and that was 49 years ago--they said I didn't need a language test.

But if you move to another country, be prepared for a mountain of paperwork, and frustrating encounters with bureaucrats who have no interest whatsoever in your case. Once you're in, you're in, but make sure you know what you're in for once you get here. They aren't interested in complaints afterward.