&gt; The fact that the US govt happens to be the strongest bandit in a region where hookups are easy<p>The U.S. government, and the American public on behalf of who it spends tax money, did not just come along and take over an existing liberal productive society. It created that society. That society wouldn&#x27;t exist without it.<p>&gt; Second, if growing up&#x2F;being born under the US&#x2F;German social order were actually important, then there is a very easy way to measure it. Take people born outside this order but give them permission to work in global markets and compare their income to natives. Indian and Chinese immigrants tend to outperform Americans, which pretty much solidly refutes this claim.<p>The U.S. immigration system, by design, is very selective about which Indians and Chinese it allows to emigrate. Their performance says nothing about the value of growing up in the U.S. Besides that, your argument proves the opposite of your intended point. If there is no value to the U.S. besides the economic value of the government services people receive, why would the best and brightest from India and China struggle to come here to start their careers? Is it because of our fantastic public transit?<p>&gt; Third, you seem to be conflating the purchase of services with equity investments. All your critiques of freeloading should apply equally if I build V1 of my software on AWS but switch to Softlayer for V2.<p>Amazon will charge you $X for AWS whether or not your product ever generates any revenue. The U.S. government&#x27;s investment into education, infrastructure, and the social safety net will be there for you <i>whether or not you succeed.</i> It&#x27;s much more like an equity investment than a simple exchange of services for money.