Continue.: '' @karov responded to one of my blog posts with the idea of "why not let people sell their citizenship?". This was in response to my post that you can buy US citizenship as a foreign investor. '' -- It was in response to your post because who is selling citizenship to foreigners with >$0.5m cash in pocket? It is not the US citizens but the US government. My idea was - if the gvt can sell, can it then BUY citizenship, or why at all only the gvt be in this trade? Which is the typical 'reductio ad absurdum' argument. Citizenship is not an asset or property of anyone to sell or buy. Citizenship is a link, connection between gvt and human. A composite of rights and obligations. It is more like a marriage or intuito personae company membership than as owning a house or a car. The reduction ad absurdum part was pointed towards: The gvt estimates that only a person of clean criminal record, etc. who can show $0.5 deserves to be granted with citizenship. How many Americans do not have $0.5m net worth, not to speak $0.5m cash, disposable M0 or M1 aggregate money? Should they be kicked out? :) just joking ... First it is not for sale, and second - not the gvt takes those $0.5, they are not a fee, but a demonstrable wealth. So, even gvts do not 'sell' citizenship.
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I'm not going to debate the nuances of the law with you because to be honest I don't know a thing about that. What I do know is being a citizen is a responsibility. So it's not something to buy and sell. If a person wants to be a citizen of country A instead of country B then they must adopt the responsibilities required by country A.
Material wealth isn't the only kind of wealth there is. You're assuming all wealth can be measured in how much money a person has in a bank account? Really?
As posters from other countries have said; there are good reasons to want to be a US citizen vs most other places in the world.
People go after opportunities. Ways to improve their lives and well being. The most categorical way is to abandon their countries and to opt for better ones. NOT for such with heavier duty and less benefits but to join societies where there is more good and less bad for them. But I already stressed on that above. Immaterial wealth does not exist. If you are talking about non-transferable capital ok, but this is another thing. AND you mix up as I pointed out nationalist mythology mantras with strict arguments. People ( you see the most willing to move to USA are not from Norway, France, Switzerland or Japan, but from what the current potus called 'shithole countries') would move to USA in order to have better living than they have in their own countries. That's all. And I bet USA will further improve...
What country offers greater opportunities than the US? I could agree with you if you're coming from most countries to the US. I don't agree when you say people will leave the US to go to some other country where there is little to no opportunity. What country do you imagine people will trade their US Citizenship to move to for opportunity?
Plenty of people move from France, Japan, Norway, to the US. I don't know where you get the idea that immigrants don't come from these places. I admit it's less common but it does happen.
I get this idea straight from the White House and the mouth of the POTUS. :) Which country greater opportunities than the US? - EU. I have one passport but I have full rights in 30+ countries. From the bad side it is softer.: no capital punishment, totally outlawed, no such dragonian criminal law - no 'jackpot' of convictions where for several petty crimes to be locked for dozens of years, no such merciless taxation system, no such social/wealth contrasts ... - enormous variety of culture, cuisine, education, lifestyles ... not so as 30+ countries but rather like 100+ worlds. That's why I strongly recommend USA to go back home and to join EU. Thus it won't even be necessary you to sell your citizenship to have full access here. The wealth comes from the good networking. Double the nodes and cut in half the connection costs and you have 16-fold increase in wealth.