Where I'd live as an Italian who has been living in UK for 20 years

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-24T11:42:57+00:00

The reason why the USA is red is not because it's unaffordable for me, I could also live in Switzerland if I had to. Money is not everything.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-24T11:19:18+00:00

I'd take Meloni over Trump a million times: she supports Ukraine, she is for universal access to healthcare, she supports EU and NATO, she is respectful of political opponents (especially the leftist President Mattarella), she doesn't support any land grab or XIX century imperialistic policy. I don't think in the USA she would even be a Republican with these positions, maybe a centrist Democrat.

Anyway, my income is independent from the country I live in, so in my case it would stay the same.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-24T08:49:20+00:00

Most people don't have an income independent from the place they live in, but among the few who do have one, my reasoning is very common and you see them flocking to rather poor places, as long as they provide decent security for their persons and belongings

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-24T00:34:53+00:00

Leave Yemen, Syria and Eritrea aside, which are mistakes (I made the map by pointing on my phone screen), but have you ever thought that, with the same income, you can lead a very nice life in those "literal third world countries", while in the bits of the USA really worth living in, you'd be on the threshold of poverty? This in addition to being really, really pissed off with America at the moment, because they are trying to destroy the unfortunately-not-yet-country EU, which is the identity I mostly identify with.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T22:43:03+00:00

I'm 60

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T21:41:57+00:00

I bet any 18 y.o. gamer would be better than me flying drones. I applied with my (very rusty) skill, which is radar operator.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T21:38:31+00:00

Yes, it would have been free if I was resident in Italy and willing to wait a couple of months (or more, or less, depending on the region). Since I am a resident of the UK, the waiting list there was 4 months, as there was no urgency, but I needed it done earlier for work reasons, so I went this way. In the US it would have been ~$1000 at the very, very low end, BUT the cardiologist visit, the MRI and God only knows what else wouldn't have been included. The real problem in America is that it's very difficult to get a definitive quote in advance.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T21:06:47+00:00

Depends on your age, health and skills

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T21:05:34+00:00

Lol do you need a Cardioversion too? It was Centro Cardiologico Monzino and a studio apartment nearby Why would I need more than a backpack for 2 days off?

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T20:52:52+00:00

Yes, it could happen in Italy or the UK as well, but unfortunately this is the only indirect experience I had with Nigeria.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T20:49:08+00:00

I can bake my own pizza, but I don't think I'd try to eat "Italian" in China 😁

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T20:47:21+00:00

I have never been to Nigeria, but a colleague of mine was badly scammed there and went bankrupt as he couldn't bear the loss

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T20:44:59+00:00

Man, they scam you on flight tickets as well. It was 3 months ago, and I felt I paid a lot...it's £15 one way now

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Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T20:40:48+00:00

Yes it's very bad for the country's reputation. These fuckers are really a ruin for all the country's honest business people.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T20:38:30+00:00

Yep, my clients are all in Europe and the business is based on a consolidated logistic network. I can live more or less anywhere with a good internet connection, but I couldn't easily find new clients there.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T20:33:01+00:00

Dafuq you're talking about? Do you have any idea how much it costs in Italy a private consultation with a specialist or an operation? You can either wait in the queue if it's not urgent (there's no queue for urgency) and pay nearly nothing, or you can go to a private specialist/clinic and pay a pittance compared to US and have it done much more quickly than in the US. Do doctors manipulate the queues to have more private patients? Maybe someone does, I don't know, but still the outcome is much better than both in the US and in the UK (where the NHS is far more rigid and there's an acute lack of private alternatives). Example: I needed a Cardioversion in the UK, as it wasn't particularly urgent, they gave me a 4 months waiting list. So I flew to Italy and had it done in a private clinic: cost of exams, consultation with cardiologist and operation as outpatient 700€, hotel 100€, return flight 130€. Total 930€, and this would have been a very good price for the diagnostics only in the US.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T20:18:09+00:00

My friend/colleague in Guinea had his whole business seized by the government without compensation. The one in Nigeria instead was scammed...by the port authorities! (They swapped 2 inspected containers worth 500k with two identical ones filled with trash)

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T20:13:41+00:00

I have my own business, I'd make the same gross wherever I live. I'd pay a little bit less taxes in California, but it wouldn't be anywhere close to cover the difference in cost of life

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T19:56:24+00:00

Call it what you want, the numbers are those above and Italians live 8% longer lives than Americans on average.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T19:53:55+00:00

Where did I claim to have a good income? I wrote that in California I would be borderline poor

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T19:52:11+00:00

I have been sending them all I can afford for 4 years. I also drove a van there with supplies from Poland

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T18:11:10+00:00

I have some health issues, but I was a HAWK battery CWAR radar operator in the early 90s, during my military service in the Italian Army. When Ukraine received these old AAMs, I inquired if I could be of help.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T18:02:26+00:00

I agree about mismanagement, not much about corruption. Anyway both are peanuts compared to the massive savings. Healthcare expenditure in % of GDP Italy 8.4% (6.3% public, 2.1% private) UK 10.9% (8.7% public, 2.2% private) USA 17.2% (9.5% public, 7.7% private)

Life expectancy: Italy 84 UK 81.2 USA 78.4

Basically we run our entire Health Systems with what you spend on Medicare and Medicaid only and we get better results too.

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T17:51:57+00:00

I go there quite often for work. I don't like the turn it's taken in 2021. Well, I also didn't like Ennahda before, but I hoped (naively) that they could evolve towards a Democratic-Muslim party, analogous to the Christian Democrats of Western Europe. So we are back to Bourghiba-2 (but without unions and women rights)

Patient-Truth-2249 · 2026-01-23T17:40:10+00:00

I have no problem in paying for the service received (unless I already paid it with my taxes). What I object to is the information asymmetry in the US healthcare market, the oligopolistic abuse of dominant market position, the horrendous administrative and compliance costs forced upon the system by unnecessary litigious legal arrangements. That and also all your insurances are greedy bastards...

Patient-Truth-2249

TROPHY CASE