Mark: You ask, “Where did those 2 million go?”

You sort of answered the question yourself in the July 20 issue of National Review. You were commenting on a book written some years ago, so the numbers may be out of date, as you pointed out:

Of the ten richest countries in the world only four have populations above 1 million: the United States (260 million back then), Switzerland (7 million), Norway (4 million), Singapore (3 million). All the rest are small jurisdictions with few people. This is an age of little countries …

And that, I’d guess, is where those 2 million have fled to, if they have any sense. I’m fond of the U.S.A. myself; and as a writer seeking readers, the U.S.A. is the place to be. B–I–G market.

I can quite see, though, that for people in other lines of work — a doctor, say, or a systems analyst, or a language teacher — there’s more appeal in those small, quiet countries you never hear about, but which are doing just fine: New Zealand, Switzerland, Finland, Taiwan, Hungary, …

The downside of living in a small country is the prospect of being overrun by a big, aggressive neighbor. That’s a pretty rare event nowadays, though. I doubt it keeps Norwegians, Swiss, etc. awake at night. (Though it might trouble the sleep of the Taiwanese.)

In summer of 2001 I was on a tourist boat going down the Yangtse River & got chatting to a fellow tourist, a young woman from Slovenia. She was smartly dressed and very well educated, spoke excellent English. She worked in the financial sector. How are things in Slovenia? I asked her. She said they were just fine: plenty of jobs, rising prosperity, good schools, flourishing national culture. I was astonished. I’d barely even heard of Slovenia!

Hundreds of millions of people live in places like that, with First World living standards, good employment opportunities, ethnic homogeneity, peace and plenty. Their politics mostly centers on minor domestic issues and personalities. They don’t live in “interesting times,” and don’t want to. It wouldn’t suit everybody; but if the number of Americans attracted to it is as few as 2 million, I’d be very surprised.