On 17 Aug 2012 12:29:26 GMT, Han wrote:

" wrote in
:

On 16 Aug 2012 19:57:22 GMT, Han wrote:

" wrote in
:

On 16 Aug 2012 15:25:11 GMT, Han wrote:

snip
I moved to the US because upon finishing my masters in Holland I got
offered a job as a technician in a Harvard lab, with the promise
from my Dutch professor (Laurens van Deenen) that if my work was
good enough there, I would get a (Dutch) PhD.

Why couldn't you get the same opportunity in Holland?

I was not offered that opportunity in Holland. Maybe I wasn't good
enough, maybe my buddy and I were the only ones who could get
"tricked" into going to Boston.

Maybe nothing grew there because they poisoned the soil? ...and you
want to do the same here.

Or maybe I wasn't good enough for them. PhD slots were/are fewer there
than here.

You've said nothing that refutes my assertion.

My alternative was compulsory military service (in 1969, there was a
draft in Holland). I got a J-1 visa, later
converted to a green card by reason of me being indispensable for
the lab's work. My wife got an interview with a highly regarded
professor at the Mass General Hospital for a technician's job, so we
could live in Cambridge, Mass, not the cheapest place on earth. I
took the chance because it seemed the way to start a career. I was
unemployed for a 3 months (long story), but found a job in New York
that I stayed with for 34 years. So yes, I did "fail" at some
point, but was lucky/capable enough to get going again. So, one
thing led to another, and as many, but not all in similar positions,
I stayed in the US, not too far from where my grandchildren live.
My son-in-law and daughter-in-law think we might the right choice,
did and do the right things. Now I got pertussis and have to
overcome that cough ...

I don't need your life's story. OTOH, I don't understand how you
can come here because the opportunities are better and turn around
and want everything that crushed the opportunities where you're
from.

It was an opportunity that I couldn't refuse, as I felt it. I am
relating my ideas and feelings, because they are different from some
of the feelings and ideas others here have, and because it is always
good to discuss those and perhaps open minds to different ways of
doing things.

Socialism is *not* a new idea. It's tired; about ready for death.

You're misusing the term. Social-democratic ideas are fine. Especially
when combined with fiscal restraint. It's things like the waging of wars
without paying for them that gets us into what we are now, debt.

Utter nonsense.

No judgement to better or worse, just different. And yes, while
Holland is doing very well in the EU today and there are many
opportunities there, at the few times I could have made a switch from
here to there, the opportunities weren't there. So it was better to
try in a country of 300 million than in a country of 15 million.

"The opportunities weren't there" says it all. Sorry, Han, but you're
wishing for the same here.

How about a mix of things? A little of this and a little of that. With
fiscal restraint.

How about not, with fiscal restraint?