311–320 of 431 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The politics of New Zealand, especially when it comes to land rights + individual freedoms, can be enlightening.
How so?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Quality of life" is inferior on any axis? Fort Lauderdale is the Yatch Capital of the World, the intercostal are a billionaire playground. Name any activity on the water from recreation, fishing, diving, to bio research...SV isn't on the map. On the other extreme - absolutely free - I would take Fort Lauderdale Beach and the weather over anything SV has to offer. After all there was a move to totally relocate Hollyw…
If you aren't aware, there is abundant outdoor activity including water recreation in the bay area. You seem to think we have to stay in the valley
Florida is absolutely a garbage state (born and raised Floridian speaking) but there's no place in the US that is even in the discussion when it comes to water recreation-- MAYBE Hawaii.
Good luck courting new tech talent when existing tech talent gets hung out to dry at the first hint of pressure. See Kim Dotcom's troubles for reference.
The NZ government bending over for the US government was not exactly very popular with the locals. A different government may have had a stronger spine. You also forgot the part where Kim Dotcom is a convicted fraudster, who was making money through deliberate violation of copyright, is all tech talent like him? Oh, and then there was the time he tried to get involved in NZ politics. That was not superpopular.
Good luck courting new tech talent when existing tech talent gets hung out to dry at the first hint of pressure. See Kim Dotcom's troubles for reference.
The NZ government bending over for the US government was not exactly very popular with the locals. A different government may have had a stronger spine. You also forgot the part where Kim Dotcom is a convicted fraudster, who was making money through deliberate violation of copyright, is all tech talent like him? Oh, and then there was the time he tried to get involved in NZ politics. That was not superpopular.
The NZ government still refuses to let US warships that may be nuclear powered into our ports, and thus has no free trade deal with the worlds largest economy. Instead we have a free trade deal with Red China, which is now colonising us.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks like the Auckland median price is NZ$890K, which is roughly US$623K. Here in Seattle, the median price just hit US$700K... Auckland doesn't sound so bad!
In terms of affordability, you'd need to look at average salaries as well. My impression is that Auckland doesn't fare so well on that front.
A while back I was going through the immigration process for NZ with an immigration lawyer and had all the points necessary and was moving on to the interview phase. My wife and I ultimately decided to stop as she became pregnant and didn't want to be as far away from family. That and the flight/quarantine times that would be imposed for our dogs. Another big issue was taxes. To my knowledge NZ and USA are two countr…
> To my knowledge NZ and USA are two countries that will try to tax you wherever you live until you die unless you renounce citizenship. US yes, NZ no. The US is practically the only country in the world to do that actually. And they WILL hit you with an extra "exit" tax if you try and renounce your citizenship too.
My ex's family went and worked in Australia for a year or two. They boarded the plane, came back to New Zealand, and got a letter from the IRD demanding payment of taxes for the time they worked in Australia. Her father shot back that "They did not use any services from" NZ at all. The IRD responded that the services were available, and if they didn't pay their tax bill they were ready to initiate prosecution.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I found a really good dentist in the Auckland area. Not the cheapest, but he has some awesome credentials and I believe at least partly specializes in cosmetic dental work. Fixed a bad fill job my wife got in Indonesia, gave me advice on a crack forming in a tooth, and steered me away from whitening(which I'd say turned out to be the right choice for me). A true craftsman. Was bummed about having to find a new dentis…
Is his name Simon?
I don't think New Zealand's selling point will ever be isolation. To have isolation you need to have a place with very lax laws where people don't want to bother you. New Zealand is very beautiful and interesting but there are still many laws and many people who want to bother you. Maybe this is "isolation" in a previously unheard of, to me, sense where you just don't want to be a citizen of a major nation or somethi…
Remember that 30% is it for tax, other than the 15% GST built in to all purchases. There's no city or state taxes, no payroll tax, no additional costs for health insurance and no cost of compliance - as an employed individual you don't need an accountant to do your taxes.
Many Americans I speak to think that the US is a low taxing country, but this is false for most people. It is only the case for the moderately rich and up. Your tax system is not very progressive, particularly social security and medicare are flat taxes if I'm not mistaken, so not progressive at all, and the state taxes I've seen have barely any progressivity to them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uncapped gigabit fibre is now available to a significant and growing portion of our population, and in almost all circumstances you have 10+ ISPs to choose from. None of these local monopolies that America seems to suffer from. We used to be an internet backwater, lagging behind Australia and far behind Europe/USA, but in the last 10 years we've really leapt into the 21st century. Case in point: http://www.speedtest.…
That's to local .au servers. What is it like to the US? I think you can select a country with Speedtest.
The main issue was the monopoly on transit, but domestic competition has helped a bit.
I know several kiwis and my wife has traveled there extensively. The biggest issues seem to stem from "island culture" which means: - Most things are expensive and lower quality than you are used to. Furniture, housing, food, etc. Simply because of isolation and logistics. - Poor job market, terribly poor for most people. - Which leads to rules making it much harder to move to NZ long term. Unless you meet some high…
Items there were charged at rates suitable for wealthy tourists. Pay rates were legal minimums, although the added extras you had to provide for your work were well outside any legal rights employers have. For my last job, I used my PC and other personal equipment just to do my job, while my employer sat back and raked in the cash. (Almost literally, they would pay $6k in wages and $0 for equipment while billing $60+k for a job. One guy I know who took a similar role in the business has had a verbal warning for not doing his job properly, so he's providing his own equipment.)
A friend of mine lives in Auckland. A year or so back, he explained that his rent had more than doubled in a single day. (He was on a fixed term lease that expired, he went to renew it, and the rent went up but his income didn't.)