3 ms·

For most purposes, a foreign tech worker is a lot like having an extra tourist on any given week. They are giving money to your local businesses, but aren't com

For most purposes, a foreign tech worker is a lot like having an extra tourist on any given week. They are giving money to your local businesses, but aren't competing with locals on anything but housing. The locals are going to see an increase in income in the very same way that they do in tourist towns: Extra demand for goods and services will provide more jobs and quite possibly marginally higher wages. Take a random tourist town: Say, in the southern coast of Spain. Then tell them that finally, they had managed to get rid of all the tourists, forever. Is that good or bad for the town? It's not as if there are no externalities, but in general, tourism is going to be good for your economy, and the amount of extra taxes the tourist pays on lodging is pretty low. Which Caribbean islands do better, those that have a lot of tourists, or those that don't take any external money? Also consider what happens in the opposite side of the remote worker, where what you get is the equivalent of a foreign worker who comes in, pays taxes, but spends basically nothing, and spends all their salary in remittances, to be spent abroad by their family. The worker is competing with you for the job, but then doesn't spend it locally! You will not find many municipalities that are all that happy of having a lot of jobs formerly done by locals in offices suddenly done by someone that is far away.

gherkinnn 4y ago
> They are giving money to your local businesses, but aren't competing with locals on anything but housing. Competing over housing i quite significant if you ask me.
- deepsun 4y ago
  Even that is a good thing for local developers and homeowners.
  - pastacacioepepe 4y ago
    Still blatlantly ignoring the majority of people who are not wealthy enough to profit from tourism, but only get the downsides of it, which I'm not going to list here as they are many and proven. Edit: No, more potential careers as an underpaid waiter or touristic guide is not an upside.
- Test0129 4y ago
  This is the primary reason housing is in crisis in the US. Tech workers and foreigners finding cheap but gentrifiable places and driving up the price of housing to the point no one can afford it but them. While OP is right in that these people are a net good for the economy at large there's a reason a LOT of countries do not allow foreigners to own property. The US is one of the few places where you can without much trouble. You can see the problem this causes with states adjacent to California, like Nevada, where the average house is now over 10x the average income thanks to the tech emigration.
pastacacioepepe 4y ago
> is a lot like having an extra tourist on any given week And as OP explained in the comment you're replying to, tourism is not necessarily a positive for the locals: > That foreign money mostly goes to a handful of landlords/Airbnbs and tourist-friendly businesses (which are often foreign owned themselves). That in turn drives up prices of everything for locals – who are seeing no increase in income and moreover have to pay income tax and a ton of other taxes on it, something that digital nomads conveniently skip. It doesn't really matter if you're a digital nomad or a classic tourist, the same downsides apply, but in the case of digital nomads they're even working while being on a tourist visa. They should pay taxes to the local administration but they don't, so that makes them a double problem.
paxys 4y ago
You are assuming that all tourism is a net positive for any region, which itself is a faulty premise. In a lot of cases unchecked tourism, immigration and foreign money only increases the income divide among locals and contributes to inflation and gentrification. Not all these foreigners are living in tourist towns. They aren't staying for a week or two, but months at a time. They aren't staying in hotels meant for tourists, but rather competing with locals for apartments (a lot of them having turned into Airbnbs because of it).
SergeAx 4y ago
In most popular tourist destination there is a special tourist tax, paid at the hotel reception desk. Sometimes it is included into hotel rate and visible only in a detailed bill.

gherkinnn 4y ago

> They are giving money to your local businesses, but aren't competing with locals on anything but housing. Competing over housing i quite significant if you ask me.

deepsun 4y ago
Even that is a good thing for local developers and homeowners.
- pastacacioepepe 4y ago
  Still blatlantly ignoring the majority of people who are not wealthy enough to profit from tourism, but only get the downsides of it, which I'm not going to list here as they are many and proven. Edit: No, more potential careers as an underpaid waiter or touristic guide is not an upside.
Test0129 4y ago
This is the primary reason housing is in crisis in the US. Tech workers and foreigners finding cheap but gentrifiable places and driving up the price of housing to the point no one can afford it but them. While OP is right in that these people are a net good for the economy at large there's a reason a LOT of countries do not allow foreigners to own property. The US is one of the few places where you can without much trouble. You can see the problem this causes with states adjacent to California, like Nevada, where the average house is now over 10x the average income thanks to the tech emigration.

pastacacioepepe 4y ago

> is a lot like having an extra tourist on any given week And as OP explained in the comment you're replying to, tourism is not necessarily a positive for the locals: > That foreign money mostly goes to a handful of landlords/Airbnbs and tourist-friendly businesses (which are often foreign owned themselves). That in turn drives up prices of everything for locals – who are seeing no increase in income and moreover have to pay income tax and a ton of other taxes on it, something that digital nomads conveniently skip. It doesn't really matter if you're a digital nomad or a classic tourist, the same downsides apply, but in the case of digital nomads they're even working while being on a tourist visa. They should pay taxes to the local administration but they don't, so that makes them a double problem.

paxys 4y ago

You are assuming that all tourism is a net positive for any region, which itself is a faulty premise. In a lot of cases unchecked tourism, immigration and foreign money only increases the income divide among locals and contributes to inflation and gentrification. Not all these foreigners are living in tourist towns. They aren't staying for a week or two, but months at a time. They aren't staying in hotels meant for tourists, but rather competing with locals for apartments (a lot of them having turned into Airbnbs because of it).

SergeAx 4y ago

In most popular tourist destination there is a special tourist tax, paid at the hotel reception desk. Sometimes it is included into hotel rate and visible only in a detailed bill.