The list of countries that you can get a waiver from is a lot longer now than it was when I started doing it. The USA realized that they depends on business tourism/migration, so they have been steadily expanding that list of countries and the scope of the waiver program.
http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html#...
Sadly, my country is not in the list, so I have to pay up.