• C++ Programming for Financial Engineering
    Highly recommended by thousands of MFE students. Covers essential C++ topics with applications to financial engineering. Learn more Join!
    Python for Finance with Intro to Data Science
    Gain practical understanding of Python to read, understand, and write professional Python code for your first day on the job. Learn more Join!
    An Intuition-Based Options Primer for FE
    Ideal for entry level positions interviews and graduate studies, specializing in options trading arbitrage and options valuation models. Learn more Join!

The real Wolf of Wall Street

"Importance of family connections" isn't a phenomenon unique to America. If you're using an example of "someone using family connections in America to accomplish something that may have been undeserved" in order to make a broader point demeaning the country, I'd conclude that for some other untold reason, you just don't particularly like America.

Christ Jesus, this thread really has gone down the toilet. I'm not "demeaning" the country. What an asinine comment. I'm pointing out the crucial importance of family connections to get ahead in the USA -- which are arguably more important than in Europe. This runs counter to the myth of the "land of opportunity," where a smile and a shoeshine ensure success. There is less measured social mobility in the US than in Europe. Then that has, gets. Them that hasn't -- no health care, no higher education, no uncle to guarantee a job.
 
Christ Jesus, this thread really has gone down the toilet. I'm not "demeaning" the country. What an asinine comment. I'm pointing out the crucial importance of family connections to get ahead in the USA -- which are arguably more important than in Europe. This runs counter to the myth of the "land of opportunity," where a smile and a shoeshine ensure success. There is less measured social mobility in the US than in Europe. Then that has, gets. Them that hasn't -- no health care, no higher education, no uncle to guarantee a job.

Given how many young, ambitious Europeans have been fleeing to the US and UK lately and also (pretty notably) based on what I've been hearing here from my friends from France, I think there's a chance life in Europe's "socialist utopia" might not be quite as great as you're making it out to be. If you want to pay 75% tax rates for shitty, government-provided health care, go ahead...
 
Christ Jesus, this thread really has gone down the toilet. I'm not "demeaning" the country. What an asinine comment. I'm pointing out the crucial importance of family connections to get ahead in the USA -- which are arguably more important than in Europe. This runs counter to the myth of the "land of opportunity," where a smile and a shoeshine ensure success. There is less measured social mobility in the US than in Europe. Then that has, gets. Them that hasn't -- no health care, no higher education, no uncle to guarantee a job.

Yes , this is pricelessly what "the whole country is one big frat party" means in a nutshell.
 
Given how many young, ambitious Europeans have been fleeing to the US and UK lately and also (pretty notably) based on what I've been hearing here from my friends from France, I think there's a chance life in Europe's "socialist utopia" might not be quite as great as you're making it out to be. If you want to pay 75% tax rates for shitty, government-provided health care, go ahead...

This is a quant forum. Let's discuss some numbers and stop chatting about friends from France and movies about Dubya.

Something to start a solid discussion:
http://www.economist.com/news/unite...obile-it-was-generation-ago-mobility-measured
 
This is a quant forum. Let's discuss some numbers and stop chatting about friends from France and movies about Dubya.

Something to start a solid discussion:
http://www.economist.com/news/unite...obile-it-was-generation-ago-mobility-measured

Bear in mind, though, that this is the neolib Economist which always seeks to put a gloss on sordid neolib reality. If you're the best of the best in your field (particularly finance), then you will probably find more opportunity in the winner-take-all-and-the-devil-take-the-hindmost USA and UK. Or if you're numbered among the super-rich and want a no-questions-asked place of domicile where you can park your ill-gotten swag, then NYC and London will be among your preferred destinations. Otherwise, well, ....

But this is digressing from the point I've been making -- namely the ossified class society of the USA (but also the UK). Them that has, gets. Everything has been commercialised -- including higher education. Unless you come from an affluent background you can't afford US higher ed, and higher ed is one of the prereqs for the limited number of halfway decent jobs left. Then again, family connections matter heavily precisely because there are so few good jobs (take out quant finance and IT).

I concede that this may be all be disagreeable and unpalatable to those reared on a diet of manic positive thinking and reading limited to Horatio Alger and Ayn Rand. I also concede that every society is stratified by class -- not just the USA. But the USA markets itself as the land of opportunity -- there's the rub.
 
Last edited:
Bear in mind, though, that this is the neolib Economist which always seeks to put a gloss on sordid neolib reality. If you're the best of the best in your field (particularly finance), then you will probably find more opportunity in the winner-take-all-and-the-devil-take-the-hindmost USA and UK. Or if you're numbered among the super-rich and want a no-questions-asked place of domicile where you can park your ill-gotten swag, then NYC and London will be among your preferred destinations. Otherwise, well, ....

But this is digressing from the point I've been making -- namely the ossified class society of the USA (but also the UK). Them that has, gets. Everything has been commercialised -- including higher education. Unless you come from an affluent background you can't afford US higher ed, and higher ed is one of the prereqs for the limited number of halfway decent jobs left. Then again, family connections matter heavily precisely because there are so few good jobs (take out quant finance and IT).

I concede that this may be all be disagreeable and unpalatable to those reared on a diet of manic positive thinking and reading limited to Horatio Alger and Ayn Rand. I also concede that every society is stratified by class -- not just the USA. But the USA markets itself as the land of opportunity -- there's the rub.

The 1950s just called... they want their communists back.

Back to the 50's!!!
 
Last edited:
This is a quant forum. Let's discuss some numbers and stop chatting about friends from France and movies about Dubya.

Something to start a solid discussion:
http://www.economist.com/news/unite...obile-it-was-generation-ago-mobility-measured

We can claim to be "enlightened" and cite the latest crap from the Economist, he can claim to be "enlightened" and cite the latest crap from Piketty/Krugman et al and all the rest of the professional socialist goons, and all the while, anyone TRULY enlightened knows that most (if not all) of it is complete, agenda-driven bullcrap.

The only enlightenment that any intelligent person should really need--
 
Back
Top