To be perfectly clear. The US has a much higher standard of living than the vast majority of countries in the world and people from those countries hope to improve their lives by moving there.
The US has a lower standard of living than basically all OECD countries.
To use a sports analogy, the US is last place on the pro league ladder, while also being first place on the “everyone else” ladder.
I don’t think this captures the full story. The US has a bimodal standard of living reflected as a lower mean relative to other advanced nations.
It can be simultaneously true that immigrants to the U.S. from both advanced and developing nations both experience a higher standard of living than their countries of origin.
Immigrating to the U.S. with an advanced degree in an in-demand field: you likely will experience a higher standard of living.
Immigrating to the U.S. from a developing country without a particularly in-demand career: you likely will experience a higher standard of living.
> Immigrating to the U.S. with an advanced degree in an in-demand field: you likely will experience a higher standard of living.
And yet everyone here in SF has been mugged. Everyone has to deal with the poor air quality, crime, traffic, and a million other factors that impact daily life even when you are rich. Little paid time off, very short maternity leave.
I went back to Australia for the first time in 10 years, and even the guy stacking shelves at a liquor store had 8 weeks of paid leave, owned his own home, had a project car (a big V8), kids going to university, excellent healthcare even if he quits, etc etc.
Ordinary guy, better quality of life than many rich Americans.
> I went back to Australia for the first time in 10 years, and even the guy stacking shelves at a liquor store ... owned his own home
Australia is having the exact same situation with housing as most of the cities in the US right now and Australia lacks the rural population where things are affordable so this seems incredibly unbelievable to me.
Absolutely Australia has a huge housing crunch. No getting around that.
But everyone has healthcare. Everyone has university. Minimum wage is way, way higher than the US. Employee protections are huge (at will employment is criminal). Even the worst jobs have great paid time off and maternity leave.
Overtime is paid, by law. Working 60 hours a week is unheard of.
The US is the best place you _can_ immigrate to (at least until a few days ago) from a lot of different perspectives.
Poor people from the countries you mentioned won't be let into the countries with strong safety nets so, you can compare what it's like to be a poor Swede and a poor American but a poor Venezuelan has a 0% chance of becoming Swedish.
A well off Swede would likely make significantly more money in the US and doesn't really benefit much from the social safety net anyway, aside from healthcare, which, despite the price, is also better in the US.
Anyone in the world who is looking to leave their home country for more opportunity probably has the US high up on the list of places they'd consider going to that they'd actually be able to go to..
Literally how could he possibly know that? He's just saying racist things because he's obviously a racist. Haitian immigrants aren't eating cats or dogs either, we need to stop listening to him as an authority on anything. If Donald Trump is saying something, you should automatically assume it's a lie. Any other course of action isn't reasonable.
The US has a lower standard of living than basically all OECD countries.
To use a sports analogy, the US is last place on the pro league ladder, while also being first place on the “everyone else” ladder.