[WalterBright]

The United States. The first free market country, and the first to raise the standard of living of scores of millions of people out of poverty into the middle and even wealthy classes.

The American people are also the most generous in the world, by donations to charity.

I know that the popular view is the US is some sort of hellhole, but yet millions of people are trying to immigrate here, walking thousands of miles just to try.

[ironman1478]

The people walking to America are doing it because they are coming from extremely violent countries where they are in immediate danger. My family came from Romania, a place where they jailed or beat my family members on a regular basis during communism, then had horrible brain drain and 0 opportunities post communism. People aren't emigrating from countries like Germany the way they are from El Salvador. Being better than a place where your life is in immediate danger or where there is ZERO economic opportunity is not much of an accomplishment. Please use correct comparisons when you are making statements like this.

"The American people are also the most generous in the world, by donations to charity." Why can't we just setup government programs to fill the in the gaps that charities provide?

[WalterBright]

The oceans are a major barrier to people walking here from other countries. Consider as well all the countries they walk through to get here. They come from Cuba, too, the socialist paradise.

There are a lot of people from Romania in the Seattle area, I am friends with some. I am not unacquainted with their stories of how bad things were there. All I can say is welcome to the US!

P.S. All my ancestors hail from various European countries that emigrated to the US, including Germany.

[ironman1478]

Yes, they come from Cuba because the US is the closest countries with opportunities, just like many people flee to Italy from the north of Africa or from the middle east. Also cuba is a bad example because of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Adjustment_Act and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_feet,_dry_feet_policy. They are incentivezed to leave the totalitarian regime of Cuba (which is not socialist to be clear) to the US. The goal of bringing up Romania and El Salvador was to show how the bad conditions at the time forced people to leave. People don't leave countries that are doing well.

Also, your friends are probably from a select group of people who came in highly educated. People who come in with 0 education (like my parents) are not treated well in America. Many of the Romanian families that I grew up with in South Florida have gone back, as America honestly isn't that great compared to what has developed in Romania over time (its pretty nice now!).

[WalterBright]

The Romanians I know arrived here with nothing and now are well off.

I've also run into two Afghans who escaped from the Taliban here with nothing, having lost everything in Afghanistan. They started their own businesses and are thriving here.

> Cuba (which is not socialist to be clear)

Of course. A common theme of all socialist governments is socialists deny their children.

[spencerflem]

C'man, the socialist paradise is Nordic countries, not Cuba.