I don't like quote-tweeting for the purpose of argument, but I want to quickly push back against an apparently popular tweet saying people don't want to come to America. This is, of course, nonsense.

The US remains the most popular destination of choice for immigrants, though we take far fewer people per capita than e.g. Canada or Australia.

To use an overused word, it's a sign of privilege that you think there aren't people who'd love even a lower class American lifestyle.
The groups least likely to immigrate here are the ones with the least to gain. If you're a wealthy European, you've got to have a pretty good offer on the table to come. Or a loved one you want to be with. Or you really like American cheese, perhaps.
It's just another face of American exceptionalism to think this country is especially bad. We didn't invent corruption or bad leaders or prejudice. We've excelled at a few forms of evil no doubt, but do you think that really deters someone from wanting their income multiplied 5x?
Put it this way - suppose there's a Mars colony run by a crazy billionaire. You despise Martian politics, and you know some Martians would look down on you for your appearance and accent. But, by going there, you take your current income and add a zero to it.
How much do you care at that point about whether the leader is a dick, whether the culture is malign in some way, whether life is too consumerist, foreign policy too expansionist, whether there are many people who would like you to go away? Very little, I suspect.
And even if that puts you off, surely you can appreciate that immigrants throughout history have been willing to endure far worse to give themselves and their kids a better shot at health, wealth, and happiness.
This sort of thing strikes me the same way as hearing Americans complain about too much economic growth in the world. Try telling that to a Bangladeshi economist. It's like yelling from an infinity pool about how people need to appreciate the little things.
Anyway, this is turning into a rant, so let me just say: yes, many still want to enter past the Statue of Liberty, and land here to stay. It's different people, and they come by plane now, but they still want to come. And, we should be glad of the opportunity to welcome them.
PS: The least we could do right this second is welcome everyone fleeing Syrian, Rohingya, Uighur, Hong Konger, and Venezuelan. And everyone else too, but those are the no-brainers. Want a patriot? Give them a patria.

More from For later read

1. The death of Silicon Valley, a thread

How did Silicon Valley die? It was killed by the internet. I will explain.

Yesterday, my friend IRL asked me "Where are good old days when techies were


2. In the "good old days" Silicon Valley was about understanding technology. Silicon, to be precise. These were people who had to understand quantum mechanics, who had to build the near-miraculous devices that we now take for granted, and they had to work

3. Now, I love libertarians, and I share much of their political philosophy. But you have to be socially naive to believe that it has a chance in a real society. In those days, Silicon Valley was not a real society. It was populated by people who understood quantum mechanics

4. Then came the microcomputer revolution. It was created by people who understood how to build computers. One borderline case was Steve Jobs. People claimed that Jobs was surrounded by a "reality distortion field" - that's how good he was at understanding people, not things

5. Still, the heroes of Silicon Valley were the engineers. The people who knew how to build things. Steve Jobs, for all his understanding of people, also had quite a good understanding of technology. He had a libertarian vibe, and so did Silicon Valley

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