What I tell Europeans about moving to USA!

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issues switchbot makes their life a lot easier from November 18th until the 28th they are having their annual Black Friday sale with amazing discounts so make sure you check my pinned comment for details you get extra discount so thanks again switchbot for supporting our Channel and now on to today's video hi welcome to Yogi's home lately I have been interacting with a lot of new people through my job and through activities and things that I'm doing outside the house and almost every time that I meet a new person who is not American um they always ask me like oh great that you're here now but I bet you can't wait to move back to the United States right and maybe my answers can surprise people what I say to that um and I thought that would be maybe interesting to make a YouTube video about so if you would like to hear my response to people saying aren't you moving back to the US or don't you like look forward to living in the United States again if you want to know what I say to that then why don't you come on in kick off your shoes and stay a while I'm really glad you're here so if this is your first time uh watching a Yogi's home video let me just give you a quick background uh I am an American that has been living in the Netherlands uh for the last 14 years um and I've had my kids here and I've really built a life here so this is kind of where I'm coming from my perspective is after certainly having lived here for a long period of time um and I like to compare how things were in the states or what my life would be like if I lived in the States now um because it's interesting and I'm not you know these are just my opinions and you are free to disagree with them but this is my channel and my video so I'm gonna tell you my opinions and that's it let's get to it so one of the first things that I talk about when people ask me if I want to go back to the United States when I tell them oh hell no your health insurance is tied to your job if you lose that job you lose that health insurance and yeah sure you can buy health insurance on the free market but I mean the prices are shocking I did have a friend who was paying like between three and four thousand dollars per month for her family of three um which is just what um so yes people who have jobs and who are working in a company or whatever they maybe don't even have to pay at all however I just find it so unfair um that your job determines whether or not you can have access to health care in Europe or at least in the Netherlands where we live uh yes we all pay for our own health insurance uh I have the basic health insurance and I pay about 112 Euros per month for me and my two kids that 112 is just for me um and then the kids are for free um and then I do have a deductible or an own risk as it's called here of 385 euro per year um this does not it doesn't matter if I'm working if I'm not working uh if my employer has a plan with another provider I can choose to participate in that maybe get a discount a lot of employers do that um but I don't have to I can stay with my own insurance and it's fine um and this gives me a lot of comfort in knowing that if something life were to happen something happens and I lose my job for some reason maybe I'm sick right like if I get sick and I cannot work anymore that I'm not going to end up bankrupt because I can no longer afford health insurance when I was little we lived in Canada for a while and my father had brain cancer when I was little and this would have devastated my family if we were not living in Canada I don't know how we would have been able to pay for his treatment he was sick for a year and a half before unfortunately he died but this insecurity of access to Affordable Health Care again unless you are working it's scary and it just doesn't feel good for me I would feel very uncomfortable despite the fact that my husband works and I work and that we are you know we're like a middle class family everything is okay I still think what if what if one day you never know what's gonna happen and and it just it doesn't feel safe I don't feel safe with the way that health insurance and Health Care is organized in the United States the second thing that really discourages me from moving back or ever having a desire to move back to the States is the work life balance I feel like certainly in the Netherlands but in other European countries too there is much more emphasis on having like a proper work-life balance this is why under European law employees are guaranteed a minimum of 20 uh days off per year excluding like public holidays and things but like you are entitled to 20 days and if you work full-time that's basically four weeks of vacation or holiday per year there is the ability for parents to take a parental leave day um typically this is unpaid I know there are some changes happening right now in the system where I think some of those days will be paid however let's just presume that they're unpaid because my point is still the same um you can be a lawyer a doctor a perfect a professor a teacher you can be a nurse you can be whatever like pretty much any job in this country you're able to ask to have a parental leave day um and on this day you don't go to work you are not paid for this day but your contract stays in place and you can spend time with your kids while they're small I don't know how that would be perceived in the United States and I don't well I mean I have someone I can imagine what it would look like if you just went up to your boss and said like hey I'd like to work one day a week less but I want you to keep my contract in place you don't have to pay me for that day but yeah you know I want you to keep my contract like this and for the next like three years I'm just not going to work on Fridays because I'm gonna take this time to be with my kids um I can imagine that most people would end up without a job if that's what they wanted um because there is no real appreciation in the states despite despite what some political parties would have you believe that it's like so family friendly that's not family friendly if you can't take time off to be with your family so um here you can and that's really incredibly incredibly valuable to me and to my family and it's something that I would love to see in the United States as well the next thing I want to talk about is when a Dutch person wants to move to the United States or is thinking about it or talking about it with me one of the things that I bring up very often is okay but where are you moving like what city do you want to live in because I lived in Arizona um and in Arizona you cannot be without a car like I mean maybe you can but it's very difficult to live your life without a car certainly there are some cities you know New York Boston Chicago that have some kind of public transportation infrastructure but it is nothing like how we have it set up in the Netherlands where you have absolutely reliable um good um public transportation that can get you to work and back um or you know you can be on your bike the the bicycle infrastructure here is amazing so you don't have to have a car and a lot of people and a lot of families just go their whole life without having a car and they're fine here um you know your grocery store is in your neighborhood you can walk to the school you can you know everything is kind of that you might need is in your neighborhood and what you don't things that are not in your neighborhood that you might need you can get to with public transportation um and I think that would be a really big adjustment now um for me but also for anyone that is thinking about moving from the Netherlands to the states is unless you're going to one of these cities with really a very good public transportation infrastructure you need to get ready to live in your car basically for like many hours you know uh commuting to working back every time you need to go to the grocery store you have to take your car uh driving your kids to school and picking them up from school um you know anytime you want to go somewhere neighborhoods are not set up the way they are here so most neighborhoods in the States you have your residential neighborhoods which is where everybody is going to live um but there will be no businesses there there will be no supermarkets there there will not be really like things that you need in that neighborhood it's just homes and then outside of that area is that's where you're going to find your like more commercial places of business but in order to get to those most likely you need a car and that's you know like I'm pretty happy to be able to live most of my life without having to use a car that's a big advantage that I see here um and that I value a lot and that I would feel I would miss it if I didn't have it anymore another thing and this is a little bit hard to talk about because I'm not really sure how to phrase it so I'm going to just try but I find that when I go to the United States whenever I'm there for like a week or two or whatever however long I'm there I feel like I live in this constant state of anxiety I'm scared I'm nervous there's there's something that doesn't feel safe for me when I'm in the states um probably it's you know the second amendment that is so important to Americans um and everybody being able to get a gun and have their gun and all their guns and getting their guns in Walmart um it really creates a feeling of unease and anxiety within me um maybe also within you um it's uncomfortable and when I'm there maybe I don't notice it as much as when I come back to Europe or to the Netherlands and my plane lands in Amsterdam and I'm just like I feel okay again and that's that's something that I'm I'm I hope that maybe you in the comments can explain better or or you've experienced that or you'll know how to say what I mean but there really is this feeling of just unease and and not feeling safe uh when I'm in the states um yeah maybe I'm a snowflake or whatever like I'm just a nervous person if you want to say that there's something to it there is something there um yeah and in Europe I know people can have guns in Europe okay this is not uh I'm not saying that this doesn't exist here it does but I think that in order to get a gun in Europe it is much much much more difficult um than it is in the states it is also much more highly regulated than it is in the states and I'm pretty sure that you cannot get like I think that you can probably get hunting rifles or things like that if you if that's what you want and you go hunting you can get that here but I don't think that you can get like machine guns or like access to semi-automatic weapons the way that you can in the states and why does anybody even need to have semi-automatic weapons I don't know I I don't know if you're a Dutch parent and you're planning on moving to the states and you have a young kid like I do I have two small kids um forget that freedom of letting them go to school on their own the way that they do here you know here you see really like first second graders cycling on their own to their neighborhood school not a parent in sight and that's okay here that is not okay in the states so your children will lose a lot of their independence and autonomy um because yeah it's just not safe and it's not allowed so really you have to be if your kids are alone like that's not allowed until they're I think teenagers at a certain age but you know certainly not in Primary School you will not see primary school kids going to and from on their own and I think that's a disservice that would be a disadvantage for my kids that they lose that autonomy and that they lose that Independence um if we move back to the state speaking about schools um I would not feel comfortable to let my kids go to school in the United States I think that we would have to look into something like homeschooling which is something that is certainly more prevalent in the states than it is here in the Netherlands but really like the fact that we as a society are becoming desensitized to all of the news about school shootings like all the time says something that there's a problem to me at least in the society this is not normal that there are multiple dozens of school shootings each year I mean it's not even like I would I would not feel comfortable and I would not take the risk of letting my kids go to a school just out of fear of school shootings oh sure they have the drills they can learn about all of these like protective things that can happen what you do if there is an active shooter I really am happy that my four-year-old and five-year-old and you know my seven-year-old kid that they don't know any of those drills that they don't need to know those drills because that is not something that happens here um again I recognize that it may it can it's it I'm I'm not saying that it would never happen here but it's not something that happens here or it's not as common as it is when it happens in the states and so for that reason I just would not feel comfortable to send my kids to school would you would you feel comfortable to send your kid to school knowing that they might need to take a bulletproof backpack with them or that they might not be able to have those you know those shoes with the twinkle lights um those are discouraged at school because if there is an active shooter and your kid is hiding and they had those twinkly shoes that's something that can identify them to a shooter I I'm so glad that I don't have to think about this and I can just buy my daughter her twinkly lights shoes because she loves them and I don't need to worry about her getting killed at school because of her shoes something else that really bothers me um is this extreme discrepancy between wealth and poverty in the states um I lived in a pretty affluent neighborhood when I lived there and when I was working and when I was working for a Dutch company we had our home office was in Los Angeles very fancy place um with a golden staircase like very very fancy all of this was very fancy and we would end up flying to the um to have meetings in Los Angeles and we would go to all of these like very luxurious and fancy places right outside of those fancy places you would see like hundreds of homeless people in front of neighborhoods like multi-million dollar homes neighborhoods you see homeless people driving up to my former boss's house who lived in the Hollywood Hills you know where all of these celebrities live and all these fancy people live the road I'm not kidding you guys it was pothole after pothole like you were like like this in the car because the government doesn't have enough money to fix the public roads meanwhile you have multi-millionaires and billionaires living in these homes it just it just doesn't make sense in my mind that there's something so wrong with having a society that lives like that where at the expense of having all of these luxurious inexpensive things you know that somebody is paying the price for that it just doesn't feel right um and I don't want to contribute to A system that encourages that or that that thrives on that I don't want that I'd much rather have my more modest salary my more modest life but no that those around me are also okay and in a home and not sleeping outside in the winter like I just I don't know again this I'm not saying that there's no problems in the Netherlands because there are and there are certainly housing crisis there is a huge cost of living that the cost of gas right now is I mean it's huge and it's it's really there are definitely difficult things about living in the Netherlands right now but when it comes down to it it's these basics of Being Human and being human with each other and saying I don't need a million dollar salary I'm okay to have a lower salary but then I know that my neighbors and my friends and people even people I don't know um are going to be spending the winter like under a roof with access to heating like that that's meaningful for me that's significant and that's something that I constantly think about [Music] in the Netherlands we're seeing news about all of these advancements that we're making you know um now they're overhauling the system of child care where they want to make it free or almost free um for most people instead of having to pay for that so we're making these advancements um and when I compare that to the United States where I feel like it's going backwards you know um the Netherlands was the first country I think in the world to uh make working from home a legal right for most employees of course not everyone can work from home all the time but for most employees they give you new rights more rights for you as a person for you as an employee more protections for you for your family and the U.S is going the opposite way in my opinion now I know that the federal government is trying to do some things but like the whole conversation about women's health care and abortions and access to this medically necessary and oftentimes life-saving treatment for a lot of women and even if it's not again it's your choice what you want to do but the fact that rights instead of being added and and the American society moving forward and making progress I feel like it's going backwards like I just I can't I can't believe that that's not where I want to live I don't want to live in a country that's like taking things away from people I want to live in a country that's creating more opportunities for people to live a secure and stable life I don't want my daughter or my son growing up in a country where they might not be able to get the health care that they need or their partner might not be able to get the health care that they need because of somebody else's views religious views that they may or may not have they may or may not share but it's just unbelievable to me that that rights are being taken away from people at this day and age and I just I want no part of it no part of it it blows my mind that there are ingredients in food that Americans are eating every single day including some of my favorite foods that like I definitely ate them Kraft mac and cheese so good but you know what there's ingredients in that food that is banned in the EU like in the entire European Union so why is that there are so many more protections here for the common person it is not about a company that has so much money that can Lobby to governments to get their agenda passed at the cost of human lives or at the risk of of harming people in Europe they're just like no no sorry you're you know your bottom line or your how much money you need to make or want to make your shareholders that is not more important than making sure that our society overall is healthy so yeah I I don't even trust the food that I would be eating in the States now so how could I ever want to live there so I guess at the end of the day when I think about it are there amazing opportunities in the U.S yes can you go there with as an entrepreneur or something and become very wealthy yes can you take your job that you work in the uh in the Netherlands and apply for the same position in the US and make a ton more money yes you can but the cost of that what you will lose the social safety net the health the access to health care the you know clean water and and food safety and food security um no guns I mean that's just not worth it to me personally there is no amount of money that you could pay me that would convince me that it's worth giving up these basic rights and and and things that we have in Europe there's no amount of money that to me is worth more than that I hold this sacred and value it and yeah take all the money you want but I'd rather have less and live a more safe and stable and secureful life I'm curious to know what do you think have you had conversations with Americans maybe here in the Netherlands or something and heard similar stories or is it absolutely crazy what I'm saying is this uh something that you expected or didn't expect but do let me know what you think and if you're an American I would also be interested to hear from you um how you think about the things that I've mentioned and how you see these things and are they important to you are they not important to you let me know that is today's video thank you so so much for coming over and for spending some time with me thanks a lot for watching and I will see you guys in the next one [Music]

Channel: Jovie's Home

Views: 74,849

Keywords: Jovies, Jovie's, jovie, Netherlands, nederland, Dutch, Holland, Jovie's Home, the netherlands, American expat in the netherlands, American in Holland, Life in Holland, Dutch life, living in the Netherlands as an Amercian, Dutch people, American abroad, dutch culture, kids in the netherlands, children in the netherlands, raising children in the netherlands, raising children in Holland, expats in the netherlands, moving to the netherlands, moving to holland

Id: sKR_TtSLhzM

Length: 26min 35sec (1595 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 18 2022