You make good points, Shane. One thing I’d just say, though, is that many people in the USA are here (both generally, and the specific places in which they and their families reside) because previous generations went through HELL to get here in order to find great opportunity than their homeland. Half of my family had to get the hell out of Europe, and thank goodness they did, or I wouldn’t be here right now. The other half were poor-ass Italians (and an Irish), who were making a pretty big trek to get over here, and again, thankfully they did, because after a generation or two it worked out pretty well for their kin. A lot of people ended up in the West because there were no more opportunities out East, and they literally did the wagon-train thing for months, losing many people on the way, just on the DREAM they might find something better on the other end. Yes, I know moving is not the easiest thing, but let’s be frank – it is absolutely literally easier now than at any point in history to follow opportunity where it is, even if that’s thousands of miles away. People used to go through a LOT more, just out of hope. Have we really gotten so, well, lame as a culture, relative to those days?
