Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jacquesm 1631 days ago
Why?
2 comments

Every nation strives to protect its own first and foremost (obviously there are exceptions where the leaders were bad or their interests diverged too much but in general it holds). People are valuable. Every institution in the US runs on them and their productive output.

What benefit does your continued existence, or some random farmer in India, or some random taxi driver in Chile confer the US vs some overweight middle manager who pays fat taxes on his 200k income and does his part to keep a local liquor store in business?

It might not pass western morals but the game theory side seems pretty obvious to me.

I might get downvoted but I want to answer you honestly:

It’s part of American folklore and culture, we do not always live up to our higher ideals but as Americans we take care of our own.

Yes possibly it’s national narcissism but there you have it.

Thank you. For me if I had the choice between a fellow country person and some other random individual in the world I'd first look at their relative ages and if the difference is significant I'd pick the younger one.

But I've lived outside of my country for quite a big chunk of my life and don't really have a strong connection to our 'national identity', I don't have a flag and I don't care about our royal family.

There is also the benefit of knowing that if you are a US citizen, other US citizens would prioritize saving you vs foreign aliens, no matter what.