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Comment by byoung2 | Hacker News Reader

I hope governments around the world are reading this and taking note. When you make it hard for your citizens to set up shop in your country, they are going to go somewhere else where it is easier. And all of the jobs that they would create, and money that they would pump into the local economy goes with them. It is similar to what happened to the movie industry in Hollywood. When other states and countries started offering tax breaks and streamlined permit processing, big productions moved out of California.

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A story of my friend from the time I've lived in Germany...posted to a different topic but interesting nonetheless:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3224374

Thank you for sharing that story. Sounds like a very daunting process. When I was in the Philippines last year, there was an initiative to create a new visa that would grant permanent resident status to entrepreneurs who set up businesses that employed 10 Filipinos. I wish more countries would adopt this approach.

http://www.visasphilippines.com/sveg

Thanks for introducing Philippines to the discussion (in addition to Chile). Both countries provide an example of how to attract entrepreneurs. And both are emerging economies.

When I follow the discussion on "entrepreneurial immigration" in USA and in Germany I see the same flawed logic: Everything's OK now, "we're on the top of the world", "why risk letting people in, maybe there will be terrorists among them"... Essentially, it's the policy of building higher walls and being, in effect, repellent. But also not realizing that entrepreneurs are a rare breed.

Why do not intelligent people act differently? Why has the high civil servant from my story let a pretty sure bet (my friend) leave the country?

Yes, it's the risk of being accused for letting a foreigner in but that is the surface of the problem. Underneath is the hubris. "We don't need it, we've got it all" mentality.

> they are going to go somewhere else where it is easier.

Not necessarily. They're more likely to go somewhere else where it is easier.

Not necessarily. They're more likely to go somewhere else where it is easier.

I didn't mean that everyone would just pick up and move, but enough might, and that could have an impact. Some people won't go anywhere, but they might stay and not start that business, which would have the same effect.

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