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Comment by robbiep | Hacker News Reader

So... Better to have highly automated high tech factories producing in third world countries, with their poor roads, patchy electricity supply, unreliable access to raw materials, difficulty sourcing the educated labour you will need to run it locally & difficult to get people to move there to run it, patchy access to international transport, risk of internal conflict impacting on physical infrastructure, rather than paying taxes?

I guess you could always pay off the local warlord, then pay for your own roads, and all the rest... But perhaps better to have a government take care of it for you?

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What you describe is how big pieces of the mining and oil industry work already. It's not as daunting as you think to move things around and buy security in the poorer parts of the world.

Getting smart people to come on contract to live in luxury and service your robots won't be hard. Why on earth would you live in a dingy NYC or San Francisco apartment if you could go somewhere and as merely an engineer be waited on hand and foot in a luxury condo while saving up bank. Go golfing after work every day for free.

> Why on earth...

1. Security

2. Friends

3. Family

4. Security

Those are all great reasons. It isn't for everyone. I made the move at 30 when I had few commitments and have been here 4 years.

I've lived overseas in Cambodia and Taiwan. The lower cost of living, warm weather, and challenges of living in a different culture can make life pretty enjoyable.

I chose both places carefully and visited before deciding to move. I still visit the US once a year and my vacations now take me to places I would never go if I lived in the US. A weekend trip to the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, China, or Japan is feasible from Taiwan. From Cambodia, you're right next to Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos, all safe places if you read up on what to watch out for.

Cambodia may be developing but most people wouldn't grade Taiwan on the same scale, and both are a long way from paying a warlord 'protection money' in Somalia

Absolutely. I don't mean to equate them, except in the ways I mentioned, which is that they're warmer and cheaper than the US. I mention them together because I've lived in both.

Taiwan is much more developed than Cambodia, and yes, are nothing like Somalia. That's not a place I would choose to live, myself.

You probably have a warped view of a lot of these countries. A big part of Harare is a much nicer version of Beverly Hills, it just costs less than a tenth for that lifestyle.

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