Repair-It

Saw this answer on Quora to a question "Why do people want to immigrate to the US?"

Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.

A lot of people have talked about the economic reasons why people immigrate to America. I would like to address the intangible reasons that only people who have endured the lengthy and bureaucratic (legal)immigration process can understand. There is a reason why people endure the arduous immigration process.

It is because, it is worth it.

Lazy people don’t emigrate. They stay where they are. Governments purposely make these processes difficult to weed out the idle and unmotivated.

The American Dream is real and people achieve it every day. In America, achievement is celebrated. If you have a nice car, strangers will approach you at gas stations, compliment it, give you their business card and try to sell you something. The idea is to replicate your success. In England, it is common for people to run their keys down the sides of expensive cars. There is even a name for this” envy stripes”. The English mentality, fostered by the press there, is to drag successful people down to the common level. In America, everyone wants to “make it”. Immigrants are a disproportionate number of the Forbes 400 and new millionaires because they possess the “American Spirit” in abundance.

Immigrants come to America to work hard and want to be around people that share the same attitude. We did not come here to go on welfare. During the 2008 financial crisis I had to catch an early flight. As I pulled onto the Interstate at 5.30AM there was solid traffic - people going to work. No country with citizens that work like that will stay down for long.

I believe that many immigrants love America more than those raised there, because we chose to be here, it was not an accident of birth.

In the Land of The Free, you can be who you want to be.

Other answers all had a common theme: if you think the US has problems, take off your blinders and look around the world. It is always worth continuous improvement but perspective is paramount.

This is the best country to live in, I agree, having been only to Canada, and not really seen anything else first hand.

I will say this though. There are things/trends that are happening that could show that we may have peaked and are in a downturn. It isn't to late to change the downturn, and we should NEVER stop improving even if it is already the best.

Some things I am thinking of:
You shouldn't need a college degree for any job above minimum wage. The college degree situation is out of control. The prices of college are out of control. (I don't want to get into the useless degree spiral, lets keep this constructive). I truly believe that if things continue, and you need a degree to get a job, we are headed for the class system. If only the rich can afford college, that means less doctors, engineers etc. in our population.

You shouldn't need a degree to be an assistant manager of Dunkin Donuts, but when I worked there, people with degrees were applying and getting those jobs. I did that job no problem without a degree (I was going to school for EE at the time I was assistant manager). You needed people skills, the ability to count, and fill in Excel files that were provided. I am not talking socialism, BUT people that are motivated to learn and willing to work will pay more in taxes if they are enabled to get a higher paying job than if you make school unaffordable and they work lower paying jobs. That is a fact that I have proven over and over again.

The US should have incentives for anybody that gets decent grades to pursue degrees in Math, Science, Programming/IT, Engineering and Medical. We are behind in the numbers of these professionals to China etc. Why wouldn't we as a country want to help these people when you know it will be paid back almost 3 fold in taxes over their career, and we will have a more educated population.


Another situation that makes zero sense is the medical industry. I see no purpose for money that I have going towards buildings and CEOs that do not have any ability to give me medical attention. That is a massive overhead we for some reason decided was a good idea.

I don't have the answer for this, it is a complicated problem, but the idea that if somebody loses their job and breaks their leg is out thousands of dollars does not compute in my brain. Why is medical help tied to a job? I really think that everyone should pay a medical tax like in Canada as part of sales tax. I think we should implement the taxes better than Canada because I agree that their system is FAR from perfect, but the insurance company cost and paperwork that is extra is a waste of our dollars that are supposed to go towards medical services. Our medical dollars should go directly to hospitals. I would be ok with the money being auto drafted from my paycheck that is allotted to the medical insurance going directly to RI Hospital instead, and they could pay my personal doctor.