LizzieMaine
Bartender
- Messages
- 33,704
- Location
- Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Not everyone has a choice. That is true. But this is still the best country in the world if you want to make a better life for yourself and your family. The standard of living has decreased tremendously yes, especially over the past 20-30 years. But it is not due to lack of opportunity for those who want to be better. It is because of failed economic policies, imperialistic mis management and as we often speak of, the Decay of Education.....
I dunno if I'd agree with "best." I know a lot of Canadians who'd argue with you. And Swedes. And Finns. And Danes. And Swiss. And Germans. Basically everybody is conditioned to believe that the particular piece of dirt they were born on is the BEST piece of dirt with the best system for apportioning that piece of dirt, but that kind of inculcated nationalism doesn't lead to anything particularly constructive. I'm American because I was born here, and some of my people have been here for 350 years, but looking at it empirically, I can't see anything that'd cause me to want to emigrate here if I happened to be Canadian, or British, or any other comparable first-world type of country, and I can see a lot of things that would *not* make it my first choice if I were emigrating from a poorer country.
Is my life in America today better, freer, richer, more rewarding than it would be if my ancestors had stayed in Scotland or Ireland or England or Canada? I honestly don't think so. One of my earliest immigrant ancestors certainly didn't find a better life here -- she was hung by the neck until she was dead by a bunch of delusional religious fanatics who came here under the pretense of "freedom of worship." My most recent immigrant ancestors -- my maternal great-grandparents -- didn't come here in search of a better life. They came here because they were descended from Loyalists who were forced into Nova Scotia by eighteenth-century terrorist militants, and figured, after a hundred and twenty years, it ought to be safe to come back. But good luck getting back the land that was stolen from their great-grandparents, who, I guess, "got ahead" by stealing it from the Abenakis.