91–100 of 121 posts
... yea because the industrial design inherent in ARM holdings or the original iPod or iPhone or Olivetti design or SAP... (Sigh) Why can't Bloomberg do real research?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The title is clickbaity, as is the norm these days. The reason it's so blunt and "polarizing" is that Bloomberg is a US publication. You think they'd ever dare publish an article asking "Why can't the US do civil rights?", an arguably more important topic than tech? Europe can do tech but they don't really make it an important target. Also many of the good people in tech choose to go Silicon Valley (which is now ~60%…
Mind if I inquire, what civil rights does a European have that an American doesn't ?
In the US, the FCC recently made it possible for ISPs to sell data on browsing behaviour from their clients to anyone that pays.
Neither is perfect, but they are worlds apart in this respect.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nobody in Europe is truly poor like they are in America. Most places in the States, one is lucky if one earns $40 to $55 k per year, and that's barely enough to make ends meet (been there, done that, got the T-shirt), especially for young people starting out like I was decades prior. Had to watch every dollar on that kind of a salary with home and car mortgages (like most Americans). If I had $200 - $300 left at the…
Go out of the city in the UK, France, Germany not to mention Eastern Europe and you’ll see the same poverty.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gigs where people have very specialized knowledge, like SAP consulting, or where they have 20-30 years of system engineering and IT architecting experience. Taxation is low compared to the rest of the world, but since Switzerland is closed off to immigration and currently working on clamping down on it even more with all their might, it's pointless to discuss freelancing there. Which means that freelancers who work t…
Switzerland isn't closed off to immigration and working on clamping down with all their might, I wonder where you got that impression. It's the opposite. It allows unlimited immigration from the EU. The people voted against that it's true, but the government ignored the referendum and implemented a local worker preference instead. But with unemployment very low anyway, it is easy to argue you could not find a Swiss p…
The 7000 contingency limit clause for EU citizens has been triggered, and we know how the last referendum went. Foreigners are a burning topic. Try getting a B-permit from outside of Switzerland; it’s akin to winning the lottery. Whoever got in, got in. The way is shut, and the Swiss keep it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Go out of the city in the UK, France, Germany not to mention Eastern Europe and you’ll see the same poverty.
I don’t mean just the salary: in America the safety net is very poor, medical insurance is an issue, transportation and social services aren’t uniform like they are in Europe; everything is spotty at best.
Social services in Europe aren’t uniform either they vary greatly between states and between cities and regions within states, food, housing and transportation is much more expensive, the availability of benefits is often overblown with the only caveat being universal health care which isn’t that different for people who cannot afford it in the US if we are all honest at this point and for the middle classes private medical insurance is still the way to go for most member states.
Whoever thinks that Europe is some socialist welfare dream state is quite wrong about it. Being poor in Europe is quite bad and I’m not sure it’s actually any better than being poor in the US.
And the lack of social mobility for the middle classes as well as the suppression of personal agency as far as financial independence goes might blow back and blow back hard.
Europe has a big problem with government income as more than 50% of it comes from taxes which means that any crisis and any issue with the tax base tends to ripple much harder over here and as far as retirement goes then it’s quite likely that most people like myself won’t be able to retire despite paying very high amounts into the retirement fund because the government keeps raising the retirement age and there is no guarantee of that our funds would even be available to us.
This is the reason why I’m currently looking for a way to completely privatize my entire retirement savings plan, I work hard I earn very well and I deposit 24% into retirement with zero guarantee of seeing anything beyond the bare minimum when I finally will be allowed to retire which at this point is probjected to be at 75-77.
So sorry fuck that I rather take more risk and be able to retire at say 50 than having to work my ass off until I can see my 80s around the corner with no guarantee of getting anything remotely close to what I put in because sharing is caring.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Care to elaborate? What kind of gigs yield that kind of money and how is taxation for freelancers in Switzerland?
Mostly banking and finance gigs. UBS, Credit Suisse, Swiss Re, Zurich, etc. Not necessarily cutting edge tech jobs though. Also, Zug, near Zurich has turned into a hotspot for blockchain-related startups and fintech companies.
1. A large city or metropolitan area with high quality of life according to nerds and their preferences
2. excellent universities or career opportunities, so young gifted people are motivated to move there from 1000s of miles away
3. Capital availability (Venture capital, private equity, unspent cash looking for investment)
Most European Cities fail to provide all 3, and even then these conditions are not sufficient to build a successful hightech startup.
One of the major factors is the environment and building the culture. Many of US tech success companies are founded or driven by European(and Asian) expats.
So there is nothing wrong about Europeans themselves. It is rather the environment.
That is why Berlin is doing a better job because they could make a better environment comparing to most of the European cities.
Europe is not paying enough attention to how they are lacking there, considering how tech is going to play a crucial role in industries and the future economy.
Europeans are also really busy with the political mess that US is building around them (ex. Middle East, Russia, Immigrants coming from conflict zones) and for a society that is just recovered after WW, that means not being prepared to accept expats as it used to be in last few decades for Silicon Valley. Therefore they don't have diversity factor which is one of the biggest advantages for Silicon Valley.
... yea because the industrial design inherent in ARM holdings or the original iPod or iPhone or Olivetti design or SAP... (Sigh) Why can't Bloomberg do real research?
Mp3 algorithm, Spotify, Opera Browser, Vivaldi Browser, BMW, Audi, Opel, Mercedes...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good intentions of government programs do not mean good outcomes. Rent control is a classic example. Also i really wish we would stop calling out other opinions and ideas as "dumb" and "stupid".
Good intentions do result in success. Good policies result in success. If you give up and say "government" will never work, then no. Of course it will never work. Pointing to failed scenarios and saying x failed therefore y will fail is "stupid". You must examine why x failed and make sure you don't include this element when trying to do y. It is an iterative process. One thing is for sure. If government employees do…
Good intentions do result in success
Therefore trust in government