Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#91

Post by tallanvor » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 1:03 PM UTC

Basically that's the problem. It's estimated that there are somewhere between 3-7 million non-military Americans living overseas, but that's less than 3% of the population. If the US had senators and representatives dedicated to those people, we would have some clout, but because we still have to have "residency" in a specific state, we aren't really large enough to have much political clout.

Unfortunately most of the people who live in the US really don't understand the bullshit treatment that people get when entering the country. --It's not as bad for US citizens, but I still get questioned more coming into the US than any other country I've visited.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#92

Post by sev » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 1:07 PM UTC

By having a mental gauge of what's too subjective and not posting those, as well as not voting on, commenting on, etc?

Maybe there is some sort of algorithm that can be established to determine the level of subjectivity of an article or post with a 95% confidence interval?

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#93

Post by fiaz » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 1:08 PM UTC

Given that the US is largely considered the most entrepreneurial country in the world, I think this is relevant. A lot of people from other countries want to do business here, and this very well might be of concern to them.

This thread has sparked a large discussion and I think this is in line with the submission guidelines as being intellectually gratifying.

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#94

Post by e40 » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 1:11 PM UTC

Your are picking on the one time he goes hyperbolic. Overall, there are good points in the post, even if he does make that one statement that is obviously false. Just read it as "many" and move on.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#95

Post by Lewisham » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 1:11 PM UTC

Most Americans aren't seeing this stuff.

You mean most foreign-travelling Americans, who are a minority in comparison to the Americans that don't have a passport, as only 37% hold one [1]. Domestic flights are way less of a pain than international, if only because you don't have to go through Customs.

[1]: http://www.theexpeditioner.com/2010/02/17/how-many-americans...

EDIT: My American wife (I'm British) was the same way. I'm in the process of applying for a Green Card, which means we'll have to go to an INS office and both of us get our fingerprints taken. "Why the hell do they need my fingerprints? There's no way I'm giving them my fingerprints!" "Honey, they take my prints every time I come to the US."

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#96

Post by xiaoma » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 1:11 PM UTC

It's not having balls. It's having a temper tantrum.

Many, many countries have repricosity-based policies for these things, but the "repeicosity" is applied in a very one-sided way by all of them. Policy that pisses them off will be emulated and applied to foreigners unlucky enough to be from whatever country offends them, but unusually lax or inexpensive policies won't usually be up for reciprocal treatment. Consider visa fees. All kinds of places will charge US and UK citizens extra, but few will give discounts to those from countries with extremely inexpensive entry.

I consider this sort of policy to be little more than an immature way to vent at more powerful countries. Sure it sucks that it's hard to get a tourist visa if you're Brazilian and going to the US (or Chinese going to Japan, or Russian going to Finland, etc..), but that's due to very high rates of people applying for such visas fleeing and working illegally. The risk of someone from a richer country doing so in a poorer country is far, far lower. Any sort of "repricosity"-based response to this reality accomplishes little more than hassling ordinary people who aren't at all to blame for the forces shaping the situation.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#97

Post by davidw » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 1:12 PM UTC

Thank you for not only flagging it, but saying something. Supposedly that's against the guidelines, but if a community doesn't communicate in cases like these, how can the newcomers learn that articles like these are not hacker news.

One of my own guidelines for "not hacker news" is if it's an article that's designed to "raise hackles" in the sense of offending one's sense of justice or "how things ought to be". This clearly falls in that category. This isn't "intellectually gratifying", it's gratifying to your sense of righteousness / indignance. None of this stuff is at all new to anyone whose residence is not located under a rock.

Oh, also, as an aside:

> And please spare us the lame "situational logic" response of how is hacker news.

I think of that game as "7 degrees of hacker news". The more outlandish it is, the more 'fun'. For instance, an article about renaissance Italy could be hacker news, because Paul Graham has talked about the style of painting in that time period, and has compared painting to to hacking, and since Paul Graham is a hacker...voila`! Although, truth be told, that sort of subject matter might at least be interesting in the sense of telling me something I didn't know, rather than discussing current US politics.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#98

Post by bryanlarsen » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 1:14 PM UTC

Working in the tech field often means travelling to the States. More importantly, since many hacker newsers are American, you should be aware that setting up shop in the States makes it more difficult for you to do business internationally, that travelling to visit clients/customers/suppliers is easier for you than it is for them to visit you. So yes, this is relevant.

And flagging an article because of a little easily recognized hyperbole?

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#99

Post by gaius » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 1:16 PM UTC

When a man with a swarthy complexion and a huge beard wearing faded camo gear shows up at your border and shuffles through a selection of passports before deciding which one to try, then hands you one that looks nothing like him, you can be a little suspicious ;-)

Then again at another FSR border I was extremely drunk and insisting to the guard that despite what my passport says I was in fact Dutch and they just rolled their eyes and waved me through... I later bought a passport in that same country.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#100

Post by gaius » Fri, Feb 18, 2011, 1:17 PM UTC

Business travel to the US is extremely relevant for anyone working in hi-tech. Esp. when carrying expensive/electronic equipment.