5 ms·

I'm also sure a small percentage of people from the USA may even rethink living there.

onychomys 5y ago
My company has gone to work-from-anywhere-as-long-as-it's-in-the-USA, there's some sort of complicated tax thing that comes if you live in another country but work in the US, and they don't want to deal with that.
- the-dude 5y ago
  There is a SaaS for that.
  - onychomys 5y ago
    lol, i'll be sure to bring that up with the C-suite next time they invite me to one of their meetings.
- nradov 5y ago
  I expect we'll start to see more employees who work in the "USA" for employment tax purposes, but are physically in Thailand or somewhere connected via VPN. Short of a detailed audit it's difficult for authorities to tell where someone is actually living. (I'm not encouraging tax fraud, just stating that this is likely to happen.)
  - gamblor956 5y ago
    That would be tax fraud in two separate countries, and depending on local laws, a crime in the country the individual is working from. Connecting through a corporate VPN to the corporate network wouldn't shield your location, and I'm not aware of any company that lets employees connect using their own VPNs? With corporate VPN connections, it's usually pretty easy to trace back to the geographic area of the connecting IP, and IT generally keeps logs of these. While most companies are cool with short term remote work in other countries (especially for employees who do not work on revenue-generating products or services), undisclosed long term remote work is generally grounds for for-cause termination.
- jedberg 5y ago
  > there's some sort of complicated tax thing that comes if you live in another country but work in the US As an employer I have to fill out a lot of extra forms for someone outside the USA. But there are companies popping up to solve this -- they take care of all the paperwork for you, for a fee. Usually you negotiate with the employee to reduce their paycheck by however much the fee is, and everyone wins because they are going somewhere with a much lower cost of living (or you just eat the cost to keep a good employee).
AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
If only it didn't require an incredibly privileged position to be be a reasonable thing to do, I might.
- trevyn 5y ago
  It’s easier than you think, the barriers are actually all in your own mind.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
    Pretty sure they're mostly in the wallet.
    - trevyn 5y ago
      Consider that what would be considered a lower standard of living by consensus American standards could be considered a higher standard of living by a different consensus standard. And that one is able to choose which standards by which one evaluates one’s living. Humans are very resilient.
    - asimpletune 5y ago
      It's a lot easier than you think. If you made up your mind, then ok, think what you want, but for the rest of the people who are reading this thread: trust me, it's much more doable than you think. Honestly, the barriers are not so great, and definitely finances are not at the top of the list of things to overcome. Without giving any numbers it's not clear what is required to be secure, but it also depends a lot on where you live. That being said, I'd say language acquisition is more important than having a lot of money. Once you have enough money to reach escape velocity - again, this is personal, so I couldn't say what it is - more money doesn't really matter and just makes it more likely that you'd lose it because it's an easy button. Language acquisition and learning how to meet new people are far more important, but fortunately they're free! (almost)
CountDrewku 5y ago
What are the other options? After seeing how Europe and other western nations have responded to COVID in the last 2 years I'm less likely to consider moving there. It was actually something I'd considered before all of this.
- asimpletune 5y ago
  It’s a little hard to go you a specific answer as it’s highly personal but the pandemic is also highly local. Europe is hard with the pandemic because it’s crowded in the main towns and cities, and a little colder than the USA. In smaller places the virus is much much less severe than you think. That being said, I think the impact of the virus will diminish with the combination of vaccines as well as the virus continuing to mutate and compete against other variants. Probably it will eventually become endemic and not so life threatening and reach an equilibrium, but that’s just what I think. It’s probably not great for the virus and it’s babies to kill lots of people and then suffer massive human led reactions like vaccines and quarantine measures. Maybe the cold or flu thousands of years ago were much more deadly. Anyway, speculation aside, there’s also quality of life to consider. A lot of other places in the world really emphasize this. The big picture is it’s an amazing world with cool people, and it couldn’t hurt for those of us who are without families and with some savings to explore it.
  - CountDrewku 5y ago
    >Anyway, speculation aside, there’s also quality of life to consider. A lot of other places in the world really emphasize this. Ok feel free to give me some. I'd like to know the COL in these places as well. A lot people here tend to complain about the US but are living in ridiculous high cost coastal areas and are unaware of more affordable options. Most of them are willingly sacrificing QOL because they refuse to change their attitudes.
    - timbit42 5y ago
      https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries.jsp https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries.jsp

My company has gone to work-from-anywhere-as-long-as-it's-in-the-USA, there's some sort of complicated tax thing that comes if you live in another country but work in the US, and they don't want to deal with that.

the-dude 5y ago
There is a SaaS for that.
- onychomys 5y ago
  lol, i'll be sure to bring that up with the C-suite next time they invite me to one of their meetings.
nradov 5y ago
I expect we'll start to see more employees who work in the "USA" for employment tax purposes, but are physically in Thailand or somewhere connected via VPN. Short of a detailed audit it's difficult for authorities to tell where someone is actually living. (I'm not encouraging tax fraud, just stating that this is likely to happen.)
- gamblor956 5y ago
  That would be tax fraud in two separate countries, and depending on local laws, a crime in the country the individual is working from. Connecting through a corporate VPN to the corporate network wouldn't shield your location, and I'm not aware of any company that lets employees connect using their own VPNs? With corporate VPN connections, it's usually pretty easy to trace back to the geographic area of the connecting IP, and IT generally keeps logs of these. While most companies are cool with short term remote work in other countries (especially for employees who do not work on revenue-generating products or services), undisclosed long term remote work is generally grounds for for-cause termination.
jedberg 5y ago
> there's some sort of complicated tax thing that comes if you live in another country but work in the US As an employer I have to fill out a lot of extra forms for someone outside the USA. But there are companies popping up to solve this -- they take care of all the paperwork for you, for a fee. Usually you negotiate with the employee to reduce their paycheck by however much the fee is, and everyone wins because they are going somewhere with a much lower cost of living (or you just eat the cost to keep a good employee).

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago

If only it didn't require an incredibly privileged position to be be a reasonable thing to do, I might.

trevyn 5y ago
It’s easier than you think, the barriers are actually all in your own mind.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
  Pretty sure they're mostly in the wallet.
  - trevyn 5y ago
    Consider that what would be considered a lower standard of living by consensus American standards could be considered a higher standard of living by a different consensus standard. And that one is able to choose which standards by which one evaluates one’s living. Humans are very resilient.
  - asimpletune 5y ago
    It's a lot easier than you think. If you made up your mind, then ok, think what you want, but for the rest of the people who are reading this thread: trust me, it's much more doable than you think. Honestly, the barriers are not so great, and definitely finances are not at the top of the list of things to overcome. Without giving any numbers it's not clear what is required to be secure, but it also depends a lot on where you live. That being said, I'd say language acquisition is more important than having a lot of money. Once you have enough money to reach escape velocity - again, this is personal, so I couldn't say what it is - more money doesn't really matter and just makes it more likely that you'd lose it because it's an easy button. Language acquisition and learning how to meet new people are far more important, but fortunately they're free! (almost)

CountDrewku 5y ago

What are the other options? After seeing how Europe and other western nations have responded to COVID in the last 2 years I'm less likely to consider moving there. It was actually something I'd considered before all of this.

asimpletune 5y ago
It’s a little hard to go you a specific answer as it’s highly personal but the pandemic is also highly local. Europe is hard with the pandemic because it’s crowded in the main towns and cities, and a little colder than the USA. In smaller places the virus is much much less severe than you think. That being said, I think the impact of the virus will diminish with the combination of vaccines as well as the virus continuing to mutate and compete against other variants. Probably it will eventually become endemic and not so life threatening and reach an equilibrium, but that’s just what I think. It’s probably not great for the virus and it’s babies to kill lots of people and then suffer massive human led reactions like vaccines and quarantine measures. Maybe the cold or flu thousands of years ago were much more deadly. Anyway, speculation aside, there’s also quality of life to consider. A lot of other places in the world really emphasize this. The big picture is it’s an amazing world with cool people, and it couldn’t hurt for those of us who are without families and with some savings to explore it.
- CountDrewku 5y ago
  >Anyway, speculation aside, there’s also quality of life to consider. A lot of other places in the world really emphasize this. Ok feel free to give me some. I'd like to know the COL in these places as well. A lot people here tend to complain about the US but are living in ridiculous high cost coastal areas and are unaware of more affordable options. Most of them are willingly sacrificing QOL because they refuse to change their attitudes.
  - timbit42 5y ago
    https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries.jsp https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_countries.jsp