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I actually think this!
Perks of being a white, white-collar, [REDACTED FOR PATHETIC OPSEC] man. I do, in fact, get to benefit from playing by the rules. People all around me do, too. We get to pay our taxes and submit our DMV paperwork and make all these daily, personal sacrifices, and in return, we get to live in a functional society. There, I said it. America isn't perfect, but it is the best in the world.
I'll even go as far as to say I see most Americans as benefiting from following the rules. Even those who loudly insist that they're being oppressed. Whatever group you think I mean by this--flip the polarity, and I mean them too.
Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that you can't find these people. You've blocked me. If you've built yourself a bubble where everyone is miserable and terrified and kept down by the Man...well, I think you're missing out.
If you define best by combination of 'business opportunity/ materiál riches', yes, America is best in the world. If you're a smart, canny person who wants to make a huge pile of money, you're better off in US.
If you went by say, life outcomes for the median person, developed places in Europe or East Asia are far better.
You guys have had a million die from drug overdoses in the last decade. You have crazy crime rates, life expectancy declining, people afraid to be in public.
Your fatal OD rate is 20x EU.
Etc.
We've got 330 million people. A million deaths in 10 years isn't even coming close to affecting the median.
The revealed preference, despite our terrible immigration system, is that more people want to immigrate to the US than emigrate from it, for almost any country.
Of course the median American didn't die from a drug overdose in the last decade. But if knowing a drug addict is to be affected, then I suspect the median American has indeed been affected by drug abuse.
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