Philip Greenspun’s Weblog

The tour of the Salk Institute yesterday reminded me of what a land of opportunity California has been for immigrants.  Jonas Salk was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants (bio) and obtained enough funding from the March of Dimes to develop the polio vaccine (perfected in the mid 1950s; our tour guide said that the disease was due to be eradicated from the world by now but Muslims in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan are refusing to take the vaccine because they believe it causes sterility).  By 1960 Salk had obtained $20 million to build the Salk Institute and hired Louis Kahn (bio), who’d emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 5.

It seems that nearly every corner of California has been a place where an immigrant’s dream has come true.

[More:  see the movie My Architect.]

After a tour of Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute complex in La Jolla I went to lunch with some local friends.  These guys used to make big money programming or administering computer systems and small money playing blackjack.  Now their computer jobs are gone and they’re living off their card-counting trips to the casinos.  One friend was missing, however.  His last job was a $150,000/year position as a system administrator for a large publisher.  He was never part of the blackjack team, however.  What’s he doing now?  After a nationwide search the best job that he could find is doing tech support for America Online in Tampa, Florida.  He earns $10.50/hour now.