I am currently studying in the US on a visa. I WAS considering trying the H1B route. However, the longer I am here the more I see what the "real" America is like. Due to my European citizenship I can work in most (if not all) European countries without the hassle I'd have here (visa application). Yes, the pay might be lower, and yes I might not be in the start up mecca, but I never cared about start ups.
Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture
231–240 of 462 posts
Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess we all have different definitions of "quality of life". IMHO, the salary may be very high in the nordic countries, but with the weather the have, I wouldn't consider that a high quality of life.
That is true. I specifically meant work/life balance. Where life is considered life even with 1h daylight and -20C outside (and I agree that might be stretching it).
You don't have to live in the polar circle to enjoy Scandinavian laws...
Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
The oil doesnt' really make that much difference in Norway. They tend to keep most of the money in a state reserve to not create too much inflation. Subsitute Norway for non-oil Sweden, a country with huge immigration. Sure it's a small and "rich" country, but the cultural things like good work/life balance applies anyway. Edit: as was pointed out to me in another comment: this is using a loose definition of "life" w…
Over time Norway's GDP expansion almost perfectly matches the increased production domestically and price increases globally. Track the price of oil against Norway's extreme GDP per capita growth from 2000 to 2008 ($37k per capita to $95k per capita), a time in which the price of oil went up ~10 fold. It's plainly obvious that Norway's economy is highly dependent on the performance of oil. Their wealth boom the prior…
There is a big difference between the wealth of individual norwegians, and the wealth of Norway the state and the gdp/capita of Norway.
Each norwegian citizen is like Warren Buffett, they sit on a shitload of money but you can't tell.
Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sane health care is the biggest one.
There was another long and widely exposed article about an American citizen going to Europe (France IIRC) to treat his father's cancer. He said that healthcare spirit only would have been worth it, more human and less a business than in the USofA. I guess we should all travel to get perspective on our local environments and see what's possible with different organizations and beliefs.
Eh, outside of the U.S. just watch the first 1/2 season of breaking bad. It's fiction, of course, but deciding to cook crystal meth to pay for cancer treatment is an idea that would only make sense in the U.S.
Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture
#235I think living anywhere other than your home country for a while is a valuable experience. You learn to not only recognise the flaws in your own country (which you can then push to improve), but you also learn to appreciate what you previously took for granted.
That's one of the most pernicious things about the US tax system though. Because citizens get taxed by both the USA and the country they're in, it strongly disincentivises people from ever moving abroad (unless they revoke their US citizenship).
This leads to Americans never really discovering, en masse, what life in foreign countries can be like. They're just tourist destinations.
Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
what? America had an actual slave class. Also indentured servants.
Nobody would dispute or ignore that - of course that occurred to me when writing the original comment. I stand by my analysis since American slaves were (at the time) a small minority of the country that existed in a fraction of the geography and lasted for less than 90 years after 1776. No portion of americans were "systematically enslaved and disenfranchised for ... 2000 years" and no majority (or even large plural…
"American slaves were (at the time) a small minority of the country"
11% is a minority. It is not a small minority. Slaves were also a majority in Mississippi and South Carolina. http://thomaslegion.net/statesandslaverypercentagesintheunit... .
Your start date of 1776 is irrelevant. Colonial America also had a slave class, starting in the 1600s, which the US inherited.
Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture
#237The author claims she was double taxed by the Swiss and American governments. I doubt that she actually paid the U.S. taxes, as up to 100K earned abroad is exempt. It's called the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Forei...
Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
For one, you might find the bill boards from the SVP, that shows minarets (the tall part of a mosque) depicted as rockets, or the one where they show white sheep kicking a black sheep out of Switzerland. I think it is a good example of how 'direct' Switzerland can be if you are a foreigner there. (I still love the country though)
Well I agree that patriarcal culture (of which veils and minarets are symbols) has nothing to do in central/northern europe. I don't care about freedom of religion, I care about being freed from religion. And it sounds like the swiss do too. So if that was suposed to make me think that democracy as opposed to parliamentary regimes is a bad thing, think again.
Sorry, but the people opposed to the veils and the minarets are not opposed to them because they represent patriarcal culture, they're opposed to them because they're foreign.
In fact, patriarcal is more likely a good adjective to describe the anti-foreigner areas. For instance, one of the highest votes for a recent anti-immigration referendum[1] was in Appenzell Innerrhoden. That same (half)-canton only gave women the vote in 1990, and only because they were forced to by the Swiss Federal Court [2].
[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initiative_populaire_«_Contre_... (in French, but look for AI under "Par canton") [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_Switzerl...
Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture
#239i pay 45% tax in the usa. time to move ;)
Re: Living in Switzerland ruined me for America and its lousy work culture
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
Compared to San Francisco, or Oklahoma?
Yes, it is more expensive in every way than San Francisco. Given the re-float of the Franc, it's even worse now. (I live in SF but one of the rsync.net locations is in Zurich and I travel there frequently)
In every way except rent, though. And given rents in San Francisco...