You can think about it that way if you want, but it’s not how it works in reality and the wiki link contradicts what you’re saying about modern practices.

> Only if by "secure" you mean prevent your population from leaving

Did you think about this statement for even 1 second?

It should be clearly and immediately obvious that it is easier to leave places like the US than it is to enter it.

This is obviously the case.

You cannot with a straight face claim that actually it is easier to enter the US than leave.

Clearly, leaving is easier.

There are 4x [1] the amount of people that annually enter the US than have passports issued [2].

It is in fact, 4x easier to enter the US than to leave. Passports are actually rare for a US citizen to have, you just live in a bubble.

[1]: https://www.trade.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/Fact%20She... [2]: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/about-us/reports-...

> It is in fact, 4x easier to enter the US than to leave

Thats not how that works, lol.

If it took a lot of effort, PER person to enter the US, there could still be a lot of people who enter the US.

> Passports are actually rare for a US citizen to have

Its not difficult to get a passport, regardless.

Pointing to how many people choose to leave the US, or get a passport, says very little about how easy it is to do that.

That doesn’t mean it’s easier to enter the US than to leave. The US is a desirable place to live, so not many people leave while lots of people want to come here.

Your post is weird. Why would the amount of visitors to a country have anything to do with passports issued? The U.S. is less than 5% of the world's population. That's a hard limit on the amount of passports that can be issued.

The amount of visitors would be limited by the size of the tourism industry and regulations around entry visas. This is an unrelated metric.