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I think the biggest question the US needs to ask itself is do we want to be normal like most countries or better?
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USA has been far better for over 100 years. But that had to end at some point. So now we're seeing it end.
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It did not "have" to end, it's merely a political choice by one political faction being forced upon the entire nation.
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Far better than who?
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DO you have a good reason why?
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Because the industrialization of America is over, and has been for decades. USA doesn't need low-wage, immigrant workers anymore. The railroads have already been built, the fields have been plowed, and now that's all done by big automated machines. Everything that cheap workers used to do that was valuable is now automated.
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Who does the farming? Who does the cleaning? Who builds the buildings? Who are the line cooks? That should be obvious.

But it should be just as obvious that there are plenty of immigrants who are also necessary because they bring new ideas, their education, their incredible work ethic, to fill in the gaps that the US clearly has.

There is one thing that unites all of us (and I do mean us, as I am one of them). We all dream of a society where our hard work can become prosperity for ourselves and for everyone else, a plot of fertile soil that is worth sowing. We all come here with a dream.

And I personally don't mind so much that I'm uplifting people that don't agree with my existence. I just wish that they could stay out of our way so we could all benefit.

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List of low-wage immigrant workers:

Melania Trump

Boris Epshteyn

Elaine Chao

Elon Musk

Ted Cruz

Vivek Ramaswamy

Bobby Jindal

Nikki Haley

David Sacks

Sriram Krishnan

Jensen Huang

Satya Nadella

Sundar Pichai

Lisa Su

Sergey Brin

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Nah, there was just more economic activity to draw people in. By every other measure it’s been more hostile than average.

But you are right that it is ending, just wrong about what: it’s the high economic activity that attracted people which is disappearing thanks to the same people that hate migrants.

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> By every other measure it’s been more hostile than average.

I'm not sure there's a "just" here: compared to peer countries, the US is either middle-of-the-pack[1] or significantly more accepting of immigrants[2] depending on which number you pick.

(This isn't to somehow imply that the US isn't hostile to its immigrants, because it is. But the question is whether it's more hostile.)

[1]: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-the-share-of-foreig...

[2]: https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/stocks-of-foreign-bo...

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Sorry but this is just patently untrue. Are you American? Because in my experience, most Americans just don't realize how arbitrary and capricious the US immigration system is.

Pick any other developed country and the process is generally fairly simple. With some you can just apply for a temporary work visa (possibly without a job) or just apply to immigrate. If you stay in many places long enough on a temporary visa you pretty much get residency and ultimately citizenship.

Beyond what's possible, the time frames for doing anything with US immigration is ridiculously long. Like if you, as a US citizen marry someone overseas it can take upwards of 4 years to get a green card for your spouse and they won't be able to visit the US at all in that time. Why? Because filing a marriage petition means you've shown "immigrant intent" so you'll never get a visit visa (B1/B2) again. Also, the president may well just ban your country from getting any visa. 75 countries are currently on that list.

It's also incredibly easy to make a mistake at some point in the process and that may end up getting an approvable case denied or, worse, you end up with an improvidently granted benefit that cannot be repaired, even if it was an honest mistake.

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Sweden is portrayed as beacon of human rights, let's use them as an example.

https://www.reuters.com/world/sweden-tighten-citizenship-rul...

The rules now are tougher than US rules for citizenship. Sweden (like e.g., Norway) has a 8 year wait vs US's 5 year wait.

Sweden has minimum income requirements, none in the US.

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That is for a different scenario. It means that if you already have a residence permit, you have to wait 8 years before you can apply for citizenship. OP is talking about marriage green card. For 75% of cases in Sweden it is less than 15 months to get a residence permit.

[1] https://www.migrationsverket.se/en/you-want-to-apply/live-wi...

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