That, even in this downturn, is not the case in Silicon Valley, Seattle or Shanghai.
Likely live in one of the following cities: Boston, NYC, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, Beijing or Shanghai.
Luxury role models: Young and fashionable, most are self-employed or corporate executives living in Beijing or Shanghai.
When you drive around Beijing (or Shanghai or Hangzhou), you see ads on buses for all these sites.
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You might as well go to Beijing or Shanghai, which are far cheaper.
And there are different countries than there are around Beijing or Shanghai.
But, the consultants point out, few Western multinationals have a mergers-and-acquisitions team in Delhi or Shanghai that can draw up a shopping list.
In order to list their shares in Hong Kong or Shanghai, many Chinese companies are busy preparing internationally acceptable accounts and statutory reports.
One would have to be blind, or have no friends in New York, London or Shanghai, to not realize that Silicon Valley is currently operating in a different reality.
Under the plan, which must be approved by the City Council, developers could build more if they pay for architecture with the swagger of London's Shard or Shanghai Tower.
Some might opt to avoid very expensive cities, such as Beijing or Shanghai, for up-and-coming smaller urban centers such as Chengdu, the provincial capital of agriculturally fecund Sichuan province.
In other words, the cheapest phone that Apple makes costs around ten times the cheapest Android that a kid in Nairobi, Jakarta or Shanghai can get his hands on.
On the other hand, bespoke boots are special and collectible, but the problem is that unlike custom clothing shops in London or Shanghai, the artists are individuals, not staffs of tailors, and make very limited production.
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"This is where you say we're not quite ready to go in and build a campus and offer degrees, but we're going to go to Mumbai, Dubai or Shanghai, as an example, and go in and hang the Wharton banner, " said Robertson.
Like the Beijing 2008 Olympics or the Shanghai 2010 World Expo.
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And the price of gold, or the politics in Washington, have no impact on whether or not Shanghai locals are going to buy smartphones and go to Baidu to search, and Sina and Tencent sites to maintain relationships with friends.
Chances are that your law firm and bank already have offices in Shanghai or Beijing.
For example, some 1, 216 companies in China are listed on either the Shanghai or the Shenzhen stock exchanges.
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The government plans to list three banks on the Hong Kong, Shanghai or possibly New York stockmarkets this year.
Nor can retailers in small cities expect the same appetite for brands as found in more cosmopolitan Shanghai or Beijing.
If you go into a hotel in Shanghai or Beijing, the business travelers you see are just as likely to be Germans as Americans.
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Today, new companies are going to seek out the fastest, most reliable ways to move people, goods and information, whether they are in Shanghai or in Chicago.
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Wu Jin, 26, is in the process of deciding whether to spend her savings on a home in Shanghai or an education - in America, Australia or Europe.
Second, despite having lived in the USA for 8 years now, on any given day I am likely to be wearing something purchased on my last trip to Shanghai or Beijing.
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As a result, the main crossroads has already been taken over by souvenir vendors, selling the same cheap knick-knacks you can find in Shanghai or Beijing markets (or New York's Chinatown).
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We do see multitudes of youth taking part in causes, such as leaving school and work to volunteer in aid of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake victims, or volunteering to support the 2008 Beijing Olympics or the 2010 Shanghai Expo.
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