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It is interesting that the top ten prosperous countries are liberal, and eight out of the ten are Monarchies. » 10 Most Prosperous Countries in the World So would the USA become more prosperous with universal health care etc etc ? I take it Massachusetts is more prosperous than Kansas per capita, so what causes it, is it the liberal style of life with our push for education or something else ?
If the USA was liberal would it be more prosperous ?
Where in the article does it say these countries are "liberal" or "conservative"? I must be missing something.Some may be more "socialist"than the US in how they administer healthcare, take care of their poor, etc. As far as the US is concerned, it is getting more liberal, especially with this last administration, and I don't see its getting more prosperous at all. Fome what I have seen on a state by state basis, liberalism tends to rob from the working/middle class and give to the poor (wealth redistribution), while elevating the intellectual/upper middle class.
If the USA was liberal would it be more prosperous ?
Where in the article does it say these countries are "liberal" or "conservative"? I must be missing something.Some may be more "socialist"than the US in how they administer healthcare, take care of their poor, etc. As far as the US is concerned, it is getting more liberal, especially with this last administration, and I don't see its getting more prosperous at all. Fome what I have seen on a state by state basis, liberalism tends to rob from the working/middle class and give to the poor (wealth redistribution), while elevating the intellectual/upper middle class.
By your logic, red states should be the most prosperous, right?
It is interesting that the top ten prosperous countries are liberal, and eight out of the ten are Monarchies. » 10 Most Prosperous Countries in the World So would the USA become more prosperous with universal health care etc etc ?
No.
What does Cook County, Illinois have that Norway does not?
Spoiler
200,000 more people.....there's only 5 Million people in Norway. Wanna make comparisons? Then find a State that has a population of 315 Million...you know, like the US does. Surely, as as an high school graduate, you know the difference between "compare" and "contrast"....which is especially necessary if you intend to debate.
Comparing GDPs of US Cities and States to the Idiot List of Most Prosperous Countries......
#1
Norway: $499,667,000
City of Los Angeles: $765,759,000
#2
Denmark: $314,889,000
City of Boston: $336,232,000
#3
Sweden: $523,804,000
City of Chicago: $571,000,000
#4
Australia: $1,564,419,000
State of Texas: $1,458,300,000
#5
New Zealand: $171,256,000
City of Seattle: $258,819,000
#6
Canada: $1,821,445,000
State of Texas: $1,458,300,000
#7
Finland: $247,389,000
City of Atlanta: $294,589,000
#8
Netherlands: $770,067,000
State of Florida: $754,000,000
#9
Switzerland: $631,183,000
State of Illinois: $644,200,000
#10
Ireland: $210,638,000
City of Dallas: $420,340,000
Notes:
State of Texas used twice, since Texas has an higher per capital GDP than either Australia or Canada, due to the fact that Texas has fewer people than Canada, but more people than Australia.
Cities in the federation are compared with European nation-States, since their populations are similar in size.
Quote:
One of the most common is the comparison/contrast essay, in which you focus on the ways in which certain things or ideas—usually two of them—are similar to (this is the comparison) and/or different from (this is the contrast) one another. By assigning such essays, your instructors are encouraging you to make connections between texts or ideas, engage in critical thinking, and go beyond mere description or summary to generate interesting analysis: when you reflect on similarities and differences, you gain a deeper understanding of the items you are comparing, their relationship to each other, and what is most important about them.
Making a Venn diagram or a chart can help you quickly and efficiently compare and contrast two or more things or ideas. To make a Venn diagram, simply draw some overlapping circles, one circle for each item you’re considering. In the central area where they overlap, list the traits the two items have in common. Assign each one of the areas that doesn’t overlap; in those areas, you can list the traits that make the things different. Here’s a very simple example, using two pizza places:
It's quite obvious that, among most of the younger participants in this forum, the concept of "liberal" vs. "conservative" is not based upon any ideological grounding, whether the ideologue is Karl Marx or Ayn Rand. To the typical political neophyte, a "liberal" subscribes to all the policies put forward by the Politically Correct Elite, and a "conservative" is anyone who stands in the way of the "will of the People" -- as reformulated last month to serve the latest special interest within the (pseudo-) "liberal" coalition.
It wasn't always so.
In the earliest days of what we have come to refer to as the Enlightenment, a liberal, in the classic sense, was anyone who emerged in opposition to the iron rule and self-justifying pretzel logic of kings and popes. Economics didn't enter the discussion much because the vast majority of the public was still chained to the land via subsistence agriculture. Ironically it was among the bourgeoisie -- the first group to free itself from both the demands of subsistence and class divisions, that Classical Liberalism took root.
So it shouldn't be that much of a suprise that some of the earliest recoded instances of direct monetary support of the surplus labor of an urban proletariat took place in France, where one city dominated by a ruling elite recruited followers, dependents and sycophants from the entire nation (Paris has a metro population of 8-12 million, depending on how it's measured -- Marseille is second at only about a million); in contrast, Germany, Italy and Great Britain all have numerous "secondary" cities of considerably greater size).
And it shouldn't be too much of a suprise that it it was under these conditions that freedom of thought and tolerance embodied in Voltaire gradually gave way to the displacement of the ideal of freedom of opportunity by the pettiness of a pursuit equality of result -- and eventually embodied in Danton and Robespierre.
Political freedom and economic freedom are one and the same; it should similarly come as no suprise that Naziism and Marxism both devolved into an assault on all individual liberties; they simply started from different ends of the same dark continuum.
The standard for a "tested" democracy, as defined by a number of prominent scholars, is one where political power passed between two or more political parties exclusively by peaceful means; only about 15 parliamentary democracies meet that standard, and the first without a European Judeo-Christian heritage are still a few decades away.
Ironically, the United States has slowly begun backsliding into the ideological swamp whereby a supposedly-enlightened few attempt to impose their will upon the many. But since the crazy-quilt collection of pet causes masquerading under the buzzword of Political Correctness continues to divorce itself from the discipline of the marketplace of both human commerce and human opinion, I suspect it won't be long before it trips over its own absolutes.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 01-23-2014 at 04:16 AM..
They included "joy of everyday life" in calculating "prosperous." That makes any ranking on that incredibly subjective. If you included ability to defend yourself with a gun, then the US would have been much higher on the "prosperous" ranking.
All 10 of those countries would be excellent countries to live in...but I still prefer the USA. Move there if you want to though. I wish we still had a viable Communist country that people could move to if they wished.
In my view there are many factors that make a country prosperous, but I will say when it comes to politics it needs to be a balance all across the board. When you overtax and have too many unnecessary rules and regulation causes stagnation or companies to fled. Now what's funny is the US has the highest corporate tax rates in the world, but we give so many tax breaks to certain companies that it's ridiculous how GE can get tax refunds. GE, a top 10 company in the world for over 5 decades, gets tax rebates. And to add fuel to the fire, they were major campaign contributors to the Obama campaign in 2008 and 2012. I've seen similar things with other political campaigns, then all of a sudden you see favoritism. It's amazing how politicians are shock about people mentioning conflicts of interest. Especially when you see the little guy, the small business, get squeezed and struggle to get by while the same old dogs get breaks.
Now on the right side is a lack of regulation or rules you get monopolies like we had in the early 20th century to the financial crisis in 2008. What is sad though is everyone goes extreme when something happens and people play captain hindsight. Or they politicize the crisis. Look at the BP spill, the instant reaction was, "well, they should have expected this to happen and build more backup systems." It's typical captain hindsight crap that doesn't really solve the issue, but you sound smart pointing out what should have happen. Then the next thing was blame BP, which did screw up, but when the story about how the administration to oversea the oil rigs and review safety was understaffed, and the media basically only report a fraction on that issue as it didn't have teeth. That's the problem, too many people think we can solve everything by focusing on a simple talking point on the right or left.
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