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Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. This feels a lot like a submarine article . For people in the US, it would be way easier to just relocate from SV to middle America. Or even just to other parts of California. New Zealand does look absolutely stunning, though. http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
How is that hiding from American politics?
> For all sorts of reasons, New Zealand suddenly makes sense. The cost of living is less than in San Francisco. Commuting is less wearying. And American politics, “Brexit” and the Islamic State are on the other side of the world. For the most part, this is all true in, say, Tulsa. Especially if you stay off Facebook. You especially don't have to go to New Zealand to find a cheaper, commuter-friendly place to work. No…
But, like Tulsa, I'd be worried about what happens when that tech company, which I moved myself and my family halfway around the world for, goes under and I'm out of work. I'm sure there is more than one tech company in Auckland, but how many? And how many of those will want to hire me? And out of those how many will I want to work for? And out of those, how many will pay enough where it makes sense for me to stay? T…
They are the future ...
Europe and USA will have to rely on in house minds .. which I believe will bring more equilibrium to this world
USA, Europe and Japan are not going anywhere I am not predicting their demise .. just that CANZAU will be the beacon
That's interesting ! I'm intending to make a move with my family in near future, and we actually went to visit the northern island for 15 days last month. The country is really beautiful, and there are not a lot of people around, so you can't help but feel blessed by the surrounding nature. The people are great, probably the nicest I've ever seen (as a whole). I've noted some cons though (not blocking for us thankful…
> housing prices are extremely high. I don't understand that, there is plenty of space everywhere (maybe except Wellington) and somehow they manage to not use this advantage..
Yes, it really is crazy particularly when you look at prices relative to salaries. As I understand it, the primary driver is everyone wants to live in Auckland as that's where most of the higher paying jobs are located which is driving up prices. Also, given the city is on an isthmus, the main space is really North and South of the city which increases commute times on already clogged highways.
> housing quality is really poor (comparing to Europe)
This is slowly changing as proper insulation becomes a requirement, but compared to Europe and US houses the quality is incredibly poor.
> prices are generally quite high
For consumer goods, absolutely. Also dining out seemed expensive, but supermarket costs seemed pretty reasonable given the quality of the food.
>internet connectivity feels like we're 10 years back
I was pleasantly surprised by this. I was regularly getting 50-100 down where I stayed, and it appears the government has made ultra-fast broadband a national priority so it should hopefully continue to improve over the next decade. One thing people warned me though is don't expect anything to happen quickly in NZ.
>outside of Wellington and Auckland, I didn't feel like there were any interesting opportunities in IT
Have you looked at Christchurch? Apparently the government is incentivizing companies to build there with the goal of making it the high tech capital of the South Island. I believe Vodafone has some pretty impressive plans for the city.
>food quality is good, but eating habits don't seem to follow. Obesity seems to be a huge problem there (we have kids so will need to pay double attention to that). We were pretty much shocked because we naively thought that in such a beautiful and clean country everybody is running / biking all the time.
I believe this is largely driven by income inequality, much like here in the US. While the food really is phenomenal quality, families at the lower end of the socio-economic ladder are often priced out of the market and default to unhealthy options as a matter of necessity. Also, it was explained to me that a lot of Maori and Polynesian recipes are very fatty which is why they tend to be over-represented in obesity statistics.
Overall my impression after visiting is that it's a great country, but it's not perfect. Prices are higher (due to it's isolation) and salaries are lower, but people tend to worry less about materialistic things and "getting ahead". There seems to be more of a relaxed mood to everything and as my wife contemplate where we want to raise our kids that is hugely appealing.
Great for the Kiwis. I wish them well. But regrettably, I lack the patience to read past an intro sort of equating the ramifications of Brexit with those of Islamic State. Could journalism please step outside for a minute and perform a reality check?
IS's ability to project power adds up to a week or two's car accidents. It's insignificant.
Financially, its not important what you earn, its important how much can you keep/save.
From a financial perspective - NZ salaries are relatively lower compared to its costs of living. A well paid tech guy from India would save a lot more in SF than they can ever do in NZ. For talented senior developers in India, they lose financially by going to NZ. And lack of (job) options is quite visible.
From a non-financial perspective - NZ is one of the best countries to live in. But just that is not going to bring you the top-tech-talent.