3 ms·

There's more to life than money. The USA offers higher quality of life and has a cosmopolitan, multicultural society. I live in the Netherlands, where I enjoy

There's more to life than money. The USA offers higher quality of life and has a cosmopolitan, multicultural society. I live in the Netherlands, where I enjoy an extremely high quality of life, get access to diverse cultural programs, and get to meet interesting individuals from every corner of the earth who have come to pursue art, technology, and science here. Dutch tech salaries aren't the highest, but I'm living a great life. Dutch and American societies are open-minded and immigrant-oriented: both readily and easily assimilate millions of immigrants. During uni, I did an exchange study in Beijing and Shanghai. I'm open to working a short gig in China, but I would never settle down there. Chinese cities have thin veneers of modernity and glitz, but they are polluted, offer poor quality of life, and—aside from small expat circles—are monocultural from a global viewpoint. I am thoroughly convinced that China lacks the West's ability to draw, retain, and assimilate foreign talent en masse.

Hokusai 6y ago
> There's more to life than money. I completely agree, that's why I emigrated to Sweden (not so different that the Netherlands) instead of the USA. But many people gives high value to money and high status. > China lacks the West's ability to draw, retain, and assimilate foreign talent en masse That is probably true for now. I have seen the USA loosing that appeal, China may gain it. Hong Kong is going to be a test bed on China capacity to keep foreigners in the country as the region is already diverse. China lacked the money to be multicultural, people was not willing to move to a poor country. That may change and Western democracies need to stop thinking that are the best in the world and work more to improve education, health care, inequality reduction and quality of life if we do not want to be surpassed in the future.

Hokusai 6y ago

> There's more to life than money. I completely agree, that's why I emigrated to Sweden (not so different that the Netherlands) instead of the USA. But many people gives high value to money and high status. > China lacks the West's ability to draw, retain, and assimilate foreign talent en masse That is probably true for now. I have seen the USA loosing that appeal, China may gain it. Hong Kong is going to be a test bed on China capacity to keep foreigners in the country as the region is already diverse. China lacked the money to be multicultural, people was not willing to move to a poor country. That may change and Western democracies need to stop thinking that are the best in the world and work more to improve education, health care, inequality reduction and quality of life if we do not want to be surpassed in the future.