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Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

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Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#331

Post by bduerst »

lsc wrote: post #329
bduerst wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only for fungible labor. Many skilled positions have scarcity, and employers are willing to pay more for an immigrant if their skillset is a better fit and/or can fill the position immediately.

>Only for fungible labor. Oh come now. All of us are fungible. None of us are irreplaceable (at least not to our employers.)

I don't think you fully understand what fungible means.

Can a janitor do your job? No? Then your labor is not fungible.

Can you do a janitor's job? Yes? Then that's fungible labor.

Most blue collar labor is fungible - meaning that just about any person who is not incapacitated can do it.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#332

Post by McDoku »

fredophile wrote: post #284
McDoku wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real estate is better in Montreal. Was paying 2K for small loft 700sqft in Gastown vs 1.3K for a 1600sqft loft in Old Montreal with a view of the basilica. Startup dollars will go further here and the office will be twice as awesome. Much easier for new people to make friends and the art scene is not priced out. Montreal is undeniably more fun. And lord, the festivals... Mind you, winter lives here but it is sunny ev…

There's more to location than real estate costs. If that was the main factor YC wouldn't be in the bay area. The existing talent pool and ecosystem are much more important factors. Vancouver also has the advantage of being in the same time zone as YC. Complaining about the cost of office space in Gastown is like complaining about the cost of office space in SOMA. There are many cheaper alternatives if you don't insis…

http://builtinmtl.com/

Saying Montreal does not have the talent is silly. It is in the most populated region of Canada.

1) Mont Royal - Hiking

I don't think scuba might be a silly reason to discount Montreal. Fact is developers will build social ties faster in Montreal. Vancouver is clique driven and most people coming at not are really not prepared for the rain. Almost like Stockholm.

Metropolis real estate with creative spaces and inspire the imagination. McGills, Harvard, MIT, NYU all in the same time zone and a quick flight.

Burnaby or Coquitlam is like any other suburb and prices are already so high any big influx is just going to highten tensions. There is a strong Anarchist movement that surfaces time to time in Vancouver as well as crippling homelessness.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#333

Post by lsc »

bduerst wrote: post #331
lsc wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Only for fungible labor. Oh come now. All of us are fungible. None of us are irreplaceable (at least not to our employers.)

I don't think you fully understand what fungible means. Can a janitor do your job? No? Then your labor is not fungible. Can you do a janitor's job? Yes? Then that's fungible labor. Most blue collar labor is fungible - meaning that just about any person who is not incapacitated can do it.

>Most blue collar labor is fungible - meaning that just about any person who is not incapacitated can do it.

I think you underestimate the skill and training required for many blue-collar professions.

I probably have apprentice-level skills as a plumber, an electrician and as a mechanic. I know enough to say with some authority that it would take years for me to get to journeyman level. I don't think the average person could be a really good programmer, and I don't think the average person could be a really good master mechanic, either.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#334

Post by bduerst »

lsc wrote: post #333
bduerst wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you fully understand what fungible means. Can a janitor do your job? No? Then your labor is not fungible. Can you do a janitor's job? Yes? Then that's fungible labor. Most blue collar labor is fungible - meaning that just about any person who is not incapacitated can do it.

>Most blue collar labor is fungible - meaning that just about any person who is not incapacitated can do it. I think you underestimate the skill and training required for many blue-collar professions. I probably have apprentice-level skills as a plumber, an electrician and as a mechanic. I know enough to say with some authority that it would take years for me to get to journeyman level. I don't think the average pers…

I never said anything about the skilled trades, I said janitor. You're just splitting hairs now.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#335

Post by [deleted] »

lsc wrote: post #333
bduerst wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you fully understand what fungible means. Can a janitor do your job? No? Then your labor is not fungible. Can you do a janitor's job? Yes? Then that's fungible labor. Most blue collar labor is fungible - meaning that just about any person who is not incapacitated can do it.

>Most blue collar labor is fungible - meaning that just about any person who is not incapacitated can do it. I think you underestimate the skill and training required for many blue-collar professions. I probably have apprentice-level skills as a plumber, an electrician and as a mechanic. I know enough to say with some authority that it would take years for me to get to journeyman level. I don't think the average pers…

[deleted]

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#336

Post by sospep »

McDoku wrote: post #236
fwilliams wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who grew up in Montreal, and moved to Silicon Valley, one of the appeals of SV is the weather. Montreal winters are long, cold, and dark. These are not conditions everyone wants to live in. Additionally, the Office De La Langue Francaise will make the life of any English company a nightmare. To top it all off, taxes in Quebec are absurdly high (especially considering the quality of social services). So whi…

Well, taxes for individuals with out a lawyer or a good accountant. I think there if you spent the time making a deal with Quebec they would accomodate. Secondly, it is cheap to hire someone for translation and companies should launch with multiple languages. It just increase the global audience for the product. I am sure YC could develop the capacity to translate the product at little cost. Peixe Urbano, Baidu ... e…

> you keep going back to the rain in vancouver as being a negative.

Here is the total precipation over the last 3 months

Vancouver = 103.1 mm SRC = http://montreal.weatherstats.ca/charts/precipitation-3months... ( environment canada)

Next your going to try to convince us that poutine > sushi

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#337

Post by Dewie »

refurb wrote: post #221
Dewie wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A recent gallup survey says 150M people would move to the US if they could, the UK was a distant second at 45M Now adjust those numbers to the population of those countries... oh look, the UK all of a sudden came out ahead. All of these studies comparing numbers usually just boils down to "The US is big". It has been brought up elsewhere that Canada, for example, has more immigrants as a percentage of population. B…

If the reason is the US is big, why would you look at it on a per-capita basis? Maybe adjust for land size? Then the UK would really come out ahead!

Uh, I guess? It looks like you're making fun of your own original argument at this point. In this case, if you use these numbers as an indicator of demand the UK clearly has greater demand per capita. And per capita is a much better measure since a country with a bigger population can assimilate and/or integrate a larger number of immigrants, thus it can comfortably have a larger immigration demand than a smaller country.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#338

Post by McDoku »

sospep wrote: post #336
McDoku wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, taxes for individuals with out a lawyer or a good accountant. I think there if you spent the time making a deal with Quebec they would accomodate. Secondly, it is cheap to hire someone for translation and companies should launch with multiple languages. It just increase the global audience for the product. I am sure YC could develop the capacity to translate the product at little cost. Peixe Urbano, Baidu ... e…

> you keep going back to the rain in vancouver as being a negative. Here is the total precipation over the last 3 months Vancouver = 103.1 mm SRC = http://montreal.weatherstats.ca/charts/precipitation-3months... ( environment canada) Next your going to try to convince us that poutine > sushi

Dude, compare average rain fall. Pointing at an outlying time period is unsciency. Lets though in total sunshine ;-)

poutine > sushi ... well not in Vancouver. Poutine is rough out there, all megabites with sesame seed pizza. It is just going to be tougher to bootstrap start ups out there.

Re: Vancouver tech surges as U.S. immigration reform idles

#339

Post by pskittle »

BrainInAJar wrote: post #315
pskittle wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your reply, how arduous is the process of hiring talent also is it easy to find decent paying jobs?

I don't know about the first, but as for how easy it is to find decent paying jobs, quite easy. There's a whole list of local companies that hire in the regular ways ( meetups, referrals, resume cold calls ) and most multinational companies will phone interview & let you know if remote work is an option (it invariably is for most teams)

Thanks :)
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