51–60 of 60 posts
One of Germany's biggest mistakes in WWII was pushing out scientists / intellectuals and I fear the US is headed down the same road. Between anti-intellectualism in general, political censorship, and the new Gestapo rounding up student immigrants there's less and less reason for smart people to come to the US or stay and put up with it.
The brain drain out of Canada has been massive, and for decades. It's going to take more than some random Yale prof to reverse that.
For Canadians considering working in the US, the recent politically-motivated detentions and deportations against green card holders - a group that has significantly stronger rights of abode than TN visa holders under USMCA - certainly factors into the calculus of whether a US job is worth it.
Further, the appeal of the American political environment is inversely correlated with the distance between one's personal characteristics and the feature vector of able-bodied, white, male, cisgender, and heterosexual. This is nothing new, but the importance of these characteristics, especially the last three or four, have dramatically increased with the rightward shift of the US over the past few years - and there are also more individuals in Canadian STEM (i.e. TN-eligible) degrees than ever before who don't have these characteristics.
Just to put some HN-relevant ballpark numbers to it, the University of Waterloo, a notorious Silicon Valley hiring pool, is reporting 38.6% women [0] in their 2024 engineering admissions. This was 21.2% in 2014 [1], the earliest year with statistics available.
I don't think it is much of a stretch to say the 2014 first years were more likely to aspire to intern at, say, Tesla or Meta than the 2024 first years (who will be entering their first co-op internships in a month's time). That is a function of both the American tech companies having cozied up to the political right, and an increased proportion of the students being both more directly affected [2] and morally repulsed [3] by this state of affairs.
Add an additional nationalism multiplier for Canadians being turned off by the annexation rhetoric coming out of the US, and I think we may see a change in this trend towards Canada retaining more of its local talent.
[0] https://uwaterloo.ca/engineering/about/faculty-engineering-s...
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20140804070109/https://uwaterloo...
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/27/roe-wa...
[3] https://www.ft.com/content/29fd9b5c-2f35-41bf-9d4c-994db4e12...
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It is difficult not to think your country is perfect when you can't make good money anywhere else in the world...
Culturally you've been brought up with the idea that more money is the only measure of quality of life, through that lens I do understand your thinking but I believe you might need to reconsider if that even makes sense. Making good money is necessary in the USA for one to feel free, without it you don't have freedom since almost everything in the USA revolves around money. When you experience freedom even from the n…
Number 2, Americans have the most spending money on average compared to any other country in the world.
Number 3, the most important technology and cultural advancements come out of the US; the US is where its happening—in a city like New York you can get the best of anything in the world, and then some.
So no, Americans who make a lot of money live the best lives, and never want to leave. It takes some cahunas and some wits to make it in the US, not everyone can cut it.
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Culturally you've been brought up with the idea that more money is the only measure of quality of life, through that lens I do understand your thinking but I believe you might need to reconsider if that even makes sense. Making good money is necessary in the USA for one to feel free, without it you don't have freedom since almost everything in the USA revolves around money. When you experience freedom even from the n…
Europeans overestimate how bad the US healthcare system is, number 1. Number 2, Americans have the most spending money on average compared to any other country in the world. Number 3, the most important technology and cultural advancements come out of the US; the US is where its happening—in a city like New York you can get the best of anything in the world, and then some. So no, Americans who make a lot of money liv…
> Number 3, the most important technology and cultural advancements come out of the US; the US is where its happening—in a city like New York you can get the best of anything in the world, and then some.
This is simply untrue, and reeks of very heavy ignorant American exceptionalism. I've been to NYC multiple times, there are many other cities around the world that provide the same experience.
You should travel more.
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Europeans overestimate how bad the US healthcare system is, number 1. Number 2, Americans have the most spending money on average compared to any other country in the world. Number 3, the most important technology and cultural advancements come out of the US; the US is where its happening—in a city like New York you can get the best of anything in the world, and then some. So no, Americans who make a lot of money liv…
You are just repeating yourself, and confirming what I said: you have a cultural bias and only see things through that lens. > Number 3, the most important technology and cultural advancements come out of the US; the US is where its happening—in a city like New York you can get the best of anything in the world, and then some. This is simply untrue, and reeks of very heavy ignorant American exceptionalism. I've been…
Perhaps Shanghai is beginning to overwhelm NYC in terms of sheer industrial activity, but what comes out of the fight between Trumpism and Xi-ism is yet to be seen.
In any case, it is easy enough for wealthy Americans who own private jets and multiple homes to purchase EU citizenship; and yet America still abounds in billionaires...it is not an accident.
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You are just repeating yourself, and confirming what I said: you have a cultural bias and only see things through that lens. > Number 3, the most important technology and cultural advancements come out of the US; the US is where its happening—in a city like New York you can get the best of anything in the world, and then some. This is simply untrue, and reeks of very heavy ignorant American exceptionalism. I've been…
I have traveled extensively and no city I've been to offers so many opportunities for rapid movement of diverse labor and commerce like New York. London pales in comparison. Perhaps Shanghai is beginning to overwhelm NYC in terms of sheer industrial activity, but what comes out of the fight between Trumpism and Xi-ism is yet to be seen. In any case, it is easy enough for wealthy Americans who own private jets and mul…
It's great to be rich in the USA, life isn't about being rich though, as much as your culture has ingrained that in your head to the point where, clearly on this comment thread, you don't even notice it.
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I have traveled extensively and no city I've been to offers so many opportunities for rapid movement of diverse labor and commerce like New York. London pales in comparison. Perhaps Shanghai is beginning to overwhelm NYC in terms of sheer industrial activity, but what comes out of the fight between Trumpism and Xi-ism is yet to be seen. In any case, it is easy enough for wealthy Americans who own private jets and mul…
A playground for the rich does not make a country perfect, again you are conflating being wealthy with being good for living. I never said the USA isn't wealthy, it's more that it's rather bad for living a normal life despite being the wealthiest country in history. It's great to be rich in the USA, life isn't about being rich though, as much as your culture has ingrained that in your head to the point where, clearly…
Life isn't about being rich, its just that if you work hard its not difficult to do well in the US and have anything you'd want at the best quality anywhere in the world. Anyone making $100,000+ a year (and that is ALOT of Americans) has a great time in the US. Yeah a lot of people don't make it but thats how it is. Without risk there's nothing interesting in life; I don't want a mediocre, boring life with a million social safety nets, I want something chaotic and crazy and constantly active, and you can't get that anywhere else.
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It is difficult not to think your country is perfect when you can't make good money anywhere else in the world...
Salaries in the rest of the world look great when you realize that in Europe you're not one medical incident while unemployed from utter bankruptcy
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Salaries in the rest of the world look great when you realize that in Europe you're not one medical incident while unemployed from utter bankruptcy
Almost nobody in the US is in that state either. Yes, the system has a lot of problems, but coverage is generally quite good and the quality of care is better than many places in Europe (the UK for sure, but that's a bad example).
https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/scheinman-institute/blog/john-au...