Would the US be better if everyone channeled their “Inner Immigrant"?

Your premise is flawed (surprise, surprise):

“In 2008, immigrants represented about 17 percent of all new business owners in the U.S., according to The Washington Post. By 2011, immigrants were creating 28 percent of all new businesses, CNN reports.”

Huffington Post

The reason we are not as accepting of immigrants as we used to be—In the old days, the immigrants didn’t come here and then demand that everyone that is already here learn their language. They didn’t expect or get government handouts, didn’t expect or get free education at the expense of the taxpayers. They were taxpayers themselves, therefore contributing to society. They were here legally. They had been vaccinated and passed a medical exam so we knew they weren’t bringing in a plague. They had been background checked, so we knew they weren’t axe murderers.

Just saying. They came here legally, learned English, worked for what they received, paid taxes, fed their own kids, paid their own doctor bills. What was there not to like?

I don’t think we were ever accepting of immigrants (and it’s not like other countries are any more accepting, either). Here’s one example from 1882.

Three of my four grandparents were immigrants (what exactly is an “inner immigrant?) and the other grandmother’s parents were also newcomers.

They came speaking five or six languages each but not English. $250 in 1888 would have been considered a fortune, btw.

They made good lives for themselves, including educating their children. My mother’s parents chose books and music lessons over fancy food always. They all ran into anti-Semitism, but being Jews, founded organizations to combat that.

For example, at 17, my paternal grandfather left a small village in Lithuania with tool and die skills and the abilityto brew beer. By the time he was in his late twenties, he and two friends had a patent on a the snap-open-and-poke-out-your-eye umbrella frame.

He founded a small factory where he manufactured umbrella frames, parachute flares during WWII for the military, and then beach and garden furniture and redwood tables and chairs. He arrived speaking Lithuanian, Polish, German, Yiddish, and reading Hebrew.

His first job was as an itinerant optician; he called himself “Professor Finkel” and sold eye glasses. We have no idea where he acquired this skill. We found his record book, carefully kept. Here

The attitudes you describe, which I have witnessed too, are amazing and make me very proud and honored to know such people. I have seen these attitudes in others who were born in this country, @Hypocrisy_Central. I don’t think that it is a bad thing to believe in yourself and the opportunities that abound in America. I think the one thing that these people have in common isn’t an attitude of finding “wealth” so much as it is in finding independence and freedom.

According to this, $250 in 1888 would be about $6,000 today.

How can there be a “path to wealth” for nearly all Americans?

@gailcalled (what exactly is an “inner immigrant?) That gumption, tensity, moxie, belief or whatever you want to call it that if you wake up here in the US YOU CAN do better. That the free enterprise system is for every person that breaths, not just the rich. That ”Inner Immigrant” that says “I can do this”, or makes you use whatever skill you have to full entrepreneur spirit not just “what can the government do or give me today” Come like that man from China who may know nothing but how to cook shrimp expertly but has the audacity to believe he can have a restaurant one day IF he can just get into the US.

@glacial How can there be a “path to wealth” for nearly all Americans? There has ALWAYS been that path, many were too lazy to learn it or unlucky not to find it. That path has been blew WIDE OPEN with the Internet. You can now be your own publisher, have your own media show, have your own store to sell goods or services. In the real world if you have a skill you can create a business around it. I know guys who are very good at cleaning vehicles inside and out. They have clients for auto detailing. Good with animals? Maybe a dog walker. Maybe you are good at throwing pots on a potter’s wheel, you can partner up with other artisans and rent a store front as a co-op, or market online. The path is there if you have time to look when not swapping sweat for bucks in one’s Just Oover Broke endeavor they call a JOB.

Some branches of my family arrives in 1632 and other branches greeted them when they got here. You really don’t want to see my inner Puritan . . .

I think so. Heavens, but my immigrant grandfather was a lot more industrious than my non-immigrant grandfather. Even today, you have the Mexicans who will work the crummy jobs and the Americans who languish in unemployment.
Which is not to say that there aren’t industrious Americans, or that all immigrants work hard.

I think that the problem is that, ultimately, the immigrant is moving from a bad situation to a better one, whereas those born here have never had it bad. Our poor people live better than some countries’ wealthy, having access to food, housing, basic sanitation, appliances, and even consumer electronics through welfare programs.

In a world where the only thing between you and starvation is a scraggly farm and small game, mopping floors forty hours a week (or, if you’re clever, starting a business) looks pretty good.

@Hypocrisy_Central I am going to guess that few people agree with you that dog-walking is a path to wealth.

@glacial You’d be surprised. A friend of mine has a pet-sitting service: people will pay her hundreds of dollars to feed, walk, and play with their pets while they’re away. Her only limit is the size of her staff, which consists of herself.
Do not underestimate the cult of Dog.

XKCD claims that there is no end to human subcultures – untrue, but close enough. Each one of those subcultures is a market to be exploited.

Let me know when she reaches her first million.

@glacial She needs to expand her workforce. But yeah, I’ll keep you posted.

@glacial When she goes on the Net, franchise, employ some Crowd Funding, she will be laughing all the way to the bank with a smile on her face a cat could not scratch off.

Four words: “No Irish Need Apply”

@Seek_Kolinahr There was similar opposition to the Jewish applicants to medical schools, once. The reaction was to create their own medical school, an undertaking that succeeded gorgeously. Barnes-Jewish is the largest hospital in St. Louis, and even has several satellite campuses. That is the attitude that @Hypocrisy_Central is swinging at.

My four grandparents were all immigrants, coming as individuals in the 1870’s. The “American Dream” was alive and well then, and immigrants could come to the US, raise a family and expect that the next generation could do better.

@Yetanotheruser The “American Dream” was alive and well then, and immigrants could come to the US, raise a family and expect that the next generation could do better. Because they smooth the way for the next generation by their efforts or because the government smooth the hills out or made it easier with entitlements?

@Hypocrisy_Central What Yes, our ancestors did a lot to smooth the way for the next generations. They also provided, through their elected representatives, a number of government programs to “promote the general welfare”, as stated in the preamble to the Constitution. They decided that in a country like ours there should be a safety net for those who for whatever reason, cannot provide food or lodging for themselves or their children. They also decided that a free public education system and accessible secondary education is desirable and necessary to a civilized society. They also decided that the elderly, and other individuals who are unable to “go out and get a job” should be able to live in dignity and have a certain level of affordable health care.

About “The American Dream”: I don’t know what kind of formal education my grandfather had. I know he was literate in his native language as well as English. My father had a 6th
grade education, and was self-educated through a life-long love of reading. I was the first in my family to enter college, although I did not finish my degree. My nephew not only finished his degree, but went on to attain his law degree.

That is an example of four generations of the “American Dream”. Due to the current economic situation, this is the first time in at least 150 years where that dream is in danger. And the current economic situation, is a direct result of the income disparity referenced in that other question.