Luis

@calvinfroedge Awesome thread. I spent a couple of weeks in Panama City this year. The heat was terrible and everything seemed overpriced (Europe prices basically). Locals were very friendly. Not much to do or see in the city but cool nature spots around the country.

@freedomfiles_ I'd gladly pay up to 20% to live somewhere civilised (direct democracy, low crime, subsidised healthcare and education and no corruption). Switzerland kind of fits the bill but it's a bit too boring. >20% starts to feel like theft IMO.

at what point does taxation realistically become government-sponsored theft? 🤔

@Thunder2Chungus @Iberianamerica I thought Medellin was the opposite (good restaurants, good value and even safe), but then again I live in Quito which is a bit of a shithole so I might be biased

@luisgc93 @Iberianamerica Cheap enough to offset these negatives? There are lots of alts that meet your requirements

Best things to do in Medellin, Colombia 🇨🇴 Missing anything? 🤔

@Thunder2Chungus @Iberianamerica I thought Colombia in general was quite cheap (at least a lot cheaper than Panama and Ecuador). What cities in latam are better value for money than Medellin?

@Iberianamerica went to 2/3rds these places COL not worth the financial trade-off the food is bad quality the local dishes are awful and lack flavor plus there is undeniable crime risk if it was less expensive it *might* make sense COL is off the list of potential residences

@levelsio Literally this. We got 1.5k applications at my company last month and 90% were garbage. It’s so easy to stand out.

job seekers: it's so hard to get a remote job these days job applicants:

@levelsio These sound spot on. I’d like to hear you roast Spain next 🇪🇸

US are unhealthy and life expectancy is decreasing and many of its cities littered with homeless junkies on Fentanyl unable to fix it EU has barely any innovation, is stuck in excessive regulation NL is conformist and the entire economy relies on ASML to sell chip fab machines to TSMC to make Nvidia GPUs DE relies on an artifically cheap Euro that keeps South Europe poor FR are weirdly obsessed with everything FR and can't stop talking about it PT is great but their people still so stuck in 1970 Salazar dictatorial mindset they're keeping themselves behind IT won't let you make jokes about them esp IT men TH are happy and nice but hide their pain behind their smiles, if they'd speak up mayhe things would change faster as do JP KR will probably be uncompetitive in a global market dominated by CN producing better and cheaper electronics than them CN is growing fast but has an existential risk if they can't get immigrants in fast enough and they really don't like immigrants because immigrants bring free speech BR seems promising but it's always been promising and always failed to deliver on its promises ID is growing fast but its Islamic population and gov can turn it conservative and away from growth I have something to say about most countries I think!

@da_ben_dan @levelsio Entrepreneurs, investors and businesses bring money and jobs, not tech workers. Most nomads are not entrepreneurs.

Portugal just ended its tax breaks for foreigners called NHR, now Netherlands wants to do the same to its 30% tax break Both resulted in lots of tech workers moving to their countries, interesting to see recession happen and then anti foreigner sentiment go up as always

@levelsio Wow… if Spain is more business friendly then Portugal has a lot of work to do

@luisgc93 There isn't a startup scene because Portugal is such a horrible place to build a business with high bureaucracy, extremely slow government workers processes and stupendously high effective taxes for companies Many Portuguese companies just register in Spain or Netherlands

@levelsio What’s the point of attracting foreign tech talent anyways? A bunch of Americans with comfy jobs making 200k are not going to care about the local start up scene.

Obviously I think tax breaks to attract foreign tech talent is great, European countries lack a high amount of properly schooled tech workers Many in EU study IT and end up learning .NET bs, when they should be learning open source stuff because that's what startups are built on So you end up with a big tech enterprise industry but few startups

@jamesnuveen I think this is country-specific. In the US you get almost nothing. In Europe you at least get good infrastructure, healthcare and education (but corruption is still a big problem)

why do people care so much that millionaires and billionaires pay their "fair share" of tax? the government's going to spend it on absolutely nothing anyway

@SergioRocks Pays location independent salaries -> to make top 💰

The nirvana of a Software Engineer is to work for a company that: - Has an exciting tech stack -> To learn - Has a healthy culture -> To avoid burn out - Is cashflow positive -> To avoid lay offs - Has positive social impact -> To feel good about working there What else?

@levelsio the oura ring is more comfortable and there's no annoying notifications.

⌚️Got an Apple Watch a few months ago Used it for sleep tracking, fitness tracking etc To be honest it made me more neurotic than anything, checking my sleep, HRV and more metrics And I naturally just stopped using it Also notifications on my wrist are annoying (yes can switch them off) The whole thing is more of a hassle than something that makes my life easier I think wearables should operate in the background, kinda like the WHOOP band, maybe I’ll try that. It should track your health without interrupting you about it Just tell me when something is off and I need to go see a doctor but stay in the background

@jamesnuveen Paciencia hermano! Picture looks like Madrid

@jamesnuveen Nice! How you reduce your tax bill in Colombia?

as a US citizen, i will never pay zero taxes but last year, i used these 3 easy ways to reduce them • spent less than 35 days in the US (FEIE) • changed my residence to FL (no state income tax) • changed my business structure from LLC to S-corp this saved me $31k

@RebelMasculine @dr_eclect_pays @MyLatinLife Yep, the coast is mostly very 3rd world. The only advantage is the low taxes. Quito and Cuenca are nice though.

@dr_eclect_pays @MyLatinLife The most unsafe lay I visited in South America Horrible value for money imo Beaches were horrible ( I’m an Aussie so possibly unfair by most peoples standards) Girls weren’t that attractive Political unrest and gang run neighborhoods, very common and everywhere For a few…

- get ecuador residency, live in colombia, flow between the 2 countries

@AntonioGoBe si bajas las cotizaciones sociales, el SMI incluso se podría subir

Verdades incómodas sobre la economía española: 1. El sistema de pensiones es insostenible 2. El SMI es demasiado alto 3. La regulación laboral es una basura 4. Las PYMES tienen casi imposible crecer 5. La cuota de autónomo es demasiado alta 6. Trabaja demasiada poca gente

@Valaco7 @wallstwolverine En Ecuador gobierna la derecha

Momento exacto en el que matan al candidato a la presidencia de Ecuador, Fernando Villavicencio, a la salida de un mitin político en Quito.

@joantubau esto del coliving es más bien gentrificación que otra cosa. Suelen ser para trabajadores en remoto con sueldos potentes (ej. product managers de San Francisco que pagan encantados 2000 pavos/mes por una habitación en Lisboa o BCN)

Si haces coliving ya no suena tan mal lo de compartir piso

Aprovechando el estreno del staycation comparto hilo con algunos conceptos en inglés que los medios han utilizado para normalizar la pobreza

@ignavegas En mi opinión son todas buenas pero las historias, los protas y las conclusiones son muy muy similares. Sumisión y La posibilidad de una isla son mis favoritas.

@luisgc93 Es el primero que leo. No vale la pena seguir, pues?

Acabo de terminar mi primer libro de Houellebecq. Me ha hecho preguntarme… porqué hay mucha gente opuesta al liberalismo económico, que apoya el liberalismo sexual? No tengo respuesta.

@jamesnuveen Check out Menorca as well

going on a mini-tour of the mediterranean later this year • barcelona 🇪🇸 • madrid 🇪🇸 • portovenere 🇮🇹 • porto ercole 🇮🇹 • portofino 🇮🇹 • roma 🇮🇹 • elba 🇮🇹 • saint-tropez 🇫🇷 • nice 🇫🇷 • monaco 🇲🇨 shill me your recommendations. what must i eat/see/drink/experience?