"My life just got flushed down the toilet...I'm genetic garbage."

>Even with fully remote positions, they generally need you to be able to turn up to a physical site when needed, even if that's once in a great while.

IIRC two brothers from Ohio solved that problem back in 1903.

Just because a law is hard to enforce (especially on individuals), doesn't mean that it COULDN'T bite you in the ass (especially if you're an employer).

Vacation visa (B-2): no work at all. Period.

Business visa (B-1): Work for a specific purpose, nothing that could be construed as "putting an American out of a job" (because that's what politicians care about).

USCIS does not fuck around with this. If you want to even VOLUNTEER in the USA you will need a J1 visa in many cases.

Q: if you earn income in a country, whether legally or not, are you liable for income tax to that company's tax authority?

A: Generally Yes (of course, the tax itself may be offset by foreign tax credits or other exemptions)

B: If you earn wages, is your employer liable for employment taxes where you earn it?

A: Also yes, with the same caveats.

It all comes down to enforcement and whether it's worthwhile for the tax authorities to go after you. But generally, employers make better targets than individuals. An individual (a) has less money, and (b) may just say "well I just won't ever go back to the country where I owe money." A company doesn't have that luxury if it wants to retain its clients in that country. Also, companies make juicer ATM's for tax authorities to penalize and collect from.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Wait until you learn about data protection regulations - and the (often stricter) terms that clients sometimes dictate.

Source: work for a small head count multinational and have dealt with some of these situations regarding foreign national employees and "workcations." Maybe we could get away with it. In fact, we PROBABLY could get away with it.

But we strictly don't do the "fuck around" part, because we don't want to get bit by the "find out" part.

>Are you telling me people who go on vacations to other countries are legally barred from doing any work remotely in that country

That is entirely dependent on the laws of the host country. Most countries, USA included, forbid paid work while on a tourism/visitor visa. Even a "business visa" to the USA is granted for a specific purpose, i.e. attending a meeting or conference, signing a contract, assessing a property, etc. It's not for regular, day-to-day work that could be done in your home country.

Honestly, I'm surprised nobody stole them over the decades to build garden terraces, stairs, sheds, footpaths, etc. To this day, there are random bits of Hadrian's Wall used as parts of buildings, fences, and even as paving stones all over that part of Britain.

Don't forget hundreds of discarded tires in Anacostia Park!

I'm talking about USSR products. In the USSR, there was genuinely no competition. No branding. Literally whatever your local factory churned out.

USA: Tyson, Purdue, oscar meyer, store brand chicken, etc. available nationwide

USSR: generic chicken minced meat.

It's not like consumer goods manufacturers are making insane margins. Single digit operating profit is pretty normal in that industry.

The question is just "do consumers want to pay more for quality," and the answer is virtually always "not really."

The bulletproof appliances at your grandparents' house cost a FORTUNE back then compared to what people earned: https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/appliance-shopping-1959-vs-2012/

The cost of a washer/dryer set in 1959 represented 181.8 hours of work at the average hourly wage.

A washer/dryer set in 2012 represented 31 hours of work at the average hourly wage.

The newer model might only last 5-10 years instead of a lifetime. But businesses realized that that's fine for most consumers. Maybe even preferable - "I'll move before then; I don't want to pay extra so the next owner doesn't have to buy a washer and dryer."

General build quality in the USSR was terrible.

Here's an article with a lot of academic sources discussing the overall low quality of Soviet consumer goods: https://nintil.com/the-soviet-union-durable-goods/

If something was for military or government use, it was generally pretty good. Otherwise, you got whatever crap the local factory spat out, because there was no competition.

But only if you're a nordic Prime Minister.

Depends where and when you are there. I see adults doing it all the time.

Most ridiculous I saw was an entire family, from toddlers up through the grandma.

How is this remotely hard? Just enforce the law.

It's self-funding. If it's not, raise the fines until it is.

So let's just allow massive companies to profit even more by not ticketing their trucks, right?

NYC tickets the shit out of delivery trucks, and doesn't have this kind of problem. Somehow, New Yorkers manage to get their goods anyway.

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/economics/negative-externalities