Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Emigrate?

I have a young adult relative who posted on Facebook yesterday about how the USA is becoming such a terrible place and how she'd like to emigrate. Having lived in a few corners of the world, I can see where she is coming from, but I think she is unaware of just how many problems other countries have, too.

Her major gripes with the USA include having to pay a high price for a college education which isn't even of very good quality (astute of her to have noticed that already), having to pay a large amount of her paycheck into Social Security when there is no guarantee of her receiving anything out of it in a few decades (once young adults start getting substantial paychecks, they get a bit of a reality check about the cost of government), an unfair judicial system, having to work long hours for less pay, shooting sprees (entirely understandable in light of last weekend, but she's apparently forgotten the Bataclan massacre), and the possibility of Donald Trump winning the presidential election (Gary Johnson is looking like a great choice this year...).

She has done some touring in Asia, and I fear that she thinks much of the world is like the beaches of Thailand and the orderly society of Singapore. A little more global education would be helpful, although I don't want her to go in person to many of the places I would like her to be more aware of. The United States of America is still a pretty nice place to live compared to much of the world. People tend to follow the rule of law here more often than not, and rule of law in a country appears to be associated positively with general happiness. The countries with the most rule of law and happiness also have very high tax rates, which she probably wouldn't like. On the other hand, I think people don't mind high taxation as much when they know the taxes are going for services they support instead of lining corrupt politicians' pockets. 

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