tact trumps technical

i've been meaning to post this ever since i got back from the states, but i guess work got in the way again... he3x! :P

i have this cousin who was talking about the home-equity loan concept. basically, if you buy your home for $300T, then after a couple of years the market price appreciates to $650T, you can go to the bank and use the $350T difference as a collateral for a loan. some banks would even give the whole $350T if not a percentage of $350T. he can then use the money for something else, like a car, or in his case a downpayment on his vacation house in hawaii.

this statement got me really riled up, not because of my cousin though, he's really a nice guy. but here's what got me mad:

• he's a pharmacist; he didn't need to be in finance to know these stuff
• he has an option to profit on the appreciation on the market price on his house; we can't even get a house here without being super rich or settling on a run-down house

it takes a certain degree of education to take advantage of these perks in the US system, or on any other system except here in our republic. out there, you go on your own merits, and you succeed. here, we only climb because of our closeness with the higher ups.

of course, the soft skills are important, it's what keeps the wheels of society moving smoothly. but the problem is that's all we have here in this republic. we don't nurture or encourage the skill of building the wheels in the first place. outside, between a guy who's technically competent and a guy who's technically competent and good with people, it's the latter guy. here, you don't even need to be technically competent!

the PhDs of china & taiwan came back because they knew their skills would be put to good use. here, if you retire, you just put your money in; no one would care about the skills you learned. the entrenched elite would rather use up the money than listen and learn about new skills to build the nation.

this sucks.