Low tax and no crime... up for takers?

[Brendan]

It wasn't for me when I was 25 and single but now that I'm all big and married and stuff it is fast becoming one.

[indiepanda]

I considered working overseas for a while, but despite its faults, I'm still rather fond of England, and whilst I'm not exactly nipping home on a weekly basis, I like knowing it's not far to go if I need to. Only good argument for working overseas seems to be money, and there's more to life than that.

[Huguenot]

Just for the money? How about the experience? We only live for 80 years or so, and the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.... ;-)

Posted by: Brendan July 29, 09:38AM

Quote:

These families, which we still call middle-class, usually have two jobs (the British norm), two or more cars (the norm), a small semi-detached or large terraced house, and a combined income that pays for the mortgage, food, fuel and a couple of holidays a year (one of them somewhere warm).

Put like that the mundanity of it all seems so depressing.

As Alexander the Great would have it, surely we should only rest when there are no other worlds to conquer? (That's figuratively, not literally for the more bellicose amongst you)

[indiepanda]

I'm not saying it's depressing, but financially I do fine here, I don't need to go overseas for the better life.

I like to travel, I'm just not sure I could commit to living overseas for any length of time. When I enquired about it once, most companies who wanted people in my profession wanted people who were willing to commit for 5 years, which was too long. I'd have tried it for 2 years. Might do it as a secondment in my current job I suppose.

But it's different doing it as a single person to being married & taking your family with you and always having the people you are closest to in the same country.

[citizenED]

I can understand economic migrants from poorer countries working in a wealthier country and sending money home to help their family build a better life but people from wealthy countries going anywhere else just doesn't add up in my book, except, perhaps, when they are young free and single as Brendan mentioned. Might be great to be the pioneer and conquer far-flung lands, but when your family comes along, how about staying at home. I mean, there are only so many temples you can see in one lifetime. As Blake said, you can see the universe in a blade of grass. And, sorry, I think it basically unfair to deny grandparents and other relatives simply to satisfy your own internal wanderlust.

[*Bob*]

Hugenot

Tell us about all the other places you upped-sticks and relocated to when cash wasn't involved?

You know.. the times when you just went for 'the experience'?

[Huguenot]

LOL

Involved or the major influence? Cash is involved in every decision, but the differential between home & abroad was never enough to make it the number one motivation in moving.

In Beijing income tax is over 40% and the bracket started lower.

The tax thing in Singapore was lucky break, but owning a company in the UK and earning on dividend meant that the differential wasn't as big for me as for say, someone on PAYE in the 40% bracket with 11% NI.

Cost of living in Beijing was lower, but hardly a reasonable trade for the collapse in quality of living - water ran brown and the visibility averaged 100m.

Both roles were a kick up the career ladder, but that's also not purely motivated by money. Some people are motivated by using a greater range of skills and stretching themselves a little further.

CED's point is a good one about the family, but that depends on what kind of family you are and your own personal situation. Bumbalina's Canadian, so either way we'd be long distance from half the grandparents, I'd hazard it's quite a smart political decision to favour neither one nor the other...?

But also the perspective can get a bit skewed. I saw my grandparents once every three/four months growing up and it's perfectly plausible to do that from abroad. Even if something comes up quickly it takes less than 12 hours from Singapore to London - that means a 9am call can get a visit at 9pm.

For sure if you're the kind of family that likes to live next door to gramps it's a different situation.

[*Bob*]

A shorter answer would have been "there haven't been any".

[candj]

citizenED Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I can understand economic migrants from poorer

> countries working in a wealthier country and

> sending money home to help their family build a

> better life but people from wealthy countries

> going anywhere else just doesn't add up in my

> book, except, perhaps, when they are young free

> and single as Brendan mentioned. Might be great to

> be the pioneer and conquer far-flung lands, but

> when your family comes along, how about staying at

> home. I mean, there are only so many temples you

> can see in one lifetime. As Blake said, you can

> see the universe in a blade of grass. And, sorry,

> I think it basically unfair to deny grandparents

> and other relatives simply to satisfy your own

> internal wanderlust.

But wouldn't it be wonderful to uproot life, family and everything just for an experience of a lifetime for you and your children? Visiting another country is not the same experience as living in another country learning the language and seeing the culture. As someone mentioned, we only have about 80 years on this planet and it would be nice not to have any regrets at the end of it. The grandparents can always come for a visit!

[Huguenot]

:)

And you don't write jingles just for love Bob, but doesn't mean you don't have any.

Thant's the spirit Candj, but you don't need to leave the crumblies behind! If it wasn't for 'the family' they'd have bogged off to the sun years ago. Bring them with you, more the merrier.

*Reconsiders...*

[citizenED]

Oh god, am I ever coming over as the low horizon, negative ambition, little-englander mucker. Far from it I hope. It's just that I've always been suspicious of that "travel broadens the mind" sentiment. I think that "culture" is somehing that is that runs deep and exists in relative terms in the sense that it is not very useful to rate the relative merits of different cultures. So why go and "experience" another culture unless you have got to the unlikely position of having exhausted your own, or that you are a linguist who is making a positive contribution to entente cordial, or of course you have family on two different continents so, out of a sense of fairness, and airmiles, set up home on a third.

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

I love travelling and lived in Canada as a kid. I always thought I'd end up dragging all my kids to some other country to live, but now with the hastening effects of climate change and deminishing resources in our faces, the idea of becoming the hated incomers blamed for the economic collapse of my adopted country by their xenophobes is enough to make me think twice, or plan to start stockpiling weapons!

[candj]

Dear Citizen, I'm not calling you 'little-englander mucker' (never heard of that phrase!) and I agree with what you are saying, but sometimes it is nice to see the world again and especially through your children's eyes. Personally, I was born in one country, moved to another as a young child, then moved back to birth country, then off to the UK and am currently (with family) in yet another country before coming back to the UK next year. Confusing, I know, but because I grew up this way, it seems natural that the kids are exposed to it. I like learning new languages, learning new cooking methods, seeing a different way of life. Perhaps these are petty gains for some people. I will say that it has made me miss London greatly and maybe in the end that is the point?! It's not for everyone so fair enough.

Sorry Huguenot for hijacking your thread!

Dear CWALD, you can always make travel carbon neutral these days! ;-)

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

It's not the flying there I'm worried about as much as being stuck in a country where I will be viewed as an outsider when the global recession heading our way hits.

[Huguenot]

It's Singapore not Tower Hamlets!

[citizenED]

candj my comment was not aimed at you in the slightest - it was my own term couched after reading the thread. I just felt that I sounded like someone whose mum lived a few doors down and had never been further than the next village. ;-)