You forgot pizza
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12111086 and marked it off-topic.
Passport Index 2016
171–180 of 247 posts
Re: Passport Index 2016
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've seen you post this at least five times now. Next time you're on your comments page to copy it again, read what people said about it all of the other times you posted it.
I have never posted this comment before. You can look through my comments history to verify this easily.
Oh god, I'm going senile, or perhaps it's deja vu. I'm sorry.
:-\
Re: Passport Index 2016
#173Let's comment on the visual design of passports. These are all basically the same, except two that stand out: Switzerland, and The Vatican. The latter is very typically Swiss, with an attractive, simple, and modern design. The former is sinister and mysterious, but also quite distinctive. Honorable mention to Brazil and Bosnia for having passports without a coat of arms type of thing on the front.
There are a couple other interesting variations from the default. Having a border (Republic of Congo, using a map rather than a coat of arms (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras), and additional imagery that runs over the edge (Brazil, New Zealand, Portugal, and Sweden).
Re: Passport Index 2016
#174I had citizenship of one most repressive and poor countries in the world - Uzbekistan. Later I obtained Russian citizenship. Now, I'm living in the Netherlands and plan to obtain citizenship of some first world country (NL, SG etc). So I have first hand experience to live with Uzbek passport and being practically completely isolated from the first world (nobody give you EU tourist visa if you have Uzbek passport and…
The Netherlands doesn't allow for dual citizenship, so you'll have to give up one of your other two :(. But if you're an NL resident, there are plenty of other EU nations that do allow multi-citizenship.
Also, there are not "first world" or "third world" countries. Those terms are throwbacks to an era where everything was separated out by communists vs capitalist states. The correct terms today are high income, mid-income and low-income/peripheral nations.
Re: Passport Index 2016
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've often thought of the dollar value of my US passport (/citizenship). It would definitely be my most valuable asset (then again, taxes are by far my biggest expense). Besides almost unrestricted travel - my income is far higher in the US than it would be in any other country I've looked at. It's easy to forget how lucky those of us in the developed world are and how so many try so hard to gain status here. Good lu…
Warren Buffett describes being born in the USA as having won "the ovarian lottery" which sounds about right, as you've described it. [0]: http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-on-the-ovarian...
I know quite a few Australians/Kiwis who are able to obtain their British passports. Honestly I think that's worth way more than a US citizenship. They can work and live in any country in the EU, Australia and New Zealand, without a work visa (well for two more years anyway :-P).
Re: Passport Index 2016
#176Re: Passport Index 2016
#177Incidentally the Germanic nations (German, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland etc) always ranks in top 5 in almost every ranking of this kind.
OT: Is Finland a Germanic nation? Their language isn't afaik.
No. Finland speaks Finnish and Swedish, and they lie within the Nordic region.
Re: Passport Index 2016
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
"As it should be" kind of rubs me the wrong way. The world is the way it is, not because it's the best of all possible worlds, but through a bunch of historical accidents.
You wouldn't want to live in a world where you were subject to the majority rule of the entire human race, which seems to be the logical conclusion of your reasoning on this.
I get your drift, but at this point we're conflating two different issues. I'm just arguing for freedom of movement. There are many forms of government under which that could happen. Everything from the mundane (treaties) to fringe ideas (direct democracy, government by AI, total anarchy, or whatever else). But to discuss the merits of those... feels like it's going OT.
Re: Passport Index 2016
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've often thought of the dollar value of my US passport (/citizenship). It would definitely be my most valuable asset (then again, taxes are by far my biggest expense). Besides almost unrestricted travel - my income is far higher in the US than it would be in any other country I've looked at. It's easy to forget how lucky those of us in the developed world are and how so many try so hard to gain status here. Good lu…
Warren Buffett describes being born in the USA as having won "the ovarian lottery" which sounds about right, as you've described it. [0]: http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-on-the-ovarian...
There's literally a saying in Finnish to that effect, translated "It's a lottery jackpot to be born in Finland". People often use it ironically, but they really shouldn't be complaining.
Re: Passport Index 2016
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
Warren Buffett describes being born in the USA as having won "the ovarian lottery" which sounds about right, as you've described it. [0]: http://www.businessinsider.com/warren-buffett-on-the-ovarian...
I know quite a few Australians/Kiwis who are able to obtain their British passports. Honestly I think that's worth way more than a US citizenship. They can work and live in any country in the EU, Australia and New Zealand, without a work visa (well for two more years anyway :-P).
I have dual Australia/New Zealand citizenship, and even that alone is well worth it. Brazil, for example, allows New Zealand passport holders to enter visa-free, but not Australians!
https://www.passportindex.org/comparebyPassport.php?p1=nz&p2...