Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wish there was a list like this for every city.
that's an idea right there
yep : )
Appsterdam: A Haven for Indie App Makers?
41–50 of 57 posts
Re: Appsterdam: A Haven for Indie App Makers?
#42Re: Appsterdam: A Haven for Indie App Makers?
#43From the article:
“I became disillusioned with the way the United States was going in general. I myself had no health insurance and no way of getting health insurance as a self-employed person.”
Uh...no way of getting health insurance? How about PAYING for it? I hardly make any money, but I can still afford the $120/month I pay for my health insurance. Even if you go to a country like Europe with socialized healthcare, you are still paying for it if you are making money, via taxes. In fact, you are paying MORE for it since you are paying for your health insurance plus insurance for all of the unemployed. Taxes go over 50 percent of income in many European countries. In other words, there is no such thing as "free" healthcare - someone always pays for it.
Re: Appsterdam: A Haven for Indie App Makers?
#44From the article: “I became disillusioned with the way the United States was going in general. I myself had no health insurance and no way of getting health insurance as a self-employed person.” Uh...no way of getting health insurance? How about PAYING for it? I hardly make any money, but I can still afford the $120/month I pay for my health insurance. Even if you go to a country like Europe with socialized healthcar…
I am a healthy 24 year old male, no health problems in any way. I was quoted health insurance in an attempt to find it after college, the cheapest plan was $690/month.
Re: Appsterdam: A Haven for Indie App Makers?
#45From the article: “I became disillusioned with the way the United States was going in general. I myself had no health insurance and no way of getting health insurance as a self-employed person.” Uh...no way of getting health insurance? How about PAYING for it? I hardly make any money, but I can still afford the $120/month I pay for my health insurance. Even if you go to a country like Europe with socialized healthcar…
I am a healthy 24 year old male, no health problems in any way. I was quoted health insurance in an attempt to find it after college, the cheapest plan was $690/month.
[deleted]
Re: Appsterdam: A Haven for Indie App Makers?
#46From the article: “I became disillusioned with the way the United States was going in general. I myself had no health insurance and no way of getting health insurance as a self-employed person.” Uh...no way of getting health insurance? How about PAYING for it? I hardly make any money, but I can still afford the $120/month I pay for my health insurance. Even if you go to a country like Europe with socialized healthcar…
You seem to think paying for insurance for the unemployed is negative...and it probably is, until you're unemployed yourself. It's not so much about wether you're paying it yourself, or via taxes, but it's about social security. After all, you need help most in times you can't afford it.
Re: Appsterdam: A Haven for Indie App Makers?
#47From the article: “I became disillusioned with the way the United States was going in general. I myself had no health insurance and no way of getting health insurance as a self-employed person.” Uh...no way of getting health insurance? How about PAYING for it? I hardly make any money, but I can still afford the $120/month I pay for my health insurance. Even if you go to a country like Europe with socialized healthcar…
I am a healthy 24 year old male, no health problems in any way. I was quoted health insurance in an attempt to find it after college, the cheapest plan was $690/month.
You need to look harder.
Re: Appsterdam: A Haven for Indie App Makers?
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, to the point that learning Dutch on the fly is hard because nobody will try to speak it with you when they are so good with English.
If you approach someone in Dutch speaking with a (non-middle eastern) accent, people will switch to English without asking. It's horribly annoying really, learning the language (and thus really picking up the oh so important subtleties in professional and private life) is made really difficult this way. People often explain it as kindness, but it's really just plain rude laziness: for many Dutch people, speaking slow…
I'm sorry if you consider it rude, but have you considered the people you're speaking to may have something better to do than to spend their time teaching you Dutch, or alternatively, may just believe you actually want to discuss the subject at hand rather than practice your Dutch?
If you want people to take the time and trouble to speak Dutch, consider asking them, preferably in a context without time constraints.
Re: Appsterdam: A Haven for Indie App Makers?
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, to the point that learning Dutch on the fly is hard because nobody will try to speak it with you when they are so good with English.
If you approach someone in Dutch speaking with a (non-middle eastern) accent, people will switch to English without asking. It's horribly annoying really, learning the language (and thus really picking up the oh so important subtleties in professional and private life) is made really difficult this way. People often explain it as kindness, but it's really just plain rude laziness: for many Dutch people, speaking slow…
I don't really think it's rude. It's sort of the opposite of Japan, where lots of people study English, but are too shy to speak it openly. I'm sure it's more complicated than that in both cases.
Re: Appsterdam: A Haven for Indie App Makers?
#50Instead of promoting Appsterdam with vague stories about how awesome Amsterdam is, I like to see more concrete and specific information. I understand that its just starting up, but this would be nice to have in the (near) future. Like: - Average cost of living is X - Developers can earn X-Z salary - Tax burden for companies is X - You can find apartments in the range of X-Y at site Z - X companies joined this initiat…
well, NL is pretty expensive to live in if you're earning USD; the tax burden is high if you're used to the US (though there's some offset because that tax includes what would be private medical insurance in the US); and people are forever grumbling about how hard it is to find places to live in Amsterdam. So maybe there's a reason for that. The meeting on 6th July in their event planner is labelled as 'weekly' thoug…
The tax does NOT include medical insurance. You're supposed to take out your own "zorgverzekering" (i.e. medical insurance) from a private company, although you can get a subsidy to cover the expense ("zorgtoeslag") if you have a low income. What you may be thinking about is AWBZ, a national insurance scheme for which you do indeed pay the premiums along with your taxes and that covers various sorts of long-term care, mostly for the disabled and the mentally ill.
In general, for some reason Americans imagine that European countries always have government-run healthcare, presumably because that's what Britain has. In fact, most European countries have hybrid systems, with insurance provided by private companies or in some cases unions, and heavily regulated and subsidized by the government.
As for taxes: while taxes in NL are indeed extremely high, there are loopholes for foreign high skilled workers ("kennismigranten.") My cynical public choice economist interpretation is that the Dutch government realized that this group of people is more likely to vote with their feet, inducing a different Laffer curve, and as such the taxation rate maximizing public revenue is a bit lower in their case...
As for finding housing: very strict rent control laws depress rents way below market rates, which of course means that demand outstrips supply and some allocation mechanism other than price must be invented. In the Dutch case, most rental property subject to rent control is owned by semi-public nonprofits, and their allocation mechanism is almost universally a waiting list. In the case of Amsterdam, there are many districts for which a 7 year waiting list is not out of the ordinary. While there is a blanket exception from the strictest rent control laws for properties with a monthly rent above about 650 euros, the city of Amsterdam has the additional problem that an even larger share of rental properties is owned by said semi-public nonprofits ("woningcorporaties") than in other cities. As an outsider looking to get a"vrije sector" apartment (i.e. over 650 euros a month and thus exempt from the strictest rent control rules) you're in trouble. Consider living in Amstelveen, which has a lot of "vrije sector" housing because it is historically run by the liberal party, whereas Amsterdam is historically run by the labor party.