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Frank Drevin's avatar

Meanwhile, some miserable guy making $4K a month in Boston is dreaming of moving to southeast Asia and living the simple life.

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JustPlainBill's avatar

The myth of the nation where "the streets are paved with gold" dies hard. The Chinese who came in the mid-19th century to build the railroads called it Gold Mountain. Now the legend has lagged the reality for most.

The funny thing is that the guy might actually make $4K/month in Boston or NYC, but not only will he work till exhaustion, as you say, but at that level of income, he won't be able to live much of a life in those places. That level of income goes pretty far in Smallville USA, and many would be grateful to have it, but you won't even be able to afford morning coffee in NYC.

Thanks to my Taiwanese wife, I have met many, many Chinese and Taiwanese families over the decades of our marriage. An amazingly high percentage of those people gravitated to the restaurant business to seek their "fortunes," or more correctly, their livelihoods. I've noticed over the years that more of them make decent money by buying and selling restaurants than by running them or working in them. I knew a few who would pick up a place for a song, get it running well, then sell it for a handsome profit to less capable new owners who worked their butts off only to watch it slowly fail.

More commonly for those "lucky" enough to be owners, a restaurant ends up providing a meager living that requires the entire family to pitch in if they want to keep it going. And they are there 6 or 7 days a week for 12+ hours, kids included (when they are not going to school). I have known at least two such families personally; both ran their places for years with a heartbreaking amount of effort, unable to afford any paid employees even after brutally cutting corners, only to finally have to throw in the towel nevertheless. One might say that they did not own the restaurant--it owned THEM.

Those who can't or are not inclined to own often end up working at one of these places. We met the Malaysian Chinese couple that became our best friends over 30 years ago when I was working in southern Maryland, where the husband was working in a restaurant. Long hours, and they and their two little girls were living in a group setting with several other restaurant workers in a condo belonging to the restaurant owner. It was a smoke-filled and depressing arrangement, definitely not the place to raise healthy children. When I changed jobs and got ready to move to Portland, Oregon (which back then was still a delightful city), at my wife's suggestion they pulled up stakes and made the move with us.

We loaded their stuff (not much, as you can imagine) in the front of the Ryder truck I rented for our own things, and they found an apartment of their own and a job there. The husband found work as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant; it was a 45 minute drive each way, and he worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for over 30 years, and although the pay was adequate, it certainly wasn't princely.

Fortunately, this story has a much happier ending, Despite a pretty low income, they managed to buy their own home after a few year, and not only paid it off, but also now have a paid-off rental to boot. Their daughters grew up well, one ended up going to college and getting a master's degree. They are now retired like us, and doing well. I doubt if many Americans could have accomplished what they have on so little.

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