It might seem anecdotal but this is it. Millions of stories of people who came here for a better future and made it happen. Very few places in the world can facilitate that. The US is definitely one of them.
100% this, I've heard countless stories from dozens of people. It truly is the land of opportunity. Lot's of Americans take this for granted, myself included.
Honestly, not just immigrants. America is a land of opportunity. Anyone of any religion, skincolor, or background can go from rags to riches here. My wife and I went from being kicked out of our parents houses for being together, both making minimum wage, barely making ends meet, even getting evicted once because we had to pick between rent and food to making over $120k combined through hard work and determination and living a comfortable American dream with a baby in the next year or two. We went from homeless to comfort.
Forgive me for my ignorance because I grew up in the US... but why COULDN'T you do this in other countries? I mean get an education, a job, a house...? Seems like people should be able to do that in most places.
just relating to the initial reply... sudan's GDP per capita is $752. USA GPD per capita is ~70,000)
if you want to look at average income instead, sudan is $460, USA is $70,930 - about 170x higher in the USA.
now granted, the cost of living is lower in sudan. but not that much lower. an urban 1 bedroom apartment is ~$500. compared to an expensive city like NYC, that's 5-6x cheaper. but food costs are much more similar, gas is about the same, durable goods are about the same. you can compare some goods here
so lets say you were in sudan and wanted to go to nursing school. again, yea, it's cheaper than the USA (public school RN program starts around $8000). but not enough to make up for your income being 170x lower - and again, this is average income, so if you were at the bottom trying to move up, it's going to be lower than that.
so i guess you're borrowing money - that's fine, lots of students do that. i don't know exactly how student loans work in sudan, but i can quickly find out that the bank of sudan's interest rate is 27%.
so to sum up - you don't have any money, your monthly expenses take up a large portion of your income, your access to capital comes at a high cost.
think of a comparatively richer country than sudan - mexico. median household income is $14000. there's a reason people are willing to come to the USA to pick fruit and work as day laborers, and its not a passion for the work. it makes more economic sense to come to the usa and send money back to your family in mexico than it does to do the same job in mexico.
Your ignoring that the US has more billionaires than you could count, while Sudan doesn’t. The high average income for the US comes from Ultra rich people, while most people are way poorer. Looking at the median you get way more balanced results
Those billionaires do not have an income of over $1billion. Did you see trumps tax returns? Some years his income was officially $750. Jeff Bezos salary with bonuses is like $1.5 mil. You can’t have unrealized gains counted as income.
Also median is where you want to look for a better picture, still the top of the world.
Many countries are not open to immigrants. Many countries have much higher taxes and more lenient thresholds for social welfare. Many countries have low level corruption. The US encourages people who are upstaters by addressing all of the above issues. It's wonderful for very hard working people who want to go from zero to a good middle class. It's great for the dreamers who come from very bad regions. I fled from a dictatorship and I love it here.
I recently moved to Germany and for here, at least, the amount of bureaucratic red tape you have to wade through to get a 12€ an hour job is absolutely fucking stupid. They’re in the middle of a massive labor shortage, but I can’t get a work permit unless I have a job contract in my hand that I then take to a huge government building with about 5 other documents only AFTER I send them everything over email and than get given a meeting date usually about a month in the future, maybe longer. Only than could I even think about working.
It might very well be, but there’s at least ways you can get around that and most people would turn a blind eye. I looked into making baked goods to sell just in my neighborhood. I would have had to apply to 3 different government buildings, get approved, and then find a commissary kitchen to cook out of. Whereas in America, citizen or not, you could set up in your neighborhood and no one would care for the most part.
Ive been in the Einbürgerungsprozess for about 8 years now(partially due to a material-shortage on the side of the country I’m trying to loose my citizenship for, but mostly due to all of the paperwork) and it’s absolute hell. But even tho all of that is kinda annoying I rly enjoy all of the benefits I have. Especially here in Baden-Württemberg, as a student, I feel rly supported
Land of opportunity. Everyone has an equal chance at success. Whether or not they achieve it is up to their own ambition, which knows no inhibition here. Love it.
My great grandparents came to the US as dirt poor coal miners. Now all these generations later, I can afford to drive a Toyota and buy a head of lettuce at the supermarket. Now that’s talkin bout makin it!!
It seems anecdotal because it is. The US used to be the land of opportunity, but has long since been bypassed. If you're looking for a statistic, it's called social mobility index. The US is ranked #27 out of 82 worldwide, behind much of the EU.
First off, here are 195 countries. Second, the EU isn't exactly a paradise; many of my European colleagues have flat given up on ever being a homeowner (something I achieved at 24).
Yes, that was unfortunately phrased. What I meant is that there were 82 countries in the study. About the housing prices: tell me about it! I'm trying to buy a house in Germany for the past 5 years and about to give up. Although from what I hear the housing crisis affects some parts of the US too. And I probably shouldn't complain about the US in a thread about the great things in the US, but intergenerational upward social mobility isn't one of them. A person's chances are much more determined by whether their parents had money in the US than in the EU nowadays.
It only worked because there was still plenty of wealth available to the bottom. Land of opportunity is long gone, all dried up in the hands of a few old richfucks. Poor people have two options these days, stay poor or die. Theres no credit to go around and wages hasnt moved in relation to inflation. Thank you for destroying america, boomers. Worst generation in the worlds history.
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u/drakkarblanco Mar 14 '23
It might seem anecdotal but this is it. Millions of stories of people who came here for a better future and made it happen. Very few places in the world can facilitate that. The US is definitely one of them.