How Did America Become So Great?
Legal immigrants from around the world came to the New World to work hard, find land, and worship freely. Many died in the process during the arduous voyage across the sea, in the wilderness they were attempting to settle, from industrial accidents in factories they toiled in, from disease, or in battles with the natives.
All had to stop at Ellis Island for proper identification and quarantine when necessary. They were desperate but proud men and women who did not immigrate to become wards of the welfare system because there was none to be had. They had to work hard in order to survive. No hapless taxpayers were supporting the new arrivals and nobody waved the country's flag from which they hailed. Most learned English as soon as they could no matter what level of education they had.
The
mighty Roman Empire's road to perdition was cluttered with corruption,
traitorous acts, sexual deviance, disregard for life, greed, military expansion
beyond ability to rule, disregard for the rule of law, and tolerance of the
barbarians. According to the BBC, "Rome covered 1.9 million square miles in 390
A.D. Five years later, it had plummeted to 770,000 square miles. By 476, the
empire's reach was zero."