[mcrae]

I'm not American but you're off-base here. Sure, if you already have another western passport an American passport may not buy you much. But if you go to Asia or Africa, you'll find that an American passport is still the Holy Grail; certainly "one of the most prized" as the article says.

And, BTW, if you're poor (like most of the world!), the mobility offered by a passport matters little in the short term; it's the economic mobility a new nationality gives you.

Besides, those passport indexes are ridiculous -- they rank them by number of countries you can access. But let's be real -- would you prefer an Emerati passport to an American one because you get a visa-on-arrival in Liberia or similar places? Insane.

[klyrs]

Africa and Asia are not countries. As I understand it, American tourists in Egypt are treated like shit, but Italians are welcomed with open arms. Source: a friend who holds both passports (born in US to Italian citizens) whose family vacations in Egypt.

[fastball]

Also, the US is one of the few countries where long-term minded people can move, have a kid, and then their kid will have a US passport. That is not true for most of the world, and is certainly not true for other "prized passports".