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Do you want highly-productive knowledge workers in your country to boost its tech economy or not? If not, then fine, we'll find another country that wants to g

Do you want highly-productive knowledge workers in your country to boost its tech economy or not? If not, then fine, we'll find another country that wants to greatly improve their tech sector. You don't want anything like the economic juggernaut that is Silicon Valley in your country? That's your choice, but seems pretty shortsighted to me. Most countries actually want to import people who grow their economy a lot and contribute a ton in taxes without draining their social-welfare systems.

jbob2000 11y ago
Wow, get off your high horse. 50% of Canada's population hold a degree and more, we are quite knowledgeable, thank you very much. If this is the kind of elitism we would get if the Silicon Valley-ites were to return, then you can fuck right off.
- Grishnakh 11y ago
  Ok then, where's your Silicon Valley? Where are your world-leading tech companies? Do you have anything at all you can point to as world-leading, like we do with Google, Amazon, Intel, etc.? Hey, if you're happy being a backwater full of degreed people who don't actually produce anything that anyone's ever heard of, that's fine. If you enjoy having Silicon Valley-level housing prices but no Silicon Valley-level jobs or economy, that's fine too.
  - imtringued 11y ago
    > who don't actually produce anything that anyone's ever heard of You know I could make the same argument that I don't spent any money on these "world leading tech companies" their value to me is effectively zero. Is zero value somehow supposed to impress me?
    - Grishnakh 11y ago
      This is rather stupid. How exactly did you write this post without using an Intel or AMD CPU? (Both American companies) Do you never use any search engines? (Google and Bing(MS) are American, as is DDG, which just reuses results from one of those two.) You don't have an iPhone (this is quite possible, as Samsung/LG/HTC/etc. are not American)? And how are you getting by without using American-made software from Microsoft or some variant of Linux (which is largely contributed to by both Red Hat, an American company) and various other American contributors on the Debian side? Even if you don't spend any actual money directly on some of these things, you're certainly deriving value from them.
      - escape_plan 11y ago
        It's rather unfortunate that the same companies you talk about are keeping their money in tax havens, they hire foreign born workers and most of the manufacturing they do happens in China or Asia. In the end a non college educated American loses to this high skilled labor and cannot afford to live in Silicon Valley which has a broken real estate system, people commute from far distances and BART is in end-of-life stage.
        Grishnakh 11y ago
        You're absolutely right about all that. I never said it was perfect here, and in fact things are definitely getting worse in many ways. However, we're comparing present-day US to present-day Canada, and I'm not seeing any advantages to living in Canada, except for living around friendlier people. Economically, there don't appear to be any advantages at all to professional tech workers, only big disadvantages. If you think Silicon Valley has a broken real estate system, have you checked out the real estate situation in Vancouver? Personally, I'd love to live in Vancouver, but there's no way I'm going to get a job there that pays enough for me to buy a house that costs several million dollars (CAD), given that even crack houses there cost $1M. At least here in the US, there's still a lot of cities besides SV where there's a lot of tech jobs, the pay is really high for them, and the housing costs are bearable.
        11y ago

jbob2000 11y ago

Wow, get off your high horse. 50% of Canada's population hold a degree and more, we are quite knowledgeable, thank you very much. If this is the kind of elitism we would get if the Silicon Valley-ites were to return, then you can fuck right off.

Grishnakh 11y ago
Ok then, where's your Silicon Valley? Where are your world-leading tech companies? Do you have anything at all you can point to as world-leading, like we do with Google, Amazon, Intel, etc.? Hey, if you're happy being a backwater full of degreed people who don't actually produce anything that anyone's ever heard of, that's fine. If you enjoy having Silicon Valley-level housing prices but no Silicon Valley-level jobs or economy, that's fine too.
- imtringued 11y ago
  > who don't actually produce anything that anyone's ever heard of You know I could make the same argument that I don't spent any money on these "world leading tech companies" their value to me is effectively zero. Is zero value somehow supposed to impress me?
  - Grishnakh 11y ago
    This is rather stupid. How exactly did you write this post without using an Intel or AMD CPU? (Both American companies) Do you never use any search engines? (Google and Bing(MS) are American, as is DDG, which just reuses results from one of those two.) You don't have an iPhone (this is quite possible, as Samsung/LG/HTC/etc. are not American)? And how are you getting by without using American-made software from Microsoft or some variant of Linux (which is largely contributed to by both Red Hat, an American company) and various other American contributors on the Debian side? Even if you don't spend any actual money directly on some of these things, you're certainly deriving value from them.
    - escape_plan 11y ago
      It's rather unfortunate that the same companies you talk about are keeping their money in tax havens, they hire foreign born workers and most of the manufacturing they do happens in China or Asia. In the end a non college educated American loses to this high skilled labor and cannot afford to live in Silicon Valley which has a broken real estate system, people commute from far distances and BART is in end-of-life stage.
      - Grishnakh 11y ago
        You're absolutely right about all that. I never said it was perfect here, and in fact things are definitely getting worse in many ways. However, we're comparing present-day US to present-day Canada, and I'm not seeing any advantages to living in Canada, except for living around friendlier people. Economically, there don't appear to be any advantages at all to professional tech workers, only big disadvantages. If you think Silicon Valley has a broken real estate system, have you checked out the real estate situation in Vancouver? Personally, I'd love to live in Vancouver, but there's no way I'm going to get a job there that pays enough for me to buy a house that costs several million dollars (CAD), given that even crack houses there cost $1M. At least here in the US, there's still a lot of cities besides SV where there's a lot of tech jobs, the pay is really high for them, and the housing costs are bearable.
        11y ago