jdb42

There is a large pull factor at work here also. This was a definitely a part of the reason that I recently definitely left New Zealand. US culture seems very attractive to almost sociopathic grifters, and of course such people have always been attracted to politics and managerial roles. Their worst behaviour used to be at least frowned upon, but is now seen as virtuous. So privatised health care, junk food, expensive education, homelessness, libertarian dogma and so on and so on are now viewed as a small price to pay or even a stage to be celebrated in somehow leading to better future. Push from visiting US envoys and US based think tank material have certainly always been visible, but the results have also been both visible and predictable. Enough of the local population seem to believe that they can have all the imaginary good stuff and that they - standard model human beings - are nice enough to avoid the bad stuff.

It's always great to see public domain books being made available, and standardebooks is certainly worth a visit. However, while I read quite a lot and in particular the sort of books that are available there, I mostly give the site a miss purely because of its design. I don't want to seem too sarcastic, but having huge images as a listing for books is odd when most of the users can read quite well. I'm probably a bit sensitive about this, since our local library does the same thing - it almost looks like there is something about uncompromisingly textual information that provokes a reaction from web designers.

Absolutely. Knowing the phrase "wine dark sea" and its associated discussion, exactly the same struck me when I saw it. Plus reflecting on "verbal" people maybe missing something.

Another NZer here. Engineer, retired to NZ seaside town after many years in the EU. OK for me but work here, impossible.

This would be funny if it wasn't so sad - I agree with erentz, plus I would add that with spending on R&D a fraction of what is normal in a developed country, it's not going to get better.

Not so bad for outsourcing - very low pay, lack of opportunity, average but adequate education and student debt means quite a bit of programming talent is available.