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My reaction was probably one that is a lot more relevant to the Hacker News community: between that and the incessant news about shootings (either by the Police
by bertil 11y ago
My reaction was probably one that is a lot more relevant to the Hacker News community: between that and the incessant news about shootings (either by the Police on African American, or by toddlers), the alarming ratio of car accidents that cannot be prevented by driving safely (namely, the amount or rear-ending at red-lights that the Google Car is victim of), there is no way I’d like to work in the US. Seeing how bigoted so many jurors appear to be, how indefensible are some of the lawyers… that makes it all too likely that you go from commuting to a great job to a hell hole with no recourse. Any private option (say, for health-related issues) is too likely to be tied to employment, and getting fired after the incident and left in the cold sounds also too likely.
Investors should really start considering the consequence those events have on their companies’ ability to attract talent.
- tunesmith 11y agoSounds like the same sort of flawed conclusion that we Americans can be all too guilty of when thinking of other countries (like, that all French people are rude, all middle easterners hate Americans, etc). Even with everything you say above, car accidents are extremely rare, being harassed by police is extremely rare, etc. None of that stuff is anywhere close to "all too likely".
- bertil 11y agoDo you think that I know (well) people that have being through painful enough experience personally to refuse to stay and work in the US? If you guess less than a dozen, you are far below: TSA abuse, Police escalation, legal problems related to a health-related debt… I’m happy for you that you apparently haven’t. I cannot exclude it myself.
- chasing 11y agoYou're cherry-picking some of the worst the US has to offer and painting the entire country with that brush. Which is an intellectually dishonest thing to do. Or, at least, intellectually lazy.
- bertil 11y agoI am commenting news and its impact on my personal decision that I believe are representative for a large section of the Hacker News community. I would like to be cherry-picking, but a large minority of friends who have lived in the US have similarly frightening story of abuse of power, or excessive force. One thing that also makes me less likely to come to the US is to be physically confronted to people as curt, visibly aggressive and lacking self-criticism as you. I do believe that that prosecutor’s attitude and your response share something, visibly more common in the US: something that is often described as having a “cow-boy attitude”.
- bertil 11y agoI actually mostly followed the US news, check the New York Times: Trump daily dose of blatant racist, Obama apparently the only one who wants to curb gun violence, some cop murdered a African-American women and gets away with a slap on the wrist, a story about systemic rape from a football team at a major US university…
- chasing 11y agoThis is what I mean by "cherry-picking."
- bertil 11y agoThen, please go and insult the editor-in-chief of the New York Times — not me. What I cherry-picked was how my brother left the US after an arrest in the nearby house involved law-enforcement firing 12,000 rounds at a single crouching suspect, and they had to leave because his wife and two kids couldn’t sleep after that; how the CEO of the start-up I was working for was mugged; how my closest friend was victim of an extreme-rendition at the border after he showed a hand-written letter by the Dean of Harvard inviting him to teach; how my manager had his passport confiscated… I know work with a team that is partially in Chicago: do I need to say more? The twelve people the closest to me who went to the US all had beyond traumatic experiences. Imagining anything involving a prosecutor like the one portrayed there just sends shivers through my spine.