Chinese Students Want To Know: How Do I Get Rich?

I think they are being delusional. For the next twenty years, minimum, bankers in general and investment bankers in particular should come to expect that if anybody's making lots of money, they're going to get scrutinized. Not just by the government and not just by the people, but by the banks themselves. The banks have seen what happens when you pay too much money to those people, and while the upper echelon shall always be handsomely paid, I think the rank and file are going to see a severe and long-term pay cut.

At this point, you tell an investment bank that if they don't pay a lot they aren't going to get the smartest possible people and the reaction is likely to be "Thank god! At least when they make mistakes they won't make really smart mistakes! Those are the worst." Why should they pay someone five million to destroy the company when they can find people for $200,000 who will do quite adequately? (Recall that "beating the market" is very hard and that an index fund is generally an astonishingly good investment, all things considered.)

It will come back, though. It will come back when those who remember how we got here are flushed out of the system and the people of 2040 or 2050 make the same damn mistake and fall into the credit bubble trap again, as the balance of the workforce tilts away from those who are at least 20 today. But that's probably not soon enough for the students of today.

Edit: and while I hope so, and we'll deserve what we get if we don't take action, it's actually not at all clear that the finance industry will be massively regulated after this, at least not in the right way. Many congresspeople are a combination of incompetent and outright owned by the finance companies and people.

The good news is this isn't hurting entrepreneurship in China. There are far too many smart young Chinese that do not have these outsized expectations...and maybe more important have nowhere to turn but to start something themselves.

Maybe another way to summarize this article is "Wharton profs' only interactions with Chinese students is at the top .0001% of the class."

PS: Though you guessed right that I am a white male, I must say that I am not American.

Of course, I'm a white American (that happens to live in China). Perhaps you have some insights that I'm lacking.

Your point about sample size and selection bias is right on. This is the real take away from the article.

Sure, people want money, but most believe that the only real way to get it is through some kind of graft or payoffs. Thus, the way to get wealthy is to get a high job in a large and established company or government organization, and put themselves in a position for the inevitable kickback. They may not paint it in those terms, but that's basically what those students were asking for.

Now for the caveats: There is an AMAZING amount of entrepreneurial activity at the bottom of the food chain, and there is definitely an emerging entrepreneurial class. China's also a huge and diverse country, and there's definitely pockets of Silicon Valley-like activity. However, culturally they're swimming upstream.

Frankly, I fear for the economic future of China unless they kickstart some more private business activity (particularly startups). The majority of economic activity here is in massive sluggish state owned enterprises, and that's a recipe for disaster if this economic downturn is long and nasty.