6 ms·

I wrote about the coming stagflation here: https://austingwalters.com/stagflation-is-here-monetary-inflation-economic-depression/ https://austingwalters.com/st

I wrote about the coming stagflation here: https://austingwalters.com/stagflation-is-here-monetary-inflation-economic-depression/ https://austingwalters.com/stagflation-is-here-monetary-infl... The reality is that they're being paid to stay home. A lot of people (myself included) would have loved the opportunity to take one of those $12/hr greeting jobs when I was 16. Instead, I managed to get $9/hr setting up a companies internal network. You're correct, this is America. You can work hard and build something. America is intentionally setup NOT to give you anything, but to make as many opportunities as possible open to you. That's why people brave deserts to come here. There aren't any static classes (although the education system is quickly becoming one), that's what makes america great. Honestly, health care isn't what most of the poor care most about (having been there, it is a concern, just not #1); medicaid and medicare cover you if you're poor enough, hospitals will drop 80-90% of your bill if you're over that, etc. etc.

lotsofpulp 5y ago
> America is intentionally setup NOT to give you anything, but to make as many opportunities as possible open to you. How did you come to this conclusion? Is it the lack of social safety net that opens opportunities? Does the lack of parental leave open up opportunities for mothers to breastfeed? Or having to work multiple jobs open up opportunities to spend time with one’s family and participate in the community?
- insert_coin 5y ago
  It was the lack laws preventing you from charging whatever you wanted for your own labor, and the lack of laws that forced you to give away a significant portion of that wage.
  - smhost 5y ago
    love to live in a workers' paradise of not having legal protections against being in a race to the bottom
    - insert_coin 5y ago
      Like today? It has always been a race to the bottom, that is why things are cheaper today which means life is better today, and that is why we invent technology to momentarily be on top of that race because it can't be stoped, that's why we have to keep inventing it.
- eat_veggies 5y ago
  What lettergram wrote is very beautiful and moving prose in the abstract, but as you note, the reality of life in America if you are poor is incredibly ugly and painful (and not in a "healthy" way that spurs growth, unless you are very very lucky)
  - MisterBastahrd 5y ago
    lettergram is also a guy who believe he pays over 60% in taxes, which is something that is damned near impossible to do even if you're trying to, so take him seriously at your own risk.
    - lettergram 5y ago
      > lettergram is also a guy who believe he pays over 60% in taxes I'm sorry, but it's not a belief, I've estimated it fairly accurately and you can as well. Effective tax rate (from my income): Income Tax: - 26.72% Federal - 4.33% Social Security & Medicaid - 4.95% State Investments: - Investments 15-45% (EDIT: on capital gains) Additional Tax Burden: - Sales: 10% (of goods purchased) - Property: 2.35% (of home value) - Inflation 4% (of wealth maintained) Then there's all these others fees & excise taxes: licenses, fuel, tolls, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, etc, etc. Finally, you have import duties on any goods you or any company producing goods for you are importing, typically 0-10%. You may think tolls are something cheap, but it's $3-5 per toll (I pass 200-500 a year). Licenses for my vehicle(s): $500. Fuel: $0.392 tax per gallon. Fuel Taxes: https://www2.illinois.gov/rev/research/taxrates/Pages/motorfuel.aspx https://www2.illinois.gov/rev/research/taxrates/Pages/motorf... Toll Rates (cars): https://turnpikeinfo.com/toll-calculator.php?road_name=tri-state-tollway&state=illinois https://turnpikeinfo.com/toll-calculator.php?road_name=tri-s... Toll Rates (trucks): https://www.illinoistollway.com/documents/20184/86147/2020+Truck+Toll+Rates/a86403b9-7818-419f-a9e5-3c7c0220a0c6 https://www.illinoistollway.com/documents/20184/86147/2020+T... Freight Duties Estimator: https://www.freightos.com/freight-resources/import-duty-calculator/ https://www.freightos.com/freight-resources/import-duty-calc... EDIT: Previously said: "on investment revenue"
      - vmception 5y ago
- lettergram 5y ago
  > How did you come to this conclusion? How did you come to the alternative conclusion? Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. > Is it the lack of social safety net that opens opportunities? There are a LOT of social safety nets. I pointed out one in my prior comment -- Medicare and Medicaid. I'd argue that's actually the cause of our price increases in medicine, but they do provide effectively free healthcare. I'm not sure how many poor people you know? But I grew up in a poor area, and I can tell you, no one had their primary concern as medical care. No one was worried about food, no one was worried about shelter. I've lived with people who their entire lives have never found or wanted to find a job, they've survived entirely off what the government provided. I know at least ten people (several in my family), who live like this. > Does the lack of parental leave open up opportunities for mothers to breastfeed? What type of question is this? You have to choose to be a mother, if you cannot figure it out, you probably shouldn't have children. > Or having to work multiple jobs open up opportunities to spend time with one’s family and participate in the community? My entire family has worked multiple jobs at one point or another? For reference, if you work on a farm (as some of my family has) you work every day; usually ten hours. I don't really see the difference here. That being said, I dont' know what you're saying?
  - zbentley 5y ago
    > Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. I understand the history of that term, but in this context it seems inhumane. Asking for additional sacrifices from people who are already struggling to afford access to medical care is deeply fucked up. Giving back (to your country/community/world/whatever) should be an ethical obligation, sure, but not one that kicks in when you're still struggling to attain some very basic needs. Like, I understand your point that safety net programs are available to many (though I don't necessarily agree--food insecurity numbers and medical bankruptcy rates seem like pretty compelling counterpoints). But coming out with "ask what you can do for your country" when talking about a country's least affluent population seems crass and disingenuous.
  - state_less 5y ago
    Please don’t generalize to all poor people because you know at least 10 poor people. It’s not your place to speak on their behalf. Why should I expect that hospitals will drop their bill 80-90% after I go in? My expectation is that bill collectors will try to get reimbursed for as much of the bill as they can. This article mentions about half a million went bankrupt in 2019 due to medical bills. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/02/11/this-is-the-real-reason-most-americans-file-for-bankruptcy.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/02/11/thi... You mention America being a land of opportunity, but now that I’m self employed, I’m looking at places outside of the US to persue entrepreneurship. This is partly due to the sky high medical costs here.
eat_veggies 5y ago
People brave deserts to come here because life is a little bit more tolerable in the imperial core [1] than in the regions that the core extracts natural resources and cheap human labor from. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_countries
kiba 5y ago
Stimulus check is not enough to live on.
LocalH 5y ago
>You're correct, this is America. You can work hard and build something. America is intentionally setup NOT to give you anything, but to make as many opportunities as possible open to you. That's why people brave deserts to come here. I don’t follow the jump from that to “people must work in a grueling fashion just to survive unless they’re lucky”. That is inhumane, and what makes America’s form of capitalism especially sinister. Have some damn compassion.
ehnto 5y ago
America is not special, your citizens don't have more opportunities than the rest of the world, this is the pipe dream people keep telling themselves while they watch their governments flounder their taxes. If you were a truly powerful nation you would have the extra strength to take care of your citizens. But the US has the healthcare provisions of a third world country, and has somehow convinced it's people that this is a feature not a bug.
- refurb 5y ago
  Have you ever lived in America? I’m guessing no by this statement.
  - ehnto 5y ago
    What makes you so sure? Perhaps that could add to the conversation.
    - refurb 5y ago
      When someone says "US has the healthcare provisions of a third world country" it's hard to take them serious.
      - ehnto 5y ago
        I was being pretty inflammatory with that, no doubt. The US also has some of the most advanced healthcare in the world, so it's not accurate in that dimension. But what good is that if it's not accessible? For some US' citizens, there may as well be no healthcare, as they're not willing to take on the burden of medical debt. They could technically access it, but not without changing the course of their life for the worse forever. That's not an issue for citizens in most developed nations. There are countries far far lower on the economic leaderboard than the US who do provide reasonable access to healthcare for their citizens, and of course the majority of developed nations do as well. The US is behind, and it's not because of increased opportunity. (I'm not the one downvoting you by the way, I don't mind the conversation)
wwweston 5y ago
> health care isn't what most of the poor care most about Every time I've been in that category, it's been my #1 concern. Medical bills are also the #1 reason for bankruptcies in the United States. > hospitals will drop 80-90% of your bill if you're over that, etc. etc. My experience is... different. Not only are adjustments more modest, not only are they harder to get than you're implying in the first place, I've found that hospitals will hound you for a $100 copay they think they didn't receive because when you paid it they accidentally credited it to the wrong account (glad I could dig up the receipt). There's things to value about America's enterprising spirit and some of its policies, but health care is pretty far from it. Overall it's a drag on the rest of the economy, and the incentives are wrong for there to be private solutions.
- lettergram 5y ago
  You bring up an interesting point about those “situations” and “bankruptcy”. So, real experience for me in priorities have always been: 1. Food 2. Shelter 3. Clothes 4. Transportation 5. Employment / Income 6. Healthcare You’re correct bankruptcy is an option and I know of multiple people who’ve done it for medical reasons. Honestly; it didn’t seem to impact them, as much as I suspected, but I didn’t see their internal finances. I do know they restructured and paid some and got on a plan to pay the rest. The first five on my list aren’t impacted by bankruptcy (typically) due to healthcare issues. That’s why I think a lot of people are okay taking the hit. But I think you bring up the key question which is “drag on the system”. There’s a reason our system is so expensive and it’s regulation and litigation from that regulation. Why do they limit the number of doctors graduating medical schools? Or zone hospitals such that all are profitable? Or have Medicare pay a fraction of what the private health insurance pays (increasing premiums for those with insurance?)? There’s a ton of systemic issues and it’s almost entirely from well meaning laws turning into a hellscape of rules. Bankruptcies are accounted for in the lending rates of banks, so that’s also impacted. Finally, I recommend asking the hospital for charge codes and looking up what Medicare will pay, pay that. It’s basically 20-50% of what your bill will be.
  - wwweston 5y ago
    > 1. Food 2. Shelter 3. Clothes 4. Transportation 5. Employment / Income 6. Healthcare If you're facing risk or serious insecurity to any one of these, consider that health issues (especially those insurance matters for) often (a) produce costs that are higher to nigh-unbounded (b) may well present as issues that are upstream of all of these things ("Tell me, Mr. Anderson, what good is a phone call/job/meal when you are unable to speak/work/keep food down?"). #1-5 may be more foundational in some kind of pyramid of needs than mild health concerns, but serious health care concerns are equal-to-more foundational. Also, #1-5 are also more easily provided by friends and family or community charity on an episodic basis. > Honestly; it didn’t seem to impact them, as much as I suspected, but I didn’t see their internal finances. A merely low credit score has substantial financial impacts and will cut you off from some possibilities outright. A bankruptcy will close more doors. It's less an "option" than a salvage operation. > There’s a reason our system is so expensive and it’s regulation and litigation from that regulation Specific regulations sometimes do introduce compliance costs, and like code, can often be reviewed for optimization. But criticizing "regulation" in abstract is like criticizing code in abstract. And litigation is how legal accountability happens. Additionally, more heavily "regulated" systems than ours control expenses better, so it seems unlikely that's necessarily the source, and there's other explanations available in incentive analysis. > Why do they limit the number of doctors graduating medical schools? Ask the AMA. I expect part of it is incentives, though... how many more doctors do you think could be reasonably graduated? > I recommend asking the hospital for charge codes I've actually asked hospitals for charge masters before, even ahead of time. Answers ranged from "I'm not sure what that is" to "we don't do that." That was pre-ACA, so perhaps things have changed, but if so, it's thanks to regulation.
fearfulofview4 5y ago
> You're correct, this is America. You can work hard and build something. America is intentionally setup NOT to give you anything, but to make as many opportunities as possible open to you. That's why people brave deserts to come here. I am an American who emigrated to another country about a decade ago. I have a six-year-old and have twins due any day now. I don't know what planet you're living on, but the United States has been the textbook definition of a poor rich country. I refuse to raise my children in a place of destitution and precarity that can happen on-a-whim. We're safer in our new country as immigrants with a moderate safety net than we ever were back home. A turning point in leaving the country: the rise of illiberal democracy (yes, this was evident well over a decade ago) and having to set up a medical fee fundraiser for an impoverished friend whom insurance denied life-saving medical care. The day the naturalization clock rolls over, you bet I'm executing on that. I don't want a future in that joke country.
EliRivers 5y ago
There aren't any static classes... that's what makes america great. Socioeconomic mobility in the US is amongst the lowest of developed countries. If a lack of static classes is what makes a country great, then can we assume that a great many other developed countries with much more socioeconomic mobility are greater? If what makes America great is all these opportunities, as you say, then something must have gone very wrong since so few people are using these opportunities to move up.
onion2k 5y ago
You're correct, this is America. You can work hard and build something. America is intentionally setup NOT to give you anything, but to make as many opportunities as possible open to you. That's why people brave deserts to come here. The majority of people don't want to move to America. This is simple math. There are about 7 billion people on Earth. 300 million are already in America. Approximately an additional million people move to America every year legally, and some number enter illegally. Even if twice as many people enter illegally, that's only 3 million people, which is just 0.045% of the people on Earth. Many Americans believe that everyone is desperate to leave where they live and move to the USA and chase the American Dream. This belief is wrong.
- janeroe 5y ago
  It seems you believe that anyone who wants to come to the States (or any other country) can just buy a ticket, get there, and stay. I have to disappoint you, that's not the case for most of the countries in the world including the US.

lotsofpulp 5y ago

> America is intentionally setup NOT to give you anything, but to make as many opportunities as possible open to you. How did you come to this conclusion? Is it the lack of social safety net that opens opportunities? Does the lack of parental leave open up opportunities for mothers to breastfeed? Or having to work multiple jobs open up opportunities to spend time with one’s family and participate in the community?

insert_coin 5y ago
It was the lack laws preventing you from charging whatever you wanted for your own labor, and the lack of laws that forced you to give away a significant portion of that wage.
- smhost 5y ago
  love to live in a workers' paradise of not having legal protections against being in a race to the bottom
  - insert_coin 5y ago
    Like today? It has always been a race to the bottom, that is why things are cheaper today which means life is better today, and that is why we invent technology to momentarily be on top of that race because it can't be stoped, that's why we have to keep inventing it.
eat_veggies 5y ago
What lettergram wrote is very beautiful and moving prose in the abstract, but as you note, the reality of life in America if you are poor is incredibly ugly and painful (and not in a "healthy" way that spurs growth, unless you are very very lucky)
- MisterBastahrd 5y ago
  lettergram is also a guy who believe he pays over 60% in taxes, which is something that is damned near impossible to do even if you're trying to, so take him seriously at your own risk.
  - lettergram 5y ago
    > lettergram is also a guy who believe he pays over 60% in taxes I'm sorry, but it's not a belief, I've estimated it fairly accurately and you can as well. Effective tax rate (from my income): Income Tax: - 26.72% Federal - 4.33% Social Security & Medicaid - 4.95% State Investments: - Investments 15-45% (EDIT: on capital gains) Additional Tax Burden: - Sales: 10% (of goods purchased) - Property: 2.35% (of home value) - Inflation 4% (of wealth maintained) Then there's all these others fees & excise taxes: licenses, fuel, tolls, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, etc, etc. Finally, you have import duties on any goods you or any company producing goods for you are importing, typically 0-10%. You may think tolls are something cheap, but it's $3-5 per toll (I pass 200-500 a year). Licenses for my vehicle(s): $500. Fuel: $0.392 tax per gallon. Fuel Taxes: https://www2.illinois.gov/rev/research/taxrates/Pages/motorfuel.aspx https://www2.illinois.gov/rev/research/taxrates/Pages/motorf... Toll Rates (cars): https://turnpikeinfo.com/toll-calculator.php?road_name=tri-state-tollway&state=illinois https://turnpikeinfo.com/toll-calculator.php?road_name=tri-s... Toll Rates (trucks): https://www.illinoistollway.com/documents/20184/86147/2020+Truck+Toll+Rates/a86403b9-7818-419f-a9e5-3c7c0220a0c6 https://www.illinoistollway.com/documents/20184/86147/2020+T... Freight Duties Estimator: https://www.freightos.com/freight-resources/import-duty-calculator/ https://www.freightos.com/freight-resources/import-duty-calc... EDIT: Previously said: "on investment revenue"
    - vmception 5y ago
lettergram 5y ago
> How did you come to this conclusion? How did you come to the alternative conclusion? Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. > Is it the lack of social safety net that opens opportunities? There are a LOT of social safety nets. I pointed out one in my prior comment -- Medicare and Medicaid. I'd argue that's actually the cause of our price increases in medicine, but they do provide effectively free healthcare. I'm not sure how many poor people you know? But I grew up in a poor area, and I can tell you, no one had their primary concern as medical care. No one was worried about food, no one was worried about shelter. I've lived with people who their entire lives have never found or wanted to find a job, they've survived entirely off what the government provided. I know at least ten people (several in my family), who live like this. > Does the lack of parental leave open up opportunities for mothers to breastfeed? What type of question is this? You have to choose to be a mother, if you cannot figure it out, you probably shouldn't have children. > Or having to work multiple jobs open up opportunities to spend time with one’s family and participate in the community? My entire family has worked multiple jobs at one point or another? For reference, if you work on a farm (as some of my family has) you work every day; usually ten hours. I don't really see the difference here. That being said, I dont' know what you're saying?
- zbentley 5y ago
  > Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. I understand the history of that term, but in this context it seems inhumane. Asking for additional sacrifices from people who are already struggling to afford access to medical care is deeply fucked up. Giving back (to your country/community/world/whatever) should be an ethical obligation, sure, but not one that kicks in when you're still struggling to attain some very basic needs. Like, I understand your point that safety net programs are available to many (though I don't necessarily agree--food insecurity numbers and medical bankruptcy rates seem like pretty compelling counterpoints). But coming out with "ask what you can do for your country" when talking about a country's least affluent population seems crass and disingenuous.
- state_less 5y ago
  Please don’t generalize to all poor people because you know at least 10 poor people. It’s not your place to speak on their behalf. Why should I expect that hospitals will drop their bill 80-90% after I go in? My expectation is that bill collectors will try to get reimbursed for as much of the bill as they can. This article mentions about half a million went bankrupt in 2019 due to medical bills. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/02/11/this-is-the-real-reason-most-americans-file-for-bankruptcy.html https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/02/11/thi... You mention America being a land of opportunity, but now that I’m self employed, I’m looking at places outside of the US to persue entrepreneurship. This is partly due to the sky high medical costs here.

eat_veggies 5y ago

People brave deserts to come here because life is a little bit more tolerable in the imperial core [1] than in the regions that the core extracts natural resources and cheap human labor from. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_countries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_countries

kiba 5y ago

Stimulus check is not enough to live on.

LocalH 5y ago

>You're correct, this is America. You can work hard and build something. America is intentionally setup NOT to give you anything, but to make as many opportunities as possible open to you. That's why people brave deserts to come here. I don’t follow the jump from that to “people must work in a grueling fashion just to survive unless they’re lucky”. That is inhumane, and what makes America’s form of capitalism especially sinister. Have some damn compassion.

ehnto 5y ago

America is not special, your citizens don't have more opportunities than the rest of the world, this is the pipe dream people keep telling themselves while they watch their governments flounder their taxes. If you were a truly powerful nation you would have the extra strength to take care of your citizens. But the US has the healthcare provisions of a third world country, and has somehow convinced it's people that this is a feature not a bug.

refurb 5y ago
Have you ever lived in America? I’m guessing no by this statement.
- ehnto 5y ago
  What makes you so sure? Perhaps that could add to the conversation.
  - refurb 5y ago
    When someone says "US has the healthcare provisions of a third world country" it's hard to take them serious.
    - ehnto 5y ago
      I was being pretty inflammatory with that, no doubt. The US also has some of the most advanced healthcare in the world, so it's not accurate in that dimension. But what good is that if it's not accessible? For some US' citizens, there may as well be no healthcare, as they're not willing to take on the burden of medical debt. They could technically access it, but not without changing the course of their life for the worse forever. That's not an issue for citizens in most developed nations. There are countries far far lower on the economic leaderboard than the US who do provide reasonable access to healthcare for their citizens, and of course the majority of developed nations do as well. The US is behind, and it's not because of increased opportunity. (I'm not the one downvoting you by the way, I don't mind the conversation)

wwweston 5y ago

> health care isn't what most of the poor care most about Every time I've been in that category, it's been my #1 concern. Medical bills are also the #1 reason for bankruptcies in the United States. > hospitals will drop 80-90% of your bill if you're over that, etc. etc. My experience is... different. Not only are adjustments more modest, not only are they harder to get than you're implying in the first place, I've found that hospitals will hound you for a $100 copay they think they didn't receive because when you paid it they accidentally credited it to the wrong account (glad I could dig up the receipt). There's things to value about America's enterprising spirit and some of its policies, but health care is pretty far from it. Overall it's a drag on the rest of the economy, and the incentives are wrong for there to be private solutions.

lettergram 5y ago
You bring up an interesting point about those “situations” and “bankruptcy”. So, real experience for me in priorities have always been: 1. Food 2. Shelter 3. Clothes 4. Transportation 5. Employment / Income 6. Healthcare You’re correct bankruptcy is an option and I know of multiple people who’ve done it for medical reasons. Honestly; it didn’t seem to impact them, as much as I suspected, but I didn’t see their internal finances. I do know they restructured and paid some and got on a plan to pay the rest. The first five on my list aren’t impacted by bankruptcy (typically) due to healthcare issues. That’s why I think a lot of people are okay taking the hit. But I think you bring up the key question which is “drag on the system”. There’s a reason our system is so expensive and it’s regulation and litigation from that regulation. Why do they limit the number of doctors graduating medical schools? Or zone hospitals such that all are profitable? Or have Medicare pay a fraction of what the private health insurance pays (increasing premiums for those with insurance?)? There’s a ton of systemic issues and it’s almost entirely from well meaning laws turning into a hellscape of rules. Bankruptcies are accounted for in the lending rates of banks, so that’s also impacted. Finally, I recommend asking the hospital for charge codes and looking up what Medicare will pay, pay that. It’s basically 20-50% of what your bill will be.
- wwweston 5y ago
  > 1. Food 2. Shelter 3. Clothes 4. Transportation 5. Employment / Income 6. Healthcare If you're facing risk or serious insecurity to any one of these, consider that health issues (especially those insurance matters for) often (a) produce costs that are higher to nigh-unbounded (b) may well present as issues that are upstream of all of these things ("Tell me, Mr. Anderson, what good is a phone call/job/meal when you are unable to speak/work/keep food down?"). #1-5 may be more foundational in some kind of pyramid of needs than mild health concerns, but serious health care concerns are equal-to-more foundational. Also, #1-5 are also more easily provided by friends and family or community charity on an episodic basis. > Honestly; it didn’t seem to impact them, as much as I suspected, but I didn’t see their internal finances. A merely low credit score has substantial financial impacts and will cut you off from some possibilities outright. A bankruptcy will close more doors. It's less an "option" than a salvage operation. > There’s a reason our system is so expensive and it’s regulation and litigation from that regulation Specific regulations sometimes do introduce compliance costs, and like code, can often be reviewed for optimization. But criticizing "regulation" in abstract is like criticizing code in abstract. And litigation is how legal accountability happens. Additionally, more heavily "regulated" systems than ours control expenses better, so it seems unlikely that's necessarily the source, and there's other explanations available in incentive analysis. > Why do they limit the number of doctors graduating medical schools? Ask the AMA. I expect part of it is incentives, though... how many more doctors do you think could be reasonably graduated? > I recommend asking the hospital for charge codes I've actually asked hospitals for charge masters before, even ahead of time. Answers ranged from "I'm not sure what that is" to "we don't do that." That was pre-ACA, so perhaps things have changed, but if so, it's thanks to regulation.

fearfulofview4 5y ago

> You're correct, this is America. You can work hard and build something. America is intentionally setup NOT to give you anything, but to make as many opportunities as possible open to you. That's why people brave deserts to come here. I am an American who emigrated to another country about a decade ago. I have a six-year-old and have twins due any day now. I don't know what planet you're living on, but the United States has been the textbook definition of a poor rich country. I refuse to raise my children in a place of destitution and precarity that can happen on-a-whim. We're safer in our new country as immigrants with a moderate safety net than we ever were back home. A turning point in leaving the country: the rise of illiberal democracy (yes, this was evident well over a decade ago) and having to set up a medical fee fundraiser for an impoverished friend whom insurance denied life-saving medical care. The day the naturalization clock rolls over, you bet I'm executing on that. I don't want a future in that joke country.

EliRivers 5y ago

There aren't any static classes... that's what makes america great. Socioeconomic mobility in the US is amongst the lowest of developed countries. If a lack of static classes is what makes a country great, then can we assume that a great many other developed countries with much more socioeconomic mobility are greater? If what makes America great is all these opportunities, as you say, then something must have gone very wrong since so few people are using these opportunities to move up.

onion2k 5y ago

You're correct, this is America. You can work hard and build something. America is intentionally setup NOT to give you anything, but to make as many opportunities as possible open to you. That's why people brave deserts to come here. The majority of people don't want to move to America. This is simple math. There are about 7 billion people on Earth. 300 million are already in America. Approximately an additional million people move to America every year legally, and some number enter illegally. Even if twice as many people enter illegally, that's only 3 million people, which is just 0.045% of the people on Earth. Many Americans believe that everyone is desperate to leave where they live and move to the USA and chase the American Dream. This belief is wrong.

janeroe 5y ago
It seems you believe that anyone who wants to come to the States (or any other country) can just buy a ticket, get there, and stay. I have to disappoint you, that's not the case for most of the countries in the world including the US.