Quora Answer: Would Any Singaporean Give Up Their Citizenship to Live in the United States?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Would any Singaporean give up their citizenship to live in the United States?”

I am quite sure there are people who would do so.  They may have somewhere in the United States that appeals to them, and that is perfectly acceptable.  Different people seek different things.  The thing is, the grass is often greener on the other side because the pesticides are poisonous, and the grass is spray-painted.

Personally, whilst I can understand why people would want to visit the US, I would not want to become a citizen there.  As a Singaporean, it would be a step down.  The US has a ridiculously high crime rate, particularly gun crimes, when compared to other developed nations.  It has terrible healthcare.  It has a deficient police force, apparently run by racist cowboys who shoot at their own shadows because it is black.  It has a corrupt political system where cronyism, bribery, and the kleptocracy is legalised as lobbying.  It has not invested in infrastructure, the social safety net, and education, so every succeeding generation is that much closer to an idiocracy.

No civilised person can ever think highly of a nation whose system not only allowed a person such as Donald John Trump to run, but enables it, and votes in others who share the same bankrupt values.  When people use religion to deny rights and humanity, and justify genocide and warmongering, it is only a matter of decades when the country’s decline will be patently apparent.