Just one small correction - Albania and Yugoslavia were not members of the Warsaw Pact ;)

You can get such engineers in Serbia, Europe, on www.etf.rs or on www.ftn.rs, two of the best Serbian educational institutions that offer highly skilled knowledge after you finish studies. Now that I finished studies as electric engineer, and moved to the Netherlands, I am amazed how shallow the knowledge of others is compared to mine. On the other hand, when it comes to practical application of knowledge to work, there is no such difference - simply because most of positions today are not R&D and its quite hard to get one as such (excluding software engineering).

Exactly, makes sense. So basically what Apple store does is that it pays tax on behalf of Eire.

By some reason, I came across a writing on a Dutch Apple store website in which it says that VAT on software is 23%. Knowing that the VAT in the Netherlands is 21%, I read the disclaimer and the tax is 23% to all services. The services include software and once purchased, sw is "shipped" from Ireland. Maybe the Dutch have arranged it differently. I am not sure if Dutch Apple subsidiary is paying taxes to Dutch or Irish state, since the below statement does not clarify that: Excerpt from http://store.apple.com/nl/help/payments "Voor klanten van Apple die in de Apple Store elektronische softwaredownloads bestellen of andere producten die worden aangemerkt als diensten, geldt een btw-tarief van 23%. Elektronische softwaredownloads worden beschouwd als dienstverlening, en niet als product. Aangezien de dienst wordt geleverd vanuit Ierland, geldt een btw-tarief van 23%." translated: "For Apple customers who order from the Apple Store Electronic Software Downloads or other products classified as services, applies a VAT rate of 23%. Electronic software downloads are considered as services, and not as a product. Since the service is supplied from Ireland, a VAT rate of 23% applies."