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Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

helsinkibusinesshub.fi

131–140 of 632 posts

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#131
post #4

This is neat. Some things I like about finland/helsinki: Happy down to earth citizens, socially liberal with far less echochamber/signalling/two-faced bs than california for instance, tons of Finnish sauna, & great air quality for a big city.

Helsinki is 600,000 people and 400/km^2. That's essentially the same as Oklahoma City. I know OKC has a basketball team and city is in the name, but most people wouldn't call OKC a big city and wouldn't be surprised by better air quality compared to places with millions of people.

Helsinki is the capital city and cultural center of a nation. The best of the best in Finland live, work, and perform there.

For cities, as so many other things, it's not all about size.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#132
post #4

This is neat. Some things I like about finland/helsinki: Happy down to earth citizens, socially liberal with far less echochamber/signalling/two-faced bs than california for instance, tons of Finnish sauna, & great air quality for a big city.

Helsinki is 600,000 people and 400/km^2. That's essentially the same as Oklahoma City. I know OKC has a basketball team and city is in the name, but most people wouldn't call OKC a big city and wouldn't be surprised by better air quality compared to places with millions of people.

Ure being diseingenius. Helsinki is 650k, but actually it's a tri-city with Espoo and Vantaa, going over 1M population. That's more than SF in a similar area.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a working-age expat, you might still have an ambulance called after an accident or a drug overdose after partying, having cancer surgery, a flu shot, a pregnancy or an IVF, all for free.

They have ambulances in the US too. Also, isn't Finland a country where you pay health insurance? If that is free, a lot of things in the US suddenly are free as well.

> They have ambulances in the US too.

We were talking about costs. In the US, calling an ambulance is not guaranteed to be free.

OP claimed that as a young, healthy expat, you don't benefit from a system where your tax payments finance health care.

I showed examples where a young, healthy expat directy benefits from this system, by having medical emergencies that would potentially bankrupt you in the US.

Not sure I followed your point here.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#135
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.

What are you even talking about this is completely false.

It doesn't even snow anymore really.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#137
post #93

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…

Also there’s this argument

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_to_War

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#138
post #93

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…

Also it was the defense spending that created the conditions for Silicon Valley.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#139
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helsinki is 600,000 people and 400/km^2. That's essentially the same as Oklahoma City. I know OKC has a basketball team and city is in the name, but most people wouldn't call OKC a big city and wouldn't be surprised by better air quality compared to places with millions of people.

Ure being diseingenius. Helsinki is 650k, but actually it's a tri-city with Espoo and Vantaa, going over 1M population. That's more than SF in a similar area.

> Ure being diseingenius. Helsinki is 650k, but actually it's a tri-city with Espoo and Vantaa, going over 1M population. That's more than SF in a similar area.

Helsinki alone is almost twice the area of SF, Vantaa is more than twice SF’s area, and Espoo is closer to three times SF’s area, so, yes, that tri-city is more people than SF, but, no, it's not “in a similar area”.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#140

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.

Agree, as a Bay Area SWE, health-care is not a problem as many companies give you very good insurance, HSA, dental and vision for free or with family (wife + 1 kid) 1K per month.
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