samfoo

(I'm an American who's been all over Mexico on several trips, most recently three months ago)

Isn't this obvious? What keyboard has 'Ω' or '₀' easily accessible? I'd be pretty upset refactoring or reusing any code that forced me to copy-pasta or type some crazed key combination just to render a character. It might not look perfect, but the lowest common denominator (ASCII char set) for programming works because every keyboard layout on the planet can enter those characters in (mostly) one keystroke.

Am I missing the joke?

On the west coast (in Seattle specifically -- but I believe the same holds true in LA or the bay area) nearly all money is new money, which forces social mobility to be tightly coupled with economic mobility.

Another significant factor is that, culturally, Americans (in my experience) more closely associate wealth with success than any other nation and success correlates directly to social value (and mobility).

While it might be possible to move up the economic rungs without moving up socially, it's not generally possible to move up the social ladder without correspondingly increasing your wealth.

(Disclaimer: I'm not by any means a member of the social elite -- to the extent that such a thing exists in Seattle -- nor am I by any means "rich")

The article mystifies me from a global perspective. Americans to me seem obsessed with upward mobility. The "American Dream" is a dream of upward mobility, for goodness sake.

Why do we resent taxes on the rich, even when we're poor? Because we expect one day that we might be that rich person. One's skin color or religion is largely irrelevant in the US compared with the amount of money that you have. This is not the truth in many places.

In my experience it depends largely on the airport you're flying into in the US. Dulles, Philly, and any of the NYC airports all see to be the worst. Seatac, SFO, Houston, and LAX aren't really that bad in my experience.

I fly in and out of the country all the time (I believe I've returned the the US five times this year alone). I only ever have a backpack and it's not huge and I never check any luggage. I'm not dressed in business clothes, nor do I look particularly affluent. My passport is fully of "dangerous" countries (Colombia, Guatemala, China, Russia...) and is as beat up an scruffy looking as I am.

I have never once has trouble returning to the US.

In fact, I flew back from Mexico (several years ago, but post 9/11) without anything but a driver's license and even then didn't have any problems other than answering some reasonable questions.

I've heard anecdotally that it's more difficult for foreigners entering the US, but that's to be expected. Pretty much every country on the planet is harder for non-citizens to enter.

Oh, and for the record, I'm in Japan right now (for the first time) and their CBP was far more serious than anywhere else I've been and took longer to process everyone than anywhere I've been except Dulles (fuck that airport). I was finger printed and photographed (yes, yes, I know the US does this for non-citizens too) and this is highly atypical.

I've spent four months in Guatemala and over six in New Zealand. Most of the people I know who travel long term do the same thing. The only time I hear about people going to many countries in a short period is when countries are dense (central america and europe) or when they're only gone for a couple months and trying to get as many stamps (pokémon) as possible.

The other thing that I've noticed is that Americans from the West Coast are much more likely to travel (of course, I'm from the west coast so this might be some confirmation bias).

(opinions based on a little more than two years or so of ongoing travel and probably something like 30 countries)

Ken Roford has an account on facebook, but no details revealed to the outside world.