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I am not a US citizen either though I live here. (I'm a permanent resident, intent on becoming a citizen, as I like this country a great deal). > this is not a

by bitops 15y ago

I am not a US citizen either though I live here. (I'm a permanent resident, intent on becoming a citizen, as I like this country a great deal). > this is not a proof that US is a great place to live in. It just means that the neighbouring countries have far worse living conditions. In my book, that means the US is better than those places. True, it doesn't make it great. But there are many other places in the world with good living standards and yet the US is where people try to come. > I harder test would be if the more fortunate, richer class of people who are already comfortable with their living standards in their respective countries, choose to move to US because they cannot add to their level of satisfaction otherwise. This is actually my own case. My parents left a very comfortable life in Western Europe to go to the US and try and make things better. My stepdad was doing a startup back in the late 90's and it was much easier to get funding here. Americans are risk takers, which is why so much innovation comes out of this country. There's a reason why the Apples, Googles, and Intels of the world are located in the US, and it's much more than economic.

danssig 15y ago
>and yet the US is where people try to come. You don't see the people flooding into France? Italy? Switzerland? Germany? The UK? The US is good at one thing though: advertising.
krzyk 15y ago
There is a reason that most of emplyees of Apples, Googles and Intels of the world are located outside of US :)
- bitops 15y ago
  > There is a reason that most of emplyees of Apples, Googles and Intels of the world are located outside of US :) Yes, the labor is absolutely cheaper. But US labor has never been cheap. It's a common illusion that politicians have gotten very good at selling. Even in early times (100-200 yrs ago), US labor was not inexpensive. My point was more that all those companies were founded in the US.
mayanksinghal 15y ago
I definitely agree. I would rather go to US than Europe and this is not because the former has better living conditions but because there are better opportunities to learn and for a CS student like me, Silicon valley is the Mecca. But the point I am making is that illegal immigration, the example you had given, is not a measure of how good the country is with respect to the rest of the world. It only measures how good the country is (and how porous the borders are) with respect to its neighbours. Legal immigration on the other hand is a much better measure, and US has tons of it. [Edit - typos]
- dedward 15y ago
  slightlymobvious, but the us only has two neighbours, canada d mexico. canada is no more a source of illegal immigration to the us than the us is to canada (it happens in both directions, nobody cares.) which leaves mexico. osmsure, people sneak in because life for them is better as an illegal in the hus than legal in their own country. this happens all over the world, not just to the us. further, just because a country is better than many (it is) is no reason for complacency..... if things are going so great, why not khelp out your suffering neighbours more? and if they arent going so great, how can one say its the best place on earth?

by bitops 15y ago

danssig 15y ago

>and yet the US is where people try to come. You don't see the people flooding into France? Italy? Switzerland? Germany? The UK? The US is good at one thing though: advertising.

krzyk 15y ago

There is a reason that most of emplyees of Apples, Googles and Intels of the world are located outside of US :)

bitops 15y ago
> There is a reason that most of emplyees of Apples, Googles and Intels of the world are located outside of US :) Yes, the labor is absolutely cheaper. But US labor has never been cheap. It's a common illusion that politicians have gotten very good at selling. Even in early times (100-200 yrs ago), US labor was not inexpensive. My point was more that all those companies were founded in the US.

mayanksinghal 15y ago

I definitely agree. I would rather go to US than Europe and this is not because the former has better living conditions but because there are better opportunities to learn and for a CS student like me, Silicon valley is the Mecca. But the point I am making is that illegal immigration, the example you had given, is not a measure of how good the country is with respect to the rest of the world. It only measures how good the country is (and how porous the borders are) with respect to its neighbours. Legal immigration on the other hand is a much better measure, and US has tons of it. [Edit - typos]

dedward 15y ago
slightlymobvious, but the us only has two neighbours, canada d mexico. canada is no more a source of illegal immigration to the us than the us is to canada (it happens in both directions, nobody cares.) which leaves mexico. osmsure, people sneak in because life for them is better as an illegal in the hus than legal in their own country. this happens all over the world, not just to the us. further, just because a country is better than many (it is) is no reason for complacency..... if things are going so great, why not khelp out your suffering neighbours more? and if they arent going so great, how can one say its the best place on earth?