American students head to Germany for free college

Post by eru » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 4:22 PM UTC

ownagefool wrote: post #212

DanBC wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In London you could happily be earning $200,000 - $300,000 with IT skills, avoid tax, keep 90% of that, and have the state benefits. How? Which particular state benefits are you talking about? (And it seems like you're talking about evasion - which is illegal, rather than avoidance which is a mix of normal tax planning (a contractor registering for VAT and claiming some of that back) and loophole-manipulation).

Contract for GOV.UK or finance, high end will see you those rates with 2 weeks holiday + the 8 bank holidays. Look for the word devops for example. Health care is the obvious one. University has kinda jumped the shark though. Trust schemes or defer forever, depending on your attitude to risk. I'm not saying said schemes should be used, just that it's popular and skews what people really earn.

Post by eru » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 4:26 PM UTC

tsotha wrote: post #217

jacalata wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article: >Germany wants these international students here, even though their taxpayers foot the bill. >“Germany is not a country that's growing,” Malone says. “Its population is not growing. They need people, they need immigrants. They want to be a migration country.” >Think about it this way: it’s a global game of collecting talent. All of these students are the trading cards, and the collectors are countri…

If you're willing to shell out tens of thousands of euros to attract "talent", why not just give already educated people money to become Germans?

Post by eru » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 4:30 PM UTC

tsotha wrote: post #218

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well consider the alternative: only rich people could get a higher education otherwise. IIRC this is what happens in the US too (parents having to save for their kids' college education, assuming they actually have money left after paying the bills), which leads to reduced mobility (the poor stay poor)

>Well consider the alternative: only rich people could get a higher education otherwise. No, that's not the alternative at all. The alternative would be to have people from other countries pay their own way and provide free education to your own citizens.

Post by eru » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 4:33 PM UTC

kleiba wrote: post #137

The CS department at the German university I work for started offering their lectures in English a number of years back. While a very good command of English is not uncommon in other parts of Europe, such as e.g. Scandinavia, this move is remarkable in my opinion because English is (more or less) ubiquitous only in the younger generation in Germany. A lot of middle-aged people do not speak English, or only at a very…

Post by tsotha » Fri, Apr 03, 2015, 8:17 PM UTC

eru wrote: post #245

tsotha wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Well consider the alternative: only rich people could get a higher education otherwise. No, that's not the alternative at all. The alternative would be to have people from other countries pay their own way and provide free education to your own citizens.

Isn't it nice that some countries try to transcend the accidents of birth within or beyond an imaginary line?