

A Ponzi scheme that works - dpapathanasiou
http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=15108634

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patio11
_Almost nobody in Japan thinks that anyone can become Japanese, yet Japan is
rated more “tolerant” than America. This is absurd._

I always joke ( _mostly_ good naturedly) that when my best Japanese friend
visited me at home he had people assuming he was American literally 20 feet
past immigration, and when I visit him at home I get people who have known me
for _seven years_ saying "Wow, its so _amazing_ you can use chopsticks, for an
American I mean."

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tokenadult
"If you like low taxes and the death penalty, try Texas. For good public
schools and subsidised cycle paths, try Portland, Oregon. Even within states,
the rules vary widely. Bath County, Kentucky is dry. Next-door Bourbon County,
as the name implies, is not."

That's one of the secrets of the United States. Federalism allows citizens
lots of lifestyle choices, while still building a great deal of national
cohesion. And that variety state by state is what produces a uniform
attractiveness to immigrants (the main point of the submitted article) that
keeps the United States growing and innovating.

~~~
mcantelon
Which state can I move to to opt out of the national debt?

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steveplace
Sidestepping the question, let's ask:

1\. If the US defaults, what country can I move to that will substantially
increase my odds of success?

2\. If fiat currencies hyperinflate, [same question]?

There's a very, very short list to answer those questions.

~~~
aristus
Hmm. A country that:

1) doesn't hold US debt and does not do substantial trade with the US (sorry
Canada, Japan, Mexico, et al)

2) Has large reserves of gold, petroleum or industrial minerals.

3) wants skilled English-speaking immigrants

... that leaves South Africa, Brazil, and... maybe AU?

~~~
steveplace
If you have 2, then you need 1. I'm thinking about Brazil's offshore reserves.

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prpon
I've always considered myself a 'global citizen' after living in the US for 15
years. During a 10 day trip to Germany. I was thrown out of a bar for asking
directions in english, yelled at by some crazy dude in a train station for
stealing their jobs and people crossed streets just to avoid a dark guy.

When I landed in Los Angeles, the minute I saw a mexican american immigration
officer, I almost cried. I was home. No one will question me why I am here.
The mexicans, the chinese, the Indians, the whites and the blacks. They are
all my people.

I might have my curry everyday but my spirit is american.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Yeah welcome to America, where if you don't fit in -- you fit in. :) We're the
pound-puppies, mongrels, and half-breeds of the planet.

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nvn1
'Listening to her Dutch friends, she assumed that Americans were fat, loutish,
naive and sexually repressed. “But then I came here and found it was all
false,” she smiles.'

So very true. The same would apply to British attitudes towards the US.
Spending a short time travelling around the US cleared away all my
misconceptions, thankfully.

As a side note, I suspect that attitudes might be equally uninformed the other
way around, that is about Europe from the US. Europe is incredibly diverse yet
I often read opinions from the US treating the continent as a whole.

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dunstad
Duplicate clicky: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1006556>

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lispm
Somehow I expected a new Scheme implementation, called Ponzi Scheme.

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praptak
"If you like low taxes and the death penalty, try Texas. For good public
schools and subsidised cycle paths, try Portland, Oregon. Even within states,
the rules vary widely. Bath County, Kentucky is dry. Next-door Bourbon County,
as the name implies, is not."

I like dope and I don't like going to jail, so thanks but no thanks.

~~~
decode
Possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana in Ann Arbor, Michigan is a
civil infraction with a $25 fine, like a parking ticket.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_laws_in_Ann_Arbor,_Mic...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_laws_in_Ann_Arbor,_Michigan)

~~~
ojbyrne
Massachusetts approved decriminalization - $100 fine for an ounce or less:
[http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/11/quest...](http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/11/question_2_setu.html)

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johnl
What makes the Ponzi scheme work is strong property rights supported by a
large middle class.

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dangrossman
I would prefer if people would link to the normal article, not the printable
page. If I want that version I can click the print link myself. If I don't
want that version, I have to go search for the original location of the
article.

~~~
whughes
This was posted a few days ago. Using the normal link would flag it as a
duplicate.

However, I think in most cases I'd prefer the printable version. Some articles
are split up into multiple pages, and the printable version combines them and
is often cleaner and faster to load.

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BerislavLopac
For readability, you can always use... well... Readability:
<http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability>

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collision
People often link to the print view because the normal view is paginated.
Readability won't solve pagination.

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ntoshev
And having articles split in multiple pages with just a little text on each is
more and more common (because ad revenue depends on CPM, of course). Someone
should augment Readability to combine multiple pages into one.

~~~
whughes
Consider PageZipper ( <http://www.printwhatyoulike.com/pagezipper> ) or
AutoPager ( <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4925> ).

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joe_the_user
Hmm,

"A Ponzi scheme that works" set off bell in my mind.

It seems like this article rolls two different questions together. One is
whether immigration is good. The other is whether the US can continue to grow
economically based only on "Three hundred million" niche markets.

Putting aside the former question, I'd say the answer to the latter question
is no. Housing bubbles, health care and state spending have not always
America's number one industries. Too many of the "hundred million niche
markets" that can be touted have really been just support services for the
aforementioned sustainable schemes. The US may be able to keep it's "service
economy" afloat for another few years but the crisis of 2008 should have been
wake-up call announcing unsustainability of this course. Naturally it wasn't,
but there you are.

