And yet there are still people in American politics who for some reason cling to this belief that America is better off adopting the economic policies of nations whose people who immigrate here from there.

My mother was one of seven girls whose parents went to bed hungry so their children wouldn't. My father lost his mother when he was nine. He left school and went to work for the next 70 years. They emigrated to America with little more than the hope of a better life.

Human beings are the only animal that thinks they change who they are simply by moving to a different place. Birds migrate but it's not quite the same thing.