An Aussie in NY • Hacker News Board

Re: An Aussie in NY

#11

Post by steauengeglase » Fri, Jan 28, 2011, 3:57 PM UTC

cletus wrote: post #3

I too am an Aussie in NYC, having moved last November for work (in my case, Google). NYC is an amazing city, particularly if you're willing and able to pay the exorbitant Manhattans rents. Or you're sufficiently socially skilled and/or lucky to partake in the great private welfare system that is rent stabilization (and rent control but that's mostly irrelevant these days). To me NYC exemplifies Western capitalism, bo…

As far as decay, this has been a long term thing. Outside of major urban centers where people rely on public transit, most of America is based around car culture. To sum it up, Main Street USA didn't die because of big box retailers, it died because the parking sucked and the affluent went where their cars took them. If the buildings are ratty, we build newer, cheaper ones and drive to them.

This is nothing recent, it started in the 50s and 60s with white flight and has been on a slow, slide downhill ever since because of cheaper constructions methods and cheap gas. Take those two things away and Americans just might go back to monolith building, if for no other reason that the need to work.

Re: An Aussie in NY

#12

Post by pacemkr » Fri, Jan 28, 2011, 4:02 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #8

pacemkr wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your use of the phrase "the American experiment" is pretentious, especially when you call it broken. We're a country and people with fundamental, albeit continually debated, beliefs. We have a governance system with which people can engage directly and peacefully to affect almost any aspect of their lives. Hence, the saying "thing's are broken" is entirely empty. The magic of America is that you can shape the system;…

[deleted]

"the American experiment seems broken--eve dying"

That's the exact way it was used and it is pretentious, because it dismisses our culture and country as something fleeting.

The phrase "the American experiment" may be a common phrase, but it doesn't say "we are fundamentally unique compared to other democracies;" it simply says "our exact experience is unique." Same can be said, with meaning, for any country.

Re: An Aussie in NY

#13

Post by podperson » Fri, Jan 28, 2011, 4:42 PM UTC

weeksie wrote: post #10

cletus wrote: post #3

I too am an Aussie in NYC, having moved last November for work (in my case, Google). NYC is an amazing city, particularly if you're willing and able to pay the exorbitant Manhattans rents. Or you're sufficiently socially skilled and/or lucky to partake in the great private welfare system that is rent stabilization (and rent control but that's mostly irrelevant these days). To me NYC exemplifies Western capitalism, bo…

Mate, I think you're making too many generalizations based on things that feel true, you know, 'cause that's what everybody says. Statements like "social security is a time bomb" belay a misunderstanding of what you're talking about. SS is just fine, there are many other, more real issues—but I don't want to get into a policy debate. My point is that you've been here 4 months and should give it a few years before mak…

How is SS not a time bomb? In Australia you are required to deposit your retirement money in a super acct. But that acct is yours. It earns interest like an ordinary investment.

In the US you give it to the government as part of your tax and the government spends it on wars in Iraq, interest payments to China, and tax cuts for the rich. When it comes time to collect ... good luck with that.

I certainly agree there are many more issues (healthcare!).

I'd suggest Sydney->NY is not nearly the culture shock that Sydney->almost-anywhere-else in the US would be. I think whoever said Sydney is to LA as Melbourne is to NY was from Melbourne. (Although they do share awful weather in common.)

Re: An Aussie in NY

#14

Post by mconnors » Fri, Jan 28, 2011, 5:15 PM UTC

weeksie wrote: post #9

mconnors wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget manhattan, outer boroughs are much better.

The outer boroughs are different, not better or worse (except Staten Island, that's worse). I love Brooklyn and Queens, but I am very happy living in Manhattan. It doesn't have to be a pissing contest, NYC is a big place with a whole fuckload of awesome going on; it'd be silly to limit yourself either way.

OK, I see your point, as long as we can all agree new jersey really sucks.

Re: An Aussie in NY

#15

Post by forinti » Fri, Jan 28, 2011, 5:40 PM UTC

ry0ohki wrote: post #5

As an American who worked in Australia, I can vouch that you guys (luckily) don't share our same crazy work ethic. I was practically alone in the office of a large corporation once the clock struck 4pm on a Friday. I think you'd fit in well in New York though because they have the same teasing sense of humor that I found everywhere down under.

As a Brazilian who has worked with Europeans and Americans, I have to tell you that we work a lot more down here. Workdays are usually 8h30 to 18h15, as we have 44h weeks and lunchtime is not included!

On the other hand, we do have 30 day vacations plus the holidays.

Re: An Aussie in NY

#16

Post by stevenbedrick » Fri, Jan 28, 2011, 5:50 PM UTC

podperson wrote: post #13

weeksie wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mate, I think you're making too many generalizations based on things that feel true, you know, 'cause that's what everybody says. Statements like "social security is a time bomb" belay a misunderstanding of what you're talking about. SS is just fine, there are many other, more real issues—but I don't want to get into a policy debate. My point is that you've been here 4 months and should give it a few years before mak…

How is SS not a time bomb? In Australia you are required to deposit your retirement money in a super acct. But that acct is yours. It earns interest like an ordinary investment. In the US you give it to the government as part of your tax and the government spends it on wars in Iraq, interest payments to China, and tax cuts for the rich. When it comes time to collect ... good luck with that. I certainly agree there ar…

Not that I disagree about SS being a time bomb, but I think you're slightly mistaken about where SS revenue comes from (or I could be mistaken; anybody out there who knows for sure should please correct me). What most Americans think of as "federal tax" is actually several separate taxes, and which ones any given individual actually pays varies depending on their employment situation.

There's a specific tax that workers (either self-employed or otherwise) pay that goes to social security (as opposed to the general federal income tax), and as far as I know, those specific funds go to the central social security trust fund rather than the federal government's general fund. Funds used for invading other countries, paying off interest payments, etc. etc. comes from other revenue streams.

As I understand it, the reason SS is potentially in trouble is that, the baby boomers are beginning to retire and draw on the system. This represents a simultaneous large decrease in the number of people paying into the fund and increase in the number of people extracting money from the fund. The precise financial implications of this seem to be up for debate- some people say that there will be sufficient money to cover everybody, while others say that there won't be.

I personally don't see how it can possibly work, but I'm certainly not an economist so what do I know? At any rate, I don't expect to see a dime of it when my time comes. At this point, I view the whole thing as basically a charity for baby boomers, and from that perspective it kind of makes sense- unless we want to let them die/starve in the streets, we're going to end up paying for them one way or another; we may as well make use of the existing infrastructure for helping to support elders.

Re: An Aussie in NY

#17

Post by dantheman » Fri, Jan 28, 2011, 5:51 PM UTC

podperson wrote: post #13

weeksie wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mate, I think you're making too many generalizations based on things that feel true, you know, 'cause that's what everybody says. Statements like "social security is a time bomb" belay a misunderstanding of what you're talking about. SS is just fine, there are many other, more real issues—but I don't want to get into a policy debate. My point is that you've been here 4 months and should give it a few years before mak…

How is SS not a time bomb? In Australia you are required to deposit your retirement money in a super acct. But that acct is yours. It earns interest like an ordinary investment. In the US you give it to the government as part of your tax and the government spends it on wars in Iraq, interest payments to China, and tax cuts for the rich. When it comes time to collect ... good luck with that. I certainly agree there ar…

In fact this is the first year that SS has to get payments from the general fund ~50 Billion IIRC. As more and more of our taxes go to entitlements either 1. taxes will need to raise or 2. benefits will be reduced or 3. government services will be reduced

Re: An Aussie in NY

#18

Post by yummyfajitas » Fri, Jan 28, 2011, 6:00 PM UTC

podperson wrote: post #13

weeksie wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mate, I think you're making too many generalizations based on things that feel true, you know, 'cause that's what everybody says. Statements like "social security is a time bomb" belay a misunderstanding of what you're talking about. SS is just fine, there are many other, more real issues—but I don't want to get into a policy debate. My point is that you've been here 4 months and should give it a few years before mak…

How is SS not a time bomb? In Australia you are required to deposit your retirement money in a super acct. But that acct is yours. It earns interest like an ordinary investment. In the US you give it to the government as part of your tax and the government spends it on wars in Iraq, interest payments to China, and tax cuts for the rich. When it comes time to collect ... good luck with that. I certainly agree there ar…

SS is not a time bomb because we have a rather convoluted accounting scheme for the government. Let me explain by analogy.

Essentially, imagine you have a kid. You start socking away money for your children's college, call this the "college trust fund", which has future obligations of $200k. You also have your "general fund", which pays for food, daily expenses, etc.

Now your kid says "daddy, I want an X-Box." You point out that you can't afford it, but to make her happy, you take money out of her college fund. But she makes you put IOU's into the college fund, and you declare the college fund has no problem. You keep doing this, until the college fund is full of mostly IOUs.

You also have a younger kid, but he's too young to talk or pay attention to the management of your finances.

Eventually, the younger kid gets old enough to talk, and he starts to wonder. "How can we pay for college for me and my sister?" He looks at the price of having a roof over his head + the cost of college, compares it to income, and gets scared. Something has to give, and he describes his big sister's college fund as a "time bomb" that will ruin the family finances.

But his sister says: "Hey, there is no problem with my college fund. It's covered - look, the account is full of IOUs from daddy. Stop being such a jerk, trying to prevent me from going to college."

Re: An Aussie in NY

#19

Post by frossie » Fri, Jan 28, 2011, 6:18 PM UTC

Lewisham wrote: post #4

I think this article perhaps focuses a little bit too much on the negatives :) I'm an Englishman living in California, and I don't really plan to leave here. I like it here. I like the people, I like the weather, and I like the way things generally work from day-to-day. It's really easy to latch onto things that seem, to my eyes, badly broken, like health care, but forget that otherwise, things are pretty sweet. Some…

I think this article perhaps focuses a little bit too much on the negatives :) I'm an Englishman living in California

Well, I can imagine reasons why the experience of an Australian in New York is not the same as an Englishman's in California. For one thing, in my experience the English are really, really happy to be living somewhere with good weather (see the UK's effective migration to Spain). :-)

I think the point that the OP is making is that countries have their good points and bad points, and you need to be aware of that lest you over-praise or over-criticise your own.

Re: An Aussie in NY

#20

Post by whatrocks » Fri, Jan 28, 2011, 6:19 PM UTC

mconnors wrote: post #14

weeksie wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The outer boroughs are different, not better or worse (except Staten Island, that's worse). I love Brooklyn and Queens, but I am very happy living in Manhattan. It doesn't have to be a pissing contest, NYC is a big place with a whole fuckload of awesome going on; it'd be silly to limit yourself either way.

OK, I see your point, as long as we can all agree new jersey really sucks.

the reverend bruce would disagree