Hi carranza2,
Excuse my force of habit, and the need to write some dissenting words, some consenting words, and some supplementary thoughts.
<<US has made it a policy to allow the best and brightest from the rest of the world to come to America to participate in its capitalist economy>>
Access to the center of the empire by folks on the periphery is an obligation, practiced in ancient Rome, Egypt, China, and in more modern Britain. The scale is of course different, but then the space in US is more. The scale is also different given convenience of travel.
The US likes to take in folks? Well, the Chinese like to travel. Look down south of your Caribbean location, and count up the percentages in each and every banana growing country.
I do not think the US has too be too concerned about the Chinese and Hindus, by the looks of Miami and California.
The barriers will be raised, by and by, else the US may be no more, as it is charging down uncharted path with its immigration policy.
<<Anyone with a good idea, drive, and energy can succeed here>>
This is very true. It is especially true of folks who can not otherwise make it happen back in their own old country. Says much about the folks who can, though, and thus possibly benefiting the average IQ of both sides. And, sometimes, they go back to the old country, end up buying Intel compatible chip house, and yikes, competes, successfully.
<<Witness the number of Hindu, Chinese, and other "foreigners" [I doubt that the word has any real meaning any more] ...>>
The word has a real meaning, and will take on a new meaning, as it already has in some US neighborhoods and states.
<<There is no class system that artificially prevents the best and the brightest, whatever their origins, from succeeding here>>
Well, not quite true, but no bones to pick, just a reminder that nothing is absolute. I visited my wife often whilst she was being finished at Harvard, and her circle of friends seemed quite different from the folks I meet on the street, all from different countries, all destined to rule, few consigned to follow.
Class system has been and, for better or worse, will always be apart of society, because we, in the aggregate, sometimes lack imagination for a better way.
<<The US is the closest thing to a meritocracy that the world has seen>>
Agreed, especially given the scale. The next closest things being the very ancient Chinese civil service system, and of course, the French Foreign Legion.
<<Other structural barriers to doing well, though they certainly exist, are far lesser than anywhere else at any time in history>>
So far, so good, and copied with alacrity elsewhere, but not in California, nor Hawaii, or for that matter, Cincinatti.
<<Real opportunity is a reality here, which is why the world's best and brightest want to be in the US>>
Real opportunity is, in fact, everywhere, for the taking, by the best and brightest. The taking is easier or harder, depending on taker, location, and time.
<<So long as there are no artificial barriers to making a success of one's life, and there are no competitors that can successfully adopt the US social/economic model, it will be a magnet for the world and will continue to be a superpower>>
As Japan nearly put the botch on the US and Russia the borsch, it does not follow that a competitor needs to adopt anything US to try and unseat the US or more likely, come up with some thing entirely old and succeed to clipping the US power to a significant and material degree.
The world is a sports field and chess board, and strategy interacts with strengths and weaknesses, producing outcome. Outcome in sport and chess is never certain.
This is precisely why the US really does not want to enable a multipolar world. Else, by your logic, there is absolutely nothing to worry about.
Chugs, Jay |
