> There are only a few really good places to live for an educated worker. Japan, Australia, Western and Northern Europe, Canada, and the US.
You need to pull your eyes out of your ass. The countries you mention are far from being superior; perhaps "good enough", but frankly nothing too fancy. You need to visit Hong Kong or Singapore to see how highly qualified immigrants live there like kings.
Japan has serious environmental problems and their government does not stand up to the transparency one would love their government to comply with [1]. They are rolling into huge economical depression too.
Australia. Have you ever been there? Spend couple months you will be surprise how alienated you will feel. My friends live there for 15-20 years and they will never be a part of the community. They will always feel like outsiders; mostly recognized by their accent. Australians divide themselves among those who were born here, and all outsiders who came to steal jobs. Its the mentality. It wont change. Australia has their own environmental problems too and politics & taxation goes through the roof (viva la Queen that fixes everything through more taxes).
European Union is on a brink of collapse; some countries are openly discussing living EU. Its rotten to its core by very well hidden corruption [2]; Ukraine situation that helps Russia shows their real aspirations does not help either.
Canada, they are still under Queen that can suspend the parliment anytime she wants to [3].
Then we come to US. I think its a matter of "the grass that is greener on the other side". I mean, how many of those folks applying for visa know anything about US more than from movies about "land of the free home of the brave?". Politics? How many know who Nancy Pelosy or Henry Reid are? For all they know America has this good man named Obama who gave everyone free healthcare so it can't get better than that. Did they hear about Justina Pelletier, Cliven Bundy, Kelly Thomas or hundred of thousands other cases of governmental abuse?
This is a silly and hypocritical critique. All countries have their flaws, but you're really not being fair or objective.
You lambast Japan for a lack of government transparency just as you finish extolling the virtues of Hong Kong and Singapore. You also conveniently fail to mention the salary required to live "like a king" in either of those two locations. Singapore ain't cheap. In fact, it's the world's most expensive city by several measures [1].
H1-B is pretty broad, and most applicants are certainly not eligible for mid six figure salaries in the finance hubs of Asia. "Highly qualified" for the purposes of this discussion does _not_ necessarily mean rolling in the dough.
Lastly and most comically : Canada's parliament being desolved by the Queen? That's patently absurd.
I don't think it's inappropriate language, but I find your statement that the Queen can suspend Canadian parliament any time she wants is totally incorrect. The case you link to is an exceptional one that had no jurisprudence, and was most likely decided by the Queen's representative, not the Queen herself, which is not an insignificant difference. This was the aftermath of an election with a minority government result, which almost never happens in our First Past the Post system. Your misrepresentation of this case is more offensive to my eyes than your language. My HN values intellectual correctness over proper language. :)
Of course truth is more important than civility. But the two are compatible—there's no tradeoff.
It would be great if we had a way to correct all false statements on Hacker News, but we don't. That shouldn't prevent us from addressing the corrosion of the discourse by garden-variety incivility. Pulling out those weeds is one of the big things we all can do to make HN more conducive to truth-seeking discussion in the first place.
You need to pull your eyes out of your ass. The countries you mention are far from being superior; perhaps "good enough", but frankly nothing too fancy. You need to visit Hong Kong or Singapore to see how highly qualified immigrants live there like kings.
Japan has serious environmental problems and their government does not stand up to the transparency one would love their government to comply with [1]. They are rolling into huge economical depression too.
Australia. Have you ever been there? Spend couple months you will be surprise how alienated you will feel. My friends live there for 15-20 years and they will never be a part of the community. They will always feel like outsiders; mostly recognized by their accent. Australians divide themselves among those who were born here, and all outsiders who came to steal jobs. Its the mentality. It wont change. Australia has their own environmental problems too and politics & taxation goes through the roof (viva la Queen that fixes everything through more taxes).
European Union is on a brink of collapse; some countries are openly discussing living EU. Its rotten to its core by very well hidden corruption [2]; Ukraine situation that helps Russia shows their real aspirations does not help either.
Canada, they are still under Queen that can suspend the parliment anytime she wants to [3].
Then we come to US. I think its a matter of "the grass that is greener on the other side". I mean, how many of those folks applying for visa know anything about US more than from movies about "land of the free home of the brave?". Politics? How many know who Nancy Pelosy or Henry Reid are? For all they know America has this good man named Obama who gave everyone free healthcare so it can't get better than that. Did they hear about Justina Pelletier, Cliven Bundy, Kelly Thomas or hundred of thousands other cases of governmental abuse?
[1] http://enenews.com/japan-times-sources-reveal-fukushima-radi...
[2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10614864...
[3] http://stevescomments.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/the-queen-of-...