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Why am I here?

sivers.org

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Re: Why am I here?

#71
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the reason I haven't been writing much the last couple years is because I thought, "Ah, it's not fair for me to write about this stuff like moving countries on a whim." But everyone's got their own version of this. My example is just one example.

I moved to Cambodia on a whim 4 months ago and I have ~14,000$ in the bank. Given my current monthly expenses (100$ rent, 200$ food, 50$ miscellaneous), I'll have the next three years to work on projects and coding (more than enough time) without worrying about making money. Like others have said, money is not the limiting factor for most people in regards to moving half-way around the world. Being 12,000 miles away…

Heya are you in Phnom Penh or in the provinces? Am doing the same (many folks like us increasingly in Phnom Penh, all of us contributing somewhat to ever-rising prices though I'm sure ;) -- should hang for coffee!

Re: Why am I here?

#73
post #9

I have just finished an excellent online course called "The Brief History of Humankind"[1]. It was really an eye opener for me. I always loved history, but all the arguments people made about why we need to study it never really resonated with me. The stuff about "not repeating the same mistakes", "not re-inventing the wheel", "learning from the past" just never made much sense to me. The real reason to study history…

I'm not sure it's really what Sivers means, but I agree with what you wrote. I even think that if (after learning how to read and write) children only studied history and maths, they'd be better educated (and even better people) than the average today.

I encourage everyone to pick a slice of history this christmas and study it for a bit. It's entertaining, too.

Re: Why am I here?

#74
post #39

I always felt that Singapore just doesn't seem like the right place for someone like Derek Sivers. It's a beautiful and wonderfully located place, but the stated or unstated reasons many US expats give for moving there are narrowly selfish -- in the sense of irrational selfishness vs enlightened self-interest -- low taxes, clean streets. Yet Singapore's culture is strongly communitarian: there may be low income taxes…

This bothered me deeply, and so I had to take it apart, point by point.

1: Singapore is not right for "someone like Sivers"

2: People move to Singapore because they're narrowly selfish

3: Singapore is communitarian, not liberal-individual-empowerment (sure.)

4: Corporal punishment and military conscription are burdensome and soul-crushing for an individualistic soul.

5: strlen feels it's relatively unprincipled and selfish of Sivers to "compromise his (Siver's) greater cultural and religious heritage" because of love

6: But strlen would not endorse such a compromise himself because it would result in great misery

7: strlen is lucky for not having had to compromise his personal views/values

8: strlen hopes Sivers finds a culture he can belong to

While all of this is written in good English and the language sounds pleasant, I can't help but react negatively to it. It feels somewhat... patronizing?

Re: Why am I here?

#75
post #66
post #39

I always felt that Singapore just doesn't seem like the right place for someone like Derek Sivers. It's a beautiful and wonderfully located place, but the stated or unstated reasons many US expats give for moving there are narrowly selfish -- in the sense of irrational selfishness vs enlightened self-interest -- low taxes, clean streets. Yet Singapore's culture is strongly communitarian: there may be low income taxes…

> If you plan to have kids, be ready for corporal punishment in most schools and even some junior colleges, and (far more burdensome and soul crushing for an individualistic soul) military conscription For US expats raising their kids in Singapore, there is the option of sending them to the American international school ( http://www.sais.edu.sg/ ) instead of the public Singaporean school system. As for military consc…

^and many if not all of them do just that, yes.

Re: Why am I here?

#77
post #66
post #39

I always felt that Singapore just doesn't seem like the right place for someone like Derek Sivers. It's a beautiful and wonderfully located place, but the stated or unstated reasons many US expats give for moving there are narrowly selfish -- in the sense of irrational selfishness vs enlightened self-interest -- low taxes, clean streets. Yet Singapore's culture is strongly communitarian: there may be low income taxes…

> If you plan to have kids, be ready for corporal punishment in most schools and even some junior colleges, and (far more burdensome and soul crushing for an individualistic soul) military conscription For US expats raising their kids in Singapore, there is the option of sending them to the American international school ( http://www.sais.edu.sg/ ) instead of the public Singaporean school system. As for military consc…

US citizens are taxed on world-wide income, so the benefits of the low-tax environment aren't so much of a factor, since you owe the IRS on whatever you earn anywhere on earth (but for a ~$80k exemption).

Most other countries tax based on where you earn (i.e. earn money while resident abroad => don't have to remit tax on those earnings to your birth-country).

AFAIK, Sivers (smartly) had a lot of his exit proceeds put in a trust, so he may be somewhat tax-agnostic.

Re: Why am I here?

#78
post #39

I always felt that Singapore just doesn't seem like the right place for someone like Derek Sivers. It's a beautiful and wonderfully located place, but the stated or unstated reasons many US expats give for moving there are narrowly selfish -- in the sense of irrational selfishness vs enlightened self-interest -- low taxes, clean streets. Yet Singapore's culture is strongly communitarian: there may be low income taxes…

This bothered me deeply, and so I had to take it apart, point by point. 1: Singapore is not right for "someone like Sivers" 2: People move to Singapore because they're narrowly selfish 3: Singapore is communitarian, not liberal-individual-empowerment (sure.) 4: Corporal punishment and military conscription are burdensome and soul-crushing for an individualistic soul. 5: strlen feels it's relatively unprincipled and s…

If you don't have anything to say, why even reply?

Re: Why am I here?

#79
post #77
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you plan to have kids, be ready for corporal punishment in most schools and even some junior colleges, and (far more burdensome and soul crushing for an individualistic soul) military conscription For US expats raising their kids in Singapore, there is the option of sending them to the American international school ( http://www.sais.edu.sg/ ) instead of the public Singaporean school system. As for military consc…

US citizens are taxed on world-wide income, so the benefits of the low-tax environment aren't so much of a factor, since you owe the IRS on whatever you earn anywhere on earth (but for a ~$80k exemption). Most other countries tax based on where you earn (i.e. earn money while resident abroad => don't have to remit tax on those earnings to your birth-country). AFAIK, Sivers (smartly) had a lot of his exit proceeds put…

After your $97,600 foreign-earned income exclusion (2013), you can at least deduct the taxes you pay to another foreign government. I don't even bother with the FEIE anymore, I just deduct my higher Chinese taxes. But to each his own.

Re: Why am I here?

#80
post #39

I always felt that Singapore just doesn't seem like the right place for someone like Derek Sivers. It's a beautiful and wonderfully located place, but the stated or unstated reasons many US expats give for moving there are narrowly selfish -- in the sense of irrational selfishness vs enlightened self-interest -- low taxes, clean streets. Yet Singapore's culture is strongly communitarian: there may be low income taxes…

This bothered me deeply, and so I had to take it apart, point by point. 1: Singapore is not right for "someone like Sivers" 2: People move to Singapore because they're narrowly selfish 3: Singapore is communitarian, not liberal-individual-empowerment (sure.) 4: Corporal punishment and military conscription are burdensome and soul-crushing for an individualistic soul. 5: strlen feels it's relatively unprincipled and s…

Majority of what I said is opinion and prefaced as such, other than fairly true bits about Singapore's communitarian culture (true) and tax rates (true).

Otherwise, very little is normative and instructive (telling someone that this what they should do instead of what I'd do in the same circumstances). So I am not sure how I am patronizing someone as opposed to stating deeply opinion.

I mentioned this in another comment, but John Rawls had the concept of a "decent state" -- which may have a radically different tradition than, e.g., US or UK, but one where basic civil rights are still honored and respected. Singapore fits this bill, so I don't think its system should be condemned in the same vein as many states (perhaps majority of the world today) where, e.g., civil wars flare and religious and ethnic persecution is a day-to-day reality.

> 2: People move to Singapore because they're narrowly selfish

Sivers did surrender his US citizenship, so I can assume taxation did have some reason that choice (although it could be simply to avoid double taxation -- .sg taxes plus US taxes on top -- rather only choosing lower taxes).

However, I never stated that all -- or even most -- immigrants to Singapore do this. I can only state this about Westerners moving there permanently (it's another matter about living there temporarily as part of a job, etc..), for most of whom taxation plays a determining role.

I am actually aware personally of many people who moved to Singapore for far different reasons (fleeing civil wars, seeking basic economic opportunity) -- but none of them were Westerners. For example, I attended high school and university with people who grew up in Singapore having fled grinding poverty in Burma or reeducation camps in Vietnam. In what I think is a huge criticism of US, their families were not initially allowed to enter the US: they were only able to move to the US once their parents established themselves in Singapore, obtained the right employment and education, and move to US on H1B visas.

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