Checker's now few-week-old editorial "Dusk" sparked a debate amongst our ranks. Is America in decline? Or are we really on the upswing, despite our economic woes? The Economist tackles this question from the immigrant's perspective: America is still an incredibly attractive place to live. Why? Because people have the freedom to pursue their goals, to speak and act freely, and to find a community that is right for them.
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. Nearby Montgomery County is in between: a ???moist??? county where the sale of alcohol is banned except in one city. Liberal foreign students let it all hang out at Berkeley; those from traditional backgrounds may prefer a campus where there is no peer pressure to drink or fornicate, such as Brigham Young in Utah.
Furthermore, because this is not a welfare state, immigrants work--which means they are only a moderate drain on public funds and they are forced to at least partially assimilate by participating in the workforce. There are no immigrant ghettos here, argues The Economist, which means that not only is America a "lifestyle superpower" but it's not a country of strictly racial or religious classes, as you find in Europe, but one of socioeconomic ones. (There is undoubtedly a correlation between class and socioeconomic status in the US to some extent, but it's not a causal relationship.) A welcome positive line of argument as we enter the '10s.
--Stafford Palmieri
