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Comment by xxpor | Hacker News Reader

You're making the normative assumption that Americans are entitled to these jobs more than anyone else.

You're also making the economic assumption that Americans are a perfect substitute and this is at worst a net 0 loss for the economy.

I think neither is true.

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I'm an immigrant in the U.S. and I can say, YES! Americans are entitled to these jobs more than anyone else. It is their country and immigration is a privilege they accord to those they find suitable, it is not a right as some people seem to believe.

American citizenship is most often granted on a person's first day in the world. It's ludicrous to say that one newborn baby is more deserving of anything than another newborn baby.

You don't understand the concept of being a people? Citizenship is not an award, it's not something one deserves. But it's not something you can give to anyone either.

How do you define yourself? Don't you have a people, a group or tribe (whatever you want to call it) you belong to? I know people who define themselves as "human" and "citizen of the world", but they are quite uncommon.

> Citizenship

Is a legal construct, which can be granted to a natural person by law.

Legislation can be (relatively) easily changed. I don't think there's anything preventing legislators from granting citizenship to $PERSON for $REASON.

So I'd argue that it is something that can be given - it's just that there's reasons that it's not.

In some EU countries you can buy it. For a very high of investment.

What about your ancestors? Those that have contributed to this country over generations? Spilled blood in wars maybe? Built businesses or served in the govt?

What about your ancestors? American citizenship is granted if you're born on American soil, regardless of your ancestry.

It says nothing about requiring blood spilt.

> Americans.. more than anyone else

You must have missed what happened in 2016

Am I as and American just as entitled to a job in Mexico or South Africa as a native South African or Mexican, or is it just non-Americans who have this equal entitlement to American jobs?

Americans are entitled to American stuff more than the rest of the world, yes. That's the principle upon which the concept of nation operates.

That notion is disappearing in the US quickly, though, and soon the rest of the world will follow. It's going to be nice living in a giant global slum with a few extremely wealthy pockets with a de-facto segregation by IQ and wealth /s

I think it's better if each country tries to retain their elites to build their own nations, instead of having everyone end up in Silicon Valley to work on spying technology.

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