I think that I'd be way more interested in reading about this phenomena if there was literally any term used to describe it other than "digital nomad".
There's also just the creeps who really enjoy being served by other humans, but can't really afford to own a full time servant class anywhere but SE Asia so that's where they live. Something really rubs me the wrong way about the white people who do this, lots of really creepy stuff going on.
> There's also just the creeps who really enjoy being served by other humans, but can't really afford to own a full time servant class anywhere but SE Asia so that's where they live.
Hi, I've been doing the digital nomad thing (I don't like this term either) for about a year and a half with two close friends. I'm not the way you describe, and neither are my friends.
Could you give more information about where your perspective comes from? Is this something you've seen while working as a nomad? Or something you imagine happening?
I quite enjoy having servants when I'm in India. There are many jobs where I don't have a comparative advantage so I pay people to do them. Your language "own a full time servant" is nonsensical, it's "pay a person for their labor at a mutually agreed upon wage". If an employee finds something better (which they often do in a fast growing economy) there's nothing I can do to keep them besides offer them more money.
By contrast, in the US, I'm forced to pay people not to work.
White Americans have a very odd bias against personal service. Honestly I think it is a major obstacle to economic growth - image how much more productive the average upper middle class family could be if they could employ servants to get things done at home.
Instead USG pays a big portion of "poor" people not to work, and also insists that they cannot work for low (market clearing) wages.
So you are putting forth the idea that all forms of personal service require sacrificing dignity? What does equality even mean with respect to one's work role?
> > So you are putting forth the idea that all forms of personal service require sacrificing dignity?
> Well yes. Following orders is always a sacrifice of dignity, even when we make it a small, subtle one.
Maybe the problem is that both 'following orders' and 'dignity' (and perhaps even 'sacrifice') are ill-defined, but I can name countless examples from my life, as well as from a cursory look at the life of friends of mine, where 'following orders' provided joy and satifsaction and where it didn't affect my (sense of) dignity. Especially in small, subtle cases.
A lot of people hire nannies, nurses and maids in the USA, especially older people who are not up for the task physically that much anymore.
Any kind of assistant is also pretty expensive in the USA, at least $2-3k full time per month, from post tax income. A very upper middle class family making $15k/month, that would be %15/%20 of their income, very expensive!
Indeed, because the US government heavily disincentives selling labor via steep and onerous labor taxes.
To further discourage selling labor, the US government spends a sizable portion of the taxes collected from labor-sellers to encourage people not to sell labor.
Because leisure is preferable to labor, and labor for the overall good of society (including oneself) is better than labor for the personal whim of a wannabe hierarch.
If you want to promote leisure, why should that leisure be concentrated in one leisure class? What's wrong with some leisure transfers - the leisure class can do some labor so that I can also consume leisure?
Being served, as in having a guy behind your chair when eating and handing you your shirt, like in Burmese days (Orwell)? I bet this is kind of rare nowadays.
But to me employing local people to do some very noble tasks like attending to kids is quite ok, and in fact a very healthy way to share your wealth with people that have good use for it.
I'm currently in Siem Reap, ready for the last leg of my trip.
It was more of a vacation to escape Berlin's cruellest months (january and february), but so far work has been hard. Very sporadic and much less consistent than I expected. Mine's a short trip, tho, with lots of travelling in between places, so I won't describe it as a real digital nomad experience.
Honestly i dont mind that factor at all. Sometimes wifi is shitty, sometimes not. Usually it works because otherwise people would complain. At home i had a gigibit sync internet connection and honestly i rarely really miss it. If everything else fails 4G is widely available and cheap
it seems like a lot of these problems can avoided by simply staying in one spot longer, i.e. 6 months to a year. i'd say anything less than 3 months and you're basically just a tourist.
i've lived in my current spot for 6 years and i still find new things less than 1 km from my house routinely.
I agree. In most places it's difficult to rent places at reasonable prices for less than a year. Sure, you can rent crappy places, but nothing good. You get a lot more mileage committing a year at a time than jumping around every month. Knowing you have 12 months ahead encourages behaving like you actually live there and also allows real friendships to develop.
It amazes me how some people jump around, going to 5 cities on their 2 week holiday. They go everywhere and they they experience nowhere.
The big challenge is immigration. 60 to 90 day visit limits are common, and how many times you can do quick ins and outs varies.
Yes, some of these issues can be avoided by going the long term, but the majority of them still persist: weather, not knowing the local language, troubles getting local things done, condescending attitude, food poisoning etc.
In fact, going long term helps with the internet speed and work place issues only. And even that isn't necessarily the case when staying in some Thailand islands, for instance.
But yeah, you get somewhat used to it. Personally, my 6 month stay in Chiang mai was quite pleasant.
A lot of the issues you describe seem to come from remotely working in countries throughout SE Asia. What if one were to travel the US as a US citizen? Issues like unreliable internet connection, workplace issues, food poisoning, visas/paperwork, and language barrier would be greatly minimized. Traveling Europe with an EU citizenship would be a similar experience, though you may run into some language barriers. You also have a general idea of what the weather will be like in any of these places.
Overspending on the other hand is definitely something that would be an issue while remotely working anywhere, but if you stay disciplined enough I think you'd be able to manage.
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[ 1466 ms ] story [ 250 ms ] threadThis is def an age thing though. The older you get the more you want to settle (in general).
There's also just the creeps who really enjoy being served by other humans, but can't really afford to own a full time servant class anywhere but SE Asia so that's where they live. Something really rubs me the wrong way about the white people who do this, lots of really creepy stuff going on.
As for the term, I don't like it either, but this is how languages work, I guess. There is little we can do at that point.
Hi, I've been doing the digital nomad thing (I don't like this term either) for about a year and a half with two close friends. I'm not the way you describe, and neither are my friends.
Could you give more information about where your perspective comes from? Is this something you've seen while working as a nomad? Or something you imagine happening?
By contrast, in the US, I'm forced to pay people not to work.
Why is preferring the former "creepy"?
White Americans have a very odd bias against personal service. Honestly I think it is a major obstacle to economic growth - image how much more productive the average upper middle class family could be if they could employ servants to get things done at home.
Instead USG pays a big portion of "poor" people not to work, and also insists that they cannot work for low (market clearing) wages.
Well yes. Following orders is always a sacrifice of dignity, even when we make it a small, subtle one.
> What does equality even mean with respect to one's work role?
That you can give input and have as much voice in the group's direction as anyone else.
Maybe the problem is that both 'following orders' and 'dignity' (and perhaps even 'sacrifice') are ill-defined, but I can name countless examples from my life, as well as from a cursory look at the life of friends of mine, where 'following orders' provided joy and satifsaction and where it didn't affect my (sense of) dignity. Especially in small, subtle cases.
Any kind of assistant is also pretty expensive in the USA, at least $2-3k full time per month, from post tax income. A very upper middle class family making $15k/month, that would be %15/%20 of their income, very expensive!
Indeed, because the US government heavily disincentives selling labor via steep and onerous labor taxes.
To further discourage selling labor, the US government spends a sizable portion of the taxes collected from labor-sellers to encourage people not to sell labor.
But to me employing local people to do some very noble tasks like attending to kids is quite ok, and in fact a very healthy way to share your wealth with people that have good use for it.
i've lived in my current spot for 6 years and i still find new things less than 1 km from my house routinely.
It amazes me how some people jump around, going to 5 cities on their 2 week holiday. They go everywhere and they they experience nowhere.
The big challenge is immigration. 60 to 90 day visit limits are common, and how many times you can do quick ins and outs varies.
In fact, going long term helps with the internet speed and work place issues only. And even that isn't necessarily the case when staying in some Thailand islands, for instance.
But yeah, you get somewhat used to it. Personally, my 6 month stay in Chiang mai was quite pleasant.
Overspending on the other hand is definitely something that would be an issue while remotely working anywhere, but if you stay disciplined enough I think you'd be able to manage.
https://microship.com/high-tech-nomad-popular-computing/