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Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

helsinkibusinesshub.fi

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Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#311

Post by waihtis »

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #278
deanc wrote: post #190

Overall my experience in Helsinki has been hugely positive. I’ve been here now over a decade and have settled with work and family life. Work life balance is great, there’s a beautiful outdoors to enjoy all year, and the people are warm and kind, if not difficult to start with. All that said, there’s a lot of bullshit and hot air here in this thread: - public healthcare is great until you have something difficult to…

As extra for the language. Even in tech you should just accept that you NEED to start learning Finnish. You don't have to be proficient speaker, but for normal office chat you need to be good enough to interrupt and step in with English if you want to participate. I've seen many foreigners quit because they felt like they were intentionally left out of casual conversations, but you really have to understand that spea…

Problem is that it's a super difficult language where you can't draw any help from any other languages you might now. Plus it's obscure and if you move out of Finland you'll likely never use it again. I can see why people don't want to invest huge amounts of time learning it unless they plan to stay for the rest of their lives.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#312

Post by howlgarnish »

crehn wrote: post #247

> #1 Happiest country in the world As a Finn, this is always funny to hear. I have no idea where they draw their conclusions from. :^)

I think it means "has the least utterly miserable people" due to poverty etc.

Incidentally, Finland's great rep for schools is similar: Finland doesn't do a great job with the best students, but it's quite good at supporting the weakest.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#313

Post by ashtonkem »

hervature wrote: post #68
elevenoh wrote: 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.

Air quality is often driven by geography too; there are tons of cities that are notorious for their poor air quality due to being in a basin or an inconveniently placed mountain trapping car exhaust where the people are.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#314

Post by deanclatworthy »

Maakuth wrote: post #287
legohead wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you pay for private dentists, or similar, if you need more immediate service? And is the wait similar for major things like cancer, brain tutor, or heart surgery?

Employers are required to provide occupational healthcare, which at least in my experience - of IT workplaces - provides quick access to care, dental or otherwise. Actually this is one of the pain points of the healthcare system here, the long wait times for patients without occupational healthcare.

It’s worth noting that the package provided by your employer varies hugely. Mine is flexible right now so if I’m sick I can see someone. Some are super strict about it only being workplace related.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#315

Post by csomar »

deanc wrote: post #190

Overall my experience in Helsinki has been hugely positive. I’ve been here now over a decade and have settled with work and family life. Work life balance is great, there’s a beautiful outdoors to enjoy all year, and the people are warm and kind, if not difficult to start with. All that said, there’s a lot of bullshit and hot air here in this thread: - public healthcare is great until you have something difficult to…

> public healthcare is great until you have something difficult to work with or non acute. Enjoy the months longs waiting times to see a dentist.

Months long waiting times for a dentist? I'm not sure if that qualify their public healthcare as great. In a months time your dental issue might actually become acute.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#316

Post by curun1r »

nonfinn1039 wrote: post #209
socialdemocrat wrote: post #40

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 keep hearing this myth about that US taxpayer dollars go mostly to the military. Sure it's a big ticket item, but half of it goes to social programs: 2019 (USD): - Health and Human Services: 1,215 Trillion(27%) - Social Security: 1,101 Trillion (25%) - Department of Defense: 658 Billion (14.7%) source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget

The DoD list item doesn't include the intelligence agencies, DHS, OCO, VA, defense share of debt servicing and other spending. A more honest number is $1.25 trillion [0].

[0] https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2019/05/making-sense-of-the-1-...

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#317

Post by quickthrower2 »

Devils-Avocado wrote: post #27
brryant wrote: 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.

I don't see this as a relocation opportunity. It sounds like a travel opportunity. I think digital nomads will go for this, then that's 90 days of those tax levels, which makes no difference as they are optimising for experience not income (otherwise they'd stay working onsite for a FAANG)

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#318

Post by antris »

bedobi wrote: post #308
deanclatworthy wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finland is not Scandinavia and its systems are not necessarily comparable. You have shortcomings in any healthcare system, but I'd take this and all its flaws in a heartbeat over the absolute shitshow that is the US healthcare system.

Finland is very much Scandinavia, but that's a complete side note. The point is, it's absolutely not true that health care in Finland or the rest of Scandinavia is anywhere near as good as popularly imagined by Americans or even by many Scandinavians themselves. Anyone who moves to Scandinavia thinking the high taxes will give complete access to instant top notch treatment in case of cancer or many other conditions w…

> Anyone who moves to Scandinavia thinking the high taxes will give complete access to instant top notch treatment in case of cancer or many other conditions will have been straight up misled and deceived

If you want top notch anything, it's pretty obvious that the privilege is accessible only to billionaires. There's no roof on how much money you can spend on any service. The point of the public health care system is that a basic level of care is guaranteed to everyone, not to provide the most opulent service that money can buy.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#319

Post by quickthrower2 »

vardhanw wrote: post #11
cambalache wrote: post #3

Maybe I am being dumb (Finnish application officers, do not read this) but I dont understand what the offer is. A 90 days business visa? Forget it, I just read this: > The “90-Day Finn” program is funded by the Helsinki Business Hub and is specifically targeted at “technical professionals” on the west coast of the United States. Hub will fund the “90-day free transfer package to Helsinki” and invite children. This an…

The Terms and conditions [1] provides some details. [1] https://www.helsinkibusinesshub.fi/90-day-finn-terms-and-con...

Also "Helsinki Business Hub will choose a maximum 15 participants", so honestly, this ain't too exciting if you are not from the US.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#320

Post by Jommi »

dmix wrote: post #296
deanclatworthy wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding dentisty: Yes, but they can be pricy. I think I had some minor filling work done once and it ended up being around 200-300e. There is absolutely no issue if your issue is acute or serious with the public healthcare. But as mentioned, if your issue is complicated (e.g. i have an undiagnosed hip issue for a year) it takes ages to get scans and such.

In Canada our wait times aren't so bad but the quality of service is much to be desired. A lot of the most talented move to the US for higher pay, which most 'average' people probably dont notice but as someone who takes pathology courses for fun online I've noticed we don't get the 'best'. The major thing beyond that perception though is you get a ton of doctors offices who work like mills, they try to get as many p…

For years I read the US counterarguments that us healthcare is better than the countries with public.

Then I moved to CA and got health insurance from work, using UCLA health as my main network.

It's the exact same. I go to see my PCP and she's literally trying to just go through lists of things, is routinely late, and response to 90% of issues is a recommendation to go to another doctor.

Literally the exact same experience.

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