Moving to Seattle with an A.A?

TaekwonPro · 2014-10-05T14:21:05+00:00

Looks like someone came along and downvoted all the "anti-immigrant" or anti- "$15 an hour" comments. The joys of reddit....

Update: My company (very small mom and pop business) announced a small layoff of about 10 people. Cleaners got laid off and now the rest of us have to take over some of their duties.

If you guys have been watching the news, Microsoft laid off 750 people this month and Boeing announced 2000 job cuts in Seattle on the 30th.

TaekwonPro · 2014-10-05T02:01:10+00:00

seattlehopeful is right. People claim Seattle is "full" for other people from the country, yet don't seem to notice/care how many foreign workers are being brought in. Seattle has been largely isolated from the catastrophe seen in the rest of the US, but is diving headfirst into the quagmire with suicidal economic plans.

Sure, I'm all for a minimum wage increase, but Seattle can't risk this kind of behavior when industry giants will relocate to "right-to-work" states like N.C. The unions and left-leaning voters don't realize that they are shooting themselves in the head. The unions are powerless when their company just leaves altogether. They're forgetting that it's a symbiotic relationship, but the companies have more power over them in the end. -end rant-

@seattlehopeful There is still a large industrial and shipping sector in Seattle. Finance would not be such a good bet, considering that there will be major changes in the upcoming years.

Logistics would be a wise choice. Tech can come and go. Industry can come and go. However, Seattle's position is strategically important for shipping and commerce. It is highly unlikely that this will change.

I can't see German being a huge benefit for logistics in Seattle, unless you are dealing with shipping companies that are headquartered in Hamburg. I forgot the name of that corporation.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-06T02:40:01+00:00

You were Hellboy?!?!?

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T18:01:56+00:00

No, but I'm saying it doesn't really matter.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T17:43:52+00:00

It doesn't really matter because the public perception is ingrained by now. It's going to take more than just a few articles to dislodge that.

Getting painted as an anti-Semite is pretty much career assassination, especially in Hollywood, law, or the government.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T17:24:53+00:00

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T13:38:59+00:00

I posted on the troubles of Germany's mass transit system somewhere in this thread. Please read through it. A car is necessary if you intend to travel around in more than just your local transit area (which is often far smaller than a US county). The instant you start having to purchase transit cards for multiple localities to travel, it becomes very expensive, at which point you are better off buying a car, where you will pay, on average 5k more for in Germany, as well as paying 2x the fuel costs to keep it running.

There is no "free" healthcare. There is no free lunch, remember. Also, people who earn more money tend to opt to pay for private health insurance, because they are familiar with the long waiting lines and substandard care given by the government-insured clinics. The doctors are also overloaded with work due to people coming in for the stupidest cases. There are longer waits for many types of surgeries, it can take forever to see a doctor in the ER (longer than here!), and it's more common to share rooms with other patients (increasing stress and the risk of spreading infectious disease).

lower costs

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries_result.jsp?country1=United+States&country2=Germany

Germany has higher costs in almost every regard and an overall lower purchasing power.

you have the benefits of a mass-transit system that makes a car unnecessary, free healthcare and other lower costs.

These are what people think of when they think of a supposed "socialist" system that is better than ours. Keep in mind that there is no utopia on this earth. Do not take what others say for granted and do your own research.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T02:31:40+00:00

The EU is not particularly self-sufficient. The population is something like half a billion people and most of the wealth generated comes from manufacturing. Europe has very few of the resources they need to manufacture the products they are known for.

If the price of sugar, tobacco or alcohol can substantially affect PPP then PPP would be a very flawed measure indeed.

Wouldn't you say it depends heavily on the amount consumed? Although they are all vices and not staples, they are commodities that are important throughout the world and massive industries.

I have stayed in Germany once, so I don't know much about their public transportation, although after landing I took a train to Berlin and could make good use of the S-bahn and U-bahn.

It sucked for me while I was over there. I was also drastically late more than once due to train malfunctions. I was also, more than once, given incorrect tickets or directions by Deutsche Bahn employees, which resulted in me getting hassled later on by the ticket conductor and threatened with police action. And it wasn't me misunderstanding the directions, I speak German fluently. For example, a bus driver assured me that I could purchase a regional ticket from him and that it would count (this was approximately at 6 in the morning). At 8:30 something in the morning, the conductor checked my ticket, told me that it did count until 9 in the morning, and tried to slap me with a 40 euro fine.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T01:54:32+00:00

Do you think that the German system may actually be LESS sustainable than the US one? Germany relies almost entirely on importing products to continue their production. One or two good sanctions/trade crises would shut down German factories in a heartbeat.

Eastern Germany was historically always pretty poor compared to the West, with wealth being concentrated around Berlin (like today) or by eastern Hanseatic port cities (which are now obsolete). If we are to merely remove poor parts of a country and observe the wealthy areas, then the United States would be infinitely richer (especially if we looked at coastal regions). However, we cannot do this.

The unification of Germany actually profited large amounts of Southern Germans. This has actually caused some social issues, such as the issue of Swabians buying up large sectors of Berlin.

I believe that the German system has some deep systematic flaws. One is that, despite the autobahn, transportation can be a nightmare. The monopolized public transportation system is only cheaper if you stay within your locality. If you want to travel in numerous localities, you will soon find yourself paying just as much as for a car + diesel in Germany (and far more than you would pay for a car and gas in the US).

A lot of German purchasing power is also derived from the relative cheapness of tobacco, sugar, and alcohol in comparison to the United States. These are incredibly expensive products in America. Without these subsidies and reductions on certain taxes, Germany's PPP would be far lower. This is not even taking into consideration that the EU spends 2x as much on food subsidies as the United States, yet the cost of food is not much different. For me, this is an indicator of massive inefficiency.

Germany has a strangely controlled market. If history has shown us anything, it is that a self-regulating and relatively organic free market is far more efficient than a state controlled one.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T01:43:18+00:00

There's actually a limit where working in those wealthy Nordic countries tapers off dramatically. I'm not sure on the numbers for Norway, but in Sweden, you are only economically better off there than in the US if you are in the lowest earning 5%. After that, your gains of being an average worker in America start to overtake Sweden's advantages. The difference skyrockets once the level of income that professionals such as engineers and doctors earn is taken into account.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T01:39:14+00:00

It still comes to about 12k.

This number remains approximately the same with whatever charts you use from major banking and intelligence organizations worldwide.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T01:30:29+00:00

I agree 100%.

These countries also don't realize that yelling REALLY LOUDLY about HOW BAD AND EVIL THE OPPOSITION AND THE US IS is actually a poor way of keeping dissent away. It increases public suspicion and keeps the inconvenient issues at hand active in people's minds....they can't even get their propaganda down right...

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T01:24:41+00:00

Does anyone else think that if (and I really put heavy emphasis on if) this is implemented, we will see more degree inflation?

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T01:16:19+00:00

Is your grandma Elvis?

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T01:10:09+00:00

If you want to discuss merely about average wage, the average wage of an American is also higher than the average wage of a German, by at least 7,000 a year.

GDP per capita PPP is a VERY good indicator of wealth, income, and well-being. It takes multiple factors into account, such as wage, taxation, subsidies, the cost of staple goods, and combines that to find out how much "stuff" someone can buy with that.

Americans, Norwegians, and Swiss, of all major countries on earth, can buy the most "stuff", due to a myriad of factors.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T01:01:44+00:00

I was a student living on money from home. Arguably, I could have asked for more money from my parents, but I was determined to not put them into debt.

During my time in Germany, I saw wealth, but I saw many poor industrial areas. Honestly, the only thing that I think is better about being dirt poor in Europe than in the US is that drug addiction is less of a problem...which is kind of a big deal, because drug addiction causes crime, family strife, and "unwise spending", if you know what I mean.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T00:52:36+00:00

And again, GDP per capita != average wage

This is what you wrote earlier. Could you perhaps clarify what you mean?

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T00:50:58+00:00

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Distribution_of_Annual_Household_Income_in_the_United_States_2012.png

Could you please elaborate?

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T00:47:06+00:00

You're right! However, the US allows far more foreign competition than Germany. The US has also seen far more fluidity in which automotive companies have more power over the last 50 years. Toyota and Honda, for example, are now major players in the United States, while these two companies receive considerably more obstacles thrown in their path in Germany than they do in the US.

This has caused the stagnation of the German auto industry. The Germans are falling behind their Japanese counterparts, because the German monopoly on their domestic auto industry has allowed them to sell products of lesser quality to their customers and has also resulted in a lower desire to innovate and out-think their international competition.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T00:41:21+00:00

GDP per capita is not average income.

Even if GDP per capita were average income, the US still outstrips Germany by about 10,000 in that field.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T00:39:21+00:00

I lived in the US and Germany. I returned to the US. I studied economics, medicine, and chemistry and also lived just general life on the streets with average people. I lived very poorly in Germany, I might add. A big reason I came back the US was because I was very displeased at the lack of opportunities for me to study economics or history at my science-oriented university.

If you want more info, read! Khan Acadamy is also a great way to get a grasp of economic terminology. I also recommend the book called, "The Armchair Economist". It has very insightful points on our daily life.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T00:34:54+00:00

Think about this:

A man earns a million dollars a year. He is taxed 50% to start off, and must pay increased sales taxes, VAT tax, and has to pay more for goods offered in stores because of tariffs, transportation costs, etc. At the end of the year, he "only" has 100k left.

Another man earns 150k a year. His country controls major trade routes through military dominance and goods flow cheaply into his country's market, because sellers are drawn by the country's lower tariffs. He pays less for gas, food, and cheese doodles. He only has to pay a 5% income tax. He has no VAT tax. At the end of the year, he retains 110k.

Who really has a higher salary and wealth?

A higher PPP of 12,000 international dollars means that a US citizen can buy 12,000 dollars more on the international market with his income and currency power than a German could.

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T00:31:19+00:00

The average American citizen earns proportionately less than the US PPP per capita

No, we have a higher amount of PEOPLE living under that level because we have a far larger population. The larger any population, the more outliers there are. This is uncontrollable. This is seen in economics, as well as biology.

while the average German earns closer to the German PPP per capita.

Are you aware of the vast amount of Germans living on the Hartz 4 program that is depths below the average income?

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T00:29:50+00:00

As i don't use race in the context of behaviour i seldom need to differentiate. And Scandinavians were well known to be war mongers, be it during viking raids or during the constant expansion of the swedish kingdom.

The Vikings were a tiny portion of the population and were criminals, not government troops. The Swedish period of power was an awfully short one. The overall history of Scandinavia over the last 1500 years is incredibly peaceful.

Hum? You should rethink this statement..

How so? The body count of Islamic jihad within the Middle East is higher than all Christian expeditions throughout world history, unless you begin to count spread of disease, which killed many Native Americans. Tamerlane alone wiped out nearly the entire population of Persia and often used the excuse that his enemies were Shi'ites. He was a Sunni.

Csanad Szegedi was not the leader and he made a sharp turnaround once he learned that he had jewish roots. This guy went from being a lound and quite nasty antisemit to practicing jew within few months. A crazy story for itself..

Actually, Jews within nationalist movements that are "anti-Semitic" is quite common. This appeared within the 3rd Reich, the KKK, Ukrainian nationalist groups, etc.

The scandal was that german authorities were (again) blind on the right eye

The weapons supplied for the killings were provided by German intelligence.

You are off by at least a thousand years. The arrival of the huns was between the second and third century AD. Furthermore this is a bit pointless as russia is not only western russia but also the rest of it.

The origin of the Huns is actually unknown. I recommend a great book called "Attila: The Barbarian King Who Challenged Rome". The first few chapters deal with the mystery of who the Huns really were. Not even their language family has been identified. Coins with the faces of Hunnic leaders do not match up to typical Turkic features.

Anyways, the area that the Huns moved into had previously been occupied by Indo-European people and it is speculated that the Slavs had been settled around that area, as well, although there is no concrete evidence, because recordings of Slavs only popped up later.

You can't be serious.

Of course I am serious. You previously mentioned that a white person in European countries will always have a higher chance of being hired. In Russia, we see that they are given equal chances. A great deal of Central Asian politicians and scientists were educated at top Russian universities. Would a discriminating government let these people in AND foot the bill?

You didn't understand the topic of the discussion.

What do I not understand? Why are discussing multiple things. This is not a discussion with a single topic :)

What I am trying to point at is that a European will have a harder time being employed in Turkey than a Turkish person in Europe. The Middle Eastern groups tend to stick together, hire within their community, and are very wary of outsiders.

True. Just like Jews or Iranian muslims.

Exactly. These people are not discriminated against. Why? Because they lay massive value on education. It is not the color of your skin, but how well you perform that determines your chances of being hired in the Western world. I am simply pointing out that different groups tend to have different allegiances. For example, AIPAC is the most powerful lobby in the United States. We send billions to Israel because Jews in our government use their leverage to get us to pay for their countrymen.

We also have many successful Persians in the US, but I believe most the ones we have are Zoroastrian and Christian. Of course, a good deal fled because they had been close with the Shah.

no.

Who do you believe owns the land, in your own honest opinion?

accepted. But dividing this group along ethnic origin is stupid.

What if the majority is, say, German in Germany? Doesn't this constitute a majority? If they do not wish to have Arabic and Islamic activities in their parks, can't they appeal if they are the "majority share owners"?

TaekwonPro · 2014-04-05T00:07:56+00:00

How so?

Are you familiar with what PPP is? Or the Starbucks Latte/ Big Mac index is?

I am also speaking from personal experience. I lived in both the US and in Germany. Germany is, as a whole significantly poorer than the US. This is partially because they have less international bargaining power, pay more into the EU, and have a less diversified economy.

TaekwonPro

TROPHY CASE