

Why America is Broken - mbadisaster

This country needs to fail. The world needs a bold example to realize that no economy exempt from corrosion due to inner perversities.
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russell
Well now, did I just drop in from an alternate universe? Sure America has lots
of problems, some of which we are fixing, some not, and some are being
ignored, but I dont feel like I am in the cesspool of the world. It sounds
like you made a bunch of mistakes, getting an MBA was one, unless you want to
work for large corporations. And there are certainly universities that are
diploma mills. But most of us here on HN learned to shift gears and move on
when we took a wrong direction.

Rampant discrimination? I'm a white guy so my vision isnt perfect, but I dont
think so. My office has more Chinese and Vietnamese than whites. Maybe it's
much different if you dont have a college degree, but you arent talking about
that case. We do have an immigration problem, but I see signs of a political
will to fix it, but expecting an automatic green card is unrealistic.

Thousands of Cuban PhDs driving cabs? I'll check with my Cuban brother-in-law
to see if that is the case. Of course a Cuban PhD isnt worth squat nor are
many of the others from around the world. And even if you are American, a PhD
is no guarantee of a job, especially in a field no-one is willing to pay for.

If I dont sound very sympathetic, it's because I'm not. You blamed all of us
for your very problems, without asking if you contributed to any of them. This
is not a very good forum for blaming everyone else.

~~~
mbadisaster
I graduated from the Ivy league. From a top ten MBA program. Got 750 on my
GMAT and three job offers from PE shops. Turns out they don't sponsor
internationals. Had similar situations with my school several times. However,
I can live with that.

What I can't tolerate is the country. I experienced a lot of discrimination,
didn't see much opportunity and saw a lot of underpaid foreign labor in a
couple of tech hubs. Namely friends that were working in big name tech firms
(Fortune 100) and living very bad lives.

I just think American universities need to promote their services this in a
more mature and realistic way.

I wanted to work for a big corporation after being an entrepreneur, but again.
What I saw what another disaster. I'm just greatly disillusioned with America
and lament to say that my third-world nation is better. Sorry, I'm going back.

I blame America simply because my educational experience in my home country
was ten times better. I left my country chasing a lie it seems.

~~~
rdouble
Was it a real MBA program or like a 1 year executive program?

~~~
mbadisaster
Dartmouth Tuck - Full time MBA - 2 years. 170K in debt, etc.

------
mbadisaster
This country needs to fail. The world needs a bold example to realize that no
economy exempt from corrosion due to inner perversities.

I came to America with a lot of ideas,energy and passion. I came as a
successful professional with experience and with great hopes of contributing.
I chose to enroll in a graduate level program in order to validate my skills
and join "the system".

But today I take that plane. The plane that takes you back to your home
country as a failure. The plane that carries indebted, unemployed, suicidal
and "broken-in-a-thousand-pieces" international MBA students.

My first mistake was believing in graduate education. A system that is
completely broken and one that relies on lies to become self sustainable.
After enrolling, I quickly found out how my school polished its recruitment
figures, how they sugar-coat everything and how they make bad things look
good. This was the first blow. Realizing that America lies to us international
students in order to boosts figures and make their programs more appealing to
national students. Pretty soon I discovered this practice was commonplace
across every school.

I discovered that 25% of international students default their loans. But
school officials don't tell you that. Discrimination is rampant, that the tell
you, however nothing can prepare you for the forthcoming crude reality: you're
being set up for failure.

You'll be treated like a slave, with no immigration options other than the
current messed up status quo. You'll make no friends because "the whities"
party on their own. And you'll need to wait at least a decade for that "green-
card". Oh, wait, you owe us 200K dollars for an education that's substantially
inferior to the one you received in your home country. I expected some of
this, but not to this extent. The educational experience, "the contacts" and
"the help" I received only amount to one thing: Grand Fiasco.

The extent of this exploitation has no limits. America doesn't validate
foreign titles and, allows for thousands of Cuban PHDs that make a living
driving cabs in Florida. You can't come to this country based on your skills,
you need a patron: An employer or a university. Slavery anyone!

Indians have to wait in line for decades just to get a level of pay that will
be comparable to what they where earning in the home countries. The Chinese
must be content with middle-management jobs with no hopes of promotion because
they're synonym to "grunt-workers". And Latinos, even engineers, most have to
work as freelancers because their titles are not recognized by the government
(even when the American universities they came to study in did recognized
those titles).

But you know what, all this is fine with me. I can live with that level of
filth. So far this only amounts to "Wall Street level" shit.

The fun part comes later, after graduation. That's when it really gets to you.
When you go to a dinner party with your fellow classmates and get asked that
nice question by the white guy that didn't get a job and almost didn't
graduate. That golden moment when he asks you: "Did you get your papers?".

And then I came to me. The sadistic Americans need to pick on someone to
justify their problems. It's because of the republicans, the blacks, Bin Laden
or the Latino rice pickers! Its ALWAYS somebody else. And WE have to create a
"jail-like" system in order to prevent our white Ivy-educated pricks from
shacking the hands of "unholy" international students.

America is broken. Perversity starts in the college rankings and then
perpetuates in the business world. Lies, fraud, heavy drug use,
discrimination, promiscuity, exploitation and under-achievement, these are but
a few traits of the broken educational system.

I never thought I would find myself in this situation. Seeking to disassociate
from my university after graduation from an elite MBA program, jobless,
discriminated and labeled as a failure by hundreds. Indeed, God Bless America.
This country is in dire need of miracles.

------
tokenadult
I hope you have a bright future back in the country where you grew up. Let us
know in a while what you think of that place after you spent time in America
and saw a different place. (In my experience of moving back and forth between
both sides of the Pacific Rim, reverse culture shock is actually more
challenging to your thinking than the culture shock of first going into a new
country.)

~~~
mbadisaster
Thanks

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dmschulman
It sounds more like you're saying the higher education system in America is
broken (which it is).

~~~
mbadisaster
Yes. But I can't understand why our very white classmates have to discriminate
us.

~~~
kls
I don't know if what you experienced was racism or not, I cannot make that
call, but I can say this in my experience Americans by the majorities are not
racist. What they are though is culturalist, if you do not make an effort to
adapt to the American system you will stand out and you will be treated
different because well you are different. It may be a bit xenophobic but
generally it's roots are not in racism but rather a natural response to
something that is different. This happened to all the different waves of
European immigrants in our early history. There where times where Irish
culture or German culture was looked down on and as it assimilated into the
fabric of US culture it eventually faded into obscurity. The very same things
is now taking place with South American culture, in places like Texas or
Florida those cultures have been assimilated into the fabric of US culture. It
may be that you come from a culture that is not well represented in the US and
therefore you receive a natural reaction to something that is foreign to
someone else. I am not trying to excuse the behavior, just wanted to highlight
that racism is usually the result of hatred for ones fellow man the kind that
reared it's ugly head in WW2 Germany, and I personally have seen very little
true racism in the US.

------
orionblastar
"What is wrong with America can be fixed with what is right about America."
-Bill Clinton

The USA is not perfect I admit, corporations are corrupt, our education system
is broken, legal immigrants are treated like crap and paid less than US
citizens for the same job and our immigration system is broken except for the
H1B Visa program that is often used as 'cheap labor' using 'temporary
employees' from other nations.

To make matters worse politicians are in bed with banks and financial
companies, as well as the RIAA/MPAA to pass laws on copyrights that take away
freedoms, rights, and liberties to give these companies even more record
profits and pay zero taxes.

These days you cannot even tell a Democrat from a Republican anymore in most
cases, because both are corrupt, and both take lobbyist money from the same
sources to pass the same unjust laws that violate the US Constitution.

But it isn't all bad, it can still be fixed, but we have to be willing to work
to reform the system and get people involved and give control back to the
citizens and legal immigrants, and take it away from banks, financial
companies, lobbyists, the RIAA/MPAA, etc.

The Republicans have blamed legal and illegal immigrants which is why there is
a lot of discrimination against foreigners, they have been made scapegoats.
The Democrats have made it so jobs for legal and illegal immigrants will
always be low, and that they be given lower position jobs at companies, and
even deny them entry back into the USA to start a business even if they scored
high in a university with a good degree and made the honor rolls. Unless of
course they are willing to find a corporate sponsor for a H1B Visa for minimum
wage or a little bit above it. The Immigration system needs a major reform and
both parties have messed it up badly.

When you earn a college/university degree in the USA, you are no longer
guaranteed a job or career. You can end up deep in student loan debt, because
the cost of a higher education is always increasing.

When you work, the cost of health insurance has skyrocketed and your employer
most likely picked the cheapest plan to save money. As a result most
bankruptcies are due to medical debt by people who are working full time but
do not have good enough coverage. Hospitals charge too much and it is a big
racket. In the USA we pay more for health insurance premiums but get less than
in most nations that pay a fraction of our costs, but get more than he are
even promised to get for pennies on the dollar.

Everyone is good at blaming everyone else, that needs to stop. Someone needs
to take responsibility and own the problems and start finding solutions for
them. Non-profit startups can be founded to find the solutions to the problems
the USA faces and fix the broken system and reform it.

