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by gruez 1574 days ago
>Couldn't we encourage people to take converted container ships to the middle east, ie Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco or South America to enjoy an enjoyable warm "winter" ?

you mean get people to temporarily emigrate to north africa?

1 comments

Yeah I spent 2 months in Egypt, 400$ per month including flight and visa, that may seem extreme but it's very cheap. IMO if Europeans took advantage of cheap doctor and dentistry and fresher products while taking a couple of months off work (unpaid leave) it would also give a big economic and social impulse... Besides learning arabic a language used by a big fraction of humanity including many Europeans was both enlightening and fun :-)
While this might work for an individual, or a group of adventurous hacker news readers, I doubt this would work for a significant portion of the country. It's certainly not big enough portion of the country needed to make a noticeable dent on energy demand. Also, think about how such a migration would affect the local economy. Once all the knowledge workers (ie. the people who can work remote) leave, their spending will dry up, causing local business to shut down and non-remote workers to lose their jobs. The economy will enter a downward spiral.
I'd just like to correct you, nowhere did I mention WFH... I actually meant 2 months "holiday" at the moment there is talk of work 4 days get paid 5... Besides it kind of happened during Covid.. There is a movement in France, called "decroissance" (less growth) and really we should be imagining it in terms of reduced energy consumption by all means and increased human value... I could go on and on but one thing strikes me, ATM in Switzerland people are obligated to pay for health insurance, they have one of the lowest corporate tax rates, yet 400$/per month is usual... it just feeds the managers....(besides being what I spent in a month)