Is Clustering a way to Thrive?

The excellent NPR Planet Money Blog had a posting Why Clusters Of Like Businesses Thrive about the advantages of having similar (or even identical) businesses cluster together in a particular area. Briefly, having other nearby businesses with similar needs and concerns as your own business seems to result in many benefits such as reduced ad-spend, increased safety, better access to wholesalers and customers, etc. In return, you may have a lower margin, but make it up on much higher volume.

I was wondering how this concept applies to individuals with similar cultural background clustering together. One of the obvious advantages of living in a neighborhood with a distinct cultural flavor could be that a residents association could negotiate better prices from nearby businesses for all members of that community; there would be stronger collective power to influence the local politicians for neighborhood enhancement; there would be more of a feeling of a neighborhood and a sense of belonging to the community, something that I really miss here in New York City; religious and cultural events could be celebrated with greater enthusiasm and participation.

The disadvantage would be that you would miss out on the richness of exploring the different approaches to life that other cultures have.

I am sure there are lots of other angles to this that I am missing out on? Would love to hear some other viewpoints on this.

Maybe Money(or Tax rate) is the only important factor?

Continuing my thoughts from the last post, I see this article explaining how bankers and investment managers are planning to move to Geneva from London because of its lower tax rate. Interesting how none of the other factors I had dwelt upon earlier were nowhere on the article's radar! On the other hand it did mention that availability of good schools was an important factor too (although I feel that most places will generally be able to provide this nowadays, albeit at a high cost).

Where Should We Live?

What factors decide where one lives? Until a few years ago, there was not much choice — one simply lived in the environment and culture where they happened to grow up. In the last fifty or so years we have seen people migrating from "third world" countries to the first world for a better life for their kids or freedom from persecution, etc.

Increasingly however, as more and more places in the world seem to be rising to a globally accepted standard of living, what is(are) the determining factor(s) for where one decides to grow roots? Is it just money— where one can build up a nice nest egg? Or is it where one has family? Or where one has friends? Or is it where one has access to the cleanest air and water? With the emergence of a global community, with global morals and norms, and the primacy of English as a sort of de-facto lingua franca, do cultural factors still play a very important role in this decision? With fast jet travel, is distance from family that big of an issue? Is it further reduced by constant contact through phone and videoconferencing technologies?

This is one of life's tough questions for me, and I have to struggle with myself to answer these questions honestly. I seem to be just going through life right now on the basis of momentum. So I may just keep going this way as long as I have a decent job that pays relatively well, and put off any decisions until I am forced to make one, or maybe worse, until I have no choice!

Or maybe it truly doesn't matter. Maybe our lives will become more mobile and semi-nomadic as travel becomes easier?

And so it begins...

This blog is about the life and reflections of a jaded Wall Streeter.

Jaded because wall street did not turn out to be what I thought it was when I decided to get into it. Jaded because like every other wall streeter, I spend a large part of the year thinking about my anticipated bonus, and the rest of the year in bitter disappointment that it wasn't even close to what I thought I should have got. Jaded because I feel trapped in this role with some sort of golden handcuffs that prevent me from trying something completely different that I might love. Jaded because I'm not really able to talk about these things openly with anyone else.

Hopefully this blog will help me articulate my thoughts and motivations, and through a fuller examination of my choices, lead me to the next stage of my career, whatever that may be.