Read on Twitter
Good thread, by a foreigner who rode the full American rollercoaster, assessing the unique advantages of American culture (that Americans, particularly the fashionable elite, too often forget).
As someone who also left the US for Europe (then came back), much of it resonated. https://twitter.com/cesifoti/status/1317576512489590795
As someone who also left the US for Europe (then came back), much of it resonated. https://twitter.com/cesifoti/status/1317576512489590795
Firstly, Americans play to win, and they play at a world-class level of scope and quality: if you've got a startup, you aim for global dominance. If in academia, it's TED and the Nobel or bust. Europeans just don't have that ambition by default anymore. https://twitter.com/cesifoti/status/1317576522744692736
Secondly, nobody beats Americans at marketing, nobody even comes close.
Your average European couldn't manage to sell free beer.
Americans are geniuses (even now) at selling their culture abroad and colonising other countries with it. https://twitter.com/cesifoti/status/1317576530533502979
Your average European couldn't manage to sell free beer.
Americans are geniuses (even now) at selling their culture abroad and colonising other countries with it. https://twitter.com/cesifoti/status/1317576530533502979
Speaking of beer, my epiphany here (while living in Berlin) was sitting at the trendiest beer bar there, which looked as if it had been drop-shipped from Seattle.
The Americans were selling (better, more sophisticated) beer to Germans. Just imagine that. https://twitter.com/cesifoti/status/1317576534140616704
The Americans were selling (better, more sophisticated) beer to Germans. Just imagine that. https://twitter.com/cesifoti/status/1317576534140616704
Lastly, American society is engineered around business and entrepreneurship. Almost anyone can roll the dice at the capitalist table.
Also, the US is a high-trust market with 330M high-income consumers and one legal framework. No other country has that. https://twitter.com/cesifoti/status/1317576539375063040
Also, the US is a high-trust market with 330M high-income consumers and one legal framework. No other country has that. https://twitter.com/cesifoti/status/1317576539375063040
But....OP is still leaving. Despite not knowing him, I'll venture a guess why.
The US is also a society of radical extremes: everyone is either some marathoner/crossfit junkie or morbidly obese. Everyone is either an elite, hyper-educated social climber or struggling to get by.
The US is also a society of radical extremes: everyone is either some marathoner/crossfit junkie or morbidly obese. Everyone is either an elite, hyper-educated social climber or struggling to get by.
It's a society optimized for the go-getter, which is fine while you're obsessed with 'go-getting'. But at some point you realize that the right to play in the big leagues means you necessarily have to deliver big-league results to afford even a modicum of life for you and yours.
Your typical American upper-class person struggles to provide what a middle-class European would take for granted: safe neighborhoods, access to high culture, decent schools, housing, sane local politics, etc.
And at that point the American bloodsport seems less intoxicating.
And at that point the American bloodsport seems less intoxicating.
I'm imagining that OP saw all this, and asked himself if he still wanted to live inside the American gladiatorial arena, or in a fundamentally bourgeois society where the stakes (but also the risks) are lower.
It's one thing to ride the tiger alone, it's another with a family.
It's one thing to ride the tiger alone, it's another with a family.
As for me, I decided that my lifetime dream of living like a petit-bourgeois in Europe could be postponed, so I came back.
Sold what I'd written in Europe to an American publisher (my US book advance was over 10x the European deals....big leagues indeed).
But I'll flee again.
Sold what I'd written in Europe to an American publisher (my US book advance was over 10x the European deals....big leagues indeed).
But I'll flee again.
Random but timely item in my feed. This is what you're escaping by leaving the US: the neurotic obsessions of the upper-class precariat, projected on their children.
In Europe, your child's outcomes aren't an either/or between gig worker or Google PM. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/squash-lacrosse-niche-sports-ivy-league-admissions/616474/
In Europe, your child's outcomes aren't an either/or between gig worker or Google PM. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/squash-lacrosse-niche-sports-ivy-league-admissions/616474/
