3 ms·

I was born and raised in the U.S. (have lived in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, SF Bay Area, and Atlanta), and now live in Copenhagen I see you say that people

I was born and raised in the U.S. (have lived in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, SF Bay Area, and Atlanta), and now live in Copenhagen I see you say that people in Denmark, including expatriates like you, can "can start companies or nonprofits or whatever without worrying about ending up homeless or without healthcare." Is that what you are doing, running your own business in Denmark? I recall that there are a couple of other HN participants who are Americans living in Denmark. Is the labor market for American expatriates that flexible everywhere in Europe? I have read of other countries in Europe where it is certainly possible to start a business, but then very complicated to hire workers as the business begins to grow. I'm curious about how that issue plays out in Europe. And, to answer your question, I think that's what my family likes about America. On the one hand, the labor market is very flexible here, so we can trade off time with our children by adjusting our employment--my wife and I are both self-employed, in different occupations--to maximize our family life and personal schedule flexibility. My late dad had a catastrophic accidental injury just more than a decade ago--it would be catastrophic in any country, with any health-care system, because he was paralyzed from the chin down after the accident--and that hammered our family's time and thus our income for the last six years of his life, but I observed that the United States safety net was adequate enough to keep both him and us from becoming homeless. Taiwan (where my wife is from) has a single-payer national health insurance program that covered us the last time we lived there (until just before my dad's accident) but even though that is a vibrant, thriving country that I enjoy living in (and I can speak Chinese), we still prosper better here in the United States.

mattmanser 13y ago
You have some misconceptions about Europe. Here in the UK you can happily fire anyone in their first 2 years without any reason whatsoever[1]. After that firing people is still fairly easy if you go through a simple process[2] and redundancy again is easy if you go through a fairly simple process. All of Europe is different. American healthcare seems viciously regressive to someone with the NHS. [1] I believe it's 2 now, labour reduced it to 1 a decade or so ago, think the Tories increased it again to 2 recently [2] think it's usually verbal warning, written warning, some sort of meeting, then fire. Not sure if it's mandated or you just have to have a process NB check this stuff for yourself, I'm merely reciting this from memory
- tptacek 13y ago
  Employment law in the UK is very different from the norm on mainland Europe. Similarly, it is easier to start a company in the UK than it is on the mainland. I agree that the NHS is preferable to the 2013 US health care system. I'm optimistic that the 2014 system will, when its kinks are worked out, be comparable to the (superior) Swiss system.
  - ced 13y ago
    Why is the Swiss system superior?
    - tptacek 13y ago
      It balances universal coverage with competitive markets without creating a gigantic government beaurocracy accountable only to the political process. Waiting times to see specialists are low, unlike the UK. The country still manages to host a large pharmaceutical sector.

mattmanser 13y ago

You have some misconceptions about Europe. Here in the UK you can happily fire anyone in their first 2 years without any reason whatsoever[1]. After that firing people is still fairly easy if you go through a simple process[2] and redundancy again is easy if you go through a fairly simple process. All of Europe is different. American healthcare seems viciously regressive to someone with the NHS. [1] I believe it's 2 now, labour reduced it to 1 a decade or so ago, think the Tories increased it again to 2 recently [2] think it's usually verbal warning, written warning, some sort of meeting, then fire. Not sure if it's mandated or you just have to have a process NB check this stuff for yourself, I'm merely reciting this from memory

tptacek 13y ago
Employment law in the UK is very different from the norm on mainland Europe. Similarly, it is easier to start a company in the UK than it is on the mainland. I agree that the NHS is preferable to the 2013 US health care system. I'm optimistic that the 2014 system will, when its kinks are worked out, be comparable to the (superior) Swiss system.
- ced 13y ago
  Why is the Swiss system superior?
  - tptacek 13y ago
    It balances universal coverage with competitive markets without creating a gigantic government beaurocracy accountable only to the political process. Waiting times to see specialists are low, unlike the UK. The country still manages to host a large pharmaceutical sector.