Would you rather have a base income with the associated purchasing power of 30k+ minimum wage (e.g. all those 15/hr minimum states) or would you rather live in a country where the middle class wage is 12k or less.
Keep in mind:
Airfare is the same everywhere. Saving $300 in the US for a flight is practically trivial even at minimum wage compared to earning $1000/mo pretax or less.
Electronics cost the same everywhere.
Everything imported costs more than the US in those shithole countries because the volume of imports is way less. A $10 container of hair gel in the US costs $30+ in latin american countries.
Foreign style food is almost exclusively global american brands and/or incredibly expensive - eating domestically grown and produced foods are typical.
Air conditioners are not affordable
Electricity is commonly not stable, if it exists
Things like public sewer systems are not guaranteed. Septic is common in a lot of places. Even non-well water can be hard to find in many places.
There are no things like food pantries in third world countries. In the greater Boston area, food pantries are everywhere and will not turn away a hungry family.
There’s so many benefits to living here that we overlook completely. We look at social media and wish we were all millionaires. There are people out there making a couple thousand dollars a year and eating “cheap” local food but otherwise living in abject poverty who would do absolutely anything to jump our border to work illegally for less than minimum wage without ever collecting social security benefits or unemployment. That’s why they do.
Oh sure, it’s better than the poorest places on earth…
Way more people live in the poorest places on earth than the US. We’re talking billions. ~652 million people live in latin america. ~1.4 billion people live in india. That’s 25% of human population right there and i’m ignoring eastern europe, lots of asia, lots of the middle east… all of africa (another 1.2 billion)
Not disagreeing, I agree there’s little reason why citizens of wealthy nations would come here. I’m just pointing out all the reasons why ‘shithole’ countries want in. Those things don’t really apply to countries that have living wages and good social supports.
US high wages by and large go to people who already have significant wealth. It’s all funneled upwards. All of the immigrants and the poors here work in indentured servitude to their feudal land lords. Sure slavery is gone but you still have a master who can decide your fate should they choose to… for most of us anyway.
I live in south America and even though I only make around 900-1000 dollars a month, I can afford a room, food, transportation, health insurance, going out with friends, entertainment, studies if I want to but who wants to waste money on study when I could be buying videogames, and save for investments.
Would you rather have a base income with the associated purchasing power of 30k+ minimum wage (e.g. all those 15/hr minimum states) or would you rather live in a country where the middle class wage is 12k or less.
Keep in mind:
Airfare is the same everywhere. Saving $300 in the US for a flight is practically trivial even at minimum wage compared to earning $1000/mo pretax or less.
Electronics cost the same everywhere.
Everything imported costs more than the US in those shithole countries because the volume of imports is way less. A $10 container of hair gel in the US costs $30+ in latin american countries.
Foreign style food is almost exclusively global american brands and/or incredibly expensive - eating domestically grown and produced foods are typical.
Air conditioners are not affordable
Electricity is commonly not stable, if it exists
Things like public sewer systems are not guaranteed. Septic is common in a lot of places. Even non-well water can be hard to find in many places.
There are no things like food pantries in third world countries. In the greater Boston area, food pantries are everywhere and will not turn away a hungry family.
There’s so many benefits to living here that we overlook completely. We look at social media and wish we were all millionaires. There are people out there making a couple thousand dollars a year and eating “cheap” local food but otherwise living in abject poverty who would do absolutely anything to jump our border to work illegally for less than minimum wage without ever collecting social security benefits or unemployment. That’s why they do.
Oh sure, it’s better than the poorest places on earth…
For the richest country on earth, that’s a comically low bar.
Way more people live in the poorest places on earth than the US. We’re talking billions. ~652 million people live in latin america. ~1.4 billion people live in india. That’s 25% of human population right there and i’m ignoring eastern europe, lots of asia, lots of the middle east… all of africa (another 1.2 billion)
I feel like you may have misread the comment you’re replying to…
Those are all things people from “non-shithole” countries already have, and they almost certainly have even more
Not disagreeing, I agree there’s little reason why citizens of wealthy nations would come here. I’m just pointing out all the reasons why ‘shithole’ countries want in. Those things don’t really apply to countries that have living wages and good social supports.
US high wages by and large go to people who already have significant wealth. It’s all funneled upwards. All of the immigrants and the poors here work in indentured servitude to their feudal land lords. Sure slavery is gone but you still have a master who can decide your fate should they choose to… for most of us anyway.
Okay now compare it to somewhere like Denmark
Nobody wants to leave livable wages and good social support programs to move to a country that is very, very backwards.
Denmark’s population (~6m) is smaller than the state of Massachusetts (~7m).
~652 million people live in latin america. ~1.4 billion people live in india
That’s 25% of human population right there and i’m ignoring eastern europe, lots of asia, lots of the middle east…
I live in south America and even though I only make around 900-1000 dollars a month, I can afford a room, food, transportation, health insurance, going out with friends, entertainment, studies if I want to but who wants to waste money on study when I could be buying videogames, and save for investments.