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And when your governments have nothing left to give the little piggies when they walk up to the troughs, what will you do then? Someone has to pay for this stuff. Governments are not perpetual motion machines. In fact, they're quite the opposite. Every dollar spent on a government run or sponsored program usually ends up being mostly wasted.

Source?

...and heaven forbid you (or any of your loved ones) ever have to take advantage of a federal aid program, like Medicare or Medicaid. I for one am a proud US citizen who gladly pays my taxes because I know there are veterans, elderly, disabled folks...my FELLOW man and woman...who need help. Am I directly benefiting from an aid program? Nope. BUT...when I help them (through programs that my tax dollars fund), I'm making the society that I live in better. Call it whatever "dirty" word you want, but there's nothing wrong with that in my book.

Long live the spirit of helping others out.
 

The software engineer average salary in silicon valley in 2001 was probably paid about 85-90K (dot come era salaries (110-115K adjusted for inflation)) (with another possible 10-20K in bonuses (but they couldn't be counted on), of course there was a decent amount of stock options too, those were the times).

The top level engineers (those that companies are built on) got about 200K (in 2014 money) and a flood of options.

I was somewhere in between average and god ;-). These were a VERY good time to be an engineer in silicon valley :). I left the area in 2002.

Salaries stagnated, went down a long time after that until around 2007 (the rise of the social medias, web 2.0, Apple). Not sure were they are now, but I'd be very surprised if there were anywhere near 150K.

Outside the major tech hubs software and computer engineers aren't paid as much.

Other types of engineers are paid significantly less than the average software and computer engineer BTW.
 
14 weeks + 4 maternity leave!? Is this generous in the US? Nine months is standard here (UK) with an option of up to a year. That's not at full pay though, and the last three months are unpaid, but mothers have a right to it and their job must be held open for them to return to. Plus you accumulate holidays during that time. As a perk employers can make the maternity pay more generous, but the statutory right is for 12 months. Making it statutory means there is a level playing field for businesses.



Eta: maybe I should read the thread before posting. ;)


It's 4 months of paid maternity leave for civil service here in Singapore, not so sure about private companies. Great for the mother, not so much for the rest of the colleagues who have to work harder to pick up the slack. So I imagine this is an eternal tradeoff the bosses have to make.
 
It's good, but isn't this common in the US?

In Holand every prenant woman get's 16 weeks free when having a baby, not "can take 16 week" but "get 16 weeks", there is no such thing as negotiation about this, it's the law, for decades allready.
 
Source?

...and heaven forbid you (or any of your loved ones) ever have to take advantage of a federal aid program, like Medicare or Medicaid. I for one am a proud US citizen who gladly pays my taxes because I know there are veterans, elderly, disabled folks...my FELLOW man and woman...who need help. Am I directly benefiting from an aid program? Nope. BUT...when I help them (through programs that my tax dollars fund), I'm making the society that I live in better. Call it whatever "dirty" word you want, but there's nothing wrong with that in my book.

Long live the spirit of helping others out.

I like your moral stand. Let's open a country start-up.
 
Wow, congratulations. Apple in late 2014 is now offering the amount of maternity leave (which we don't know if paid or unpaid) that has been enjoyed in most European countries for several years as a matter of law.

Comparing US to EU nations . . . no thanks. What is the financial state of many of those nations? Greece wants to have a word with you.
 
Comparing US to EU nations . . . no thanks. What is the financial state of many of those nations? Greece wants to have a word with you.

The financial state of many of those nations is fine. Some are continuing to have growth stutters, mostly because of austerity imposed in those places.

Most EU nations are doing more than fine in the current climate, and maternity leave has very little to do with the state of the less fortunate ones.
 
You think it will lessen the risk of the close succession of fails?

Heh, my theory is that the fails are the result of synchronizng the release of new iOS and OS X versions. Apple had to move software engineers from iOS to Yosemite and the result is a bug infested heap of dung for iPhones.

They should have staggered the releases and just updated OS X with continuity when it was available for iOS. Or they could have waited until both iOS 8 and Yosemite were out of beta.
 
You American snob. These countries among other EU countries are far more human friendly than you could ever imagine.

Agree with most of your statement except your use of the phrase "American snob." This whole discussion started out when a European snobbishly bragged about how much better everything is in Europe. It seems the snob finger should be pointing east.
 
Heh, my theory is that the fails are the result of synchronizng the release of new iOS and OS X versions. Apple had to move software engineers from iOS to Yosemite and the result is a bug infested heap of dung for iPhones.

They should have staggered the releases and just updated OS X with continuity when it was available for iOS. Or they could have waited until both iOS 8 and Yosemite were out of beta.

The use of the hyperbolic "bug infested heap", plus your tone in many other posts on other issues makes me question if you actually own any Apple products or just likes to push buttons.

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Comparing US to EU nations . . . no thanks. What is the financial state of many of those nations? Greece wants to have a word with you.

You could compare youself to Canada, were we still get much better benefits for mothers and children, and we are doing quite well thanks for asking.

Several European countries have high benefits and decent growth; typically the more nordic ones.
 
The use of the hyperbolic "bug infested heap", plus your tone in many other posts on other issues makes me question if you actually own any Apple products or just likes to push buttons.

iOS 8 is the buggiest OS I've ever used from Apple, Mac OS, OS X, or iOS. Yeah it pisses me off, because part of the reason I love OS X and tolerate iOS is because they are far more robust than their competitors. Hopefully this continues after Apple gets out a few point iOS releases.
 
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You could compare youself to Canada, were we still get much better benefits for mothers and children, and we are doing quite well thanks for asking.

Several European countries have high benefits and decent growth; typically the more nordic ones.

It's funny how they cherrypick Greece, isn't it? It's like using Alabama as an example of the US economy.

Germany in particular has far greater equality than the US and their economy does very well. Many of their industries surpass those of the US, despite their unions being more influential. When people start blaming unions for the state of the American auto industry, just mention German auto companies.
 
Is that a reduction? In most other countries that would be considered a pretty poor offer. I'm not even sure that it meets the statutory minimum.

It's an improvement. Most of us in the US are quite aware of just how crappy our benefits have gotten compared to the rest of the civilized world. :(
 
Euro Trash

You American snob. These countries among other EU countries are far more human friendly than you could ever imagine.

and yet, when you have a problem.....who do you call?

And today, the streets of Germany look pretty friendly, especially if you are Jewish.
 
and yet, when you have a problem.....who do you call?


That depends. If the problem is in the pipes, I'll call a plumber, but if I need a new socket installed that would be the electrician, then.

If for some reason I'd want to know how to rack up 18 trillion in debt without having much to show for it, I'd call someone in the US.
 
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