Comments for An Immigrant's Tale at http://www.urbanelephants.com , comment 1 to 4 out of 4 comments http://www.urbanelephants.com Thu, 09 Sep 2010 13:05:49 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.urbanelephants.com/index.php/home/64/2243.html#comment-7065 My friend referenced in the above article just read the piece and informs me that he makes more than the $80,000 base pay I credited him with. It's $92,250 base he says. This, of course, only makes my point more strongly -- and yet he is still down on America and says he regrets coming to this country, believing, he tells me, that the homeland he left is where the future is. -- SWM - swmirsky Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:02:23 +0100 http://www.urbanelephants.com/index.php/home/64/2243.html#comment-6885 Stu, great writing. not much to add... - Jay Golub Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:54:38 +0100 http://www.urbanelephants.com/index.php/home/64/2243.html#comment-6881 I suppose it's a cultural thing, too. Ancient Chinese culture is just more communitarian than individualistic as we are used to and communism probably brought that aspect of the traditional culture to the fore. Then, you get a person raised in that kind of milieu and what does he see? He compares himself to others and thinks why should they have what I don't? But it's not alien to human nature to think like this, either. Just consider how many there are in this country who have the view that the government should prevent others from getting too much, or at least too much more than I have! That's what the whole Democratic philosophy seems to be built on, i.e., the government intervening to equalize everyone. Of course that is a fantasy. We cannot be equalized in the end because we're different, both in terms of natural talents, luck and the personal attitudes we develop. Our system aims to equalize opportunity not outcomes but I'm afraid my friend only pays lip service to that (he's an avid investor in the markets which means he likes to put his money down and take a chance that he'll do better than the next guy) while, at the same time, he is hyper-sensitive when others do better than he does. The key, in our society (our system), when that happens is to try harder. Improve our education, look for a better job, take more risk, work even harder. But too many in this country have come to the conclusion that the key is in government, to elect leaders who will take what others have won (either from their own hard work, good luck or skill) and spread it around to others. While I think that in today's world we do want a society that protects those most at risk from disaster or poverty, we don't want one that aims to keep everyone roughly equal by redistributing others' assets, income, etc. That saps incentive, undermines individual responsibility and, finally, amounts to government sanctioned theft. So it's a fine line that needs to be walked, one that doesn't push us back to a dog-eat-dog world without, at the same time, turning us into perpetually dependent puppies. SWM - swmirsky Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:33:11 +0100 http://www.urbanelephants.com/index.php/home/64/2243.html#comment-6844 You can take the immigrant out of communism, but it seems you can't take the communism out of the immigrant. - The Isle Magee Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:46:17 +0100