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Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

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Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#101

Post by dkdk8283 »

ta988 wrote: post #62
throwaway13337 wrote: post #58

>We’re not after your money Paying very high income taxes and having a salary under half what you get in the states is at least buying the Finnish government one tesla a year. That said, it's almost worth it because Finland is a great place to live. It's just too bad you trade your own wealth stock pile for the possibility of getting in on that social welfare that may not pan out in the long run (most is not applicab…

But many things are less expensive, health, education...

Which most people don’t need in their earning prime

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#102

Post by brobinson »

nstj wrote: post #17

> Experience four seasons: changes in weather and daylight are a feature and not a bug This looks like a wonderful offering. With phrases like the above it looks to be one of the first of its nature where government _gets_ the needs of remote tech workers.

I've heard from Finns that summer is the "nicest week of the year" so I'm gonna take the four seasons claim with a grain of salt.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#103

Post by pavlov »

trhway wrote: post #45

Curiously - having trove of engineers around - Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Chech Republic, etc, not to mention the ones a bit farther like India and China, Finland still targets US West Coast. Some secret SV sauce I guess :)

It’s fundamentally a networking program to make Finland better known in SV.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#104

Post by zeckalpha »

howlgarnish wrote: post #21
nstj wrote: post #17

> Experience four seasons: changes in weather and daylight are a feature and not a bug This looks like a wonderful offering. With phrases like the above it looks to be one of the first of its nature where government _gets_ the needs of remote tech workers.

What they don't mention is the length of those seasons, which in Finland consist of winter, winter, winter and construction. Even in Helsinki snow can fall as early as September and as late as May.

Here in Minnesota, I’ve seen snow every month except August. We had 10 inches two weeks ago. On the other hand, it was 87 degrees on my porch yesterday.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#105

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

pavlov wrote: post #89
klipt wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Worlds largest military also sucks up tax dollars but don’t give any benefits back. It's easy to say a military is worthless until you actually need it. But, Finland was under Russian occupation for decades. I would guess plenty of Finns wished they had a better military then.

Which decades are you talking about? Finland was part of the Russian Empire between 1809 and 1917, but hasn’t been invaded since — although Stalin gave it a good shot.

Finland was definitely invaded. While the Finns are often considered the victors in the Winter War because they managed to maintain their independence in spite of Stalin’s onslaught, they nonetheless lost a considerable slice of Karelia to the Soviet Union.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#106

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

siavosh wrote: post #93
socialdemocrat wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not like taxes disappear into a black hole never to be seen. Most of that money comes back to you in the form of services Americans would have to pay for anyway. What matters is what the taxes give you. A lot of American taxes don’t give people much of anything. Maintaining the worlds largest prison population is expensive but what exactly does that give the Average American? Worlds largest military also sucks…

I wish humanity didn't need a military but saying the world's largest military doesn't give anything back is a bit misleading. Some would argue the world's largest military enable the post WW2 order and with it the free trade that most of the world depends on. So in a very concrete way, the American tax payer subsidizes much of the world's economy. Now in a post cold war with the growing isolationist tendencies of Am…

I think the point is that you can choose to go live somewhere that is not the USA and you continue reap the benefits you describe, all the while paying a different countries taxes and personally benefitting much much more.

If I was an American, I wouldn't want to be footing the bill for Global Security either.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#107

Post by pavlov »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #105
pavlov wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which decades are you talking about? Finland was part of the Russian Empire between 1809 and 1917, but hasn’t been invaded since — although Stalin gave it a good shot.

Finland was definitely invaded. While the Finns are often considered the victors in the Winter War because they managed to maintain their independence in spite of Stalin’s onslaught, they nonetheless lost a considerable slice of Karelia to the Soviet Union.

Ok, but that’s very different from “decades under Russian occupation” claimed by the grandparent post.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#108

Post by zeckalpha »

tdeck wrote: post #81
purerandomness wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"yyyy-mm-dd" and "dd-mm-yyyy" are both sorted - one descending, one ascendig. "mm-dd-yyyy" is just an arbitrary bag of entities, and a part of the population memorizes the order of them.

It's not completely arbitrary, it matches the way we write out full dates or speak then aloud. January 2nd, 1900 becomes 1/2/1900.

That is also arbitrary.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#109

Post by elviejo »

Devils-Avocado wrote: post #27
brryant wrote: post #2

This is honestly a great way for tech entrepreneurs to experience Nordic living. The fact is Finland has one of the most startup friendly environments around: — top schools (Aalto U. produces incredibly talented engineers) — startup friendly ecosystem (cheap rents, cheap internet) — Finnish work culture (direct, no nonsense, hard working but balanced) — fantastic food and beverage scene in downtown Helsinki My wife i…

Also: 24% VAT (sales tax) 18% employer payroll taxes 10% employee payroll taxes 20-30% typical income tax Take your American disposable income and cut it in half. Still worth it for 'free' education and 'free' healthcare? Also a lot of cold and darkness.

Hell yes!!

In other posts people are complaining about the homeless people living in SF...

you know how you avoid homeless persons?? by having taxes paid healthcare (there is no free), taxes paid education, taxes paid home support.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#110

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

Devils-Avocado wrote: post #61
socialdemocrat wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not like taxes disappear into a black hole never to be seen. Most of that money comes back to you in the form of services Americans would have to pay for anyway. What matters is what the taxes give you. A lot of American taxes don’t give people much of anything. Maintaining the worlds largest prison population is expensive but what exactly does that give the Average American? Worlds largest military also sucks…

In Europe those services pay for a huge welfare and pension system, and healthcare which is mostly used by the elderly. Very little benefit will be received by a working-age expat.

> In Europe those services pay for ... healthcare which is mostly used by the elderly.

Finnish public healthcare encompasses things like regular dental visits that people of every age use.

Also, those high taxes pay for world-class public libraries and child daycare which the broad public use, even expats in the IT sectors.

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