Politics

[Tanks]

The notion that being a "Harvard" grad as something to garner respect is meaningless these days... Holding a degree or tenure from one of these liberal indoctrination institutions is not the pedigree it used to be...

My daughter who is head of the recruitment committee at her firm recruits from top Ivy League schools and same for all the top law firms in the country. A person from your local law school has zero chance.

It makes sense, in order to get into an Ivy League school you have to be the cream of the crop, then you have to excel there to get into an MBA or law school at the same class of schools. Those schools have already done the elimination of those that don’t measure up. Then those firms take the cream of the crop from there as well.

Starting associate salary is over $200K nowadays. Firms are not going to take a risk on those that have not proved themselves to date.

 

[spike.t]

Life under Russian occupation.....

Ukraine war: Mariupol residents deny Russian stories about the city

Russian shattered Mariupol with a months-long siege in 2022. Now, it says it's rebuilding it.

www.bbc.com

 

[Brent in Az]

Gunman in Idaho found dead. Apparently, he set the brush fire to lure the firefighters into the ambush.

 

[jpr9954]

That's unfortunate, considering those funds are used of wildlife conservation.

While I would normally agree, in this case it was a strategic decision so as to set up the conditions for a lawsuit challenging their inclusion in the NFA.

 

[BJH65]

And how are you qualified to opine on her performance other than not agreeing with all her decisions?

Dang, kind of an elitist response? And what exactly are the necessary qualifications? In this day and age, if someone simply has the desire, even if they are a high school dropout, they can self educate themselves to a very high level even Elon Musk feels college is for fun and to prove you can do your chores and that you can learn anything you want for free.

Overall I’m very pleased with Amy Coney Barrett’s performance, she most often aligns and votes in a conservative direction. She did recuse herself from the religious charter case which resulted in a 4-4 deadlock which did irritate a lot of conservatives.

It is important to note that perspectives on Justice Barrett's performance vary based on individual viewpoints and interpretations of her rulings. Some critics find her positions inconsistent and unprincipled, while supporters see her as a principled and pragmatic jurist.

I don’t have a PhD in Political Science nor do I have a background in Constitutional Law but like anyone on this forum I’m capable of self educating myself.

 

[HookMeUpII]

Texas property taxes are amateur level taxation. Illinois and Connecticut are artisans when it comes to the craft of onerous property taxes.

I lived in a middle-class home in IL worth about $535,000. The tax bill was over $20,000. Of that tax bill, nearly $9000 was allocated to the insolvent teacher and municipal worker's retirement fund. Yep, roughly half the property tax went to people that already retired and provided no present-tense value to the taxpayer.

Today I live in WI, a notoriously high property tax State in some people's eyes. My lodge up here is worth 2-3x my Illinois property, yet the taxes are $9000.

Effective income tax rates are about the same, IL pegged at 5% for all and WI at up to 7% for those of extreme wealth.

You think you have high taxes until you experience IL property taxes.

Yup. NJ as well. I have several friends paying $20k or more. Mine are considered "low" in NJ. We live in a good county with one of the best towns for prop taxes. The downside? The school system isn't that great. It's not bad, per say. However, it can't be said to be good either. Thankfully my oldest is 3 and we are planning to move next year.

The houses we've started to look at are all in the $15-20k annual prop tax range.

Funny you mention the insolvent workers pension. That's our problem here too. The cops, firefighters, and teachers are all basically being promised a bag of goods which just isn't going to last. I am a huge supporter of what they do but the promises can't continue.

I am happy with some of the bills features, unhappy with others.

Happy with the SALT cap at $40k. This is just common sense. Not thrilled with the NFA/suppressor flip-flop. It will never matter for us in communist NJ but with that being said, the idea obviously made sense. Green energy subsidies had to go. Like the SNAP cuts because I'm sorry...but if you're on foodstamps you should have at least some gainful employment.

 

[HookMeUpII]

While I would normally agree, in this case it was a strategic decision so as to set up the conditions for a lawsuit challenging their inclusion in the NFA.

Can you elaborate on that further?

 

[mdwest]

My daughter who is head of the recruitment committee at her firm recruits from top Ivy League schools and same for all the top law firms in the country. A person from your local law school has zero chance.

It makes sense, in order to get into an Ivy League school you have to be the cream of the crop, then you have to excel there to get into an MBA or law school at the same class of schools. Those schools have already done the elimination of those that don’t measure up. Then those firms take the cream of the crop from there as well.

Starting associate salary is over $200K nowadays. Firms are not going to take a risk on those that have not proved themselves to date.

All 100% true...

That said.. I agree with @Red Leg 's earlier post... were I pursuing an MBA right now, I'd probably be looking a whole lot harder at Booth, Kellogg, Wharton (also an Ivy), Stern, and a few others more than in years past.. All are exceptional schools (always have been), and with much of the controversy surrounding the Ivy's (Harvard and Columbia much more so than the others), Ive seen companies that used to go "Harvard Only" starting to lean much harder into the top 5 schools (FWIW, while Harvard is a household name, they are consistently out performed by Wharton (#1), Kellog (#2), Stanford (#3), Booth (#4), Sloan (#5), Tuck (#6), etc...

FWIW, the Stern business school at the Univ of NY tied Tuck for #6 (and Harvard also was in the 3 way tie @ #6), while Columbia comes in at #9 in the US..

Same with their Law School.. Harvard is certainly exceptional.. but recent controversy has put
Harvard at odds with some large companies and certainly at odds with any firm that is led by anyone that is hard right of center as well as any firm led by someone aligned with the current administration.. It also doesn't help them that while in years past they often were considered one of the top 2 or 3 Law Schools in the country.. when today, like their MBA program, they are consistently ranked 6th, falling behind Stanford (#1), Yale (#2), Univ of Chicago (#3), Univ of Virginia (#4), Univ of PA Carey Law School (#5), Duke (#6), and then Harvard which tied with Duke for the #6 position..

If serious students are thinking hard about the ROI associated with the school they are going to dump $80K into for an MBA or JD (tuition only.. All the top 10 schools are between $75-85K).. these days, depending on the specific field or industry they want to practice law or business in, there are likely better options available than Harvard..


I'd personally be looking at Wharton for an MBA, and Stanford for a JD..

 

[Red Leg]

All 100% true...

That said.. I agree with @Red Leg 's earlier post... were I pursuing an MBA right now, I'd probably be looking a whole lot harder at Booth, Kellogg, Wharton (also an Ivy), Stern, and a few others more than in years past.. All are exceptional schools (always have been), and with much of the controversy surrounding the Ivy's (Harvard and Columbia much more so than the others), Ive seen companies that used to go "Harvard Only" starting to lean much harder into the top 5 schools (FWIW, while Harvard is a household name, they are consistently out performed by Wharton (#1), Kellog (#2), Stanford (#3), Booth (#4), Sloan (#5), Tuck (#6), etc...

FWIW, the Stern business school at the Univ of NY tied Tuck for #6 (and Harvard also was in the 3 way tie @ #6), while Columbia comes in at #9 in the US..

Same with their Law School.. Harvard is certainly exceptional.. but recent controversy has put
Harvard at odds with some large companies and certainly at odds with any firm that is led by anyone that is hard right of center as well as any firm led by someone aligned with the current administration.. It also doesn't help them that while in years past they often were considered one of the top 2 or 3 Law Schools in the country.. when today, like their MBA program, they are consistently ranked 6th, falling behind Stanford (#1), Yale (#2), Univ of Chicago (#3), Univ of Virginia (#4), Univ of PA Carey Law School (#5), Duke (#6), and then Harvard which tied with Duke for the #6 position..

If serious students are thinking hard about the ROI associated with the school they are going to dump $80K into for an MBA or JD (tuition only.. All the top 10 schools are between $75-85K).. these days, depending on the specific field or industry they want to practice law or business in, there are likely better options available than Harvard..


I'd personally be looking at Wharton for an MBA, and Stanford for a JD..

To its credit and my great benefit, Northrop sent me to a six-week executive course at Tuck during the first six-months I was with the company. It was hardly an MBA, but it was invaluable from a language and management perspective. Running a command with zero balance budget goal and a 12% P&L center were two rather different things.

 

[HookMeUpII]

My daughter who is head of the recruitment committee at her firm recruits from top Ivy League schools and same for all the top law firms in the country. A person from your local law school has zero chance.

It makes sense, in order to get into an Ivy League school you have to be the cream of the crop, then you have to excel there to get into an MBA or law school at the same class of schools. Those schools have already done the elimination of those that don’t measure up. Then those firms take the cream of the crop from there as well.

Starting associate salary is over $200K nowadays. Firms are not going to take a risk on those that have not proved themselves to date.

All of the successful people I know have 0 Ivy league credentials. I guess the term "successful" is subjective but we are talking high 8 figure into the 9 figure net worth.

Masters and MBA's in my career are worthless. Most of the law school grads I met found out early on, being a lawyer is no where near as glamorous as it's made out to be and neither was my career. Corporate, self-practicting, etc.

Proven track record starts in the field, not the university.

 

[rookhawk]

The problem with the Ivies is their innaccurate representation of admissions. It is virtually impossible to get into the Ivy League today if you are a white male regardless of achievement.

They make their money on full-fare foreign students. They admit a tremendous amount of leftist/marxist minorities. What about all the white kids that get in you might ask? The acronym you should be familiar is called ALDC:

According to a 2019 analysis from the Harvard admissions lawsuit (Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard), about 43% of Harvard’s domestic students (U.S. students) admitted were ALDC:

• Athletes: ~10%
• Legacies: ~14%
• Dean’s/Director’s interest list (donors/VIPs): ~5%
• Children of faculty/staff: ~4%

Once you carve the ALDC out of the acceptances rates, you’re nearing statistical impossibilities for most people of incredible academic ability.

As @Red Leg inferred above, there are more credible universities than the Ivies for business degrees specifically, those include Chicago, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, UNC, Michigan, UT Austin, UVA, and several others.

As far as Ivy credibility goes these days, Wharton Business is still the gold standard. (UPenn)

ALDC is the means that large universities, especially Ivies, get to obfuscate just how low their admissions is for “people of non-color”.

 

[Altitude sickness]

I sat on an interview panel interviewing a Harvard business degree holder. It was instantly obvious that this minority female thought the degree guaranteed the position. When we were scoring and ranking her. The degree was all she had. And was not selected.

 

[mdwest]

I would argue that adding "Ivy" to a resume certainly wont hurt anyone.. and many of the most successful people I know have found a way to do so, even though many of them didn't earn an actual degree at an Ivy..

Having Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, Yale, Princeton, etc (even Harvard and Columbia) on a resume gets peoples attention.. that cannot be denied... much more so than Wichita State or the University of North Texas, etc..

Most I know that work their way to senior executive status with large firms that didn't originally attend an Ivy end up doing something similar to what @Red Leg described.. they attend some sort of executive program at one (or several) schools... that combined with their prior education and prior experience (assuming a solid track record of performance) is enough to keep them competitive with the people that attended Tier 1 and Tier 2 universities..

Im a very good example of that actually.. I hold a BS in Education from a fairly pedestrian state school.. I realized about 20 years ago that my military career ending as a company grade officer combined with a BS in Ed from an "average" university simply wasn't allowing me to compete with my peers who were all retired O5's and O6's that had graduate degrees from one of the war colleges, even though I was running circles around them with my performance... So I went back to school and picked up an MBA and followed that up with an MS in Strategic Management (both from pretty "average" schools).. which allowed me to compete and make it into the "executive" ranks in my industry.. but once again at that point I found I was hitting a glass ceiling.. Now my competition was largely O6's and higher, all with masters degrees from a variety of institutions, many with 40+ years of experience between their military and civilian careers.. while I only had about 20 years of related experience.. again, I was out performing my peers.. but that alone didn't get the interviews for the "C Suite"..

So I picked up an executive program at Cornell, and then another one at Wharton and added those to the resume.. That was enough to get the attention of the people I needed to get the attention of and make me marketable..

Since then I have picked up yet another exec program at Cornell.. and have looked hard at another at Harvard.. its no longer about promotion.. Ive reached the top of the ladder and am now the CEO of the firm that I intend on retiring from.. at this point its about networking.. the overwhelming majority of the people that attend these programs are either already sitting in a senior executive role at notable businesses, or are fast tracking to those roles..

And as most everyone understands.. at the senior level in business, it is often much more about who you know than what you know... connections are far more valuable at the top than enhanced fundamental skill sets..

 

[Red Leg]

I would argue that adding "Ivy" to a resume certainly wont hurt anyone.. and many of the most successful people I know have found a way to do so, even though many of them didn't earn an actual degree at an Ivy..

Having Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, Yale, Princeton, etc (even Harvard and Columbia) on a resume gets peoples attention.. that cannot be denied... much more so than Wichita State or the University of North Texas, etc..

Most I know that work their way to senior executive status with large firms that didn't originally attend an Ivy end up doing something similar to what @Red Leg described.. they attend some sort of executive program at one (or several) schools... that combined with their prior education and prior experience (assuming a solid track record of performance) is enough to keep them competitive with the people that attended Tier 1 and Tier 2 universities..

Im a very good example of that actually.. I hold a BS in Education from a fairly pedestrian state school.. I realized about 20 years ago that my military career ending as a company grade officer combined with a BS in Ed from an "average" university simply wasn't allowing me to compete with my peers who were all retired O5's and O6's that had graduate degrees from one of the war colleges, even though I was running circles around them with my performance... So I went back to school and picked up an MBA and followed that up with an MS in Strategic Management (both from pretty "average" schools).. which allowed me to compete and make it into the "executive" ranks in my industry.. but once again at that point I found I was hitting a glass ceiling.. Now my competition was largely O6's and higher, all with masters degrees from a variety of institutions, many with 40+ years of experience between their military and civilian careers.. while I only had about 20 years of related experience.. again, I was out performing my peers.. but that alone didn't get the interviews for the "C Suite"..

So I picked up an executive program at Cornell, and then another one at Wharton and added those to the resume.. That was enough to get the attention of the people I needed to get the attention of and make me marketable..

Since then I have picked up yet another exec program at Cornell.. and have looked hard at another at Harvard.. its no longer about promotion.. Ive reached the top of the ladder and am now the CEO of the firm that I intend on retiring from.. at this point its about networking.. the overwhelming majority of the people that attend these programs are either already sitting in a senior executive role at notable businesses, or are fast tracking to those roles..

And as most everyone understands.. at the senior level in business, it is often much more about who you know than what you know... connections are far more valuable at the top than enhanced fundamental skill sets..

Assuming you have a plan to stay engaged in something of value, you will find it joyous to escape from that particular marathon.

 

[WAB]

All of the successful people I know have 0 Ivy league credentials. I guess the term "successful" is subjective but we are talking high 8 figure into the 9 figure net worth.

Masters and MBA's in my career are worthless. Most of the law school grads I met found out early on, being a lawyer is no where near as glamorous as it's made out to be and neither was my career. Corporate, self-practicting, etc.

Proven track record starts in the field, not the university.

Nothing is absolute in this arena. Arguably the most successful businessman in the world today (someone creating real durable value not book value), has a PhD from MIT.

 

[mdwest]

Considering that 1 year ago today Tesla stock was selling at $171 a share.. and today it is trading at $297.. I don't think Elon is sorry at all...

I think he is likely laughing all the way to the bank..

Sales mean nothing to a shareholder.. share value is all that matters..

Sales can indeed impact share value.. but if you think sales is the only thing that drives the market.. you probably should do a little more research..

liberals congratulating themselves on the devaluation of tesla in March conveniently forget how it was artificially inflated in November when Trump won the election.. it bounced from the low 200's to almost 480 within 60 days..

It then took a nose dive starting in early February.. that lasted a whopping 30 days.. and now has been climbing again for the last 2 months.. and is a full 57% more valuable today than it was a year ago..

I only wish I had bought a few thousand shares last year so I could have made 57% on my money like Elon has made on his billions over the last 12 months..

With all of that information now on the table.. do you really think Elon is sorry that Sweedes arent buying Teslas? or that he's lost even a single wink of sleep over it?

On May 9 (this morning) Forbes estimated Musks current net worth to be $342B..

In October of 2024 his net worth was $256B..

I suppose he's just distraught over those sales figures lol..

Just bringing this back up to say... its been about 6 weeks since this post.. Tesla continues to rise (its at $320 today), as does Musk's personal net worth (Forbes pegs him at $410B today)..

All of those Europeans laughing at Musks demise, the fall of Tesla, etc.. and all of the leftists that went on their scratch a tesla and burn a tesla rant... it might be time to admit you got it wrong...

Elon continues to laugh all the way to the bank..



Remember.., a little over a year ago Tesla was trading at $171 (before his open support, campaigning, and alignment and then later fall out with Trump) and his personal net worth was hovering around $200B...

Car sales is not how Tesla makes its real money.. and barely has any impact on Musks larger portfolio..

 

[Rocked and Loaded]

Just bringing this back up to say... its been about 6 weeks since this post.. Tesla continues to rise (its at $320 today), as does Musk's personal net worth (Forbes pegs him at $410B today)..

All of those Europeans laughing at Musks demise, the fall of Tesla, etc.. and all of the leftists that went on their scratch a tesla and burn a tesla rant... it might be time to admit you got it wrong...

Elon continues to laugh all the way to the bank..



Remember.., a little over a year ago Tesla was trading at $171 (before his open support, campaigning, and alignment and then later fall out with Trump) and his personal net worth was hovering around $200B...

Car sales is not how Tesla makes its real money.. and barely has any impact on Musks larger portfolio..

Wait, are you trying to tell me that all the photos of anti musk graffiti in Europe and Mexico that were here posted didn’t matter?

Color me shocked.

 

[BJH65]

Nothing is absolute in this arena. Arguably the most successful businessman in the world today (someone creating real durable value not book value), has a PhD from MIT.

I believe Elon Musk is generally considered the most successful businessman worldwide, with his leadership at Tesla, SpaceX, and other ventures, plus his massive wealth and global impact. Combined with his influence and vision, I think he’s number one.

He has bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania and briefly attended Stanford University for a PhD in applied physics and materials science but dropped out after two days to pursue business opportunities.

 

[WAB]

I believe Elon Musk is generally considered the most successful businessman worldwide, with his leadership at Tesla, SpaceX, and other ventures, plus his massive wealth and global impact. Combined with his influence and vision, I think he’s number one.

He has bachelor’s degrees in physics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania and briefly attended Stanford University for a PhD in applied physics and materials science but dropped out after two days to pursue business opportunities.

I was referring to Charles Koch, PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT. He earned his money the hard way, beginning in energy and building out from there in a totally private enterprise. I heavily discount stock market wealth created over short periods of time. But I do agree that Must has been spectacularly successful.

 

[HookMeUpII]

Nothing is absolute in this arena. Arguably the most successful businessman in the world today (someone creating real durable value not book value), has a PhD from MIT.

All roads can lead to Rome...and there are many.

Most successful businessman I know immigrated to the USA legally, drove a taxi, worked as a pharmacist for a pharma company, started his own pharma company, and is now worth $150-$200mm.

He's not on the level of a Bezos, Musk, Thiel, etc...but that's a pretty darn good living.

As I mentioned, successful is subjective.

Now this is not the rule, but just what I've seen. Most of the ivy league folks I met work for other people. They still do well, don't get me wrong. Most of successful people we work with, work for themselves.

That's just my personal experience, not saying that's the case across the board.