Yet plenty of people have relocated to Denmark, Sweden etc because the extra quality of life is worth paying for.
I know two who did, neither now intend to ever come back to the UK with its austerity and constant wish to move in the US direction. One later got relocated by his firm from Denmark to Sweden.
And a crazy good social safety net. If you're having any sort of difficulty(ranging from depression to bankruptcy), you'll get adequate state support(income, subsidised housing and healthcare) for a long time. I wonder why more people don't start businesses there, given that it's seldom fatal to risk and fail..
I’d guess because the people who really have the money to start a business aren’t poor enough to worry about having to live on the street if it fails. Also, perhaps the strength of the safety net makes people feel less of a need to be entrepreneurial.
Tax rate is somewhere between 40% and 60% depending on your income and spending patterns, but consider that we also have free education up to and including PH.D level and free healthcare.
Of course, everyone has their own take on whether that's good or bad.
Poland has a flat tax rate of ~19% (if you run a business or are self-employed - a lot of developers are self-employed here) and it also has free health care and universities, up to PhD level... You don't have to pay 60% taxes to get these.
Exactly. Poor Western Europeans are robbed by their corrupted governments, IMHO. In Ukraine programmers pay only 5% tax, when everyone else - around 40%. So, come to us! : )
Isn't it kind of exagerating to call western EU governments corrupt and invite investors into Ukraine, a country that struggles to get out of Russia's grip and had several swift regime changes, a poisoned president and an ongoing war in the last 20 years? Also, tax extemptions for a job sector that isn't threatened in any way are discriminating.
Well, yeah, unfortunately majority of Ukrainians are not smart enough to overcome those problems (mainly with Russia). But even without IQ qualification for voting, I hope, they will be able to rule over the state right. I don't participate in voting as you can guess from my profile...
Regarding the taxes. They are not that discriminating! Because in absolute values other workers may pay to the state even less than programmers. A good programmer may earn up to $3000 every month, so $3000·5% = $150 is what he gives to the state in taxes. An ordinary worker earns (official stat) $350 a month, so he gives only $350·40% = $140. I am not sure about 40% though...
We also have very low prices here too. For instance, potatoes cost only ¢15/kg, so if you are European or American you are welcome to spend your money here : )
So in absolute values poor people are ripped off (live off $210) while IT workers are well off (live off 2850$). How is that not discrimination? A flat rate of 19% for everyone, like Poland has is quite fair in comparison. Other countries in Central and Eastern Europe have cheap food producs as well:
That is because they are doing useless jobs or work which is not yet in demand here. If they invested in education or some equipment which were raising in demand, they would be fine. Many of ordinary workers in Ukraine emigrate to the EU actually - even more would do that if the EU did not establish those discriminating boundaries with visas : )
But the main reason of their poor life is corrupted government which have been here for many years and which didn't give them opportunitytoinvest properly (not everyone can be a programmer, I admit). We had several hyper-inflation periods with banks going bankrupt, with too complicated legislation no one seriously followed, unfair privatization of former state property, policemen killing and robbing people, etc.
...€2.32 for 1 kg of potatoes in Norway?! I got a millionaire idea.
