Quote Originally Posted by Mrs. Greenjeans

Fengzi:What type of job do you have that you can afford to be so smug about this? Surely you won't mind telling me.
Surely not Mrs. Greenjeans. In fact, here's the whole story.

I graduated high school as a long haired stoner with a 1.2 GPA. My first job was cleaning horse stalls(aka shoveling shit). After that I worked in a factory manufacturing corregated paper products, worked as a cook at Sizzler, did some construction work, delivered pizza, etc.

After a few years of this, I decided I wanted something better and started taking night classes at the community college. This led to a university where I eventually earned a B.S. in International Business and a B.A. in East Asian Studies. All while working full time.

After I graduated I moved to China for a while, where I taught English as I was learning to speak, read, and write Chinese. I now work as an account manager for a distributor of U.S. made semiconductor manufacturing equipment. My company's headquarters is in Taiwan and all of our sales are in Taiwan, China and Singapore.

I am also pretty active in the stock market and, although my portfolio is fairly modest, I am able to pull in a return of about 25% per year. Although, if you've been following the news, you'll know that the last few days have hurt me badly.

While I was living in China I met my wife. My wife grew up in a poor, poor, village in Eastern China. She remembers that for many years, while she was growing up, her family was only able to afford to eat meat once per week. The rest of the time was rice, tofu, and vegetables. The first time she had her own bathroom was after we were married and got our first apartment. Prior to that she shared a communal bathroom with the rest of the village, or in the dorms while she was in college. Despite her poor background, my wife had managed to get into China's version of Harvard when she was 15yo and had a master's degree by the time she was 21. She is now a senior software architect for a major U.S. internet company.

And yes, I do smoke weed. Except for a 5year period, shortly after I moved back to the U.S., I have smoked for the last 25 years. Although now I limit my consumption to the evenings, after everything's done, and my daugher is in bed.

Hope this answers your question. I don't consider myself smug, and if you knew me I'm sure you would find me a very modest person. This is just pretty much my area of expertise. Plus, having spent my time in the trenches, I do have the ability to see things from both points of view. Please do not take my support of outsourcing as a lack of sympathy towards those that are hurt by it. It is just, as I have already said, often the lesser of two evils and many times what is best long term.