Maybe if you’re white, young, and beautiful, registered with the local embassy, and have friends who call to check up on you afterward and report you to the media. Otherwise they’ll probably try a little bit but not too hard. How many of these Americans murdered abroad do you think the US gov really went to bat for? How many wars were started to avenge them? How many more are left off Wikipedia? The average American citizen is disposable to its government.
And their very existence is subject to America’s whims, and a withdrawal of US fleets would probably mean the end of their way of life. Their populated cities are overcrowded and polluted. Traffic is terrible. Their environmental regulations aren’t very good. There is a subtle racism against white people. The tap water isn’t very clean by American standards, and the first few weeks will result in a lot of diarrhea. Many restaurants and street food stands have similar low cleanliness standards. Their politics are even less functional than America’s. The remnants of Confucianism renders the society sexist by modern American standards. It’s not all sunshine and roses. (I grew up there. It’s not a bad place, but far from heavenly. I am grateful to have moved to the USA. Grass is always greener and all that.)
There are at least two faults in that statement. First, New York is not and has never been part of Sweden, and secondly, even the article itself points out that 80% of the income was claimed as deductions, which means that the actual tax rate was significantly lower.
The USA doesn’t enter in quid-pro-quo visa arrangements like some countries do, and of course you can’t travel to Cuba or North Korea last time I looked.
But anyway, business travel visa’s are different to tourist visas are different to working-tourist visas: unless they say what they are talking about, a visa-restriction index is nonsense.
I’m not a rah-rah type. I’ve spent a chunk of my life abroad and intend to spend more. But being American is like playing life on cheat mode, especially if you are a traveller. It’s pretty special.
Our passports are made of gold. We are welcomed in to any country in the world (yes, even Cuba and North Korea have no problem letting us in). You have no idea how hard it is to travel on a passport from smaller countries. I’ve had friends turned away at borders I could pass with no problem because, say, Ecuador has no diplomatic relations with Rwanda. It could take months to arrange something like that. And if you are in a poorer country, rich countries may not let you in at all, or will require extensive interviews and collateral to ensure you don’t intend to skip town.
The other huge advantage is that our money is good anywhere. Ever try to exchange Soles for Bhat? It can’t be done. You’d have to go back to wherever you came from, get dollars or Euros, and then exchange them (losing money each step) wherever you are going.
And while the US isn’t risk-free, dollars are pretty stable as currency goes, and you don’t need to worry about rapid inflation, devaluation, and other things that can turn your nest egg into a memory. I’ve had friends making money in local currency who would have to change their money for dollars at the beginning of the month, otherwise they’d only have half their salary at the end of the month. It’s an unstable world out there.
Add to that a while bunch of little perks- you and your kids can go to US universities easily, you can work for the enormous US government, you can join Peace Corps, etc. it’s a sweet deal.
I respect that you grew up here, but this is a fast changing society and your views above are 20 years out of date in almost every respect, if not much more. (Several weeks of diarrhea? Only if you’re fool enough to constantly drink unfiltered water, which nobody does. And racism against white people? Bwah hah hah. Try “in favor of”.)
[movie trailer announcer voice]
The Big Dog’s back, and he’s bringing the No Chick Left Behind law…
[/movie trailer announcer voice]
Y’know, like Reply said, I don’t see that much aggressive action to take care of US citizens getting roughed up. At best we park a LHD off the harbor and tell all US citzs to bug out within 48 hrs, and post an advisory on the State Department website saying “y’know, maybe it’s a bad idea to take a tour of Drunkthughstya this summer”.
“Happy Mother’s Day! I bought you a Nice Plant for your back yard and for myself, I got a nice garden-tool to shovel dirt in your face when you’re dead. How are you feeling, btw?”
“Just kidding about the shovel, Ma. Can I help you with the dishes…?”
As somebody who has wanted to become an expat for years, I ponder this question all the time. There are so many things wrong with the US that (ostensibly) aren’t a problem in most other first-world countries - our lack of a true UHC system (ACA notwithstanding) is the first thing that comes to mind - that I often look towards these other parts of the world and wish I could just live there permanently.
Now, I fully intend to pursue my expat ambitions to the best of my ability. The problem with me, however, is that my college degree is not in any sort of STEM field, which apparently are the most sought-after jobs for entrants to other countries. My three top choices - Australia, Malta, and New Zealand - all have stringent immigration policies, so the likelihood of a successful transition there is obviously an open question.
As stated earlier, most Americans seem to have this false impression that they can just pack up & move to any first-world country at a moment’s notice, when the reality is that most of those countries are even more difficult to immigrate to than the US. I’ve got a buddy (who is about as much of a vagabond as you can imagine) who has insisted that we should both just pack up our stuff and leave the US (permanently) for some undisclosed country abroad. Although I find the idea compelling, I can’t imagine how tenable it could possibly be if the eventual goal is permanent (legal) residency & eventual citizenship in whichever country we’d settle on.
That’s total bull. I pay over 40% in Canadian (including provincial) taxes. I hang on to US citizenship mainly for ease of travel there. Ex-citizens can have trouble traveling in the US. Also, I may move there when my wife and I are too old to stay alone (all three kids in the US). But any place that includes TX and OK has two strikes against it.
Weird, you were quoting a post about Stalinist era mass murders and then you linked to a bunch of stuff totally dissimilar from that. Makes me wonder if you even know what you’re linking to or understand the posts people make here.
I’m saying mass murders were not only committed outside of the US. If those examples aren’t good enough for you, I believe the native americans were also almost hunted to extinction, a few hundred thousand died at hiroshima/nagasaki, a million Koreans died during the Korean war, etc. etc. etc. Prison statistics also show a continued bias against non-whites vs the overall population, if you want government sanctioned persecution.
Imho, to say “America is great because Country X is worse” is not the point.
