181–190 of 190 posts
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Oh I would be the most happy person to do it. The writing was on the wall since 2008, and I am painfully aware of it. However, my host country is Switzerland, where if you are not already a EU citizen, you have to live 10 years basically working on the same permanent job before even getting a permanent residence, _without interruptions_, and years in the academia up and including to the postdoc level do not count. Bo…
This is a particularly sad situation. I was often wondering how Russians living in the EU feel being pointed at because of what Putin does. Unfortunately the only Russian I know is a woman living in France for 20 years, married with a French guy and claiming that Russia was attacked and is just defending against agressiin and Nazis. This is sad, I have not talked to her since. You may want to consider France: you spe…
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1. The Palestinians are not being "punished". That would actually be illegal and is not what Israel is doing. Israel is trying to destroy the party that attacked them, which is a legitimate war aim. 2. Being the civilian population of a dictatorship waging a brutal war of annihilation against its neighbors sucks, but is not the fault of the party being attacked and defending itself from said brutal attack. 3. Particu…
So you're telling me that Israel have not been stopping aid from getting into Gaza for three weeks now? That is definitely a war crime. And basically Hamas are fighting a guerrilla war and engaging in acts of terror similar to what the Zionists engaged in pre 48. If that was ok, then surely what Hamas are doing is fine? I'm really confused about your notion that the Israeli state is being attacked. It's more accurate…
in 1948, when partition of the last remaining sliver of the mandate regions was announced, with the vast bulk already having gone to the Arabs, the Jews weren't happy, but immediately accepted. Because their goal was to have a Jewish state.
All the Arabs had to do to gain a Palestinian state (in addition to Syria and Jordan, the other mandate regions) was to also accept.
Peace.
Instead, the Arabs immediately attacked from all sides in a war of annihilation against the newly formed Jewish state. And despite the overwhelming odds the Arabs lost that genocidal war of aggression. And rebranded their own war of annihilation as the "nakba" supposedly perpetrated against them. "Woe is me".
Because the Arab goal never was "a Palestinian state". The Arab goal was always "no Jewish state". And of course for the rest of the Arabs the Palestinians are just the useful idiots who do their bidding and suffer the consequences.
But this is slowly coming to an end. Egypt recognized Israel a long time ago. So did Jordan. A bunch of the emirates also did recently (the Abraham accords). The new Syrian government has indicated that they will also recognize Israel. Saudi Arabia was also close to recognition and economic cooporation when their regional rival Iran used their proxies Hamas and Hizbollah to throw a violent spanner into the gears of peaceful diplomacy.
Because a Saudi/Israeli alliance is as much a nightmare-scenario for the Mullahs as it is a dream for the region.
This was a last ditch attempt that ultimately failed: Saudi Arabia has indicated that their plans are only delayed, Iran's proxies Hamas and Hizbollah have been all but destroyed, their ally Syria (land-route to their proxies) has fallen and wants to recognize Israel and their non-proxy attacks on Israel backfired so massively that it was embarrassing to watch from the outside.
After the direct Iranian attacks, Israel demonstrated that they have complete and total air superiority over Iran, took out their main air-defense just as a demonstration and then left. So Iran is in no position to do anything.
Without their backers, Hamas will not be able to resume their usual terror regime.
It won't happen overnight, but there is hope that the nightmare situation in the Middle East is slowly drawing to a close.
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How do you think that Norway’s wealth tax could impact its ability to draw talent from any other country? Knowing that, should you develop anything (drug, material, etc) and want to spin it out to a startup, you will be taxed on the unrealized valuation would weigh very heavily on me were I a researcher. Full disclosure, I know that this isn’t everyone’s goal, but this is HN after all!
Well, with this ERC fund, we are trying to attract high quality research scientists. While there are many of these who also have entrepreneurial ambitions, it is a venn diagram, not a circle. However, your critique of the wealth tax on unrealized gains is a big problem more generally. I have some interaction with the startup ecosystem these days here. Anecdotally, I have seen several founders choose to incorporate el…
> ETA: we are looking for evolutionary biologists. Not many entrepreneurial personalities here, more like a lot of bird watchers
In this case I’m sure that I’d be tempted to come to Norway and learn how ø is pronounced.
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The US has a wealth tax that predominantly affects the middle class - property taxes. In some states, like mine, it can be 10K+ a year for a typical home! It doesn't really discourage people from building their wealth and buying homes. It does a tiny bit - I've heard people say they rent to avoid property taxes. But barely. So, if the middle class who do not have a lot of wealth can deal with it, I would imagine the…
I see your point and it is similar when you consider a profitable company but think it is different from startup equity because you are raising capital you’re assigning a speculative dollar amount to build the business.
On the other hand, valuations for startups and even some large companies like Tesla seem to have absolutely no relation to the actual value of the company. Whereas home appraisals are, generally, based on the actual value as calculated by real metrics - like square footage and zipcode.
So, maybe it's just easier to deduce the value of a home, I don't know. Or maybe the stock market is just too irrational. Part of me wonders if the stock market is so irrational because there's no wealth tax.
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What difference would it make? Salaried position in EU would pay max 2x that and will end up in higher tax bracket, so net income will increase maybe 1.5x. This is leagues behind US. Europe is only for those high-skilled workers who don’t value money too much.
The trouble with comparing income between the US and the EU is that we don't really take into account everything, particularly social or public services. Of which the US has very, very little. In your typical US setup you're going to be paying a lot more of your salary. Suppose no public transit, there goes ~15% of your salary for an automobile. Maybe an extra 5% to healthcare and health insurance, if you're healthy.…
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The trouble with comparing income between the US and the EU is that we don't really take into account everything, particularly social or public services. Of which the US has very, very little. In your typical US setup you're going to be paying a lot more of your salary. Suppose no public transit, there goes ~15% of your salary for an automobile. Maybe an extra 5% to healthcare and health insurance, if you're healthy.…
We’re talking about about 3-4x difference in net income here. No amount of accounting for public transport, heathcare, clean air, smiling faces, lqbtq rights and nice architecture will offset this difference unless we assume that those things are almost all that matters and money is for greedy capitalists. Yes, on the fringes you are probably better off in Europe on average, but this discussion is about highly qualif…
Well first off, I don't think we are.
Sure if you compare FAANG to a European company. I'm in Texas, and your typical software engineer is making 80k-120k at almost all companies. The higher paying ones are a very small percentage.
And, it's not like taxes are low in the US. Income tax alone for 100k is ~25k, which, bear in mind, Texas doesn't collect state income tax. But then we also have a sales tax, and Texas has really high property taxes. The tax burden, I'm estimating, is closer to 40%. We just have a convoluted system that makes it hard to see that.
And then, on top of this, our cost of living can be very high. You might be shocked to learn that the last time I went to Europe (London, Paris), food was half the price of food in Texas. I was quite shocked, I thought for sure food would be more expensive.
And then, when we DO consider those very lucky software engineers making 250k - 400k at FAANG, you also have to consider that they're living in some of the highest cost of living places in the world. It's a trade-off. Yes, you're making more than rinky-dink DFW engineer making 80k, but then instead of your apartment being 1200 dollars a month it's 3200. And your Erewhon Japanese strawberry is 19 dollars.
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So you're telling me that Israel have not been stopping aid from getting into Gaza for three weeks now? That is definitely a war crime. And basically Hamas are fighting a guerrilla war and engaging in acts of terror similar to what the Zionists engaged in pre 48. If that was ok, then surely what Hamas are doing is fine? I'm really confused about your notion that the Israeli state is being attacked. It's more accurate…
Your history is also a bit off: in 1948, when partition of the last remaining sliver of the mandate regions was announced, with the vast bulk already having gone to the Arabs, the Jews weren't happy, but immediately accepted. Because their goal was to have a Jewish state. All the Arabs had to do to gain a Palestinian state (in addition to Syria and Jordan, the other mandate regions) was to also accept. Peace. Instead…
Given that you believe that blockading an entire country is a legitimate act of war I'm not sure there's much basis for a productive conversation.
I would note that terror/liberation movements like Hamas have basically never been defeated with these tactics so I really think that Israel are digging their own grave here.
Lure is a strong word. All they have to do is provide a place where they can do science without ideological interference.