You often hear about all these promising young Indian graduates who are all infatuated with the US of A. They all wanna come here for higher education and eventually jobs and eventually citizenship.... or something close to it... they are lured by promises of a good life... and riches... a 'professional' work environment... freedom.... all the good things...
It all looks great in the brochures and even better in the movies... but really.... life here can be a real struggle... if youre lucky you will get a job that pays you a decent amount... and if youre a young graduate... youre single... you dont have to worry about saving much.... and if youre really lucky... you have no loans...
This is that part of life where the brochure still looks good... then lets say you get yourself a house, a brand new car, and (later down the road) you get a wife... you have kids, vacations... the works... your brochure is actually looking great now... then... one day you get yourself a pink slip in the mail... but... no worries... the brochure still looks good... then... you cant find a job... your monthly payments on the house and car are wearing down your savings... this is the part where the gloss is starting to wear off the shiny pictures...
Then... you find out youre broke... your payments and the late penalties on those payments are stacking up... in other words... youre f****d... you are working a part time job doing something you wouldnt even have imagined before... e.g. burger flipping.... at this point you have tossed the brochure out the window...
Now I am not saying that this will happen... but it can happen and it is happening to more and more people now... my uncle who runs a restaurant in the New York area tells me that he has young Indians with Masters Degrees... with families... applying for positions as lowly as delivery boys...
But this is not really what I want to say.... the point is that here I am making the assumption that you will lose your job... but even if that does not happen... heres a few interesting facts I recently discovered....
Do you know that when working for some US companies... you might have a secret life insurance policy taken out on your life where the beneficiary is the company?? Whats more.... your family (assuming you die) will not get a dime of that money. That you can be fired with as little as a couple days notice?? That you are probably being paid the exact same numerical salary that another worker doing the same job was being paid 10 years ago? Whats more.... you are probably getting fewer benefits than him...
Do you know that pretty much all the banks here try to entice you with tricky loans that (once you take them)... its unlikely that you will ever be able to repay (BEWARE THE ADJUSTABLE RATE!!!)?? That if you ever get in an accident/develop a serious health condition of any sort and (god forbid) you do not have health insurance.... you will pretty much become broke/in debt overnight??
But this is all 'personal' stuff... heres the kicker...
America... land of the free... the richest most powerful country in the world... supposedly the worlds 'fairest' system of government... isnt that right? I bet thats what you heard anyway....
Lets see... definitely the richest... and most definitely the most powerful.... but lets see here...
Land of the free? Yeah... sure... why not? Ever hear of the Patriot Act?? The 'Rendition' protocols? Prisoner torture in Iraq/Gitmo/other secret prisons?
Lets look at 'richest.' Sure.... undisputed... but do you know that the a mere 1% of the wealthiest Americans control more personal wealth than the bottom 95%?? Yeah... so what about a middle class? Theyre not there!! You may argue that the top 1% are so damn rich that the bottom 95% are still 'well-off'... So then why was there such a crisis with the mortgages... why were there so many foreclosures??
I will not dispute 'powerful'... theres no doubt about that... but you have to ask... why does a nation so powerful still spend more money than pretty much the rest of the world combined on developing new weapons?
The worlds fairest system of government... you would think that there is less corruption here right? That the government is actually FOR the PEOPLE? Here my friend is where you are completely screwed...
Do you know that for the past 5 decades... the American government has become merely an extension of Wall Street? That practically every senator has been taking kickbacks from the various corporations in order to further their agendas? The banks... the insurance companies... the auto companies they controlled this countries legislation to a point where its freaky... smashed the unions... got rid of regulations... conveniently overlooked certain... err... 'irregularities'.... heck... they basically made it illegal or just plain impossible for the PEOPLE to argue with them (the Companies)... But not only that... even on lower levels of government... there is much corruption...
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/23/pennsylvania.corrupt.judges/
Case in point... the 'Bailout' which was passed through Senate so quickly just at the end of the Bush Administration... very convenient timing... and convenient setting... most of the 'advisors' on the 'committee' were ex employees of Goldman Sachs.... then there was the hoo hah about getting it passed IMMEDIATELY before anyone actually had a chance to review what was in the darn bill... yeah... when the 1st attempt failed... there was a media blitz about why it should have been passed and how the SELFISH actions of a 'few' senators and the people was actually going to ruin the country... of course the 2nd attempt worked...
Oh? So you lost all the PEOPLES money on a foolish gamble?? No problem.... heres a key to the Treasury... take as much as you would like (again... the PEOPLES money)!! Isn't CAPITALISM grand?? I thought it was sink or swim... survival of the fittest... stuff like that.... Darwinism and whatnot.... turns out... that if you're a big enough dinosaur... it doesn't matter if that meteorite hits you dead on!!
The 'Free-market' had spoken... AIG, Goldman Sachs, Merril Lynch, Citigroup... these guys had to go under... but... they wormed their way out of trouble again... oh... and even if they had gone under... the CEOs and the other bigwigs would still be able to retire quite comfortably and buy their own private countries (I exaggerate... but you get my point) while they were about it... Heck heres a nice illustration about what these bigwigs think of us... the PEOPLE....
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6694962
I actually have the memo as pdf in case anyones interested...
So you tell me fellas... whats your take? Is the American myth just that...a myth? Or am I wrong? I would actually like to be wrong this one time...
It all looks great in the brochures and even better in the movies... but really.... life here can be a real struggle... if youre lucky you will get a job that pays you a decent amount... and if youre a young graduate... youre single... you dont have to worry about saving much.... and if youre really lucky... you have no loans...
This is that part of life where the brochure still looks good... then lets say you get yourself a house, a brand new car, and (later down the road) you get a wife... you have kids, vacations... the works... your brochure is actually looking great now... then... one day you get yourself a pink slip in the mail... but... no worries... the brochure still looks good... then... you cant find a job... your monthly payments on the house and car are wearing down your savings... this is the part where the gloss is starting to wear off the shiny pictures...
Then... you find out youre broke... your payments and the late penalties on those payments are stacking up... in other words... youre f****d... you are working a part time job doing something you wouldnt even have imagined before... e.g. burger flipping.... at this point you have tossed the brochure out the window...
Now I am not saying that this will happen... but it can happen and it is happening to more and more people now... my uncle who runs a restaurant in the New York area tells me that he has young Indians with Masters Degrees... with families... applying for positions as lowly as delivery boys...
But this is not really what I want to say.... the point is that here I am making the assumption that you will lose your job... but even if that does not happen... heres a few interesting facts I recently discovered....
Do you know that when working for some US companies... you might have a secret life insurance policy taken out on your life where the beneficiary is the company?? Whats more.... your family (assuming you die) will not get a dime of that money. That you can be fired with as little as a couple days notice?? That you are probably being paid the exact same numerical salary that another worker doing the same job was being paid 10 years ago? Whats more.... you are probably getting fewer benefits than him...
Do you know that pretty much all the banks here try to entice you with tricky loans that (once you take them)... its unlikely that you will ever be able to repay (BEWARE THE ADJUSTABLE RATE!!!)?? That if you ever get in an accident/develop a serious health condition of any sort and (god forbid) you do not have health insurance.... you will pretty much become broke/in debt overnight??
But this is all 'personal' stuff... heres the kicker...
America... land of the free... the richest most powerful country in the world... supposedly the worlds 'fairest' system of government... isnt that right? I bet thats what you heard anyway....
Lets see... definitely the richest... and most definitely the most powerful.... but lets see here...
Land of the free? Yeah... sure... why not? Ever hear of the Patriot Act?? The 'Rendition' protocols? Prisoner torture in Iraq/Gitmo/other secret prisons?
Lets look at 'richest.' Sure.... undisputed... but do you know that the a mere 1% of the wealthiest Americans control more personal wealth than the bottom 95%?? Yeah... so what about a middle class? Theyre not there!! You may argue that the top 1% are so damn rich that the bottom 95% are still 'well-off'... So then why was there such a crisis with the mortgages... why were there so many foreclosures??
I will not dispute 'powerful'... theres no doubt about that... but you have to ask... why does a nation so powerful still spend more money than pretty much the rest of the world combined on developing new weapons?
The worlds fairest system of government... you would think that there is less corruption here right? That the government is actually FOR the PEOPLE? Here my friend is where you are completely screwed...
Do you know that for the past 5 decades... the American government has become merely an extension of Wall Street? That practically every senator has been taking kickbacks from the various corporations in order to further their agendas? The banks... the insurance companies... the auto companies they controlled this countries legislation to a point where its freaky... smashed the unions... got rid of regulations... conveniently overlooked certain... err... 'irregularities'.... heck... they basically made it illegal or just plain impossible for the PEOPLE to argue with them (the Companies)... But not only that... even on lower levels of government... there is much corruption...
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/23/pennsylvania.corrupt.judges/
Case in point... the 'Bailout' which was passed through Senate so quickly just at the end of the Bush Administration... very convenient timing... and convenient setting... most of the 'advisors' on the 'committee' were ex employees of Goldman Sachs.... then there was the hoo hah about getting it passed IMMEDIATELY before anyone actually had a chance to review what was in the darn bill... yeah... when the 1st attempt failed... there was a media blitz about why it should have been passed and how the SELFISH actions of a 'few' senators and the people was actually going to ruin the country... of course the 2nd attempt worked...
Oh? So you lost all the PEOPLES money on a foolish gamble?? No problem.... heres a key to the Treasury... take as much as you would like (again... the PEOPLES money)!! Isn't CAPITALISM grand?? I thought it was sink or swim... survival of the fittest... stuff like that.... Darwinism and whatnot.... turns out... that if you're a big enough dinosaur... it doesn't matter if that meteorite hits you dead on!!
The 'Free-market' had spoken... AIG, Goldman Sachs, Merril Lynch, Citigroup... these guys had to go under... but... they wormed their way out of trouble again... oh... and even if they had gone under... the CEOs and the other bigwigs would still be able to retire quite comfortably and buy their own private countries (I exaggerate... but you get my point) while they were about it... Heck heres a nice illustration about what these bigwigs think of us... the PEOPLE....
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6694962
I actually have the memo as pdf in case anyones interested...
So you tell me fellas... whats your take? Is the American myth just that...a myth? Or am I wrong? I would actually like to be wrong this one time...