No matter where your customers are, you are subject to (at the very least) tax and social security regulations of the country you live in.
Rather than looking in the mirror I would suggest looking at:
https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/corruption-rank
http://www.doingbusiness.org/en/doingbusiness
As a foreigner you cannot do as the locals do when it comes to corruption (even if you wanted to) or you're going to have a target on your back.
You don't need to shun the people even if you shun the country.
I feel it's already very widespread to avoid any visits to Turkey and Russia (among others obviously), though it's hard to say how much of it is because of the political situation, and how much because of perceived instability. Personally, I would like to see Hagia Sophia but I'm unlikely to visit as long as Turkey stays in the current dictatorial road.
The scale may be different, but the situation in the US is not to good either on these topics, and has been deteriorating lately.
A total of 11 journalists have been arrested during the protests in Ferguson
Most were only held briefly, not charged
German reporter says he's never been treated so badly by police
https://www-m.cnn.com/2014/08/19/us/ferguson-journalists-arr...
I saw something once that credibly argued that the treatment of Chelsea Manning in prison amounted to torture.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_Manning
The current president of the US has called for his political opponent to be jailed. Not readily finding actual instances of actually jailing political opponents in the US, but I'm not trying that hard either.
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/2/1729104/-Donald-Trum...
We also generally treat Blacks and Natives terribly and generally have crazy high rates of incarceration.
Ferguson protests were dangerous and riotous at times. Sure, some people were arrested that shouldn't have been, but they were released. This isn't even comparable to the kinds of journalist arrests and murders we are talking about.
Journalists entrenched in violent protests will inevitably get arrested, that's not a break down of rule of law, nor of democracy; are they getting imprisoned for being journalists who are critical of the president? Not AFAICT. In Turkey journalists are imprisoned for not supporting Erdogan.
Has Trump called for his opponents to be imprisoned for not supporting him? Or, did he claim they had committed crimes for which objectively they should be punished? Erdogan has his political opponents actually imprisoned; and 10s of thousands of their supporters.
Trump is a whacked out crazy misogynist, displays the worst traits of capitalist greed, and of self-obsession, he's a power hungry ignoramus. But Erdogan is an evil genocidal fascist.
However it's still a long way away from countries like Turkey or Uzbekistan or Russia.
Compare the US to Brazil or South Africa sure, point out how it's no longer in the same bracket as Canada or Denmark or NZ, but comparing to Turkey or Thailand does a disservice.
Like, yeah, Turkey is worse. I think. I'm not even sure, given that Turkey has less power. So no, it's not at that level. Yet.
Trump's inclination to reduce everything to ass kissing ("has said nice things about me") and personal vendettas would be an absolute disaster in many countries. But the US is healthy enough to survive him - I think.
Does it. A first-past-the-post system which reduces everything to two parties. Low voter turnouts. High gerrymandering. Terrible voter accessibility laws. Three branches of government end-to-end owned by only one party. And a ton of money in politics thanks to Citizens United.
I'm sorry, but "robust democratic institutions" and "checks and balances" at this point are things americans tell themselves to sleep better at night. If you step back, you start seeing just how far gone the country is.
(I'm not American)
The constitution also defines the process of changing the constitution itself (article V), and it does not include a way for Mr Trump or his party to do that as they do not have the required two thirds majority in both houses or in state legislatures.
Importantly, there isn't even a way for him to whip up emotions in a referendum in order to change the constitution.
The judiciary is not controlled by any party at all. Supreme court judges are appointed for life to prevent arbitrary interventions by other branches of government.
And in practical terms, did you really get the impression that Trump has unwavering support even just among the legislators of his own party? Did you get the impression that the FBI acts on Trump's say so? How about the courts?
No, what I'm seeing is a wannabe autocrat who is kept in check by an extremely robust set of institutions, constitutional arrangements and by a lot of principled individuals inside those institutions.
I don't see Xi, Erdogan or Putin getting investigated by their own police or courts, having to fear impeachment or face the sort of (well deserved) journalistic onslaught that Trump has had to face.
You realize that if they get this bad, it's too late to take action, right?
Here's the same logic, applied to a different field: "Oh, yes, you keep talking about climate change but I only see mild temperature increases and I'm not even sure they're man-made. I don't see the sea level rise and catastrophic outcomes you're talking about. If we start seeing those, we'll take action."
It'll be too late.
That's exactly why so many autocrats and parties with an authoritarian bent try to change the constitutions of their countries in order to give themselves greater powers.
Trump hasn't done that because he can't. And I think this deserves far more attention than it is getting. It is something other countries can learn from.
https://apnews.com/0a029f0bf678452aa89facb6dfba5f25 - AP - WH restricts AP, Reuters, Bloomberg for KJU summit
http://time.com/5270968/donald-trump-reporters-credentials-m... - TIME, Donald Trump threatens taking away reporter credentials
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/09/donald-trump... - The Guardian - White House won't rule out banning press for 'negative' coverage
Just a couple of examples of what white house press feels like under the Trump era. Talk to me more about "his predecessor".
Edit: Today's bonus article on freedom of speech, press, and assembly: https://outline.com/3TKY5M - CNN - DOJ demands Facebook information from 'anti-administration activists'.
There's like one of these every day at least. So, you know, I don't believe you.
Of course, other checks are being removed left and right, so I don't think it evens out in the case of the Trump admin.
I wouldn't move to any of those places though, partly because I don't want to support people like Hamas or Erdogan, and with the justice systems in these countries, that's what you're doing. Same if you set up shop in Colombia or Venezuela.
However it's also because of corrupt governments means I as a westerner am particularly vulnerable. Canada, New Zealand, Finland, Portugal, Japan, Argentina, sure, you'll be fine (ok maybe not Brits in Argentina).
If all you're doing is a backpacking gap year, and you're willing to get out of these fast, you're probably OK, but look at how quickly Istanbul turned during the attempted coup. Things can get very ugly, very quickly, or they can get very ugly in a boiling frog basis and you won't notice until it's too late. Neither is good.
For example, Russia bombs and shells cities in Europe and Africa, uses chemical weapons, bombs hospitals, torture and kills civilians in their own and even in other countries, supports terrorists, spread fake news, and so on. But you can find lot of intellectuals in Moscow.
In one word, no
https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-... is a good starting point
Well, you could say that the United States is run by a similar person. That does mean all of the U.S. is like that?
Istanbul does have a good intellectual atmosphere. Izmir too.
I'm not going to say it's all fine over here, but it's perfect for a digital nomad. Istanbul, especially places like Besiktas and Kadikoy are perfect.
No, you really couldn't. While the US democratic system is augmented by a very strong executive position, he still is only the executive of the system with fairly robust checks and balances in place (which seems to be working despite intense tire kicking).
US is not run by the president.
This quora answer seems a pretty good 101 on the issue:
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-US-not-a-parliamentary-syst...
Just because a person tweets like an ex-wrestler turned autocrat does not make him so.
Trump is just an error in the system, a person that is incapable of following the rituals and gain advantage of a low-profile attitude.
The civic quality of the Turkish system has quite a troubled history. Turkey's government has been held at a gunpoint by it's military for decades:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
"systemic corruption in the USA has been prevalent for almost a century"
I think that needs a quotation. US history is filled with genocide, empire building and after the 1970's, funnelling the profits from the economy from the employees to the capital owners. That, however, is not the same thing as corruption.
We're not discussing who is 'good' or 'bad', but comparing the quality and nature of institutions on the national level.
Certainly the couple of military coups there I know of seemed to rapidly result in establishing a strongly democratic constitution and a group of representatives to whom the assumed power could be handed over to.
Not that this is a bad thing. I don't see any reason for the great design & engineering talent in Istanbul to stay there, while the ruling government treats anybody who's not a part of their clientele (conservative, xenophobic, nationalist, authoritarian) like cockroaches. Considering they're only getting 51% even with the massive, massive practical broadcast power the ruling governments get, that's a lot of people.
So we vote. In the best way. With our feet.
Funnily enough, even Erdogan is realising that Turkey is losing a massive amount of talent on a month-to-month basis, in that it's been in a few of his speeches imploring people to come back lately. Apparently he realised when we're all gone, and when the construction / inflated real estate boom stops (which it did a few months ago, and the economy is in free fall right now), the only people who actually produce value are the people he did his best to alienate and scare out of the country. I believe his literal words in a national speech were: "Like, or leave" ("Ya sev, ya terket").
So we did, and I'm now paying my tax bill to the Internal Revenue Service of the United States, instead of Vergi Idaresi, and you know what? USA treats me with a lot more dignity and respect than Turkey ever did.
Turkey is going to starve (hopefully only figuratively) before it gets better, and I don't have a big problem with that. There's no teacher for authoritarians like it.
Istanbul is a beautiful city and I'd love to go back. That being said, I've also traveled to over 30 countries and have a bit more perspective on the matter compared to the average American.
>"[...] 134,000 people in Turkey have been sacked, including 7,300 academics and 4,300 judge and prosecutors in the nine months since the failed coup in which there is little evidence that any of them knew anything about or were otherwise involved. Some 231 journalists are in jail and 149 media outlets have been shut down, while 95,500 people have been detained and 47,600 arrested under emergency laws." (https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/turkey-erdogan-referend...)
Nevertheless - my point was, you’re living my dream and I’ll definitely give a visit when my life allows for a Portugal trip. Never been yet.