Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

Monday, March 9, 2009

Sucks To Be Me

It's both a blessing and a curse to have one such as Megan McArdle, to provide a case study of sorts of the modern American conservative fool. Her example provides a cornucopia of information on why Bush was able to get away with his actions for so long. Her consistent behavior over a long time period allows observers to understand the process conservative go through while undermining and harming themselves and nearly everyone around them.

Case in point, as I like to say:

Apparently Congress' "buy American" clause in the bailout funds is having its desired effect: Bank of America has rescinded its job offers to foreign MBAs. I suspect that Bank of America is at least as motivated by a need to reduce headcount as it is by fear of Congress.


I agree that BoA is probably using the situation to "go Galt," that is, be forced to cut back while pretending one is doing so for other reasons. It's the next sentence that starts paging Dr. Freud.

But cutting your recruitment based on country of origin, rather than skills and fit, does not seem like the most efficient way to do it.


Why are earth do you assume that your fellow American MBAs are inferior to foreign MBAs? You're all educated in America and the Americans would have the benefit of complete fluency in English and American customers. Why would BoA be unable to find enough MBAs, especially during a recession when a lot of MBAs are getting fired? Are there so many foreign MBAs and so few American MBAs that one must hire foreign workers just to fill the new slots at BoA? Why make such a silly statement, especially with no facts or logic to back you up?

As a committed free trader--and an MBA who went through the mass layoffs of the last recession--my sympathy is all with the MBAs. These are people who mostly aren't eligible for scholarships or subsidized student loans; they've borrowed or spent close to $100,000 in America to get their degree, many of them in hopes of staying here. They're intelligent, highly skilled, and promise to be net contributors to the tax system . . . so America kicks them in the teeth and sends them home without a job.


You mean your sympathy is for the foreign MBAs rather than the American MBAs. Mostly, it seems, because they spent so much money and might not get anything out of it.

In other words, your expensive education that was supposed to make you six figures a year disappointed you to the point where you sympathize with foreigners who don't get to take American jobs. During a recession/incipient depression.

Life's All About Megan, isn't it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, Megan, a lot of American MBAs have spent more than 100 grand on their educations, too.

What are THEY, chopped liver?

You're right, it's all about Megan, and Megan is one TAH-WISTED individual.

Anonymous said...

There is actually some gold to be spun from this.

People come to America, gain skills, and then go back to their home countries and apply entrepreneurial spirit. The result is a rising standard of living in the home country and a spread of American values.

Though, of course, this is the sort of Soft Power argument one doesn't generally hear from the Right.

Anonymous said...

Megan has enormous resentment toward her U of C MBA peers, all of whom are probably better off financially than she is--even with the current downturn. While Megan blames a sour economy for her inability to land a Wall Street job after graduation, does anyone honestly believe her claim? She did a summer research internship with Merrill, but they didn't hire her. She says it's because the economy sucked. I'm sure it's that her work product sucked. She resents the 99.9% of her classmates who actually found high-paying work after graduation.

Susan of Texas said...

Anonymous, she's given us enough information to see that she doesn't take work seriously. It's speculation, but it fits the facts.

Julia Gray, wouldn't she ordinarily be on the side of the American MBAs for that reason? I don't understand why she would be against giving only Americans jobs, temporarily.

Dlgood, yes, although I wonder about the values of American companies.