Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The USA is the best nation at destroying the enviornment and making people believe everyone should aspire to having a huge McMansion and a four car garage
I don't believe that. Of course, you're probably one of those people think "Everyone" is stupid and cannot make decisions on their own. Quit the anarchist, conspirator phase that you're going through. It's immature.
Go talk to China about destroying the environment.
Big Countries tend to be big time polluters. That's pretty obvious. The US still struggles in recycling, contrary to popular belief that its' uber-succuessful. The US also still struggles in emissions, pretty much because there are more cars than people.
I don't believe that. Of course, you're probably one of those people think "Everyone" is stupid and cannot make decisions on their own. Quit the anarchist, conspirator phase that you're going through. It's immature.
Go talk to China about destroying the environment.
Big Countries tend to be big time polluters. That's pretty obvious. The US still struggles in recycling, contrary to popular belief that its' uber-succuessful. The US also still struggles in emissions, pretty much because there are more cars than people.
Interestingly enough, you can pretty well predict how polluted a country is by how developed it is. Low or high= low pollution. Medium development= highest level of pollution. However, the U.S. bucks the trend in that we are at a very high level of development but still have a large pollution poblem. We're not exactly being the leader we always claim to be when it comes to environmental issues; we're actually behind the curve.
On the negative we tend to be high in prisoners and "broken homes."
From what I recall reading of polls Americans are unusually optimistic, individualistic, hardworking, and Protestant. As I'm a particularly lazy Catholic I'm not saying I fit that or that most Americans precisely do. It's just being an "optimistic hardworking person who attends a Protestant church" is more likely to happen in the US than most anywhere.
I don't know if this is unique to the US but I would say Americans do seem to think of our own greatness, either that we're greatly good or great bad, a good deal of the time. That it many ways we're kind of middle-rung maybe bothers some of us more than being worst or best. Our human-rights violations pale beside that of Sudan or Saudi. In killing indigenous people our history is not indisputably worse than that Australia or Chile or whatever. As imperialists the British and French were way bigger in all kinds of ways. Our own existence is due to the British (creating the colonies) and French (aiding our independence) Empires. Several small South Pacific nations are more obese than us. By the standards of the Western Hemisphere our murder rate isn't even that extraordinary. In tests of math and science we emphasize all the nations that do better than our kids, but ignore that we often come out above enough that we're really near average. (Although on math we look below average according to PISA, but reading and science? Roughly average)
There are areas where the US is a large mediocre nation, not particularly good or evil. However that idea is maybe the least appealing. Possibly many nations though want to think of themselves as best or worst rather than accepting areas they're medium.
Actually.. countries with a big Western European influence, especially European countries, tend to be the ones to see themselves the least realistically.
We're also the most openly critical of our own country and its leaders.
I don't believe that. Of course, you're probably one of those people think "Everyone" is stupid and cannot make decisions on their own. Quit the anarchist, conspirator phase that you're going through. It's immature.
Go talk to China about destroying the environment.
Big Countries tend to be big time polluters. That's pretty obvious. The US still struggles in recycling, contrary to popular belief that its' uber-succuessful. The US also still struggles in emissions, pretty much because there are more cars than people.
The United States is the worst at destroying the enviornment because our country is the country which likes to sprawl, as I said in my prior post, with big McMansions.
What I cannot stand are when people get so offended if a fellow American dare criticize his own country. Apart of being a good American is to show the bad parts of America so that we can improve ourselves. There is no reason to call someone immature for expressing their criticism of America or tell them to leave the country just because they disagree with someone.
Many Americans do not like being told when their lifestyle of suburban sprawl which destroys natural habitat is unsustainable. I understand this offends a lot of people but it is not wrong to express that. It is NOT just pollution in the air and water, it is development which consumes land and turns it from otherwise productive farmland or wilderness and into developed suburbs, strip malls, and office parks. A highway cuts an ecosystem in half, and endless sprawl ensures animals cannot migrate and America constantly builds onto wilderness and greenfield. China and Mexico may do these things too, but to a much lesser extent than the US does. China at least tries to put their citizens into dense cities to the best of their ability rather than let them spread out with auto-centric suburbs like the US does. Many enviornmentalists tend to want to ignore the bad ecological effects of sprawl, which I consider to be destroying the enviornment which it is. Brazil may destroy the rainforest, but barely anyone in America bats an eye when we destroy native grassland which is just as important to build suburban subdivisions. While pollution is bad, our suburban lifestyle in the US is probably WORSE than air pollution because we actually clear cut, pave, and DESTORY wilderness to build our houses and roads, which cut ecosystems in half amongst many other things.
I am simply telling facts and I am sorry if some of you do not agree with me but that is no reason to get angry at me about it. The OP asked for what America is best at doing and I gave my best opinion which I know about to the best of my ability without any malice towards anyone.
Last edited by JKFire108; 01-29-2012 at 07:06 PM..
We're the best in the world at throwing, catching, and running a football--although we might need the occasional foreigner raised on soccer to kick our field goals...
The United States is the worst at destroying the enviornment because our country is the country which likes to sprawl, as I said in my prior post, with big McMansions.
What I cannot stand are when people get so offended if a fellow American dare criticize his own country. Apart of being a good American is to show the bad parts of America so that we can improve ourselves. There is no reason to call someone immature for expressing their criticism of America or tell them to leave the country just because they disagree with someone.
Many Americans do not like being told when their lifestyle of suburban sprawl which destroys natural habitat is unsustainable. I understand this offends a lot of people but it is not wrong to express that. It is NOT just pollution in the air and water, it is development which consumes land and turns it from otherwise productive farmland or wilderness and into developed suburbs, strip malls, and office parks. A highway cuts an ecosystem in half, and endless sprawl ensures animals cannot migrate and America constantly builds onto wilderness and greenfield. China and Mexico may do these things too, but to a much lesser extent than the US does. China at least tries to put their citizens into dense cities to the best of their ability rather than let them spread out with auto-centric suburbs like the US does. Many enviornmentalists tend to want to ignore the bad ecological effects of sprawl, which I consider to be destroying the enviornment which it is. Brazil may destroy the rainforest, but barely anyone in America bats an eye when we destroy native grassland which is just as important to build suburban subdivisions. While pollution is bad, our suburban lifestyle in the US is probably WORSE than air pollution because we actually clear cut, pave, and DESTORY wilderness to build our houses and roads, which cut ecosystems in half amongst many other things.
I am simply telling facts and I am sorry if some of you do not agree with me but that is no reason to get angry at me about it. The OP asked for what America is best at doing and I gave my best opinion which I know about to the best of my ability without any malice towards anyone.
A lot of the things people try to say are so "American" are in fact European.
Take a look at places like Malaysia or India or South Africa sometime, for just a few examples.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm not saying I fit that or that most Americans precisely do. It's just being an "optimistic hardworking person who attends a Protestant church" is more likely to happen in the US than most anywhere. 
