quora:为什么很多美国居民认为离开美国是他们做过的最佳选择？ [美国媒体]

Why do many people (including the Americans who left the US) say that living in the US is hard and that leaving the country was the best choice they ever made?

为什么很多美国居民认为离开美国是他们做过的最佳选择？

chris liu华人
Well, my family lived in the US for a few years in the 1990s and then left for Canada, where we became Canadian citizens. We lived in New Jersey, Ohio, and Massachusetts.
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上世纪90年代，我的家人在美国住了几年，然后去了加拿大，在那里我们成了加拿大公民。我们曾住在过新泽西州、俄亥俄州和马萨诸塞州。

The US certainly has its upsides, most notably the low cost of gasoline, and consumer goods (which are also in greater availability). People in very high powered professions have more opportunities than elsewhere, which is why cities such as New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area are a magnet for international talent, but for the typical middle class citizen, not so much.

美国当然也有它的优点，最显着的是汽油和消费品(它们的可用性也更高)的低成本。
高端行业的人比其他行业的人有更多的机会，这就是为什么纽约和旧金山湾区这样的城市会吸引国际人才，但对典型的中产阶级公民来说却不是这样。

A better social safety net. If you for example lose your job, there is more likelihood that you will not end up on the streets than in the US.

更好的社会保障体系。例如，如果你失去了工作，那么你避免流落街头的可能性比在美国更大。

Universal healthcare (which in American discourse is often called contemptuously “socialized medicine”). The problem with American healthcare is that the US spends more, but gets worse outcomes than Canada, the UK’s NHS, the hybrid system in Germany, and pretty much every other nation that American conservatives call “socialized medicine”.

全民医疗(在美国人的话语中通常被轻蔑地称为“社会化医疗”)。
美国医疗保健的问题在于，美国医疗保险贵，但却比加拿大、英国的国民保健服务(NHS)、德国的混合医疗体系，甚至几乎所有其他国家都要糟糕。
美国保守派称之为的“社区医疗”。

The big issue in the US is that if you get ill or injured, you are likely to lose your job and by extension, your health insurance, leaving you desperately looking for the nearest Obamacare plan and trying to pay yourself (keep in mind that Obamacare does not cover everything and deductibles have been rising).
Personal story: My family did have a member who needed extensive surgery and they said to me that had we been living in the US, we would have had to sell our house to cover medical expenses.

美国的大问题是,如果你生病或受伤,你就有可能失去你的工作,另外,你的医疗保险会让你近乎绝望地寻找最接近奥巴马医改计划的方法来试图支付(记住,奥巴马医改不包括一切,免赔额一直在上升)。
个人经历:我的家人需要做一个全面的手术，他们对我说，如果我们住在美国，我们就得卖掉房子来支付医疗费用

If you’ve seen my other answers, I’ve brought out this chart a couple of times before. Not a good reflection on the US healthcare system:
In many states in the US, infrastructure is falling apart, so you get better quality roads, mass transit, and other transportation infrastructure.

如果你看过我的其他答案，我之前曾多次展示过这个图表。这并不能很好地反映美国的医疗体系:
在美国的许多州，基础设施正在崩溃，因此（在移民后）你可以享受更好的公路、公共交通和其他交通基础设施。



It should be noted that outside of NYC and the metropolitan cores of a few other major cities, you are likely to have to own a vehicle due to the under-investment in infrastructure. That is a huge expense, which in much of Europe and Asia is not needed due to the quality of mass transit.
You will see more potholes and falling apart bridges as a result in the US. Here is an example: How Long Can a State Go Without Repairing Roads and Bridges?

除了纽约市和其他一些大城市的中心地带，由于基础设施投资不足，你可能必须拥有一辆汽车。
这是一笔巨大的开支，在欧洲和亚洲的大部分地区，由于公共交通的质量，这是不需要的。
在美国，你会看到更多的坑坑洼洼，桥梁也会倒塌。这里有一个例子:一个不修公路和桥梁的国家能走多远?

Another big issue is that the US is only cheap where the economy is weak. Where the economy is stronger, living costs are among the most expensive in the world and the living cost to wages ratio often does not keep up. The US is by no means the only nation with this issue, but one of the hardest hit overall, due to the lack of social safety nets.

经济疲软的情况下，花销最低的——在经济较为强劲的地区，生活成本是世界上最昂贵的，生活成本与工资的比率往往跟不上。
美国绝不是唯一一个有这个问题的国家，但因为缺乏社会保障体系，却是最受打击的国家之一。

Only a handful of people in highly paid careers (ex: technology in Silicon Valley or finance in New York City) have the ability to pay rent.
The other winners are those who bought housing when it was cheap.

只有少数高薪职业的人(例如:硅谷的技术或纽约的金融)有能力支付房租。
剩下的赢家只是那些在房价便宜的时候买房的人。

Minimum wages are higher elsewhere and there are more services for those who face various difficulties in life. Social mobility as a result in the US tends to be just over half that of Canada (You're twice as likely to live the American Dream in Canada) and even lower than some of the Nordic social democracies.

其他地方的最低工资更高，而在生活中遇到困难的人有更多的服务。
美国的社会流动性往往是加拿大的一半多(你在加拿大实现美国梦的可能性是加拿大的两倍)，甚至比北欧的一些社会民主国家还要低。

Labour laws and other worker protections are generally stronger outside of the US. In many cases, laws such as “Right to Work” are unheard of. Other nations also offer more vacation days (The sad reason half of Americans don’t take all their paid vacation and Why Do Americans Have Less Vacation Time than Anyone Else?) and have them by law.
Inequality is significantly higher in the US than other Western nations. Inequality leads to worse health outcomes and other problems.

在美国以外，劳动法和其他工人保护措施通常更为严格。在许多情况下，诸如所谓的“工作的权利”之类的法律是闻所未闻的。
其他国家也提供更多的假期(悲哀的原因是有一半的美国人没有带全部的带薪假期，为什么美国人的假期比其他人少?)
美国的不平等程度明显高于其他西方国家，不平等导致更糟糕的健康结果和其他问题。

For those with children, there are better services outside of the US. Tuition is often much cheaper outside the US for post-secondary education and in many cases free. Furthermore, those without post-secondary education often have better career prospects outside of the US

.对于那些有孩子的人来说，在美国之外还有更好的服务。
在美国以外的地方，高等教育的学费通常要便宜得多，而且很多时候是免费的。此外，那些没有接受过高等教育的人通常在美国以外拥有更好的职业前景。

Taxes in general are higher outside the US in the Western ，but you get more services for your money so, this concept may sound alien to some Americans, particularly conservatives, but paying taxes overall saves you money (The Myth of Low-Tax America: Why Americans Aren't Getting Their Money's Worth). Overall, the conversation in the US is purely around taxes and not what services you get for your money.

在税收更高的美国西部，你得到更多的服务。
所以，这个概念对于某些人来说，听起来有点奇怪，但整体纳税可以更省钱
(美国低税收的神话：为什么美国人没有得到他们缴纳的钱的价值)。

总的来说，美国人的谈话纯粹是围绕税收，而不是你的税收能换取什么社会服务
The problem in the US is that it is terrible for the poor and for the rich, they have pretty much everything, including lower taxes than in other nations. The average living standards in the US as a result, while on average better than say, a developing nation, are not the world’s best.

总的来说，美国的问题是，这对穷人富人来说都很可怕，他们几乎拥有一切，包括比其他国家更低的税收。
其结果是，美国的平均生活水平虽然平均水平高于发展中国家，但并不是世界上最好的。

Would I ever go back to the US?
Again, only those at the top 10% of the income chart (ex: the upper middle class) should consider the opportunities in the US. I would only go back if there were truly exceptional opportunities not found elsewhere.

我会回到美国吗?
同样的，只有那些收入最高的10%的人(前中产阶级)应该考虑在美国的机会。
如果别的地方不能发掘，只有美国才有的特殊机会，我才会回去

Outside of careers, the largest group of other people who go back to the US from Canada are those who have family. Here in Canada, a final large group are the many retirees do retire in states such as Florida to escape from the harsh Canadian winters. They often return to Canada for the summers though, so I am not sure that should be counted as emigration.
Otherwise, I have concluded that outside of those groups and the top 10% with high paying jobs, there are few reasons to move to the US.

除了工作之外，从加拿大回到美国的人数最多的是那些有家庭的人。
在加拿大，一个最后的大群体是许多退休人员在佛罗里达等州退休以逃避严酷的加拿大冬天。不过他们经常夏天回加拿大，所以我不确定这算不算移民。
我得出的结论是，除了这些群体和高薪工作的前10%人群之外，没有什么理由移居美国。