3 ms·

> What kind of industry does Iceland have that requires 'physicists, programmers and engineers'? Eve Online. No, really. It's Iceland's third-largest export. (

• roel_v 15y ago
  Right, that confirms my point - if a niche MMORPG is the third-largest export, that means that opportunities in science and r&d are scarce.
  • groby_b 15y ago
    What I meant is that the opportunities are at Eve Online. If you're the third-largest exporter, you do make up a large part of the employment market. Sure, it's a small market - but it's still a large chunk of that market. And Eve is more than just a bunch of hackers - heck, they employ a lead economist. (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=virtual-world-economists-on-real-economies http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=virtual-wor...)
    • roel_v 15y ago
      Yes, I understand what you meant, but your example doesn't scale. OK so there is one (1) position for an economist at a game company. There were hundreds if not thousands of positions at banks before the collapse. How can this minister say that letting the banks fall over was good for employment, or at least that the people who had to go looking for other jobs could now go do more meaningful ones?