This is another foundational myth of the USA. Most of the people who moved from Europe to the USA were relatively privileged, particularly early on. Most of the people on the Mayflower were what we would now call middle class. Educated professionals and skilled tradesmen from England. The Puritans who didn’t have money just couldn’t afford to get out of England.

There weren’t large amounts of poor immigrants until the 19th century, and the USA was deeply discriminatory against them when they came.

Also, I think many black folks and indigenous people did not experience “an objectively better life for their descendants.”

And yet the people who stayed in Europe are doing far and away better than the people who left to come to the US to participate in the fascist genocide of indigenous people living here and the fascist enslavement of indigenous people they paid kidnappers for

Convenient to ignore the fact that many descendants of those who stayed behind in Europe are currently also living a much better life than their ancestors, potentially even better than yours due to a robust social safety net, better public transportation and urbanism, free or very cheap higher education, and universal healthcare.

Human development, industrialization and imperial plunder improves quality of life in the empire, more news at 11.