Remix.run Logo
exasperaited 3 days ago

And so they should. It looks like a fun trend until you realise how little digital nomads give back and how much they take.

FirmwareBurner 3 days ago | parent [-]

It doesn't matter what they contribute to the government and local communities, the digital nomad visa wasn't built with that in mind.

Digital nomads make landlords and property owners richer so there's a high chance the system will be allowed indefinitely since a lot of Croatians are property owners so they directly or indirectly benefit from this gentrification.

The system will only be challenged in politics once enough young Croatian voters find themselves priced out of their own cities like in Barcelona or Lisbon.

mschuster91 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> The system will only be challenged in politics once enough young Croatian voters find themselves priced out of their own cities like in Barcelona or Lisbon.

Outside of the direct coastal areas that already struggle with this issue from tourism, the brain drain that followed the 90s Independence War still left a sizable amount of empty real estate just sitting around.

And even in the direct coastal areas... a place to live is cheap. In doubt, just buy it, usually young people pool together some cash from relatives and some from bank loans to get started. Or they build it piece by piece, floor by floor, just like my grandparents did. Work a few years in a good job abroad, return to the homeland, build a house.

FirmwareBurner 3 days ago | parent [-]

>In doubt, just buy it

With what money? Doesn't matter, just buy it bro!

>young people pool together some cash from relatives

Where's my cash from my relatives? Guess I should have picked better parents.

>Or they build it piece by piece, floor by floor, just like my grandparents did.

Yes I'm sure building a house today is like in the 1950s. Same rules and regulations. I buy a small piece of land in the city and can just start laying bricks after work and then live in them.

mschuster91 3 days ago | parent [-]

> With what money? Doesn't matter, just buy it bro!

Work in Germany, set aside money, go back to Croatia. Land and construction costs are really cheap compared to Germany. It's a common thing in Croatia.

> Yes I'm sure building a house today is like in the 1950s. Same rules and regulations. I buy a small piece of land in the city and can just start laying bricks after work and then live in them

You still can do that today and extend an existing structure after the initial permit/inspection. All you need is the lower stories be solid enough statically, and you can't use that to get around zoning limitation on building height/story count. And yes, you can even do that in the motherhood of bureaucracy that's colloquially called Germany.

FirmwareBurner 2 days ago | parent [-]

>And yes, you can even do that in the motherhood of bureaucracy that's colloquially called Germany.

So why isn't anyone doing it?

mschuster91 2 days ago | parent [-]

People are doing that, it's called "Aufstocken" and is regularly done in the large urban and suburban areas to avoid a full demolition.

willvarfar 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

The local economy also gains from the small but continuous spend on restaurants and cafes etc, and the spend is encouraged to be year-round and not just in peak holiday season.

FirmwareBurner 3 days ago | parent [-]

>The local economy also gains from the small but continuous spend on restaurants and cafes etc

Speaking as someone living in Austria ATM, that's the worst kind of industry you want to boost if you want more money in the community, as it only creates dead-end low wage unskilled jobs(often taken by seasonal immigrants who send that money home) and is rife with cash-driven tax evasion, leading to more wealth and income disparity. If you get more and richer tourists, you won't get better paid baristas or waiters with better pension plans, but wealthier business owners who will buy more properties and flashy cars while still hiring the cheapest most desperate labor possible from abroad.

As a government, you should do the opposite, focus on attracting or creating highly skilled innovation jobs (like NL or Sweden did) and the hospitality jobs will follow naturally.

There's a reason countries where the tourism industry is a big part of the GDP, are low income countries.

Grimburger 3 days ago | parent [-]

> There's a reason countries where the tourism industry is a big part of the GDP, are low income countries.

Unreal that you can't see the obvious logical flaw in this argument.

FirmwareBurner 3 days ago | parent [-]

As opposed to your bad faith comment that argues nothing and just breaks HN rules?