<story><title>A Swede Returns to Silicon Valley from China</title><url>http://blog.traintracks.io/a-swede-returns-to-silicon-valley-from-china-2/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pavlov</author><text>That argument would be more convincing if the original poster were not comparing SF to Sweden -- the country that essentially solved those problems in 1950-1980 by having the most liberal and progressive government in the world.</text></item><item><author>wtbob</author><text>And some of the problems of SF (e.g. the homelessness, the mentally ill, the dirtiness &amp;amp; shabbiness of the city) are a direct result of its liberal &amp;amp; progressive government.</text></item><item><author>wwwdonohue</author><text>His emphasis on social justice (re: your fourth point) is what makes this article a bit confusing to read. I don&amp;#x27;t live in SF, but from a distance it certainly looks more liberal and progressive than China: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;world-asia-china-35217218&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;world-asia-china-35217218&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Häagen-Dazs or no Häagen-Dazs, I feel that SF&amp;#x27;s moral compass is screwed in slightly tighter than Beijing&amp;#x27;s.</text></item><item><author>msvan</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m also a Swede who has also lived in SF and Beijing.&lt;p&gt;The social problems of SF are certainly a bit of a shock coming from Scandinavia, and I can understand the author&amp;#x27;s excitement about Beijing. But there are a couple of deal-breakers about China that would make it very tough for me to consider moving back:&lt;p&gt;* You&amp;#x27;ll always be an expat. You can become an American both legally and culturally, but you cannot become Chinese in either sense. As someone who grew up surrounded by US culture, it makes more sense to live in the US than in China.&lt;p&gt;* Your business is always going to be at a disadvantage compared to 
native businesses. I don&amp;#x27;t have any first-hand experience of this, but from what I understand, government connections are necessary to get anything going, especially in hyper-competitive China.&lt;p&gt;* There&amp;#x27;s no public debate. The government has little oversight. The internet is censored. There are plenty of policies that I consider indefensible. The US has plenty of flaws too, but at least there is an open discussion about these flaws and a pathway towards fixing them.&lt;p&gt;SF can be a bit insular and self-absorbed at times, but I felt more at home there than I did in Beijing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mikaeluman</author><text>Sick and tired of non-swedes thinking socialists ever did anything for this country. Nothing was &amp;quot;solved&amp;quot; by politics in those years. Quite the opposite, our lean and mean economy faltered until the socialists became fiscally conservative in the 90s.&lt;p&gt;The sheer arrogance of Swedes dissing US is also annoying. Go to our new ghettos and inspect the great equity the progressives have established lately.</text></comment>
<story><title>A Swede Returns to Silicon Valley from China</title><url>http://blog.traintracks.io/a-swede-returns-to-silicon-valley-from-china-2/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pavlov</author><text>That argument would be more convincing if the original poster were not comparing SF to Sweden -- the country that essentially solved those problems in 1950-1980 by having the most liberal and progressive government in the world.</text></item><item><author>wtbob</author><text>And some of the problems of SF (e.g. the homelessness, the mentally ill, the dirtiness &amp;amp; shabbiness of the city) are a direct result of its liberal &amp;amp; progressive government.</text></item><item><author>wwwdonohue</author><text>His emphasis on social justice (re: your fourth point) is what makes this article a bit confusing to read. I don&amp;#x27;t live in SF, but from a distance it certainly looks more liberal and progressive than China: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;world-asia-china-35217218&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bbc.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;world-asia-china-35217218&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Häagen-Dazs or no Häagen-Dazs, I feel that SF&amp;#x27;s moral compass is screwed in slightly tighter than Beijing&amp;#x27;s.</text></item><item><author>msvan</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m also a Swede who has also lived in SF and Beijing.&lt;p&gt;The social problems of SF are certainly a bit of a shock coming from Scandinavia, and I can understand the author&amp;#x27;s excitement about Beijing. But there are a couple of deal-breakers about China that would make it very tough for me to consider moving back:&lt;p&gt;* You&amp;#x27;ll always be an expat. You can become an American both legally and culturally, but you cannot become Chinese in either sense. As someone who grew up surrounded by US culture, it makes more sense to live in the US than in China.&lt;p&gt;* Your business is always going to be at a disadvantage compared to 
native businesses. I don&amp;#x27;t have any first-hand experience of this, but from what I understand, government connections are necessary to get anything going, especially in hyper-competitive China.&lt;p&gt;* There&amp;#x27;s no public debate. The government has little oversight. The internet is censored. There are plenty of policies that I consider indefensible. The US has plenty of flaws too, but at least there is an open discussion about these flaws and a pathway towards fixing them.&lt;p&gt;SF can be a bit insular and self-absorbed at times, but I felt more at home there than I did in Beijing.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jazzyk</author><text>True, Sweden is clean and has no homelessness issues.&lt;p&gt;But it is now quite segregated (not unlike France with its banlieus) full of not-homeless, but, unfortunately, un-assimilated population.&lt;p&gt;A blog written by an American living in Sweden (check out the other posts on the blog as well):&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;swedenreport.org&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;police-yes-there-are-no-go-zones-in-sweden&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;swedenreport.org&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;05&amp;#x2F;18&amp;#x2F;police-yes-there-are-no-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>