Now you're being sagacious (in the NewsRadio, sarcastic sense). One, if you haven't figured out I'm American and it's not "your" home but "our" home. As an American, I readily acknowledge that the greatness of our country required and requires the work of many individuals for which this country is clearly not striving for. It's like we're on the deck of the Titanic and the ship is sinking. We sort of realize an iceberg hit us, but as a whole we're not working towards actually fixing the hole. We don't even seem competent enough to fix the hole. We're just waving our arms around and shouting, "We've got a problem! We need to fix it!" The talk of immigrants is such a massive distraction from the point that Congress has spent over a decade basically refusing to function.
The street thug who survives another day has ingenuity. The mob thug who consistent goes his rounds has a work ethic. The grade school teacher has a want for people to succeed. Meanwhile, the story of Bill Gates is much more the one of being clever enough to realize that IBM needing an OS for their new machines was a gold mine, if only he could buy one and pawn it off as his own. And Windows was more the story of realizing that support IBM on its OS/2 project was probably doomed to failure, being tied to IBM, but a relative toy project of Windows inside of MS may be just the GUI that MS needed to move forward.
Meanwhile, the point of his connections is precisely that he knew to exploit each connection to finally being in a position to get a person like Warren Buffet's number. I don't begrudge him that. I do begrudge his ethics and to claim "[j]ust because you don't like that he did something a certain way doesn't mean you can bit** about it" is ludicrous if a major complaint about immigrants is their questionable morality and/or ethics. The point isn't that Bill Gates hasn't done an amazing amount of work, or that he wouldn't under some other system (again, his criminal record could bar him most systems proposed) that I'd envision as fair. It's that if you try to point out Bill Gates as an example or even a role model, then you can only expect people to point out why he is a bad role model in various ways.
They shouldn't. Which also ruins any argument you can make because by extension, no one should accept you. So, what you're left with is arbitrary standards. I refuse your set. You refuse my set. I think my set has better standard based on history, but whatever you like is up to you.
Respect is earned. Honor is a privilege that can be granted or withdrawn as appropriate. Food and clothing must be earned, although as a society we've gotten to the point of recognizing it better to keep people fed than to have riots in the streets. In that sense, it's Americans who are the biggest moochers. Of course, by extension so are a lot of job programs run by the government, like the military. That the US government has such a thirst for combat, to I guess get good value for money out of all that military money, is atrocious.
That's good to hear. It's good to know you've spent a lot of effort in your life benefiting yourself and others.
I have a question for you. Of all the good you've done, do you think you've had a impact as great as Bill Gates? Is it because you didn't care enough? Is because you weren't smart enough? Didn't work hard enough? Or could it be, being born with a silver spoon gives you an edge but isn't an end unto itself*? I don't put myself below other people for being American, but I also don't put myself above other people either. I know I don't have the power to change the world. By the very nature of things, if I could, I'd be nothing but a dictator. I know I'm not omniscient, though, and I'd do a terrible job even if I had that sort of power. So, I do what good I think I can in the scope of what I think I can responsibly. If I hold everyone else to the same standards, I can't expect some random other country to suddenly spring to the level of American prosperity. And it's very clear that except in some rare exceptions, the US government often through the US military isn't interested in trying to promote anyone to American prosperity. Just to give some room for thought, though, consider two strong leadership countries like Russia and China and how terrible they are in so many ways.
Take it as apologizing, but I know that I personally didn't make America what it is today, and trying to claim my legacy as my own is a sort of delusional. Now, if you want to argue not enough countries choose to learn from America's past and their leaders don't care and we shouldn't apologize for that, I'd tend to agree. But in a human lifespan sense, most people are going to abandon ship and seek American prosperity in America. The exceptions tend to be the angels and the demons. The demons usually win because the demons have gun.
That's great. I definitely agree that you can be proud for what you've done with your life. The Bill Gates of Bangladesh will probably never become another Bill Gates. Yet he can be proud of what he did--including his questionable relabeling of pigs feet as a cherished American delicacy. I think, though, that we'd all be better off he was allowed to come to the US legally. I don't think a government bureaucrat is going to see the possible fraud, though, and give him a pass--ignoring his whole general lack of relatives and money.
* The term silver spoon is a bit overused here, IMHO. In a real sense, if I were born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I really wouldn't have to work because I could squander my inheritance. That's true if I were born in the US or Vietnam (or most any other random country). So, the truth is that to some extent the idea of all Americans with a silver spoon in their mouth is an illusion. It's just not entirely unfounded relative to some countries that are, really, shitholes.
