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Comment by bwb | Hacker News Reader

I've personally been remote since 1999 and run teams from around the world since then. The largest was a company I grew to ~130+ people over 18 countries. I know you are underestimating the rep of the USA outside of politics and the dysfunction :)

Remote is a great opportunity and one I've used at every company I've built. But, the thing that draws global talent is money, and American companies have all the money. If anything this is going to hurt local companies who can't compete for top talent hiring out of the USA :)

I will note, i think Canada is doing a great job of being pro-immigrant in a way the USA can't and American companies are opening lots of offices and hiring there.

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> I know you are underestimating the rep of the USA outside of politics and the dysfunction

I don’t really understand. Why would I disregard “the dysfunction”? That’s very much at the core of what shapes the rest of the worlds perception of the US.

Agree on the second point though. It does (potentially) globalise the job market quite a bit.

Tons of people want to move to the USA for nature, stability, pay, freedom of expression, freedom of speech/religion/life, low corruption, house prices are low compared to many many places, mixing pot, opportunity, american dream etc...

The power of the American narrative is huge.

I know so many devs in Brazil who want to live to USA or Germany, as well as many other places. Those places have problems at a much higher level than our current stuff.

>Tons of people want to move to the USA for nature, stability, pay, freedom of expression, freedom of speech/religion/life, low corruption, house prices are low compared to many many places, mixing pot, opportunity, american dream etc...

High level of crime, too much politics, education too expensive, healthcare too expensive, no public pension funds.

Totally agreed with you :)

But the key point being narrative around the American dream, freedom of religion/expression, and all the other things I mentioned. Moving to a new place and taking a risk is a feeling based decision. Sure we might dress it up with some logic, but at the end of the day the USA has soft power in spades.

It has relative soft power. The reason you hear lots of Brazilian devs wanting to move is due to the tremendous problems Brazil is facing. Not all countries have problems to this extent.

From a EU-centric perspective the soft power the US have is not that strong.

I totally agree with you. I live in Europe.

But, globally brand America's brand is quite strong still. And that is my point, don't forget how powerful that brand has been for the last 100 years. It doesn't disappear overnight.

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