> The other thing is due to the K-shaped economic recovery, where companies realized the bottom 90% have no money and don't bother to try for their business at all. Concert tickets have similarly increased in price and decreased in supply.

You see this all over the economy. Since 1980, income of the top 10%, subtracting the top 1%, has increased much more than the income of the middle 20%. That’s why every brand is trying move upmarket. Disney World ticket prices have increased vastly more than inflation, because the company is willing to ditch middle class customers to chase a more affluent customer base: https://nypost.com/2022/08/03/disney-world-prices-up-3871-in...

This is also why “middle class luxury” chains like Sizzler have gotten squeezed out.

America is an important part of western culture due to its media exposure, from the news to streaming to music, etc. It's a strong hook willing to see it with your own eyes and not a screen.

Also, I have some friends and I always had a good time in US so I wanted to share the american experience with my SO.

But if for the same money I can take 2/3 normal vacations or stay a month in Capri..I'm not rushing.

Has it happened this year?

Because now you're required to list all of your handles on any social media you had in the last 5 years and any email you used in the last 10.

This applies even for visa waiver countries as of 2026.

This makes me nervous because I have been critical of the US on some topics regarding the news or geopolitics (e.g. the recent events in Venezuela).

But even admitting the us is a sane country protecting the right to speech, there are 0 chances I remember all my emails (I don't even remember all the clients I worked with but gave me an email) or reddit/forum accounts.

The Canadian border guards are still significantly more aggressive than the US ones

Our fruit sucks and we basically have no street food culture worth discussing.

But we have the best pizza in the world. Detroit, Chicago and a decent NY are just better.

The northern part of the east coast easily has the greatest concentration of amazing sandwiches in the world. It was shocking to me just how bad a sub sandwich can be even if you are in a different location in the US, I never found one I would recommend in Chicago.

Most places I've traveled have a single style of sandwich maybe worth eating. Although sandwiches like the Banh Mi deserve to be discussed. But you can get those wherever there is any kind of Vietnamese population in the US and I haven't noticed much difference regionally personally.

Brisket BBQ was also invented here and most countries do not even a bad option for it.

I truly did not get that complaint until I left the NY/NJ area. Wow, it is shocking how bad restaurants are here in the US outside of a few regions. It makes me realize why so many New Jerseyans end up coming back!

Why not just go to Canada? Montreal is cool.

Agreed, there's nothing like watching someone hike the Grand Canyon or driving through Yellowstone on Youtube.

well, both are "illegals", one's just more likely to be white i suppose

You should quote what I said:

> Visa overstays are a “bigger problem” according to whom? Could someone reasonably consider illegal border crossings a bigger problem because they involve completely unvetted people, as opposed to visa overstays which involve people who were at least minimally vetted in getting a visa?

All I said was that you could reasonably consider illegal border crossings to be a “bigger problem,” even accepting that visa overstays account for a larger volume. You’re tacitly assuming that “bigger problem” and “bigger volume” are the same, but my point there was that those aren’t the same.

And four years later, of course, we’re in a different factual scenario. The level of border crossings is down to almost zero now.

It's ok to change your mind. Kind of a lame move to go digging through someone's history to try to prove them wrong like that.

Eh, I can at least sorta see the logic of that; it presumably costs money to find, process, and fly you out. Making you front those costs avoids having to chase you post-deportation (with very little chance of collecting).

Depends on skin color.

https://za.usembassy.gov/refugee-admissions-program-for-sout...

> Consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order on Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa, the Department of State is coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security to consider eligibility for U.S. refugee resettlement for people who are of Afrikaner ethnicity or a member of a racial minority in South Africa who are victims of government-sponsored race-based discrimination.

(That's a lot of words to say "white".)

archive.is breaks plenty of sites or makes viewing them less pleasant.

Thanks for the link, to save anyone else the trouble, it seems that the rate for Bhutan is 89 out of 423 (21%) in country overstays. Average overstay rate for non visa waiver countries is 2.2%.

bhutan has the lowest number of international relations

it appears that they intentionally avoid relationships with countries that could try to unduly influence them.

https://youtu.be/dA2laOQjZvQ

Visa overstay rate does at least relate to the issue at hand, because visa overstays are what they're trying to prevent. But trade deficits were never a good proxy.

Reminder that border patrol and ice have shot 3 people in the last 48 hours, one of them resulting in a death while they refused to allow medical treatment. Then multiple government agencies lied about the evidence, got caught, and lied again. We're not talking disputing facts, the FBI and ICE and the president blatantly lied while there is video evidence showing what happened.

Furthermore, a lot of politicians not only agree with this extrajudicial justice, they applauded the lies and the shootings.

Even US citizens are being detained. I think most tourists and immigrants should be very, very apprehensive about coming to this country.

I live in Oregon where this stuff is happening on the daily. Citizens are being plucked out of high school parking lots with no verification.

I think saying "it's fine" is pretty out of touch with reality. If you are non-white I would absolutely not travel to the United States right now. I say this as a white guy on the west coast of the US. Basically all my non-white foreign friends, mostly in academia, refuse to travel to the US right now and have no plans of doing so while Trump is in office. Their organizations and universities also aren't recommending US travel at this time.

A social media post from a decade ago could land you in custody. Think about that before traveling to the US. Is it likely? No, but it's very possible with Trump's proud boys doing immigration enforcement. Remember, they(federal agents) have absolute immunity.

You get the money, at least allegedly, returned if it's legal.

----- re: below due to throttling ------

Yes I agree. I only noted what I felt about its effects on illegal immigration.

As for legal immigrants, note my other comment, I think an in-cahoots bond agency that will pop up, collect an annoying but much smaller fee, then let you put up your car or something as collateral.