It was a figure of speech. People slobber about all the vacation time and free time other countries have. Well that's great and all. But you can't be a world leader when your workforce is perpetually out to lunch.
I don't need to. People from around the world leave everything they have just to come here. I don't feel the need to go travelling around the world just to impress some coffee house intellectuals about how well travelled I
am.
I think you are confusing two things here.
The citizens of countries with "all the vacation time and free time" do not immigrate here in large numbers. It is citizens from countries
withoutall those nice benefits that tend to flock here (Mexico, Guatemala, India, China etc).
You are comparing the US to Western Europe and saying that the reason America is better is because people from nonWestern European countries come here. That is not a sign that Europeans have an inferior system than here. It is because it is far easier to immigrate and attain citizenship in the US than in W. Europe currently. I know plenty of Chinese that aim for the US because they 'don't let you stay' if you go to Europe. A family friend studied in Denmark for two years for graduate school, then got a job offer, but the gov't won't give her a work visa, so she had to go back to China. It is rare in the US to have a legal, foreign student with a job be told they are not allowed to stay here. My parents immigrated here in the 80's and the vast majority of Chinese graduate students who came here had no difficulties staying. As a result, Chinese students in China tend to immigrate to the US rather than Europe, knowing that their ability to get a green card is far easier than in Europe. Of course, I think this welcoming attitude also contributes to making America great but that's a debate for another day.....
Right on. Seems like if you defend America you're labelled a redneck or ignorant by people who disparage the country they live in while they trump up other countries. Nobody can deny that people from all over the world leave behind their countries (including some of those utopian countries you like to hype up) to live and practice right here in the good 'ol USA. You'd be hard pressed to find U.S. doctors who do the same. Now I know somebody's gonna pipe up with a claim of a cousin's plumber's doctor who left the USA permanently to go practice in some other country, but we're talking relatively speaking. For every one of those there's countless thousands of foreign docs who leave everything behind to come to the U.S. Actions speak louder than words.
Very few foreigners, even foreign doctors who come here, are from Western Europe, Australia, or Japan. Far more, they tend to be from India or China where physicians, while well paid, do not experience the higher standard of living that doctors experience here.
This has less to do with the 'system' that those countries reside in (as India is a democracy and China no longer has a socialist health care system), and more to do with the development stage of the respective countries.
In other words, doctors from poorer countries tend to immigrate to the US, doctors from industrialized countries, of which some are socialist, do not.
There is no influx of French, Japanese, or German doctors. No brain drain from those countries. In fact, I would say, the exchange is about even. We have US doctors going over there, and vice versa. The few doctors I have seen who are from these developed nations tend to have come here for their own, personal reasons, and not because they hate their native country or they think they enjoy a higher standard of living here (I have seen none that believe this).
In fact, many foreigners who immigrate here still have issues with US foreign policy. My parents lived here for 20 years, and their ideas of American arrogance has only been reinforced by the Bush administration. However, don't confuse criticism of a country for hatred of it. Just like a loving parent is one that criticizes a child, a true patriot is one that can criticize the country but still believe in its potential.
And I would recommend for everyone get a chance to go abroad. It is supremely arrogant (and laughable) to assume that your country is great without having lived anywhere else. And going abroad doesn't mean you will learn to hate America, but it may give you a new perspective on how the world operates, how your country operates, force you to rethink your long held beliefs and make you a better person. IMHO, people who say they have no need to go abroad to learn America is great are just speaking from ignorance.
