4 ms·
This is why digital nomadism is so fascinating to me. People move to rural Thailand and make very low wages, for example $2k a month, from their online busines
by narrator 12y ago
This is why digital nomadism is so fascinating to me. People move to rural Thailand and make very low wages, for example $2k a month, from their online businesses and live like kings. $2k a month in the bay area is essentially poverty, but if people outsource themselves they can join the upper middle class, at least in another country using the so-called "micro multinational" strategy. This is what big business has been doing to the American worker forever. They've been doing production in countries where the cost of living is orders of magnitude cheaper and putting American workers out of a job because they can't work at the wages people do in other countries and still pay living expenses, especially when it comes to food, housing and health care. Health care is 1/10th the price in parts of South East Asia, for example.
- saalweachter 12y agoFun fact: $2k / month is 200% of the US federal poverty line. Nearly half of all Americans make less than $2k / month. (This does not change that you can live like a king for $2k / month in some countries, but if you're making $2k+ / month, you're already doing above average for the USA.)
- entrican 12y agoWhere do you get those statistics? Wikipedia says median household income is 3.3-5K/month (45-60K/year). Average household is 2.5 people, so you're right if you're including children. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_household_income http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median_household_income
- jacalata 12y agoHousehold income vs Personal income, probably. From wikipedia, 48% of Americans who had any income in 2010 earned less than $25k: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_States#Income_distribution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_S...
- saalweachter 12y agoWikipedia, and technically I'm mixing numbers. ~$12k is the Federal poverty line for individuals, and half of all Americans live within 200% of the poverty line. Most of those people will live in multi-family households, but the household poverty line grows slower than the number of people in the household so I considered it a reasonable elision. I also said 'average' instead of 'median', but "you're doing better than median" sounds weird.
- visarga 12y ago> using the so-called "micro multinational" strategy That's what they call US emigration today? How is that any different from an Asian/Indian/African wanting to emigrate to US? The other guys are just like us.
- KayEss 12y agoThe Indian won't also be paying taxes in India. America is the only country that taxes its citizens on their worldwide income -- something my (American) business partner here in Thailand is not happy about.
- wolfgke 12y agoIf this is such a problem, why isn't there a large revolt (or at least some aggressive lobbyism) in the society against this kind of taxation?
- zurn 12y agoAmericans rarely left the country until very recently. "Valid U.S. Passports in 2012 is 113,431,943 (36%). In 2002 it was 55,169,571 (19%). In 1992 it was 17,950,578 (7%). " (http://andrewhy.de/percent-of-americans-with-passports/ http://andrewhy.de/percent-of-americans-with-passports/)
- enupten 12y agoIndeed. I think it's actually a double whammy. Businesses in the US have cheap access to capital, and the diplomatic might - not to mention "bankruptcy protection" - of the USG behind them, while the common folk not. I wonder if there is a postive feedback here; unless the US invests great deal outside the state, it'd never enjoy the power it does in the world, which it seems very desperate to hang on to.
- bandrami 12y agoSorry, are you really calling $24K / year "very low wages"?
- Mimu 12y agoHe specified "bay area" tbh, which apparently is a very expensive place to live in. I wouldn't know being french, but even here the same salary in Paris or anywhere else is the country is not even close to be the same thing.