patrick.net

Name calling. classy.

If you must know. I'm a tiger in chinese zodiac. Not that I believe that crap.

Serpentor says

The cultural revolution wiped out all the traditional values and the semi-capitalism corrupted the citizens into money hungry status climbers who care nothing about morals. What are the deeper values you speak of? the same ones that put dry wall chemicals into baby formula? The ones that copies everything they see without regard to intellectual property rights?

Good point. I guess America isn't so bad after all, at least by comparison.

zzyzzx says

Moreso in China, since their one child policy has created excess males. Unless they all plan on going gay.

That's why so many Chinese are moving to San Francisco.

wthrfrk80 says

zzyzzx says

Moreso in China, since their one child policy has created excess males. Unless they all plan on going gay.

That's why so many Chinese are moving to San Francisco.

(ROFL)

Serpentor says

When people say "its part of the Chinese Culture" to buy up overpriced houses (whether its in China or Cupertino) my internal BS flag starts waving.
when you look back in the history of China, there are no cases where property were purchased to sit and not generate income. No cases when luxury real estate are bought by ordinary families and are sitting idle because nobody can afford the rent.

You really try to make a case that they are all rational, level-headed, business oriented people.

I wonder,

If they had Mao Tse Tung and Communism for so many years, can your argument really hold?

Serpentor says

you think all those factory workers making a few bucks a day saved up enough money to buy that luxury condo? (with food and goods prices growing by double digits) LOL

We know that regular workers won't have much. The country is run by communist thugs and corruption. They are going to eat their own #$%^$ now when all colapses. Party cannot last that long.

Hi Serpentor,

You seem to be very knowledgeable about Chinese culture, so maybe you could comment. I've heard that many of the Chinese government elites are preparing "escape plans" to the U.S., Canada, etc., getting residencies and houses. Anecdotally, my Las Vegas realtor has been showing a house when a Tour Bus of asian investors drove up to check it out. I don't believe that there's a large enough number of Chinese investors to influence the market, but there seem to be a few who make a striking impression because they bid high and pay cash. My impression is that the Chinese elites are not confident about how things will play out over there.

Giuseppe

Giuseppe,

I would certainly try to escape China (with my loot) if I could. But how can they do it? Wouldn't gov't goons try to prevent it? Unless they themselves are gov't goons...

Yeah, I think it's only the gov't connected types who would be able to travel, spend large sums of money, and get investor type residency cards for themselves and immediate family. That's why I think it's only a few from China itself, not enough to bid up our whole real estate market.

Giuseppe says

Hi Serpentor,

You seem to be very knowledgeable about Chinese culture, so maybe you could comment. I've heard that many of the Chinese government elites are preparing "escape plans" to the U.S., Canada, etc., getting residencies and houses. Anecdotally, my Las Vegas realtor has been showing a house when a Tour Bus of asian investors drove up to check it out. I don't believe that there's a large enough number of Chinese investors to influence the market, but there seem to be a few who make a striking impression because they bid high and pay cash. My impression is that the Chinese elites are not confident about how things will play out over there.

Giuseppe

I'm sure some "elites" have plans of moving out of the country.. but the people that have the most power are staying put. There is still too much money to be made. I'm not so sure if they want to get out. There, they can do whatever they want. Power, money, Lambos for kids, etc. In the US, they are just regular people. Why would they want to come out here?

I'm not saying none of the elites are leaving. I'm sure some are trickling out. But there are not enough of them to make an impact in real estate of any city. They have zero impact in "fortress areas" like Cupertino and PA. The vast majority of the Bay Area fortress residents are long time immigrants that worked hard and moved up the ladder.

Its not that easy to get money out. You'll need to get get into a a"partnership" with a well connected foreigner to get money out of the country. see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Heywood

The Indian property bubble is heating up too and by most accounts has frothed up to unsustainable amounts. Who knows, maybe the Mayan 2012 prophecy might be true too. All of us descend into a Mad Max scenario!! Those of us in CA, at least have the original Mad Max-Mel Gibson and hey the villain Tina Turner too!!!

Grandparents go to America, parents stay in China to take care of the business and they send their children with granparents to get education in American universities and stay in America.

Of course only government well connected communist party members have power and can make money in China and can get ahead of the rest.

Someone said that there is not enough privileged in China to be able to come to USA. Well, there is about 80 mil of communist party members in China. It is more than a lot of other countries total population.

Another group is of course former Hong Kong's citizens.

We have, in the USA, chosen to import the Asian culture of misery. Constant work, multiple jobs, crushing cost of living, and a dog eat dog rat race.

And the laughable thing is that the Asian helicopter parenting and obsession with forcing math and other academics on kids produces uncreative, rude self centered junk most of the time with an occasional success story.

Sad. Its time to try and figure out a way out of the city centers and prepare to live out life the right way.

Mick Russom says

produces uncreative, rude self centered junk most of the time

Yep. I think you see the future of Silicon Valley. There ain't no future in it.

Mick Russom says

We have, in the USA, chosen to import the Asian culture of misery. Constant work, multiple jobs, crushing cost of living, and a dog eat dog rat race.

Uugh, I hope not.

My coworker put on the audio book version of The Outliers the other day when we were working in the lab. This comment, along with the audio book's explanation of "Why Asians are good at math" jive perfectly. Looking at the Asian cultural legacy, and the historical role of working rice patties (which apparently yield more and more the harder you work them, which is sort of the opposite of western agriculture), the workaholism makes total sense. Unfortunately, I don't think that a lot of people ever got the memo about "life balance" or that a lot of employers exploit exactly that cultural work ethic without ever letting the worker get the pay-out. At this point, it seems sort of like a dogmatic behavior pattern since it is "expected" but nobody is bothering to think about why. "More work, more money...someday" and that someday may never come, at the expense of all of your todays.

bmwman91 says

it seems sort of like a dogmatic behavior pattern since it is "expected" but nobody is bothering to think about why.

From what I've heard and read, many of the youth in Japan are asking those sorts of questions and frustrating the more established part of their society by choosing not to buy cars and homes.

Interesting. Japan does strike me as being one of the more "modern" Asian societies in a lot of ways, despite being able to hang on to a lot of older traditions (nothing wrong with that, either). I need to visit Japan someday.

You will have a great time in a superficial visit as a bumbling foreigner tourist.

Try to have a deeper experience and you will hate it.

Serpentor says

The cultural revolution wiped out all the traditional values and the semi-capitalism corrupted the citizens into money hungry status climbers who care nothing about morals.

The same thing happened here in the late 1960's and 70's...to a lesser degree.

Btw. As a non scientific observation, I hear a lot more taiwanes accents in cupertino then Cantonese or mainland mandarin.