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America is the Greatest Country in the World?
Cognisseur
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
We've all heard that said hundreds and hundreds of times. No speech seems complete without it. And while I assume that the politicians in every country throw in a statement like that into every speech, I think the statement has different meaning here.
"America is the greatest country in the world" is a... meme I suppose. Far from everyone agrees with the statement but it's an internationally known slogan of sorts. Hell, every other dystopian movie seems to start with "America had it all...".
Certainly, it's not baseless. We are at the forefront of a number of sciences and technologies. We have the greatest military x a billion, and we have the highest GDP (but #6 for GDP per capita).
However... I've recently gotten to thinking about this meme and I'm not sure it really stands anymore.
-We're #23 on the Satisfaction with Life Index.
-We're #50 on Life Expectancy.
-There's no limit to the number of statistics showing our health-care system is terrible (not to mention the number of million who don't get any).
-We're #27 on the Gender Gap Index.
-I can't find any ranked statistics on Racism but I have a feeling we ain't doing too great there either.
-United States is the #1 Jailer, we make up 5% of the world population but 25% of the world incarcerated population.
-We're #15 on the Human Development Index.
I don't know. I feel what would make a place the greatest in the world would be based on the experience one would have there. Our GDP and military is quite nice but it seems like those are just indirect measures of the experience-- theoretically you should be financially sound and safe from invasion. However, all of these statistics I'm finding just don't make us seem that great. Not terrible by any stretch, don't get me wrong. It just seems that for such a prevalent meme, "America is the Greatest Country in the World!", there would be bountiful evidence pointing it out.
What do you guys think? Is America the Greatest Country in the World? Why or why not?
Was it ever the Greatest Country in the World?
If it was and now it isn't, what changed?
"America is the greatest country in the world" is a... meme I suppose. Far from everyone agrees with the statement but it's an internationally known slogan of sorts. Hell, every other dystopian movie seems to start with "America had it all...".
Certainly, it's not baseless. We are at the forefront of a number of sciences and technologies. We have the greatest military x a billion, and we have the highest GDP (but #6 for GDP per capita).
However... I've recently gotten to thinking about this meme and I'm not sure it really stands anymore.
-We're #23 on the Satisfaction with Life Index.
-We're #50 on Life Expectancy.
-There's no limit to the number of statistics showing our health-care system is terrible (not to mention the number of million who don't get any).
-We're #27 on the Gender Gap Index.
-I can't find any ranked statistics on Racism but I have a feeling we ain't doing too great there either.
-United States is the #1 Jailer, we make up 5% of the world population but 25% of the world incarcerated population.
-We're #15 on the Human Development Index.
I don't know. I feel what would make a place the greatest in the world would be based on the experience one would have there. Our GDP and military is quite nice but it seems like those are just indirect measures of the experience-- theoretically you should be financially sound and safe from invasion. However, all of these statistics I'm finding just don't make us seem that great. Not terrible by any stretch, don't get me wrong. It just seems that for such a prevalent meme, "America is the Greatest Country in the World!", there would be bountiful evidence pointing it out.
What do you guys think? Is America the Greatest Country in the World? Why or why not?
Was it ever the Greatest Country in the World?
If it was and now it isn't, what changed?
Cognisseur on
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But when you look at any factors besides those 2 we suck.
(Based off of George Carlin's idea of why we are great)
I'd argue that quality of life and military spending don't correlate as well as they used to, a few hundred years ago. Nobody's gonna take us over at this point.
The countries that had been bombed to hell and had seen nearly a whole generation of young men brutally killed started to get running again.
Right. We had a head start, and they still passed us.
On virtually all other metrics we're edging toward the back of the pack.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Our collapse will be world-spanning.
Psh, we're too big to fail.
"Everyone knows you can't spend your way out of a recession!"
"Socialism has failed in every incarnation, just look at Soviet Russia!"
"People who don't hold their hands to their hearts/salue the flag/recite the Pledge of Allegiance/support our troops are unpatriotic!"
"Producing more weapons than every other nation combined, and then selling the leftovers to other countries to offset the immense costs associated, is necessary for our survival!"
"Maintaining a permanent military presence in dozens of countries is a sustainable way to conduct ourselves and makes the world a safer place!"
"The Constitution of the United States of America is the be-all, end-all of personal freedom! No country can ever claim to be freer than us without copying our Constitution verbatim!"
"Japan would have fought to the last child in WW2 if we had not burned their population centres to the ground!"
"What's good for the wealthiest corporations is good for everyone!"
"If we hadn't conducted military interventions/backed a coup/assassinated progressive leaders/threatened crippling economic sanctions in X country, the world would blame us for anything bad that ever happened there! And the resulting emotional distress would outweigh any suffering we might inflict through said actions!"
"Autonomous vehicles powered by dead plants are the safest, most efficient, and best way to transport tens of millions of people between fixed locations every single day! It's the American Way"
"Secularism is persecution!"
"You're with us or you're with the terrorists!"
"Because we are so awesome, we have the right to maintain world-ending stockpiles of weaponized fissile materials, but that country there doesn't!"
on and on and on and on and on
Still parts of our country have living conditions that are on par with third world nations. From that perspective we're pretty abysmal at taking care of our people compared to most other developed countries
Basically, IMHO, it has the most Civ Points out of any country so far.
If you are average / poor, it's not, by a long shot.
Well if you don't like it then you can geeeeeeeeet out!
Seriously, though, the fact that America is creates the most pollution is disheartening. Especially since we out pollute the country whose cities are so smoggy that athletes are afraid to go there to compete.
From the Young Conservatives thread, page 20:
I don't think anyone on this board actually believes that there is a 'greatest country in the world' period. At least, not generally.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Hehehehe.
Not anymore. Plus it's kind of hard to make accurate comparisons given the numerous relevant aspects and policies that impact pollution. Our overly resource dependent lifestyle is pretty bad, though.
The question itself is a load of crap.
A lot of the problems in this country are because we let freedom of business get to the point where we are a country of business and not a country of people. Which like the fiefdoms and dukedoms of old, the large corporations do everything they can to get more power and land(money) while keeping everyone else down.
I still think we have the basis of a great country. The idea of a free press, the idea of government separate from religion, a country built on laws and the idea of a land for the people. The problem is for a lot of this to work you need an educated populace and a truly free press to work. Both of these are disappearing in America at a rather rapid rate. And thus we get the crazies taking control.
Compared to when?
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I think the baby boomers were more educated during their public education than I was. And my mother came from backwater Arkansas. In fact I would say poor white trash. A lot of it was the change from the idea you have to learn this amount to don't want to hurt the poor babies feelings.
The loss of newspapers and other types of local reporting outside of TV actually has hurt America as we loose watchdog systems through the press. I would say Upton Sinclair would of never gotten The Jungle published in this day and age. But I may just be cynical.
Sinclair would have found an outlet.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
But would it of had the same effect on society that it did when it was published?
Being an actual scandinavian though, I'd rather be somewhere else for the time being
Grass is greener and all that.
You do realize that the 'muckrakers' existed during the heyday of yellow journalism, right? That Sinclair was reaching his peak along with Hearst and Pulitzer.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
My penis would divorce me if I left the lovely leggy blondes of Scandinavia behind
Who even with all the restrictions and law suits are making large profits?
As for what's the 'next big thing,' I have my own ideas. Anyone heard of Gerard O'Neill?
But seriously, just about every single time I hear or read the words "only in America would X be possible" I cringe. Its like a vast, vast, portion of your population has no clue that the freedoms and opportunities that exist in America exist in pretty much every other major democracy on the planet. Which may well say something about the state of the US Education system.
Social mobility is, allegedly, one of America's strengths, but a quick google search turns up a study that found social mobility to worse in the USA than in Scandanavia or the UK. Thats right, countries with monarchs may be more socially mobile.
Also, you guys have the worst cell phone rates in the OECD. We're getting screwed almost as badly in Canada.