Germans love to complain about their country. In the last few years, our politicians have given us more reasons to complain about than in a long time. I’ve worked remotely my entire professional life. Even when you leave the nitpicks aside, people often ask me: “Why don’t you move elsewhere? You could be living the dream!”
The first answer is a lesson most people will only learn if they experience it firsthand: Traveling is its own job. The more you travel while working full-time, the more tired you’ll get. Visiting a country when all you have to do is explore it is very different from having to show up in meetings and do serious work for eight hours a day. The dream quickly becomes a logistical nightmare.
The second answer is that home is home, and most people’s ties to their city, their country, and their loved ones are much stronger than even the most painful complaint. People stay in countries even when everything around them is bombed to bits. How could a tax raise or change in leadership possibly make them go?
The third and most recent answer I have discovered is that “not everything that glitters is gold,” as we say in German. Take Switzerland, every career-oriented German’s secret wet dream. Higher salaries, lower taxes, beautiful nature all around, what’s not to love? Well, the exorbitant costs of living, for example. The fact that there’s barely any parental leave, paid or unpaid. Raising kids costs two arms and one leg. And the bureaucracy is even more maddening than in Germany. Plus, Swiss people are hard to befriend. You’ll always be “the German” to some extent, perhaps even eyed suspiciously for taking a job a Swiss person could have held.
Similar learnings apply to Dubai, minus the fact they now have a war going on next door. “It’s a tax paradise!” It also comes with zero financial support. No health insurance, no unemployed benefits, no pension scheme. So out of that great net salary, you’ll have to pay many things which, in Germany, are already covered by the time you get your payout. Never mind the fact that as soon as you don’t have a job, they’re quick to kick you out of the country. Your bank account, your lease, your ability to transact, it’s all tied to your work visa unless you’ve lived in Dubai for many years.
Today, I talked to a German living in Barcelona. He’s trying to buy an apartment, but the prices have doubled in the last few years and are close to Munich levels. You also need to pay at least 20% down and fork over an extra 10% of the overall price in taxes. And who can—let alone will—pay 150 grand for a 50 square-meter flat, even if it’s nice? Unfortunately for my new friend, rent contracts aren’t unlimited either, like most are in Germany. After five years at the latest, you’ll have to renew. So he’s trying to move out before his rent doubles, too.
We talked about many of these dynamics and concluded: As soon as you look under the hood, every country has its problems—so you might as well stay in the one where you’ve at least grown roots around them.
“Why don’t you move elsewhere?” Because elsewhere is only different, not better, and there’s nothing quite like complaining about home.
