I moved to the States in 2006 and there have definitely been pros and cons. Take my input as you will. I know it's politically biased. It's just how I feel as someone coming up on living 20 years in the States.
Pros - tl:dr: it's a great place to be a consumer and some of the material quality of life things are way better
- Depending on region, better weather
- Unparalleled country to be a consumer in
- Depending on region, higher salaries than Canadian equivalents
- Met amazing people and have great friends down here
- Cheaper domestic air travel
- 30 year fixed rate mortgages (absolutely insane to lock in low rates for the entirety of the mortgage)
Cons - tl:dr: Everything in the States seems more extreme and buyer beware.
- healthcare - It's a disaster. I have excellent insurance and still it's a pain of forms, copays, random statements that may or may not be bills, having to select doctors based on whether they take your insurance, etc. etc. And this all still comes with wait times for anything other than a routine office visit. The "system" is so disjointed that it feels like you are starting fresh with every practitioner. It's untenable, collapsing, and truly something I consider a disaster.
- healthcare (as a small business owner) - I am not a small business owner, but I would recommend you fully investigate what requirements you'll have as a business owner for providing health insurance for your employees.
- education (primary and secondary) - it's a total crapshoot down here. You can pay a lot to live in a specific neighborhood that has amazing schools or you could be in a district with schools so bad that you just can't send kids to them. And even if you move into a place with high financial investments into the schools, you could still have to deal with science classes that don't teach evolution, books being banned fro you library, and history classes so white washed that they should just be open about the courses being white-supremacist indoctrination.
- education (post-secondary) - depending on state, even in-state tuition is excessive (UVA for example is just under $20,000) and will leave you in debt for decades. Luckily, I moved after finishing my undergrad in Canada, but I have many friends that were saddled with thousands of dollars of debt for questionable quality educations. I say questionable quality educations because outside of the top private and top state schools, there is an overabundance of mediocre schools. You can absolutely get the best education in the world here, but it's way easier to also get duped in comparison to Canada where pretty much any of the major public universities have a high quality of education.
- housing costs - this one is similar to Canada, but if you are looking to move to major metro areas in the US, be prepared to drop about $1 million or more for a home.
- guns - I'm not going to lie, I'm contemplating bailing from the US over this issue. It has been getting worse and worse and the pandemic seems to have put the whole thing into overdrive. I live in a nice but not 100% wealthy neighborhood. Prior to this year, I heard gunshots in the neighborhood maybe twice in 10 years. This year, I've heard about 4 shootings in a 2 month period including one that was clearly a drive by since I also heard the screeching tires. And this isn't even the mass-shooting kind of gun crime that has also exploded. I absolutely hate the idea of kids having to do mass shooter drills. We started having to do them at work prior to the pandemic and it's one of the reasons I'm happy to stay remote. The big thing is, there just doesn't seem to be a path forward on this issue. It's too entrenched in the culture and constitution.
- politics/ governance - Independent of your political persuasion, politics in the USA is completely a death sport. The polarization is extreme and the general structure of US governance is showing its weaknesses. Federally, elections are not run by the Federal government and states and local governments have gerrymandered the living daylights out of everything. On top of this is wide open land mass in Wyoming and the Dakotas having more voting power in the Senate than people in NY, California, New Jersey, etc. It's another untenable scenario that leaves governance in gridlock and means that we are still fighting over issues in the US that Canada resolved by the 1980s. Add in the insane electoral college, Citizens United ruling, and super PACs, and the 2 year midterm cycle and the US is constantly in a campaign. It's exhausting. And beyond the partisanship, clear and demonstrable corruption is left unchecked at high levels such as Supreme Court justices having sugar daddies. I could go on for days on how broken US governance is, but for a Canadian looking to move down here, I would say that there is a strong impact on founding principles between the two countries. Live, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness does not equal Peace, Order, and Good Government.
- sexism - American women are literally losing rights in this country.
- racism - Structural racism is real and you can see its effects in almost everything in the US.
As much as I'm complaining here, it's because I see the promise in the US and wish it could live up to its own ideals! I love living in DC, I love the people I've met down here, and don't regret moving. That said, I don't know if I see myself living here forever, and there are wide swaths of the country where I would refuse to live.
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