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215 points XzetaU8 | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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dsign ◴[] No.45080365[source]
I was walking on the street the other day. It was fine summer, and I saw so many elderly walking outside. All of them were using one type of aid or another; some even had a social worker at their side. As I saw them, I was thinking that my 63% marginal tax was paying for it, while I part with 25% of my income after taxes to pay my mom’s pension. That monetary cost is nothing, I would gladly pay it for the rest of my life if it could give my mom a good life for that long. Her old age is my single biggest source of stress.

In the political sphere, some countries are tearing themselves apart on the question of immigration and identity. But immigration is the only thing that can replenish their workforce.

So, we are paying an extremely high cost for letting God go on with His Slow Tormentous Cooking of Souls before Consumption, and things are only going to get worse, given the demographic expectations. Wouldn’t it make sense to put a big chunk of budget into creating life-extension tech?

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4gotunameagain ◴[] No.45080620[source]
> But immigration is the only thing that can replenish their workforce.

You cannot discount the destabilising potential of immigration, and the lowering of societal trust it comes with. As we saw multiple times, integration is the edge case and not the rule. It will be especially harder to integrate people the way the demographic pyramid is looking right now in "developed" countries.

I would also question the desire of immigrants to pay for the welfare of the senile of their respective state, given the fact that they are more than likely to feel mistreated and wronged by the western, "developed" countries that will be hosting them.

I am an immigrant (expat?). I don't enjoy paying contributions for the welfare of the people who played in a huge role in the reasons I had to emigrate.

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simianparrot ◴[] No.45081025[source]
I appreciate you being honest, but I also don't want people like you to immigrate to my country. How are you so sure of the role our old people played in your reasons for emigrating? Even if you're in the US and from a country the US has actively destabilized, how many of the people on welfare -- old and/or infirm -- were instrumental in the actions that led to the destabilization of your country? How many of these people had any active choice?

This is why we need strong vetting of immigrants.

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4gotunameagain ◴[] No.45081466{3}[source]
Apart from the complex topic of political complicity, I am talking about events and actions that the majority of the local population supported. I would of course have to reveal quite a bit about me in order to be more specific.

But even if I were an immigrant to the US from Venezuela or any of the tens if not hundreds countries that the US destabilised, I would indeed think of the majority of US's population as complicit. The people that are against such acts seem to always be the minority.

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whodidntante ◴[] No.45082224{4}[source]
There are plenty of countries to go to that are not complicit in your home countries issues if your issue is with the US.

Russia and China have well above average lifestyles based on PPP. So do many South American countries, as well as Japan, and South Korea and other Asian countries. Also a number of countries in the middle east.

Yes, I understand the US is a very very bad country. I am also a very very bad person because I am very grateful, proud, and and supportive of this country for providing my family an opportunity to thrive even though it took decades for my "type" to be accepted and not discriminated against. My grandparents fled from other countries to be here, for a better life.

Note that I say "opportunity", because nothing was handed to my grandparents or my parents. They were given opportunity, not a subsidized life. They were also, as many immigrants have been, discriminated against for decades, but never complained or held grudges.

I am a huge believer in immigration, but have zero tolerance for those demanding to be supported or who commit crimes or those that choose to come here and bitch about this country. There are plenty of other places to go to.

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1. 4gotunameagain ◴[] No.45083415{5}[source]
Oh rest assured, I am not in the US. I would never do that. I find the mentality there insufferable. The mentality that you laid bare in your comment. About the land of opportunity, as long as the cost is externalised.
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2. whodidntante ◴[] No.45085232[source]
The US has a lot of history to deal with - genocide of Native Americans, slavery, treatment of women, to name a few. A number of horrible wars since the aftermath of WW2.

We are also going through significant challenges right now - social, political, economic, foreign relationships.

We may or may not survive as a country. We may have a positive or adverse effect on the rest of the world as we go through what we must go through.

However, the rest of the world is simply not innocent.

Europe has a lot to account for. So does Russia, China, Japan. And lets not forget the Islamic and Ottoman empires, which easily matched and in many respects put to shame the slavery, colonization, genocides, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid of the American, European, and Asian empires.

Most of the worlds current problems are the result of the collapse of these empires about 100 years ago, payment for the failure of their insufferable mentalities over many centuries.

Right now the US is facing payment for its past, the rest of the world is still paying for its past.

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3. 4gotunameagain ◴[] No.45089577[source]
Maybe you feel the need to equate everyone in order to feel better with your complicity, but it is simply not true. Every empire has committed atrocities, sure. Not every country or ethnic group though. Some have been historically non aggressive and grossly mistreated by greedy emperors, conquerors and politicians.

"Europe" has nothing to account for. Western Europe ? Sure.

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4. whodidntante ◴[] No.45117067{3}[source]
I do not make excuses for what the US did/does, I acknowledge it. Nor do I minimize what it has done or is doing because others have done similar/worse. It is you who singles out US and Western Europe as bad, and make excuses for everyone else.

Eastern Europe is also "complicit", Eastern Europe countries have committed genocide and ethnic cleansing, and have continued to do so even recently.

The entire middle east is "complicit", and it is currently paying for the sins of 1200 years of empire that only ended 100 years ago.

Maybe you come from a small country that has never been part of an empire or has never been "complicit" in such crimes, but has been historically suppressed and taken advantage of. If so, I sympathize. I come from a combination of people who have been enslaved for centuries and people who have been historically kept under apartheid, ethnically cleansed, or simply killed for who they are.

Am I "complicit" ? My parents and ancestors certainly were not. Maybe I am simply for living in the US and enjoying its benefits. I do have to live somewhere.