• drphungky@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    You ruined your country.

    Ah yes, I really fucked up back at the constitutional convention when I designed a system that mathematically guarantees a two party system, leading to inevitable gerrymandering, entrenchment, and no incentives against unlimited fundraising . Same with that electoral college that allows minority rule via farmland. I think I got a lot of rights right, but in retrospect I probably should have worded the 2nd amendment differently, or at least foreseen the exponential development of weapons’ destructive power and not implied that citizens should have equal arms to the government. Maybe I could have even got rid of it, I don’t know. I definitely fucked up when I allowed slavery to continue for a while and then after we got rid of it, decided redlining was fine and wouldn’t affect things for multiple generations. I probably also fucked up when I was running all those lobbying firms in the 50s and destroyed American communities to make room for automobiles, and simultaneously started the military industrial complex subsidizing the rest of the worlds defense in exchange for not having healthcare.

    I really fucked it up bad, totally my fault. Crazy that I managed to do all that before I was born, and despite voting in every election for the only people who want to slightly change some of that stuff. But you’re right, my bad. I should fix it by voting for a rep in… Oh wait, I forgot I lived in an area without any actual representation for a while. I guess I shouldn’t have created Washington DC!But it’s ok, now I live in an area where my vote means nothing because our system is mathematically designed for gridlock. Guess I should just soak in the unfixable path dependency, instead of trying to go contribute to a different country that has none of these problems. But I was born here, so it’s my…duty to fix all those mistakes I made before I was born rather than going somewhere else, because it’s my responsibility. And you’re probably right to want to keep me out, because I just wanna come… steal your good society instead of contributing to something that more closely aligns with my values. Good read on the situation, you got me!

    • spirinolas@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I sympathize with everything you said. Fact remains, if you come here with your US salary it will force our natives to leave because they’ll be priced out of their own country.

      Now, if you are really serious about contributing to my country then you take the same local jobs we do, pay the same taxes, learn our language and play by the same rules.

      Since you’re so interested, let me be clear WE ARE HAPPY TO HAVE YOU. Here’s the deal:

      The average wage is around a 1000 euros a month but a big part of the population only makes minimum wage which recently jumped (not being ironic) to 820 euros a month (7 years ago it was under 600). A big part of those learning minimum wage have degrees and are educated. Rents in any city with more than 100,000 people start at 600 euros and by that price you won’t get nothing more than an old apartament falling appart. By the way, the rents have not stopped skyrocketing so don’t count on living in squalor for just 600 euros for long. Also, if you want to live in a city with more than 1,000,000 people (a must if you work in a specialized job) those 600 euros are double and they’re rising even faster.

      Still interested?

      It’s not personal dude. The Portuguese have always been very welcoming of foreigners. But we feel we have been taken for fools. We feel we were taken advantage of. We are being killed here. I don’t think you guys are really getting how bad things are getting. This country is dying because it’s being bled dry of what is more important: its people. It’s not about who’s coming in, it’s about who’s bring driven out.

      I do wish you all the best.