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Peter P
2006 Jan 2, 4:25am
I agree with DesiRenter — ASIAN CORRUPTION and HERD MENTALITY and UTTER MEDIOCRITY should be brought out with ELOQUENT ARTICULATION!!
Herd mentality describes most of humanity though. :)
Lets attempt to become the shepherd, hearding sheeple next time. ;)
DesiRenter, I don't disagree that there are many people who hire people from their own country/state/village. That is not a bay area thing.
That is unfortunate but the free market will take care of them. If they hire substandard people for geographic or religious reasons, then they are compromising on quality and will get sorted out. Meritocratic companies will outperform them.
Like I said before, Indians and Asians do buy a lot of real estate before all their friends are doing it. But, then again, they will also sell on masse. Just wait and see. In the late 90s, every Indian guy I knew offered me stock tips, but today no one even talks about stocks. It is the same way.
If the immigrants helped artificially jack up the price, they will also play a part in making the prices plummet. Just wait and see.
I was just thinking about the theory of white people being originally from Africa, as all mankind, and moving north to northern europe. I wonder if they were in search of a peaceful place away from people of color. U can move to idaho but still u are going to find jerks who come in all colors and stripes.
I can tell u from my personal experience in the us for the last 13 years successful whites in their eagerness to compete do not want other whites to succeed. This is human nature.
Being an Indian and in the medical field it is very humorous to see 2 of ur colleagues fighting over trivial issues.
Regarding employment, one of my teachers was a jewish doctor, who was a very good doc and nice mentor. after finishing his fellowship he went to tampa, florida to join a group practise with other indian doctors. He came back to cleveland and told me how the east indian doctor mafia control the hospitals in florida. The indian doctor mafia try not to employ physicians of other background. However for every story there are 2 sides.
Imagine u are the one providing emergency medical services to a hospital through a exclusive contract. In this case u happen to be an indian. Now the hospital is expanding and they want more doctors. Since the indian doctor happens to be doing an exceellent job the hospital goes back to him and ask him to help in recruiting. Recruiting doctors to rural america is a night mare.
In small town America, The only pool u have is physicians who are immigrants, or physicians who have some problems either be it academic, professional or personal problems or have malpractise lawsuits or worse still have anger management or addiction problems.
Now tell me whom will u employ for ur needs. Will u employ a physician who will give trouble to all others and rock the boat or some body who is docile and does extra shifts when the need arises? These are no easy solutions.
The major problem plaguing the american medical system is the legal system. Nobody wants to take any liability and this is more obvious when the patient happens to be a pediatric patient or OBstetric patient. The hospitals do not want any liability, so they contract out emergency services to other corporations. The doctors are not getting paid by the hospitals and their malpractise premiums are soaring. These doctors therefore refuse to do the work. so can u really blame them.
BTW : There are excellent white and african american doctors in this country. Some of these are very very good human beings.
Peter P
2006 Jan 2, 6:06am
That is unfortunate but the free market will take care of them.
Perhaps this is another stable disequilibrium. :)
Peter P
2006 Jan 2, 6:07am
As far as declaring Google to be a runaway success, let’s give it a few years and see where they stand then (especially with their primary income stream based on advertising revenue - let’s see how that holds up in a down economy).
Enron was a runaway success too.
Peter P
2006 Jan 2, 6:13am
The major problem plaguing the american medical system is the legal system. Nobody wants to take any liability and this is more obvious when the patient happens to be a pediatric patient or OBstetric patient. The hospitals do not want any liability, so they contract out emergency services to other corporations. The doctors are not getting paid by the hospitals and their malpractise premiums are soaring. These doctors therefore refuse to do the work. so can u really blame them.
We have to put a stop to the lawsuits. There must be some form of limits to the liabilities. Punitive judgements should be disallowed.
Peter P
2006 Jan 2, 6:34am
Townhouse in East Palo Alto - $600K
I will not pay 60K if I have to live in it.
Peter P
2006 Jan 2, 6:47am
I have funds and income to move in to a 750K house TODAY!
We all know that you are the high-earner that perhaps only MarinaPrime can challenge.
Condo in Stockton - $500K?
Wow! Absolutely surreal. There is no excuse for this.
You've got to be kidding me. Bwahahaha...what a sick joke.
Anyway. Back to the immigrant topic.
I really like Indian people and their work ethic. Working on my
Masters with Indians was a great experience because they were
smart and enterprising.
Like I said. I'm from San Jose and am down with every ethnicity.
It's just the illegal angle and outsourcing to China that bothers me
so much.
Wow, quite a thread on immigaration. For those of you (if there are any) who enjoyed the rant I started (and didn't finish), I'll be happy to print a copy of the "end game" if you buy me sushi. My copy paste won't work. The state's rights issue is complicated and subtle--we have enough of that in this thread. I like Toro, Sake, and ebi.
OK. My $.02 on Asians. I am one of the few white people at a Chinese company. The management team is---Well if you have nothing nice to say. My boss (chinese) has become a close personal friend and mentor. He is the best boss I have ever had. I have had many great bosses.
Tip #1: If you don't like your boss for any reason, find a good one. They are out there. Your career and happiness are too valuable.
He hired me because he believes that Chinese people are too obedient. It is certainly true that the management team's militaristic style is a major detriment to shareholders. There is much to do, and no one will lift a finger until they are told exactly what to do.
So my boss is the rebel. So am I. Why do we get away with it? Well, my company is just like every other company. It has problems. It needs people to fix them. Which leads me to my next tip:
Tip #2: Every business is screwed up. Business is a competion to see which one is only slightly less so. If the one you are in is screwed up, leave or fix it. But don't delude yourself that the grass is greener on the other side. I have worked for world class organizations, and they are screwed up, regardless of ethnicity. Which leads me to tip #3
Tip #3: If you work hard and make a difference in your screwed up company, they will pay you money. This is expecially true if you are in sales.
"Screwed up" is an equal opportunity affliction, just like AIDS.
WRT Asians sticking to themselves,all I can say is dude.......have you ever lived in a foreign country where your grasp of the language was less than 100% and everything seemed strange? It is not that easy. Cut people some slack.
--Deo Vindice
Peter P
2006 Jan 3, 3:35am
I see a possible depression coming as there is an erosion of the middle class. I don’t have answers to all of this.
The Great Depression happened when there was "erosion" in all classes. If the rich is relatively safe, we shall be spared a depression this time. :)
WRT Asians sticking to themselves,all I can say is dude…….have you ever lived in a foreign country where your grasp of the language was less than 100% and everything seemed strange? It is not that easy. Cut people some slack.
Wow, I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but... I agree with Deo Vindice 100%. Though I don't mind discussing race/immigration issues (as long as there's an arguable point), this thread has taken on a real nasty edge with regards to asians/Indians.
I've worked in I.T. with/for 1st generation asians and Indians, and in my experience (can't generalize/extrapolate for everybody), they have been no better or worse overall than native-born Americans. Most of the (legal) immigrants I've worked with have been really nice people and not xenophobic, but of course there are always nortable exceptions. Many of the native-born and/or white American bosses I've had, OTH, have been real two-faced a-holes. I've also noticed that after a generation or two, immigrants --regardless of country of origin-- start to think/behave more and more like Americans, so racial nepotism/xenophobia becomes less and less relevant the longer they are here.
My point: it's easy to overgeneralize/stereotype from a few bad experiences. As anyone following this blog for the last few months knows, I am not a fan of illegal immigration or third-world wage arbitration/outsourcing. Even so, let's cut some slack for those who choose to come here LEGALLY and are working hard to follow the rules and respect American culture.
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I think the extent of the real estate bust in the Bay Area will surprise even the pessimists. In addition to the ubiquitous effects of the bursting of the credit bubble, there are a few fundamental factors unique to this area that are all becoming relevant or more powerful at the same time: now.
- the demand overhang is becoming much smaller. I have only anecdotal evidence, but in 2005, the last renters at my workplace have finally caved in and bought. Some bought "before it's too late", but for many, the ultimate trigger was that they married, the babies were coming, and the yuppie life had to come to an end. Life goes on, after all.
- jobs are still leaving the area. There's continuing consolidation in the local industries, in addition to outsourcing. Being present in the Bay Area is just not worth the cost anymore for some employers.
- as soon as the fear of collapsing house prices will start to materialize and the green spots on the weekly SJ Mercury RE appreciation map spread, many of the substantial number of unemployed or "underemployed" folks who have been hanging on by their fingernails and their home equity in the last 5 years will finally pull the trigger and try to sell. Some because they have made the decision to do so, some because they have to.
- people who could afford to live here start facing the grim reality - that quality of life around here ultimately stinks because of the high cost of living, even though the sun is still shining bright and the mountains and the ocean are really purty. Some of these folks will pack up and leave.
- most of the valley was built out in the 60s and 70s, and the original owners are now old. They or their heirs will sell their houses over the next decade, which will generate that "extra something" in supply that's been missing so far.
- last but not least, the super-low interest rates were coming to the rescue just as the Bay Area was about to correct for the local real estate excesses created in the internet bubble era. So the anxiously expected correction never happened, and that gave buyers that extra "it will never go down" psychological boost, allowing even more outrageous levels of overvaluation.
What do you think? Are these factors significant? Which positive factors could outweigh the negatives? Which ones of the negatives are relatively weak, which ones strong?
Or could it be just like in 2001 - a painful, but short episode of slow sales, high inventory and moderately falling prices, and then it's back to business as usual?
#housing