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Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

bbc.com

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Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#201

Post by AtlasBarfed »

barry-cotter wrote: post #187
mihaifm wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty much irreversible. Most of the emigration comes from Eastern European countries which hardly get any imigrants of their own. Very few people who leave choose to return. Within a generation (two at most) they fully integrate into the foreign culture, so that population is lost.

Poland gets to plenty of immigrants. I doubt it’s the only former Warsaw Bloc nation that’s true of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainians_in_Poland In January 2016 the Embassy of Ukraine in Warsaw informed that the number of Ukrainian residents in Poland was half a million, and probably around one million in total. Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland, Andrii Deshchytsia, noted that Ukrainian professionals enjoy good r…

Is Ukraine that bad? Is it the looming Russian threat, the ethnic divide, a really bad economy, or an even worse corruption problem?

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#202

Post by njarboe »

blaser-waffle wrote: post #183
dpau wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems steep? What about health insurance? I worked for a few years in The Netherlands and paid a little over 50% of my salary in taxes, however in return I had access to amazing government resources and some of the best health care in the world. At 50% I'd expect the US to provide at least some healthcare :(

> At 50% I'd expect the US to provide at least some healthcare :( So would many Americans. But those defense contractors need their cut. And non-US projects tend to be more expensive than other countries as well.

Surprising to most, the US governments spend a higher percent of GDP on healthcare than most European countries[1]. Then we also have high private sector spending on healthcare. Its pretty crazy.

[1] https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#203

Post by cameldrv »

soperj wrote: post #190
dpau wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems steep? What about health insurance? I worked for a few years in The Netherlands and paid a little over 50% of my salary in taxes, however in return I had access to amazing government resources and some of the best health care in the world. At 50% I'd expect the US to provide at least some healthcare :(

Medicare and Medicaid cover about 1/3 of the us population.

They are about half of the spending though. Old people use a lot of health care.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#204

Post by AnimalMuppet »

ghaff wrote: post #153
tomp wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that actually work that way? AFAIK the US freedom of movement is mostly resulting in greater and greater concentration... the only non-urban areas that are getting more and more popular are general "nice" (i.e. geographically advantageous) areas, like Florida and ski resorts.

It's mostly more complicated than that. I'm not sure I would call Florida geographically advantaged although a lot of people actually like it. (My understanding is taxes also make it attractive to retirees and second home owners.) Lot of growth in the desert Southwest (Arizona, Nevada) and Texas. It's mostly the Midwest that is conspicuously lacking. [1] https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/estimate...

Florida (especially south Florida) is very advantageous if you're doing business in the Caribbean area or Central America, maybe even South America.

It's also very nice if you like beaches and the ocean, and don't mind playing dodgeball with hurricanes every few years.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#205

Post by blue_devil »

walshemj wrote: post #138
_hao wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have 5 years of experience as a Senior Back-end engineer you can get something between 2000€-4000€ net (after taxes) in the Bulgarian currency lev - BGN. The Lev is pegged to the Euro at 1.95BGN for 1€. In the capital where the tech jobs are located with that kind of salary you can afford anything you want.

And what salary would you get for Google in London? FYI as an experienced professional I have just been pitched a couple of civil service jobs in London grade 8 to Grade 7 at around 75k - and that would give me about 6.5 k That's the eqvielent of a full Colonel / GS15 if its the higher grade. And I bet a FANG in London pays way more than that as do train drivers

FYI, and I kid you not, FANG in London pays 1/3-1/4 of the same job in Seattle (not even going to go into SV numbers). UK taxes are of course double, and rents similar, if not more expensive for London.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#206

Post by sylk »

tdsamardzhiev wrote: post #84
mrtksn wrote: post #8

Okay, let me draw a picture for you as someone who contributed to Bulgaria's shrinkage. It all starts in 1989, communist Bulgaria decides that it no longer wants its Turkish minority and a large number of people are deported or "let go" to Turkey. BBC has a short documntary on it[0]. Houses and lands are abandoned and only those who are too weak to immigrate remain. Congratulations, now you have ghost-city like place…

> but some places still look like Half-Life 2 Fun fact: Half-Life 2's art director is Bulgarian.

Sir Gaben, we need someone with a vision of an apocalyptic wasteland.

"Fear not, I know just the guy."

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#207

Post by tyzerdak »

eanthy wrote: post #38
_hao wrote: post #12

As a Bulgarian living and working in London for more than a year now, I have no intention of going back. The IT sector in the country is booming and the money you can make relative to the cost of living is insane - you can live like a king. To me that is not enough. Money are not enough to make me go back, even though I miss my friends and family. One of the biggest problems for me is that the country is stuck in thi…

How does the politics and whatever people are saying affect your day to day life though? If you can make 10k a month there and buy a flat for 15k, in a few years you don't even need to work anymore. Why would you not even consider living there? Maybe as the old saying: familiarity breeds contempt

Because in any day your apartment can be turned into potato. Mafia can get eye on you, or government. Or more extreme for example Crimea occupied, ppl got to jail for nothing and nobody gives a fuck. Better to be in some bigger country with at least some law power. I would go to GB, Canada or Australia if i had a chance.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#208

Post by jtx22 »

chewyland wrote: post #131
Iwan-Zotow wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and Russian influence wtf are you talking about? you are in EU and NATO, what is the problem?

The problem is Russian influence. They continue to be locusts in EU countries and want everything to be bad and miserable and poor. Source, Canadian living in BG for 6 years.

Go back to Canada.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#209

Post by tyzerdak »

gdy wrote: post #166
chewyland wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is Russian influence. They continue to be locusts in EU countries and want everything to be bad and miserable and poor. Source, Canadian living in BG for 6 years.

That is a disgusting russophobia. You should be ashamed.

Crimea, downing airplane, war in Ukraine. Just last 5 years. So I think it's true.

Re: Bulgaria is the world’s fastest-shrinking country

#210

Post by vkou »

jccalhoun wrote: post #162
cpursley wrote: post #25

A side effect of a stagnant economy and population shrinkage is that Bulgarian property is really cheap. You can purchase a modern flat starting around $15,000 (or rent for really cheap) in a ski community with a very strong remote worker presence (Bansko). If you do this right, you can also become a resident and benefit from a flat 10% income tax which is lowest in the EU. No affiliation; I just find this type of ar…

Cheap real estate was my thought reading the article. I can see a ton of rich people coming in and buying up tons of real estate in Bulgaria.

Then they will, at one point, look at an atlas, and observe which superpower's traditional sphere of influence Bulgaria resides in.
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