cr1895

It’s a lot more than complicated taxes and paperwork.

If you are a “US Person” you may find it impossible to invest, or deal with certain financial institutions and products at all.

I live in the Netherlands. I will face restrictions with my earned pension compared to non-US persons. I am forbidden to use stock trading services like DeGiro. I am not allowed to buy or sell Bitcoin. Just some examples…read the T&Cs of practically any financial-related service and there is a prohibition on US persons.

There’s nothing illegal, of course, it’s simply that the vast majority of these institutions can’t be bothered to deal with the nightmare of compliance that is serving “US Persons.” It’s easier just to ban them.

Fortunately, my bank is used to dealing with international clients and they still welcome me as a client. I see in other countries Americans have it much more difficult. I was even allowed to open an investment account! It’s far from ideal, and I had to commit to selling off everything should I leave the country, but it’s better than nothing..

Doesn’t matter, all that counts is if you are a “US Person”:

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/clas...

Whether the bank finds out or not is maybe another thing, but in principle what matters is if you count as a US Person.

> 8% vacation money = 13th month

No, quite often it’s both. The holiday allowance is by law but an additional 13th month is also often paid out. Depends on the company.

I’ve heard of that happening in Netherlands too, where it doesn’t make much sense for one spouse to keep working due to the cost of child care. That’s not universally cheap in Europe.

And some understate just how fragile the “well taken care of” employee’s circumstances are in the US. All those great perks (and they quite often are) tied to your employment, which can be easily and readily lost in America.

I’m glad that these sort of protections apply to more people in Europe, too, rather than just some small privileged set of highly-paid employees.

NYT has a very thorough overview of the vaccines in development:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus...

I doubt they’re in the UK…they mentioned euros and not pounds. Perhaps it is renter’s insurance? For me in the Netherlands that’s only €12 or something per month.

> Would more installed capacity help?

Yes, as well as country interconnects so that excess wind generation in one region can be distributed elsewhere.

>wind power is far from cost effective and at least here it’s not even close to covering its own.

This is certainly not universally true...for example: https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2019/07/10/vattenfall-...

EU citizens for sure will be allowed to return, as it has been throughout the entire pandemic. Same generally with EU permanent residents.

There may be quarantine or other obligations however.

I don’t think it’s helpful to paint with as broad a brush as you are.

The processes of immigrating to the Netherlands for example are vastly less Kafkaesque and not subject to luck or some bureaucrat’s mood at the time. Everywhere else is not necessarily as difficult as America.

Voter registration is not linked to how one votes.

I would consider the abrupt cancellation of all festivals that had merely weeks ago been granted permission by the government to go ahead, as well as yet another imposed restriction on horeca to be wreaking havoc.

What will likely come soon is reimposed restrictions on Dutch travelers by other European countries, just as people had been given the go ahead.

The government’s test-for-entry system has also shown itself to be problematic.

It is fantastically disruptive. “Wreaking havoc” is certainly accurate.

> it's a uniquely North American thing

It’s a thing in Europe as well.

>I assume Karachi isn’t that bad yet.

This site is showing quite a bit higher than 27C wet-bulb temp:

https://meteologix.com/pk/observations/pakistan/wet-bulb-tem...

The issue isn't so much the absolute temperature as much as the combination of temperature and humidity. A wet-bulb temp of 35C can be fatal.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/how-hot-is-too-hot-for-human...

According to this site, there are numerous areas of Pakistan with a wet-bulb temp well north of 35C...that seems extremely dire, and should probably not be flippantly dismissed because other places are hotter.

https://meteologix.com/pk/observations/pakistan/wet-bulb-tem...

>young people gave up a year of their lives to "save grandmas"

It's disingenuous to suggest that throughout all of this, elderly people were somehow welcome to do as they pleased while the young were locked at home. Don't cast aside the immense suffering and loneliness of elderly people throughout this.

Sorry to hear PCR tests are so expensive there! They're like that in NL normally if you go to a private lab in order to get a certificate for travel. If you get a government one then there's no certificate for it normally.

>Time limited is how long? I'm guessing 48 hours? So, even if free, you need to take an hour or two out of your life, every two days to be able to go to the cinema/footbal match/concert?

Certainly not saying it is seamless or not a total pain in the ass, but in reference to the OP it is wrong to characterize this as young people suffering, locked at home at the expense of old people who are free to do everything.

>So no football games with friends, and no friends abroad?

No, that's not true.

I've mentioned it in a few comments now, but for events within Netherlands there is no cost - you can either have your (free) vaccination check or you can get a free PCR test and have a time-limited entry code. PCR tests for this purpose are always free in NL.

And the Netherlands is covering the cost of PCR tests for travel through July and August, by which point any adult who wants a vaccine can have had one.

For Netherlands, this is the list of safe countries that do not require you to test/quarantine on return:

https://www.government.nl/topics/coronavirus-covid-19/visiti...

Granted, it is more complex to check what countries require to accept a person traveling from the Netherlands.

I agree with you that I wish the yellow card was "good enough." It is for some countries like Germany and Iceland.

>Imagine that you are only allowed to visit certain countries based on your vaccination status.

We don't need to imagine this scenario, because it has long been the case for certain countries with yellow fever checks, TB checks, etc.

The difference now is that the restrictions are perhaps much more widespread.

>the old and weak get to go to concerts without paying for a covid test.

Be fair now...you also do not need to pay for the test. It's a hassle, true.

The context of the above was Netherlands, where there is no widespread quick testing-on-entry as there is in Germany. There is largely no restriction in day-to-day life in the Netherlands (and even less in the coming weeks), with or without a vaccine QR code; the code would apply for access to large events or travel. Also in Netherlands the government is paying for travel PCR tests through July and August. These countries have taken quite different approaches.

You do raise an excellent point that this vaccine system excludes children.

> I wonder if giving signing powers to however many hundreds of test locations will backfire at some point.

In Germany the vaccine proof can be generated at (most?) pharmacies. If that would become an issue, I don't think it would only be one in the Netherlands.

The vaccine QR code only matters for large events or travel abroad, so the example about meeting friends makes no difference whether you’re vaccinated or not.

In any case, while it is certainly nicer to be vaccinated, it’s possible to get free PCR tests for the equivalent access.

It’s an unfortunate reality but why shouldn’t people who are protected be able to take advantage of that? It’s older generations in broad strokes, but also people who were at higher risk, healthcare workers, people who’ve been vaccinated already abroad, etc. It’s not so simple as old vs young and even if it were I don’t see the solution as keeping everyone at a disadvantage because you are bitter that others got vaccinated sooner.

Furthermore, it is possible to take advantage of everything a person with a vaccine pass can do with a (free!) PCR test. It’s even paid for by the government for July and August for travel abroad.

Also, it’s definitely far from certain that some mutation will evaporate all of the progress made. It’s not helpful to speculate like that.

I didn't suggest that MoviePass functioned like insurance, only that it's not really an unusual concept. It's just clearly not workable as you point out.

> The only way their business model can work is if the majority of customers sign up and never use it, which is a very weird thing for a business to depend on, IMO.

This is essentially the concept of insurance, is it not?

Only Norway is lavishing in the oil wealth of an immense sovereign fund. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and the others are not so heavily influenced by oil. You can't generalize Norway to the rest of them.