[Swordfished]

"My dad was actually the one who put a bug in my ear about the whole citizenship thing. He said that Europeans are more interested in the quality of life than the quantity, and that it was a good place to have and raise children because of the way their social systems work. I don't care much about the child-rearing part, but I would gladly trade in some of my material possessions for a little flat, a scooter and more vacation."

What, that doesn't sound good to you?

America peaked long ago. As the next generations of uneducated dolts come of age, the country will be truly lost.

[magooey]

Indeed I agree that it is proper in a business sense to sell your labor where it profits you the most. It is a little unfair that Congress lets in tens of thousands of workers on H1B, L1 and other visas, which displaces US citizens from high tech and other employment.

A fair free trade regime would open the doors both ways. From any country where we import labor, we should have a two way agreement so that displaced US citizens can freely move in the opposite direction.

The world is changing rapidly, with traffic jams in bush cities and two story air conditioned shopping malls in third world countries. There are some good countries out there, but you have to be careful choosing.

Why Congress treats US labor as a captive market while treating non-citizen labor as a free market deserves some examination. If you can utilize a citizenship angle to maximize the return on your intellectual capital, more power to you!.

[denydenydeny]

...Europeans are more interested in the quality of life than the quantity

It really helps with the quality of life thing if your country has little or no outlays for national defense but instead has it guaranteed by the taxpayers of another country 3000 miles away.

, and that it was a good place to have and raise children because of the way their social systems work.

Good for a welfare queen, maybe. If you actually work for a living in Europe, you are taxed through the nose. If Europe is such a wonderful place to have children, then why aren't they having any? In fact, the tax burden is one of the primary reasons that a majority or close to it of children born in European cities are immigrants, often Muslim. For the social consequences of that situation, I refer you to Mark Steyn's America Alone.

...I would gladly trade in some of my material possessions for a little flat, a scooter and more vacation.

Emphasis on the "little." I've actually lived in Europe and I know how tiny the average European apartment is.

America peaked long ago. As the next generations of uneducated dolts come of age, the country will be truly lost.

Entirely possible. But, again, for all America's pathologies, I don't see an equivalent to the nightly car-burning festivals in Paris. America's inner cities are horrifically violent, but by and large it is an intra-underclass violence without a political component that European inner-city violence has.