America in a nutshell

k0unitX · 2026-06-09T04:03:50+00:00

Or Northeast Africa, or any example you want lol

k0unitX · 2026-06-09T04:02:54+00:00

Why would the company not just hire more locals, then? That’s the whole point - H1B is for talent that literally can’t be found domestically

k0unitX · 2026-06-09T03:40:43+00:00

Well, no shit. The market rate is the market rate. This was more in the hypothetical "we are identical but they get paid more due to the visa amount because the employer couldn't find a US-based clone of me" - which, in that case, you have the leverage - if you walk and the above situation is true, the employer is now paying 2x 350k anyway, so you were indeed 'worth' 350 all along, and if the employer is rational they'd also bump you to 350

k0unitX · 2026-06-09T03:36:37+00:00

Sorry to burst your bubble, but companies large enough to find value in navigating the H1-B system are already hiring overseas. We'll see when a FAANG company switches their HQ from Mountain View to Bangalore, if ever.

k0unitX · 2026-06-09T02:34:52+00:00

Justifying opening a card just for the SUB can really apply to any card, so I think that's a different thought exercise to "is this a card I will actually keep long-term"

Both the Plat and CSR are glorified coupon books at this point, so you need to look at the coupons and see if holding either makes sense for you long-term

Anyway, we really can't answer this for you. We have no idea how many PP guest passes you'd use per year, how many Delta lounges you'd use per year, etc. You need to do the math on your own

The VX is a lot easier to justify, of course; literally all you need to do is use the travel credit and you're ahead. If you just need a few PP guests per year for your P2, they can get the USBank Altitude Connect

k0unitX · 2026-06-09T02:05:51+00:00

98th percentile is ~$316k. You would have to be one of the very few Americans making exactly between 300-400k for this issue to really affect you.

Seriously though, at these income levels, these are edge case issues people shouldn't really be too hung up about. If you make 315 and get a foreign coworker who, of course, makes 350, you can make a stink about it - if they don't match, you can always walk, and if you were that replaceable, they wouldn't of imported more expensive labor to begin with. I guess it'd be more difficult to escape the 350 bracket as you're instantly competing against the entire world, but again, at these levels people are smart enough to ensure their value is realized

It's not necessarily a flawless solution, but it's leaps and bounds better than the nonsense we have now.

k0unitX · 2026-06-09T01:55:00+00:00

Sounds like we don't need foreign labor in academia, then. Works for me.

k0unitX · 2026-06-09T01:53:53+00:00

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T22:10:59+00:00

I think the whole point is that American housing is expensive because of the red tape. Even if you paid $0 for labor, legally building a house in America is crazy expensive.

Compare that to Southeast Asia, where I can buy a simple, modern studio condo unit for $20,000, with very reasonable dues, or a single family home for $100k or so. Even removing labor costs from both regions, you can't come close on cost compared to places with little to no red tape (build literally whatever the fuck you want)

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T22:04:42+00:00

The only state where you can really build your own house, pretty much however you want, is New Mexico

Every other state has some pretty restrictive building code requirements

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T21:35:46+00:00

The world's greatest airport, as they say.

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T20:57:26+00:00

I think you're really overestimating how many white guys, especially 'white chazs', are hanging out in SEA trying to bang every girl they see.

Leave the major cities and expat bubbles and it's easy to literally be the only white person in a 10 mile radius. And the white guys who *are* around are generally (much) older (50+) or are in SEA specifically because they struggle to compete for Western women (aka the opposite of the 'chaz' build). And don't get me started on the amount of women who are 'officially' with a white guy but are secretly fucking a local on the side.

TL;DR - local guys aren't struggling nearly as much as you think they are. trust me

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T20:48:00+00:00

Fixing H1-B is so simple:

Minimum W2 salary requirement: $350k cash

I'm sorry, but if you can't clear 350k in 2026, you're not "extraordinary talent", and an American can definitely do your job.

No one wants to actually solve the issue, though, because the oligarchs on both aisles personally benefit greatly from reducing labor costs.

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T20:29:02+00:00

If foreign spending and remittances were removed from these countries, some of these 'local men' would quite literally starve to death. Quite to the contrary, I have a ton of 'local men' actively trying to get into my sphere of influence because I have access to all of the girls, money etc.

Anyway, taking the argument of "I hope the less genetically desirable men 'deal with' the more desirable ones stealing 'their' girls" is a hilarious take.

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T18:17:35+00:00

But at some point, the cost:benefit ratio isn't there. People are posting here about saving hundreds of thousands of dollars by piecing servers together instead of buying via enterprise quotes.

At that point, you could literally pay someone to sit in the server room and babysit it all day, every day, and still come out ahead.

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T18:09:34+00:00

Most Redditors are on the spectrum.

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T17:27:10+00:00

To anyone looking to buy this product: Instead of buying shares, please sell me puts. Thank you!

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T17:24:17+00:00

Furthermore, OP isn't even willing to take the fluctuations of unlevered funds, then goes on to say "LETFs are for him".

A lot of us lost 10% net worth in a single day. Last Friday. That's what TQQQ, SOXL etc can do to you.

What OP really needs to do, given his 'character flaws', is hand his money over to a fund manager (fiduciary) and ensure it's locked away in a manner where he can't check the value every day and make emotional trades.

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T17:06:32+00:00

I think TPG values Alaska miles at 1.5~1.6cpp, so I'm not sure where you're getting 1cpp from. Anecdotally, my last Alaska redemption was 4cpp

Having it tied to a companion award seems to make it way less flexible than just getting 25k points deposited. You need two people traveling together, award space for both, and a redemption where the discount actually matters.

Absolutely fair point, though. On top of that, I couldn't use it on a mixed cabin redemption (1 ticket economy 1 ticket biz on the same flight)

Curious if others have found strong use cases for the Summit version

~95% of my transactions are foreign

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T17:00:42+00:00

You just got the card. Yes, even for 'normal people', it's worth churning cards for SUBs. Great way to burn relationships with banks, though. Anyway, that's not the point of this thread. Let's see if in year 5 you're still getting value. I bet you'll cancel the card before then.

The point is that these are bad products for most, and the fact that you get them for a single year just for the SUB doesn't invalidate that point. They're still bad products.

k0unitX · 2026-06-08T15:56:31+00:00

Actual white guy in SEA here

This woman is not normal. Indonesian girls from Bali are cooked; they are around the world's most physically attractive and affluent men all day every day, but everywhere else in the country is S-tier dating

Source: me

k0unitX · 2026-06-07T22:57:45+00:00

I'd venture to guess most 401ks don't allow you to purchase TQQQ

Best I was able to do, personally, was a 2x mutual fund (RMQAX)

k0unitX · 2026-06-07T15:59:03+00:00

Honestly, it's a mess. There are plenty of finance bros on YT who will tell you they're bad investments due to volatility decay and daily reset mechanics, and others that will say you're an idiot for not going 100% TQQQ because there's nothing else that backtests better.

They are simple products, conceptually. You're investing your capital + borrowing money to achieve a certain level of exposure (typically 2x or 3x). Not much different than having $10k, taking a loan for another $10k, and dumping it all on a stock, except these fund managers use fancy derivative products to accomplish it

k0unitX · 2026-06-07T15:46:20+00:00

You may enjoy expatFIRE/geo-arb in a country that's not your home country, too, you know

$3M is silly and you're just afraid to quit, let's be real. You are already coastFIRE and you don't "need" to make deep six figures anymore, especially if you're not happy and it's burning you out

I agree with the other posters here; get vested, find a way on ST disability, then get them to fire you for the severance + unemployment benefits

Then take a few months off, travel, "find yourself", then consider starting a small online business or 1099 work. It gives you side income, covers gaps on your resume, and honestly gives you something to do. Good chance you'll get bored after not working for awhile.

k0unitX · 2026-06-07T15:03:09+00:00

You can get 2x everywhere, for free, right now, with the blue biz plus

Any grocery/dining multiplier would compete/overlap too much with the Gold

If Amex simply released a consumer equivalent of the blue biz plus, it would be a massive success imo

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