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Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

helsinkibusinesshub.fi

141–150 of 632 posts

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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…

You can have lower taxes (than in America) and excellent public services in Singapore. Eat your cake and have it, too.

Very startup friendly as well and excellent food.

The tropical weather takes a bit of getting used to, though. I much prefer gloomy European skies.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#142

I was lucky enough to have a company funded stint in Helsinki some years ago. The tech culture is vibrant and interesting. Most everyone speaks English better than most in the US. It can also be a place where it's hard to make friends -- I still have a handful (former colleagues, etc) -- just cultural. I'll consider applying again as it would give me a fun way to expose my girlfriend and her kid (she already chats wi…

Can you please elaborate more on why it is hard to make friends? Thanks!

Finns tend to be more on the introverted side of the spectrum and many of us prefer a few close friends over lots of casual acquaintances. Small talk is famously difficult to us, but the bright side of that is that we’re more comfortable just being quiet if there’s nothing to say. Honestly though many of us tend to try to be especially friendly to foreigners so as to avert the ”shy and reserved” stereotype. And for the most part Finnish friendliness is genuine, not faked or superficial.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Private dental visits shouldn't cost you more than a few hundred quid per year on average. (In a sane country.)

So they would only justify perhaps about 0.1% higher taxes?

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Networking is fine,but unless they will provide housing (they wont) I could manage to get housing by myself, not much value there.

"We will provide selected applicants with a free 90-day relocation package for the entire family. We’ll arrange your ||housing||, daycare, schooling, everything you need – the real deal, just like a Finn." It looks like quite the package.

This hinges on if arranging and paying for are the same thing or not, and I suspect they’re not.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#145
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.

Invaded twice, but not occupied. Indeed, I believe Helsinki and London were the only capitals of non-neutral European countries that were not occupied during the WW2.

Moscow wasn't occupied either, was it?

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the record, Helsinki is a coastal city in the southern end of the country. It's about 10C there at the moment.

To be fair, a windy rainy winter in Helsinki can feel much harsher than a colder but calmer and snowier one farther north.

Definitely. I'd prefer a sunny day with -30C and no wind to a rainy and windy day with a temperature at 2C.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#147
post #47
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing worse than mm-dd-yyyy is dd-mm-yyyy. Long live yyyy-mm-dd

yyyy-mm-dd for the win indeed, if only for being naively sortable.

Yyyy-mm-dd is not used in real life because it puts the (in most contexts) least useful information first.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#148
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.

Having lived in several European countries I'd say Finland has probably one of the weaker health care systems.

* every legal resident has access to basic health care in their own municipality. A visit costs around 30 euros, max 700 euros a year (Which is a lot compared to Germany, cheap compared to the US). Queues can be long, several weeks. Negotiation skills help, but as a foreigner you might get blocked completely as a trouble maker if you think to negotiate in English

* nearly everybody with a full employment contract has basic health care coverage by their employer at a private provider. Normally you get an appointment the next day or so and you pay absolutely nothing. So most employed people just skip their "free" public health care, because it is worse. Yes, the employement health care is subsidized by tax money (although they are cutting back). This is not mandatory, so the details especially for mor expensive treatments and examinations vary a bit. When your employer stops paying you need to fall back to public service or pay yourself.

* for kids around 50% have private insurance to avoid the queing at the public service

* medicines are expensive compared to Germany, but cheap compared to market prices. Well, basically they are covered by the public health insurance, but the compensation is far from 100%, own contribution max 600 euros a year.

* hospital care is 50 euros a day, max 700 a year. There can be some queues, but for acute cases there should be no problem. (Non-acute cases can be a pain.)

In real serious cases the 1500 or so Euros you pay a year is of course cheap compared to complete bankruptcy or even remaining without good treatment. Being relatively healthy paying several 100 Euros a year is more than you would pay in many European countries with a public health insurance systems.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#149
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Invaded twice, but not occupied. Indeed, I believe Helsinki and London were the only capitals of non-neutral European countries that were not occupied during the WW2.

Moscow wasn't occupied either, was it?

Oops, of course. Good point!

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#150

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.

Yeah, as an expat I would love living next to an elderly dying because he can't afford treatment and is waiting his gofundme to work out, I also would love being 5 times more likely to be a robbery victim[0] thanks to lack of social welfare and social support for people in economic struggles, I would also love to have at least a few more veterans begging for money in the streets, and don't get me started on how much I would love to live with a poorly-funded educated system that raises people that end up becoming anti-vaxxers, flat-earthers among many other colorful irrational believes.

[0] https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Crime/Robber...

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