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Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

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Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#51

Post by Cuuugi »

coldtea wrote: post #28
jpzisme wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It's not perfect, but once you live in other countries for a bit, even if you enjoy the experience, you appreciate the U.S. a lot more.

> I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It's not perfect, but once you live in other countries for a bit, even if you enjoy the experience, you appreciate the U.S. a lot more. Depends on whether you have lived in an advanced Western European country. It also depends of your tolerance of rednecks, prudes, puritans, and ignorant people (which exist everywhere in the wo…

You sound like someone who experiences America through news stories.

>Depends on whether you have lived in an advanced Western European country. Some people prefer not to sign over 3/4 of their pay to the government.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#52

Post by sigfubar »

projectramo wrote: post #11

"I am unprepared for people who don't understand jokes" -- Anton Troynikov I don't know who he is but I really like this quote. That's consistently my biggest surprise on the internet. The #1 question I get for my posts is "Is that sarcasm?" I never answer.

Jokes? The tweetstorm is funny because it's true.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#53

Post by afpx »

21 wrote: post #7

> the United States as a whole is depicted as evil by default So true. The USA is viewed worse than China, Russia or Saudi Arabia. I also see a lot of it on HN.

By Americans or non-Americans? I am an American, in SF about half time, and I don’t hear this. But, my friends are mostly American.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#54

Post by vowelless »

nerbert wrote: post #32
woah wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a contractor for startups in SF for 6 years and now a founder for 1, I have found the opposite of what you have about business relationships. The homeless problem is not caused by the tech industry, it is caused by the homeowners who have been blocking apartment building construction in 90% of the city for 50 years.

That reasoning is a good display of the underlying problem. It’s nobody’s fault so nobody takes care of it.

Collectivism also results in distribution of responsibility. Perhaps it is this distributed responsibility state that could be at the root of many issues.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#55

Post by iskander »

jpzisme wrote: post #14
21 wrote: post #7

> the United States as a whole is depicted as evil by default So true. The USA is viewed worse than China, Russia or Saudi Arabia. I also see a lot of it on HN.

I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It's not perfect, but once you live in other countries for a bit, even if you enjoy the experience, you appreciate the U.S. a lot more.

Meh. I've spent enough time in the Netherlands and Israel to know that the quality of life in both countries is, in many ways, way better than here. Socialized medicine and cheap education go a really long way toward making people happy (even if they have less disposable income).

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#56

Post by AlexandrB »

mc32 wrote: post #50
baybal2 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>property crimes and such were close to non existent. Whaaaaaaaat? Well, according to official statistics. From my father's side, we had relatives living in a closed down military city, but they were totally paranoid about break-ins during "Peak Brezhnev." Break ins were 50/50 annual events. Street poverty existed as well, just not in big cities, where classless were either branded as substance abusers and locked awa…

Huh. Interesting. Maybe it depended on where you lived. The people I’ve talked to from the former USSR were all city folk, West of the Urals

Ukraine had plenty of crime under the USSR as well. My mom was shocked when arriving in Canada that people kept their doors unlocked or even open for most of the day in the suburbs.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#57

Post by Hasknewbie »

jpzisme wrote: post #14
21 wrote: post #7

> the United States as a whole is depicted as evil by default So true. The USA is viewed worse than China, Russia or Saudi Arabia. I also see a lot of it on HN.

I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It's not perfect, but once you live in other countries for a bit, even if you enjoy the experience, you appreciate the U.S. a lot more.

>> [T]he greatest country the world has ever seen

Something tells me you have not seen (let alone lived in) that many countries.

If you had, you'd know different societies have different ups and downs. Some countries have more taxes, they also have more perks (e.g. schools and healthcare are not a lottery); some have less money, but also less problems (lower crime rate, low pollution). "Greatest" is meaningless.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#59

Post by brighteyes »

woah wrote: post #23
zug_zug wrote: post #12

"- being told you are constructing utopia while the system crumbles around you" This is the one that resonated with me. Obviously "the system" as a whole isn't objectively crumbling by traditional measures like GDP, but there were things that could give that feeling: Homeless sleeping in the subway and on the main streets, the smells, crime so rampant it's basically ignored (my car was broken into > 5 times), working…

As a contractor for startups in SF for 6 years and now a founder for 1, I have found the opposite of what you have about business relationships. The homeless problem is not caused by the tech industry, it is caused by the homeowners who have been blocking apartment building construction in 90% of the city for 50 years.

The homeowners have much of the blame, you're right, but tech has made things worse by rapid job growth that contributed to rising rent costs.

Re: Things That Happen in Silicon Valley and Also the Soviet Union

#60

Post by jbob2000 »

Cuuugi wrote: post #51
coldtea wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It's not perfect, but once you live in other countries for a bit, even if you enjoy the experience, you appreciate the U.S. a lot more. Depends on whether you have lived in an advanced Western European country. It also depends of your tolerance of rednecks, prudes, puritans, and ignorant people (which exist everywhere in the wo…

You sound like someone who experiences America through news stories. >Depends on whether you have lived in an advanced Western European country. Some people prefer not to sign over 3/4 of their pay to the government.

Yet, those same people are OK with handing 5/4s of their pay to billionaires.

The debt levels Americans sustain purely to avoid the “taxman” is astounding!

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