Another good chart would be to measure how many immigrants would love to go back to their home countries after being in the US for more than 6 months. Having met several hundred of these immigrants, my guess would be that’s the number is fairly high — except that we’ve got these dollars that seem to make the world spin. Most times they’re here in order to either save their family from oppression or to save their family from oppression. Would you sacrifice your happiness in a mad world for the opportunity to enhance the lives of your tribe?

So, why not fuse “happiness” (however ill defined) with security? In the words the best XO ever… “this doesn’t have to suck.” We just seem to make it want to suck – as if the world spins on an axle of sucking. Waste, degradation, and “preventable childhood diseases” seem to reign supreme in the wild, wild world of things that should not be. I don’t understand it.

I have never been to Africa, but what I know about this area of the world is that there are plenty of wasted opportunities, wasted resources, and wasted lives — similar to America, but — you know, totally different. I guess I’m an Utopian. I just don’t see why the land of excess can’t fuse with the land of depletion and learn from each other. Oh yeah, I forgot about a slew of asshole politics and unnatural boundaries.

Simple ignorance? That seems mighty ignorant. I’ve never been to Africa, but I know plenty about Latin America, and I know that the Venezuelans have little to look forward to with Hugo Chavez but plenty to celebrate with their own families. Something tells me that Africans may also have similar values — community, unity, and family. How ignorant. Oh, and BTW, in the race for happiness and dental health I’m going with happiness. Fuck the teeth.

You seem to value things like security and longevity. I don’t. I’d rather live a short, meaningful life than a long, meaningless life. There are some Americans who have suffered plenty and understand that shared suffering can actually bind. Maybe the fact that a happy African life is so improbable makes it all the happier — I don’t know. The paradox is that all this wealth ain’t doing shit for the happy American life. Calling it ignorance seems so insulting to me. But, I guess that’s how it rolls for you.

The US is at the top of the list because we disagree with each other, grapple, fight, and argue like family. It’s our culture. It’s one of the only things that makes us great. We can spin bullshit on a website then re-spin some ill formed argument then go toe to toe. We can challenge each other and still be intact. We’re obsessed with our freedom, just like the Founders intended.

I absolutely love your comments. Sometimes in the FG Cafe we get caught up in support and tend not to challenge each others’ bullshit. However, we’ve been here for almost a year, and we’ve seen the challengers come and go. I hope you stick around.

Not true. I don’t resent how much money others have. I regret that everyone in the world doesn’t have the same opportunities as I do.
What I resent is being exploited by my selfish boss, who considers herself valuable enough to go on vacation to Hawaii, while making money off me in her absence, but doesn’t consider me valuable enough to give me the raise that I recently asked for. Not even 25 cents. I talked to a friend about it to see if maybe I was out of line and he said, “No, I’d be embarrassed if one of my employees had to ask for a raise.”

Taxes went up, so our prices went up, but my wages haven’t, not in a long time, despite ten years of being the “go-to guy” for my boss. Years ago she promised to take me “to the next level,” conveniently forgetting to mention that next level would be her ever growing mountain of cash, cars, houses, and vacations whose summit I would never see. I don’t envy her for it, I pity her for it, because except for the vacations, her life is empty and full of crap — she’s literally the type of person who buys a giant modern mansion for two people, and then fills it with hundreds of glass dragons. So she can afford that, along with classic cars and dive trips to Australia but can’t afford to provide me with some health insurance and paid sick days? What-the-fuck-ever.

Her motto on the job is, “If it needs to be done, you do it.” But she doesn’t seem to notice that I do it all, and have been for ten years, running an entire bar and handling hundreds of requests and tasks by myself every night. Her actions speak volumes, making it as clear as her crystal dragons that she doesn’t value me. That’s bullshit, because I know I’m a hard asset to anyone who’s got the good sense to train me and put me to work, and I deserve to be paid well for it.

She’ll soon be off indulging luxuries she doesn’t need, completely taking for granted that she’s only able to enjoy them because of my ability (and my co-workers) to run her business while she’s gone. I think she’s an idiot because she doesn’t make the connection between her success and the “guys like me” who make it possible — guys whose head, hands, and feet that success depends on, and without which, would not exist. I work fast and hard at my job and I kick ass. I’m great with people and they love my service. They come back, not because I resent their money, but because “guys like me” have the hustle and personality to earn it from them honestly, trading my values for theirs, as represented by the pieces of paper we exchange.

Of course, I want to live free, and I deserve to, because I have the virtues necessary to provide and maintain that freedom for myself and others. I speak for it, work for it, and am willing to defend it. My problem is that I see how much of my “freedom” is founded on exploiting others, just as my boss enjoys her freedom by exploiting me. I want to change that for myself, and then help someone else do the same. If people have a problem with my “contradictions,” oh well. Based on astronomical probability, none of us should even be here, but we are, so as I see it, life itself is a contradiction.

I have no politicians because I govern myself. I don’t want to bring people down, I want a fair shake for everybody. I think our fiat monetary system is a barrier to human progress because it is fundamentally dishonest. The “successful” person is already punished before he even gets out the door, because he has to figure out how to flourish within a matrix of lies.

I care less about logic and more about truth. The “flaw” is that most “jobs” are a waste of human life. I continue subjecting myself to mine because I’m not yet prepared to leave it, and even if I do, the overall economic system still hangs over my head like a sky wrapped in prison bars.

Acutely aware of my need to quit, I still rely on dollars to save up and make the leap to a form of work I enjoy more. That said, being able to “succeed” in a sick economic system based on things that have no relationship to natural resources and human relationships isn’t my idea of success. Working toward a world that’s better today than it was yesterday, is.

Overall, we humans all need to free ourselves from these ridiculous money struggles, and instead get cracking on some really great shit that makes the universe proud. Every person on the planet should be able to look everyone else in the eye and feel that same pride, but to get there we have to sincerely want true equality and fairness for everyone. So I say ditch all the goddamn money, and let’s dare to build a new world and share it with each other. My father always asks, “Where does it begin?” and the answer is the same for all of us: ” It begins with me.”

“Doing what one WANTS, all the way down deep inside, is the only way out of the learned dysfunctional hell that passes for life for so many people…”

What is really tragic about ‘guys like you’ is that they are always the ones who misinterpret ‘guys like Will’. I do not feel able, or inclined, to explain this to you.

You are trapped in your version of reality, and it appears that is one of lack – lack of compassion, lack of understanding, lack of imagination. You are the status quo.

Your ad hominem post is an appeal to ridicule – and an appeal to emotion. It is flawed. But so am I, I took the bait.

I can give you a much better measure. Create a chart showing each country and a bar graph showing how many people try to get into the country legally and illegally each year. I’m guessing the U.S. will be the top of the list.