Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service • Hacker News Board

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#431

Post by seszett » Fri, Nov 06, 2020, 9:13 AM UTC

csomar wrote: post #329

Maxion wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have acute dental issues then you'll get a time virtually instantly.

There is no such thing as a non-acute dental issue. A filling can wait for a couple weeks max before possibly becoming a real acute issue. You are only aware of the cavity until it starts to hurt, which means already late. A good rule of thumb is to have a CT scan every year for early detection. I have been doing it for the last 5 years and boy it did save me from lots of pain. Lots of cavities are hiding unseen and…

You're supposed to go to the dentist one or twice a year even without any problems.

Actually, in some places you have to pay a premium for your insurance/social security if you don't visit the dentist at least twice a year.

These control visits qualify as non-acute, and they greatly reduce the amount of acute dental issues you might have.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#432

Post by distances » Fri, Nov 06, 2020, 9:14 AM UTC

martinald wrote: post #206

kaitai wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1K per month = not a problem! hahahahaha! Ok, for a (male or lesbian, since you specify 'wife') Bay Area SWE, you're right. But do look at that election map and notice the scores of people living in the rest of the US, in large part voting against their own health-care interests but still. In Missouri the median income is around $55k. Putting $12k of that into health insurance (not health care, but insurance) is pret…

You do realise that $55k even with $12k insurance taken off ($43k "effective' median) is higher than any EU state, apart from maybe Luxembourg. And taxes will be significantly higher in EU states than MI (even if you are paying healthcare privately), which will further tilt it?

But the US citizen will have to save for retirement and kids' potential university education out of the remaining part, correct?

For such a middle class person Europe is likely to be better / more stable economically. Single software engineer will surely have it financially much better in the US though.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#433

Post by eru » Fri, Nov 06, 2020, 9:15 AM UTC

wikibob wrote: post #214

hestefisk wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in Singapore and my experience is healthcare is extremely expensive unless you have insurance (which I have). Schools for expats are incredibly expensive too unless you want to put them in local ones. Cost of living is very high. I pay SGD 6000/mo to live centrally but with no trees around me.

What are tech industry salaries like in Singapore compared to Silicon Valley FAANG companies?

Fresh grads at Google get about 5k SGD (~ 3.7k USD) a month plus equity. That's lower than FAANG in the US.

With any kind of experience, salaries quickly ramp up. For example, I know an unremarkable Facebook E6 with 550k SGD (~ 408k USD) total yearly comp. You can also work in the tech department of finance companies, like Goldman Sachs or some funds.

Take home pay is about 80% of gross. There's no capital gains tax.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#434

Post by eru » Fri, Nov 06, 2020, 9:17 AM UTC

paxys wrote: post #173

eru wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can have lower taxes (than in America) and excellent public services in Singapore. Eat your cake and have it, too. Very startup friendly as well and excellent food. The tropical weather takes a bit of getting used to, though. I much prefer gloomy European skies.

And what if I want to smoke a joint or chew gum?

Chewing gum itself is not illegal.

Don't come, if you like to partake in recreational drugs.

(Though plenty of expats usually just hop on a plane on the weekend and indulge in one of the surrounding countries. Drugs are no more legal there, but their governments are not as competent in enforcing their laws.)

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#435

Post by eru » Fri, Nov 06, 2020, 9:19 AM UTC

princeb wrote: post #201

paxys wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what if I want to smoke a joint or chew gum?

seriously don't come! the locals who really want to do those things have long moved out of the country. those who choose to remain here enthusiastically enforce the order of the country. caning and hanging continue to enjoy popular support.

Well, caning is arguably a better solution than prisons.

As for capital punishment: I'm not a fan. But have a look at the numbers on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Singapor...

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#436

Post by eru » Fri, Nov 06, 2020, 9:19 AM UTC

howlgarnish wrote: post #281

ponker wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are not ethnically Chinese you are an underclass in Singapore. If you are not black you are not an underclass in the United States. I have no idea what it is like to be black in Singapore but for anyone else, I would think "not being an underclass" is high on anyone's list.

It's nowhere near that simple. Broadly speaking, Singapore is more classist than racist: moneyed expats of all colors have it pretty good here, and locals of all colors are treated much better than workers doing menial jobs. Yes, there's currently a backlash against Indian immigrants in professional middle-class roles, but not long ago there was a similar backlash against mainland Chinese.

I think some of the backlash against PRC people persists.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#437

Post by aries1980 » Fri, Nov 06, 2020, 9:20 AM UTC

I'm wondering how families or even just couples cope with relocating for a short while.

- What do you do with your belongings? Do you move them around?

- Does someone takes care about your home while you are away?

- What about pets?

- What do you solve administrative tasks, e.g. you receive an official letter from govn't that you supposed to reply within a timeframe? How do you get to know the content of the letter?

- What about your health insurance? Premiums that I encountered have a obscure logic on what is the procedure when you live at certain places for a longer period.

- How do you handle taxes?

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#438

Post by jaggederest » Fri, Nov 06, 2020, 9:20 AM UTC

plq wrote: post #413

waihtis wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Actually, the foundation you got with Finnish should be useful if ever you need to learn Turkish, Hungarian or Japanese. Natural languages are like programming languages in a sense -- Haskell doesn't get as much use as C++ but learning Haskell will make you better at C++.

Can confirm, I have a few years of high school level education in Japanese and Finnish sounds right to my ears, until I pay attention and realize I don't understand it.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#439

Post by antris » Fri, Nov 06, 2020, 9:23 AM UTC

monkeyshelli wrote: post #336

c1sc0 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, so you are saying there are no long queues after all?

It took me 4mo to get my old ankle injury that I've had since the teens, to get operated. I was in the lowest priority category and this happened just after Covid-19 hit. I got a quote from a private healthcare provider for the operation for 6000e. In the public one it ended up costing 120e.

> In the public one it ended up costing 120e

Also, just as a sidenote, if you have no income other than governmental income support, Kela will pay these fees. So it is free for those who do not have the income to pay for it.

Re: Helsinki Relocation Package: City as a Service

#440

Post by kolla » Fri, Nov 06, 2020, 9:24 AM UTC

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 a Swede working with Finns constantly I find it hard to believe you can get by without knowing the language as most of the Finns I work with have pretty bad English, I work in IT consulting.