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For some, it truly is a lifestyle choice and for others, it was being at the right place at the right time... not everyone seeks or desires to be rich and some actually shun being rich.
On the other hand, my god-sister went to work at Apple Computer while in High School in 1980.... she has no advanced degrees, didn't come from a wealthy family and yet has done VERY well for herself because she was at the right place at the right time...
I personally know others that have accumulated well over a million dollars working in start-up companies here in the valley back in the 1980's...
I also know others that came as refugees from Cambodia and Laos with nothing and are truly living the life they dreamed of as business owners...
Or what about the gardener that came here from Vietnam and has one Toyota Truck making a living and has 1 child in Stanford Medical and another at UC Berkeley Engineering?
I also know people that walk the walk, working at non-profits with no desire to accumulate wealth... the point is in America, opportunities exist.
It is often embarrassing when immigrants with language, cultural and economic hardships make a better life for themselves and their offspring...
they are not jaded by the entitlement culture. they know that the world doesn't owe them anything because they've probably come from a place where they had no chance of amounting to anything
The quoted statement sums it up. Salaries have not kept up with the times. 20 years ago it may have seemed like a great income but not now.
How do you solve that though?
I read the article "Consider the Germans" in this month's Harper's:
Consider the Germans by Thomas Geoghegan
This link might work, but I can't seem to post it as I like: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2010/03/0082859
It was quite good and explained a few things about the German system and why they maintain manufacturing jobs.
They've bought into a system that works.
Well, I live in Oakland California and the city is known for it's diversity... both economic and racial...
To say that people don't have a chance or can't make it is wrong... when people with nothing but the will to succeed make a go of it...
It is often embarrassing when immigrants with language, cultural and economic hardships make a better life for themselves and their offspring...
How else can the high number of the UC student body of second generation Asian Americans be explained if the die is cast and no one has a chance?
So many of the areas young MD's are foreign born... people do have options...
I was at a math competition recently with my kids, and there were sports tournaments at the school that day too. The ethnic demographic difference between those there for youth sports and those there for the math competition were staggering. (Immigrant kids from the pac rim dominated the math competition)
It merely tells you which cultures value education and which culture looks down on *nerds* and celebrates athletes even down to the local junior high levels. (Seriously pathetic)
Well, I live in Oakland California and the city is known for it's diversity... both economic and racial...
To say that people don't have a chance or can't make it is wrong... when people with nothing but the will to succeed make a go of it...
What Im pointing out is that the percent of poor immigrants who make it big is just as disparaging as the number of poor Americans.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrarunner
It is often embarrassing when immigrants with language, cultural and economic hardships make a better life for themselves and their offspring...
Many poor Americans face similiar hardships, right down to poor control of the English language.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ultrarunner
How else can the high number of the UC student body of second generation Asian Americans be explained if the die is cast and no one has a chance?
So many of the areas young MD's are foreign born... people do have options...
Its not that "no one" has a chance, its that most people have little to no chance. Its not that the odds are insurmountable, its obvious that some people have risen from nothing. Its that the odds are so steep that its more then enough to defeat most people, and its getting harder every single year.
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(Seriously pathetic)
