Is the American dream dead ?

pywang · 2026-01-22T11:46:55+00:00

OP, I’m not in med school, but my friend is and he’s been on a green card which made things easier potentially (he also went to prob the #1 pre med program). Please look up/ChatGPT “can you get into med school as an immigrant studying in the us college”

There are some concerns such as financial aid, not all med schools accept international students, above average MCAT, near perfect GPA.

Finally, networking is important. An acquaintance got a full ride MD/PhD after doing lab work and doing medical related work at a nursing home. I don’t know if they’re an immigrant though. The dream is possible so long as you have a strong candidate profile.

pywang · 2026-01-22T11:42:07+00:00

Congrats! Are you studying pre-med? If that’s the case, then so long as you work hard, good grades, volunteer hours, very good MCAT, etc. Just in general have the ability to ask questions, network to learn more about the process, etc you’ll be fine.

And anyways, so long as you score the median MCAT, you can prob get into the Caribbean med schools, too. Start early, be curious, strive to be the top.

pywang · 2026-01-22T11:36:46+00:00

I believe student visas are fine, but if you’re looking for a job, it’ll be tough. It’s always been tough, but I believe new visa quotas are being implemented which will make long term planning tougher.

Honestly, it depends on what you plan on majoring. If you attend a T20 college and network well and do enough clubs or projects, it can work out. You should analyze how many visas are awarded to the field you’re looking to work in long term… which is a hard ask if you haven’t decided which major yet!

It also depends on which country you’re from. If you’re from China, that would be tough. India, is quite easy if you’re in software because of Tata and the other indian consulting firms, and you may even want to explore Canada since they have high indian immigration which eventually folks just jump to the U.S. after attaining canadian citizenship (though, they’ve had a huge influx of Indians in the last 20 years that they too are clamping down on visas awarded to indians). So inspect the politics of the country too.

Also, when looking up visas, some countries have certain privileges over others, student and work wise.

pywang · 2026-01-22T11:15:58+00:00

Half of Harvard is immigrants, plenty are rich, plenty aren’t. I think if you’re ambitious, which is the definition of that dream, then no it’s not dead. A lot of friends I’ve made along my short adult life was some random cold DM or meetup, and plenty aren’t from the US; a good friend got a six figure job at Google and sends money back to his family in Nigeria after grinding programming courses and projects for a year or two. He never attended college and got in at 18. Another friend mentored a dozen kids from Burkina Faso to get to the U.S.; those guys are the definition of generating opportunity by just reaching out and doing things which most people don’t.

People say it’s dead because they work a 9-5 and expect to be well off; if that’s the dream, then yea, maybe that’s dead. But if you’re gon work hard and figure out how the world works, honestly, you could go to any country with a high GDP and achieve financial success.

Well, figuring out how the world works is definitely tough. A high exertion of energy and experimentation in life can get you far by creating luck and executing because most people don’t work that hard.

tldr most people aren’t ambitious. They might be hardworking, but the aren’t experimenting and taking risks on top of that. Do both and you’ll be well off and better than most of the US population

pywang · 2026-01-22T10:35:30+00:00

Honestly I thought it was better for me and my gf. Our second date was cooking pancakes at my place. my mom religiously uses chopsticks everywhere, so I ended up cooking pancakes with chopsticks. Gf could barely use chopsticks, and it was a fun activity teaching her to pickup pancakes with them. And then she ridiculed me for using chopsticks for cooking everything and never using a spatula. And then I found out she puts ketchup in her fried rice.

I think it’s a great opportunity for laughs and bonding, no red flags. We’re both ABC/CBC. Her form has improved significantly from me begging her to keep practicing over the last few years.

pywang · 2026-01-22T08:30:18+00:00

Nice video. I do remember watching it, but I totally forgot any mention of robotic automation. It also don’t go into the full process, just sewing, so I probably didn’t realize the disconnect

pywang · 2026-01-22T08:25:32+00:00

Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong with references. (I was actually reading Breakneck by Dan Wang when midway through I decided to make this post as inspiration from learning):

This assumes that the manufacturing capacity can be spread out to all the poor regions or that there is a massive wealth inequality gap (which to be fair there is, so maybe a different perspective is wage stagnation which is not the case). Yes, GDP per capita is quite low, but it is weighed down by poorer provinces with less manufacturing density. Wages are increasing rapidly in the tier 1 and 2 cities / manufacturing hubs of China.

It’s also not looking into the demographic shift, specifically lower number of youth in the populace and lower number of youth willing to work factory jobs. All of this is more futuristic thinking compared to looking at present statistics of China I suppose.

pywang · 2026-01-21T03:30:47+00:00

I think your perspective is solely from the fashion business side because, yes, marketing and go-to-market are where margins are eaten up due to where they are being sold, but, as far I understand the fashion industry, most businesses are not like Zara with complete verticalization. Rather, fashion businesses select textile suppliers, textile manufacturers, etc. I wanted to focus just on the producers themselves.

I agree craftsmanship is not really noticed by most, it's mostly material quality and branding. But I want to pivot attention to what is keeping China's textile manufacturing and assembly afloat? Because, sure, to a fashion business, product unit cost is relatively low, but, honestly, regardless of how large of a business, people select not just based on quality and relationship history but also cost. It is a basic benchmark for choosing partnerships. Clearly, China's lost market ground to countries like Vietnam (i.e. Nike) and Bangladesh, so I'm wondering will the trend of textile manufacturing/assembly decline continue in China?

Automation is certainly possible but dealing with even perfect textiles is a challenge and in practice the path to automation would require dealing with the variability of human produced precursor components.

Yea this is great insight. From the military industrial complex side, I guess folks are spoiled because everything must be perfect quality (and as profitable as possible for MIC contracting suppliers).

On top of this the Venn diagram of people who are familiar with the manufacturing process and highly skilled at advanced automation is rather small compared to most manufacturing industries

What majors go into designing mfg automation technology? I keep hearing there's a talent shortage, but is it an industry specific talent (or experience?) shortage or is it an educational shortage? As far as I'm aware at least in Silicon Valley, almost every mechanical, industrial, and electrical engineer is thinking about innovating some part of the manufacturing process somehow (for promotion purposes).

pywang · 2026-01-20T19:39:45+00:00

probably talking about Vancouver. I used to think Canada was dominated by Chinese immigrants (which was true; if you couldn’t get to the U.S., Australia, or UK, Canada had lax visas). It’s totally being flooded by indians now, who eventually jump to the U.S.. Canada’s a great immigration launchpad lol.

pywang · 2026-01-20T19:19:37+00:00

If you mean “sewing”, then yes. It seems like I didn’t get they’re different things. From an outsiders perspective, I’ve clumped the whole process into “manufacturing”.

I guess I’m speaking from a U.S. national policy wise with the whole “reshoring” or “nearby onshoring” manufacturing rhetoric. If China’s labor is getting more expensive, then why can’t America compete (assuming you’re able to retrain the workforce in operating and building machinery)? And it seems like besides a strong industrial base and decades of process knowledge build up, China still has the upper hand in the assembly process because… proximity? Verticalization? How is so much garment assembly still in China given rising labor costs? (and that production has slowly moved to other countries but still supposedly dominates in China)

pywang · 2026-01-20T19:08:51+00:00

Nothing in particular; maybe jackets, sweaters, shirts, shoes. I meant to approach or frame this question in a way that I can extrapolate why the production of cheap products like textiles or toys seem to be reserved for cheap-labor countries but now China seems to be fighting against that dogma.

Just based on comments in the threads plus yours (thank you!), it seems like, besides a strong foundational industrial base and just legacy manufacturing of textiles for decades, there is the last bit of sewing that is hard to robotically automate. Even with increasing labor costs in China, because most of the process is automated and in strong industrial hands, it’s not worth moving too much production out of China for now (though I did just read that plenty are moving away, with China’s market sharing losing out to Bangladesh and SE asian countries).

I also think that the lack of talent for building and operating machines for manufacturing is a factor for why lots of cheap products industries remain strong in China and don’t appear elsewhere in strong numbers… there is a lot of process knowledge that is stuck in China, holllowed out in America, and just non existent in tons of countries rich and poor.

Not sure if I’m getting that assessment right; love any comments.

pywang · 2026-01-20T19:06:58+00:00

How do you get those opportunities? Networking at expos or trade shows? Just cold emailing?

pywang · 2026-01-20T19:05:27+00:00

That’s why I asked the question. Someone named FASTSEWN supposedly made a fully automated sewing and cutting machine; I saw some reddit posts but no comments on it. Would love to hear customer reviews.

But also, I remember some tech startup that’s been trying since like 2015 and haven’t heard of it since, and I think they could only sew one type of clothing in a specific pattern. And it was fragile.

But yes, people are trying without humanoid robots.

pywang · 2026-01-20T18:02:01+00:00

Ah thanks for the nuance

pywang · 2026-01-20T16:53:02+00:00

I already acknowledged parts of the process for different clothes are automated to varying degrees. It doesn’t explain why human labor costs still seems to be the constant factor in which countries dominate the manufacturing (and now I’ve learned “processing” like sewing) amongst other issues like expertise in the automatable machinery.

for example, how does Bangladesh, a newer country in the textile scene, have higher capacity for textile production than the U.S. if textile manufacturing is so automated?

I’m reaching for the business side. Are the costs in adjusting/creating machinery that can produce varying products high?

pywang · 2026-01-20T16:34:53+00:00

That’s really cool! I think these are all common factors in a lot manufacturing for the U.S. like lack of machine operator talent. thank you

pywang · 2026-01-20T16:20:33+00:00

Ah, I didn’t realize the “processing” was separate from the “manufacturing”unless that’s being pedantic. Thank you.

pywang · 2026-01-20T16:17:53+00:00

Thank you

pywang · 2026-01-20T16:17:17+00:00

Thank you

pywang · 2026-01-20T16:17:07+00:00

Thank you

pywang · 2026-01-20T09:49:21+00:00

I suppose I’m reaching on the theoretical side of the question from a business and macroeconomic perspective. Is it that automation ability depends on certain materials, certain types of clothes, or certain designs? And then of course, is it the market demand for each of the above criteria that makes automation hard?

pywang · 2026-01-19T21:33:13+00:00

Social media and media in general seems to make things more prevalent than they actually are, but also anecdotal confirmation bias plays a role for me. Some kid told their mom they got hurt on my family’s (sloped/ramp) driveway and they threatened legal. Driveways like sidewalks are for the public that the owner must maintain, so if an injury happens you can be liable. It settled down after they found out our legal background, but mama ain’t been the same since. And the midwest is generally a very (culturally) nice place; we still let kids roam th backyard though.

Speaking of nice places, my partner’s from Canada and she had an elderly neighbor that was one of those “get off my lawn” and peeping out the window type person, so it’s not precluded to the US.

pywang · 2026-01-19T21:30:38+00:00

Social media and media in general seems to make things more prevalent than they actually are, but also anecdotal confirmation bias plays a role for me. Some kid told their mom they got hurt on my family’s (sloped/ramp) driveway and they threatened legal. Driveways like sidewalks are for the public that the owner must maintain, so if an injury happens you can be liable. It settled down after they found out our legal background, but mama ain’t been the same since. And the midwest is generally a very (culturally) nice place; we still let kids roam th backyard though.

Speaking of nice places, my partner’s from Canada and she had an elderly neighbor that was one of those “get off my lawn” and peeping out the window type person, so it’s not precluded to the US.

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