Regarding this signal, [1] I'd like to add that a very good metric of attractiveness and moral stature is the number of illegal immigrants that comes to the States.

Due to the unknown quality of illegal immigration statistics, I have a modest suggestion to make: the number of student visas per year is a good proxy for that attractiveness.

According to the State Dept., which issues those visas, [2]:

"During Fiscal Year 2007, the Department issued more than 651,000 student and exchange visitor visas – 10 percent more than last year and 90,000 more than were issued in Fiscal Year 2001."

I don't think that American colleges are that good, but the lack of pogroms, the enormous amount of aid sent overseas, of environmental work inside (and outside) the country, etc., are not lost to the masses that ask for such visas. The appeal of the US is much larger outside the country than within, it seems.

Of course, half the population don’t see it that way, like the author of the signal, and most of the population in Western Europe. But the proxy metric goes in other direction.

My hypothesis is: despite greater controls in legal immigration, in 15 years we'll see approximately the same or greater attractiveness of the US, as measured by the increasing trend of student visas, religious visas, qualified workers visas, etc. That proxy indicator, if increasing, will correlate with more innovation, more quality research, more advances in technology, infrastructure, health, and more wealth.

See that I don't say increasing numbers, but trend. Not all years will be better that the previous ones.

J M

References

[1] Is America Broken? May 14, 2008. http://sciencex2.org/en/node/18723

"Is it just my imagination, or does the United States no longer seem to "work". For my entire lifetime, the US always set the international standard in virtually everything that matters: technology, wealth, health, safety, infrastructure, military power, transparency, governance, freedom, moral high-ground—and on and on and on. But in recent years, we’ve seen example after example which seems to demonstrate that this preeminence—this core competency in the areas that matter most—no longer exists."

[2] US State Dept: State Issues Record Number of Student Visas to Study in U.S. November 16, 2007. http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2007/November/20071116180443eaifas0.6062891.html