sbacic

I'm just going to go out and say it: Europe is poor. At least compared to the US. You can see this plainly when comparing GDP per capita but it's particularly telling when you look at the revenue of tech giants, such as Alphabet and Meta. For example, Alphabet made roughly 50% of its revenue from the US and about 30% from EMEA in 2025.

Now compound that issue with conservative investors, a fractured "single" market and a strong preference for social equality over entrepreneurship.

> Physical losses in undermaintained water grids are the biggest cause for the issue.

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't that mean the water is returned back to the environment? It's not made unusable, nor does it disappear permanently.

This "greed" and lack of foresight underpins a lot of the welfare states of Europe. Many member states are doing nothing at all to account for this population shrinkage, much less plan for a world with less people.

> Population collapse is a good thing.

Unless your welfare state depends on a growing population. Which is the case in many EU states.

I'd also argue that overpopulation is not a problem in Europe.

Which in itself wouldn't even be a problem if lack of said documents caused your submission to automatically fail validation right at the start. Instead, a real, live person will need to review your request to verify that it indeed includes a full set of documents, said documents are genuine and "correct" (despite most of them already being issued by the government!) before approving your request.

Not quite. Disguised employment is a pretty specific and (usually) clear-cut issue with well defined criteria. The problems start when a jurisdiction broadens the definition to include whatever they want because they want to capture more tax revenue.

IANAL, but I've been freelancing for years and had a similar thing come up. In the end I was found compliant with the law, ie: not in disguised employment.

Last year, when I bought a boat. Financially, it was probably one of the stupider decisions I've made. On the other hand, it opened a whole new world to me, forced me to grow as a person and made me reevaluate my priorities in life.

Nevera means "storm" or alternatively "squall" in Croatian, which is where the car got its name.

> Its an insult to people from non-english speaking countries.

No it is not. It may be an insult to people from larger countries who have been pampered all their life, with all the content they consumed being in their native language, being led to believe that their language is somehow equal to English. It is not.

I am Croatian. I don't expect anyone to learn my language, even if they're coming to live here. In fact, considering how difficult it is, we Croatians usually tell people not to bother. I do expect that when I travel, I can use English, the de-facto lingua franca, to find my way around and communicate with locals. I expect signs and information to be in English. Most amusingly enough, people from smaller countries _get_ this. They understand that if they want to participate in a global society, they need to learn English. People from big countries don't.

> People who can invest large amounts of money can afford a translator.

Yeah, that sound like the European way of thinking about business. "What do you mean you don't want to spend money on red tape and pointless busy-work? Maybe you're too poor to start a business?" On the other hand, the Anglo-sphere makes it as easy as possible to start a business. And thus, the US is a hotbed of innovation while Europe...is not.

> You can't expect the rest of the world to work exactly like it does at home.

Funny you should mention that. I come from a small country. And when you come from a small country, learning a foreign language is basically required. Nobody is going to bother learning your language in order to communicate with you. Why this idea is so foreign in _bigger_ countries was always fascinating to me (even though I know why).

> From the country's perspective: what good does this foreign startup bring?

Free money without the country having to do much? I mean, if I was a government, I'd be pretty happy with somebody paying me money for doing nothing other than keeping a piece of paper with a company name in a filing cabinet. I'd be even happier if somebody I didn't have to raise or educate moved here to pay taxes and spend their money.

> a foreigner should not expect a country to conduct its legal proceedings in a language different to their native.

If that is the case, perhaps countries should consider their native language as an actual disadvantage when it comes to attracting foreign investment? After all, if I need to learn, say, Slovenian, to open and run a business in Slovenia, that makes me less likely to do so. Which means that Slovenia might need to settle for lower tax rates or provide some other benefits in order to entice me to do business there.

> EU: 27 different markets in the EU + half a dozen markets in countries freely associated with the EU (e.g. Norway and Switzerland) in different languages, cultures and expectations

That's understating the issue. There are only 5 (!) EU member states with a population higher than that of the NYC metropolitan area and _none_ with that kind of population concentration or purchasing power.

SEEKING WORK | Europe | Remote only

Front-end developer with over 5 years of freelance experience, mostly on greenfield projects but also occasionally with established codebases. Used to working alone with minimal supervision or in small teams. Have a good eye for design, a strong focus on code quality, good communication skills and some experience in technical management.

Technologies: React, GraphQL, Typescript, CSS3/HTML5, Git, styled-components, Formik, Jest, Storybook, TailwindCSS, NextJS, SASS, TailWindCSS

Blog: www.slavenbacic.dev

Github: www.github.com/sbacic

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slaven-bacic

Email: bacic dot slaven at gmail.com

CV: available on request

No, it's fine. I assumed that you meant that olx.ro was a scam or something. Only after I visited immobiliare.ro did I realize the difference in quality between their offerings.

> one does _not_ rent property on OLX and there are only some areas that are desirable (i.e.: have to look and feel of central or western europe).

Interesting. Why not? The apartments look pretty legit.

I was under impression it was 1-3% profit tax + 5% dividend with an upper limit of 1 million euros? Or has that changed (again)?

Also, 850 pcm seems kind of high, at least compared to what I saw on olx.ro.

Not all that unusual really. Before the EURO replaced the DM, many things in Croatia, such as cars and real estate were denominated in DM. This was due to rampant inflation (especially in the 80s and 90s) causing people to lose faith in the local currency.

I expect I'll get a lot of flak for this one, but I'd like to suggest the "4 hour work week" by Tim Ferriss. I've read it at about the same age and it had a profound effect on me.

Another book I'd suggest is the Enchiridion of Epictetus. If you ever intend to have kids, "Summerhill" by A.S.Neill is a good choice.

/r/sailing definitely. Awesome community.

The various tech subreddits are also useful. Some others, in no particular order:

r/fire

r/digitalnomad

r/design

Indeed they are. It's a pity that more governments haven't followed their example or that having clear, easy to use government websites is somehow still a too high bar to clear for so many countries.

I'm not sure the average Brit appreciates how good these online services are, on account of never having to use the "average" government website.

There should be financial penalties for any company that does this. Otherwise trust vanishes and the only thing that is certain is money in your pocket. Imagine if in the future, companies had to put money in escrow to prove that they are serious about an offer because nobody would believe or trust them otherwise?

> Your job is gone due to automation, immigration, or globalization? It's entirely reasonable to reach for the conservative button to make things go back. Populists promising your job back is an appealing message.

If you're a miner in a ex-mining town who lost his job, but the government isn't doing anything about it what are your options really? Either leave or vote for whoever is promising changes, even if that somebody is a known liar and/or radical.

On another note, I think that just as technological progress is making some people unemployed, it's also leaving some countries behind. It's just that countries can afford to be ignorant of this trend since it's not an existential threat in the _present_.

> A company’s messaging or social media app is interoperable, to prevent users feeling forced to use one or the other because that’s where their friends are

Does this mean what I think it means? That we can finally say goodbye to half a dozen different chat apps and just have one (like Pidgin in the good old days)?

If we're only talking about income, your only option is contracting (or maybe starting a successful business...). If you are willing to work on your expenses, then a lot of other avenues open up to you; you can make significant savings by moving to a country with lower taxes and/or cost of living (for example Romania). Keep in mind that coming from Austria, you may experience some culture shock.

Here are some quick back of the napkin calculations:

Austria

Gross: 80K

Net: 49K

After rent: 41K

Romania

Gross: 80K

Net: ~71K*

After rent: 66K

* Micro-company at 1-3% tax on revenue, 5% dividend tax, ~€2000/year social contributions (once you cross a certain limit), €500/year accountant. I am not a lawyer or accountant so please check with one before making any decisions ;)

> Why is it okay to be paid $100,000 for the exact same job as your equivalent counterparts in the US make 3.5x for?

I'm not going to say it's okay, but there are a few things to keep in mind. The most obvious is that salaries are not determined so much by how productive the employee is but by the relationship between supply and demand.

But that's not the really interesting part. The interesting part is that when you factor in taxes and CoL, you might be earning less gross but walking away with more money after paying taxes and living costs.

I don't have a particular city in mind, but here are the criteria I'd like it to fulfill:

by the ocean, with good weather year round

good public transport

an airport nearby with good and affordable airport connections

at least 2+ million people

reasonable costs of rent

lively cultural scene

> I don't know about "hacks", rather observations.

They are definitely hacks: the Enchiridion lists a few of them. Stoicism is anything if not a practical philosophy.

> An observation about slavery is that you've traded in the burden of responsibility that liberty introduces for the comfort of not having to worry about what to do with yourself

I interpreted it as a hedonic treadmill of responsibility; okay, you're not a slave anymore but a citizen so now you have the responsibilities of a citizen to worry about. You're no longer a citizen but a senator, so now you have senatorial responsibilities. You're no longer a senator but the emperor, so now you have to deal with all the problems an emperor needs to deal with it (as Marcus Aurelius can attest to).

Moving up in the world just means that you replace one set of problems with another set of problems. Slave or emperor, it makes no difference if the problems are beyond your control.

I don't think Epictetus was actually defending the institution of slavery. Rather, stoic philosophy is full of these "hacks" for handling unpleasant things in your life. Many of them seem quite morbid and bizarre to the untrained mind (such as actively thinking about the death and absence of a loved one).

I wouldn't be so harsh; it's better to have some way of handling things life throws at you, especially things you have little to no control over, than none at all.

Oh, I think they should definitely adjust. But it should not be adjusted by employees or between employees but rather by the business, to serve its goals (retention, productivity, etc...).

I think in these situations, the employee should ask himself: "what is good for the business?" rather than "what do I want to do?".