[quote=FlyerInHi]Pressure to come back to USA for education and healthcare.
International schools are costly. US universities are more prestigious. UC is a bargain if you’re a CA resident.
Medicare only pays services within the country.
What foreign spouse doesn’t want US citizenship if only to have it. That’s a 3 year process. More like 4 years with all the paperwork.
Living in 2 countries could be quite nice. I could do it.[/quote]
US education and healthcare is actually nearer to the bottom of nearly every world ranking now (more so for healthcare). As mentioned in another thread, there is typically a thought that the US is the best in a lot of things and people who never travel outside the US still thinks this, but in terms of health care and education, US is always near dead last now…A lot of this is due to low investments and putting company profits first to sell more services vs. trying to keep the population healthy since that’d be bad for business. Also, cost tends to be so fair in international locations vs. one-hospital-bill-from-bankrupcy in the US that people should be more concerned with that in the US.
I suppose having lived here nearly my whole life, I wouldn’t mind moving as much now, since I don’t think things are as “great” in the US anymore and will be in a long term decline.
Among the most striking of the report’s findings are that, among the countries studied, the U.S. has:
The highest rate of death by violence, by a stunning margin
The highest rate of death by car accident, also dramatically so
The highest chance that a child will die before age 5
The second-highest rate of death by coronary heart disease
The second-highest rate of death by lung disease
The highest teen pregnancy rate
The highest rate of women dying due to complications of pregnancy and childbirth
Also, as cheap as UC schools are, a lot of private prestigious schools offer a lot more financial aid and I’ve read of many articles people are opting to go to a private school vs. UC for this very reason…It is probably true that a US university is better than other countries though…
That said, UC isn’t all that and with constant budget cuts, limited class sizes, classes only offered once a year, etc…you have graduation for UC people dragging out longer and longer…This was even common back in the 90s when I went. If possible, I’d probably rather my kids go to a private place personally…Getting classes was a pain 20+ years ago and it’s only worst now.
The impossible has happened: Harvard College is now thousands of dollars cheaper than Cal State East Bay for middle-income California students.
So is Princeton. And Williams College. And Yale.
Top private schools, with their generous aid, have been among the most affordable options for poor students for a few years, but rising tuition has only recently sent California State University and University of California prices shooting past the Harvards and Yales for middle-class students.
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College-cost calculators illuminate the dramatic shifts.
Consider a family of four — married parents, a high-school senior and a 14-year-old child — making $130,000 a year.
With typical aid, the family should expect to pay nearly $24,000 for a Cal State freshman’s tuition, on-campus room and board, supplies and other expenses. At Harvard? Just $17,000, even though its stated annual tuition is $36,305.
The same family would pay about $33,000 for a freshman year at UC Santa Cruz. UC Berkeley, which recently followed the lead of private colleges by boosting aid for middle-class families, would cost $19,500.
