• cheeseburgers@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    THEY’RE TRYING TO BUILD A PRISON THEY’RE TRYING TO BUILD A PRISON THEY’RE TRYING TO BUILD A PRISON FOR YOU AND ME

    • Hari Seldon@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Having to live in the US is already a punishment, being inmate is like being in a prison inside a prison.

      • Betty White In HD@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Look the US has a ton of issues and there are people actively trying to make it worse, but there are reasons why people are or are trying to immigrate here in droves. It’s, on average, pretty alright and I don’t and have never felt like a prisoner inside a prison. If that’s how you feel here, I’m sorry.

        But I get it AMERICA BAD and let’s continue the Leddit trend of taking every single opportunity to shit on everything at all times.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          I’ve given the US tons of shit and have even done so in this thread, but I’ll be the first to admit there’s plenty of reason to migrate. Much of the country is an unwalkable hellhole with mediocre salaries, but there are still at least a few cities that are 1) walkable or have good public transit, 2) have salaries that even western Europe can only dream of 3) aren’t all that bad with crime either.

          It just sucks to be poor in the US. But if you’ve got a great career, it’s one of the few places where hard work CAN technically result in becoming a millionaire, as a software engineer or doctor for an example. The country has a working population for 167 million and somehow has over 20 million millionaires.

          Also there’s so much variety of nature for one country, it’s nuts.

          If H1Bs weren’t so hard to come by, I’d probably move and work for that sweet US software engineer salary for 5 years, then move back to my homeland that has much cheaper property lol

          • Betty White In HD@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It just sucks to be poor in the US.

            I mean sure, but also as opposed to where? Where does it not suck to be poor? The vast majority of the world is a) very poor compared to the US and b) life isn’t that great when you’re poor anywhere.

            I get that Europe and especially the Nordic countries get brought up a lot in this argument, but relatively few places in the world actually have decent social safety nets for the poor. Especially when you consider population numbers into account and consider where most people actually live. Most of the world is, to be completely blunt, a fucking nightmare compared to the US, unless you have money.

            Look, I’m not blind to our faults, the US has many, so, so many but I was born and lived elsewhere and I’ve traveled to other countries and talk to and sometimes get to work with people from all over the world. The US, for all its faults, is still way better to the average person than the majority of the world. And I do take a person of a random gender/identity, religion, social and monetary status, etc into account.

            Also there’s so much variety of nature for one country, it’s nuts.

            That’s a great benefit and one that I don’t take for granted, but there are so many others. You should come visit if you ever get the chance and it really isn’t as dangerous or crime ridden as you may think and there’s a lot more to this country than people think.

            We absolutely and definitely have a ton of issues and we always have, this was always an odd experiment, but again consider the fact why people from all over come here and consider that so many great, well known people and media and inventions come from here.

            Again, I get it, AMERICA BAD and it’s fun to shit on fat, stupid Americans with their constant news and shootings that happen to everyone all the time and they don’t even know where Luxembourg is and their big cars and you can’t even walk anywhere and people are angry about it and everyone’s in a constant crisis all the time. But also consider that that’s not the reality for most people and maybe some people actually prefer to sit in perfectly climate controlled, tailored to them car where they can blast their own tunes vs being on a bus or a train sometimes.

            I don’t know, I like it here and it’s generally OK.

            • boonhet@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              What’s up with the fact that y’all always compare your country to the third world to make it look better, rather than comparing it to other developed nations?

              In fact, even in most 3rd world countries, being poor isn’t penalized as much as in the US because you can’t be hit with random six figure medical bills

              • coffeekomrade@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                What about comparing it to the UK which has similar problems to the US? barring medical but then again the Tory party are trying to privatize the NHS so not far off

            • essteeyou@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Until your kid gets shot at school, or maybe some other kids in the next city or state… and then it happens the next week at the mall, and the week after at a church, and the week after forever and ever, and you wonder how long until it’s your turn, and you think that you wouldn’t have to even consider that if you lived almost anywhere else on the planet.

              • coffeekomrade@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                Despite the point you are trying to makes, the kind of events you are describing make up a very small portion of gun violence. The majority of it is crime/gang related, or suicide. Not that that’s really any better, but schools and malls aren’t being shot up every week.

              • Betty White In HD@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                What if I told you that I’ve lived here over 20 years and have been all over the country and never been around a shooting, not even once?

                We have a gun problem, 100%, but it’s not as prevalent as the news would like you to believe and unlike people that don’t live here would like you to believe we’re not all constantly getting shot all the time. It happens, it happens a lot and every single time it does it’s unacceptable, but it’s not really a concern for the vast majority of the people living here.

                Anecdotally I’ve been mugged at knife point in UK.

        • MBM@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          there are reasons why people are or are trying to immigrate here in droves

          If you compare yourself to third-world countries you always come out looking good. “America Bad” can definitely get circlejerky though, no denying that

          • Betty White In HD@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            No, we have a lot of Germans, Canadians, French, Ukrainians, Australians, Brits, etc here. People from all over. I’m also an immigrant and a naturalized US citizen from a “first world” country. Now why would that be? Hmmm…

            Anyway happy 4th, gonna go blow up my fingers and eat like a dozen hot dogs with the fellas. Don’t stay online too long, it’s not good for the melon.

            • snowbell@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I have a friend who moved to Germany and now they want to come back to the USA. Grass is always greener…

        • toomanyjoints69@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          Anyone I’ve met outside of America treated me like I lived in a third world country. Perhaps you live a middle class existence in an urban area? Go to a decaying town in a rural area and you will see how nearly half of America lives. A lot of middle class people are super sheltered. Did you buy the laptop you are on? I found mine in the trash outside the college where all the middle class kids go to. Do you use linux because you like free software? I use linux because my computer is literal trash and i need to remove spyware

        • Calzoner@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’ve had a good, privileged life here in America. I got lucky as a white male in a middle class upbringing, but to complain about my life would be wrong. I am well educated with a solid career path, great benefits, and am doing well. Have always lived comfortably, but still work hard to get ahead. I can’t imagine there is much room for improvement anywhere else in the world for me.

        • BurtsBS@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Painfully obvious that the children have now also migrated here.

        • touchegooodsir@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Have you considered that this website is primarily Americans, and thus the most complaints would be… about America when it comes to quality of life/systemic societal issues. We’re the wealthiest country on the planet of course people will want to move here.