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Americans seem so indoctrinated into believing their country is the creme de la creme of the world. No offense, but it is funny in a sad way because the only other country that I can think of with similarly indoctrinated people is north korea.
Keep in mind that not all Americans believe that their country is "the creme de la creme". Many of us understand the issues in our own country, and see much value in other places around the world (as well as in our own country). All Americans cannot be generalized, just as the French cannot.
There is something about the public and political discourse in the USA that drives me MENTAL. It's all this talk of SOCIALISM. What a crock that is. How is it that tens of millions of people just don't have a single clue of what the heck they are talking about. NOBODY and I mean NOBODY in politics that I have ever heard speaking has ever advocated that the USA become a socialist country. All this talk about the socialist countries of western Europe is soooo stupid. They are not socialist but they are free market democracies. Cuba is socialist, North Korea is socialist and I suppose all you dipsticks that are crying "Socialism socialism, the sky is falling socialism" think that the democrats want the USA to become another Cuba?????.
If I sound a little angry here it's because I am. Somehow or other someone somehow has persuaded millions of idiots that anything done in a country to try to help the average man and his family live a better life and to have a more equitable share in the benefits of an extremely wealthy nation is a raging communist. I have almost givin up my lifelong interest in American politics because of the complete stupidity and baseless idiocy that goes for American public discourse today.
So many Americans are just like puppets. The puppet master pulls the strings and the puppets dance a ***. For most of my life it was the spector of communism that the puppet master used to control the people to make sure that they stayed in line, not demanding benefits and perks that citizens of the rest of the western democracies took for granted. Now communism is dead, kaput and gone so who's the enemy now??? "Oh Ho. I've got it and it's even better than the communists that were mostly an external threat. It's the liberals, Oh evil evil liberals and they are right here in our own backyard. Now what can we ascribe to those bad evil libs? I know, they are secretly socialists and they want to make the USA into a country like those we spent the last 50 years defeating. We won't have any trouble making at least 40% of the American public believe this because we know that they are so uninformed that they would believe anything we tell them to believe. And the beauty of it all is this, we get to keep all of out trillions of dollars that we allow American worker to make for us and we won't have to give them a raise or any better benefits because everyone will know that it's just the evil Socialists that are behind that idea. If however things really get out of hand and our workers can't be tricked any more we will just move everything to China where the workers behave like ours should."
no not all democrats want the U.S.A. to become socialist some are just to ignorant to know what kind of people they are voting for.some of my democrat friends vote for Dem's just because their father voted for democrats. mind boggling!! Demanding benefits!!!! you know you are in America, go and get your benefits no one is holding your hands. have you no shame to beg for something you have not earn!!! millions of American are abusing the generosity of the American people and those that actually create wealth. No communism is not dead its ALIVE!! it has infected the democrats. THE only way we could behave like chinese worker is if we were under the gun for decades and broken in by ruthless rulers.
As a kid, I kinda sorta bought the whole jingoism thing about the heroic Founding Fathers, and One Nation Under God, and all that. I never really got emotional during the National Anthem or anything, just seemed like a tradition, but I never really thought much of it.
The older I get (I'm only 21 btw), the more and more I realize most of what we consider great about America is either not true at all or isn't true in this day and age. The reality is, America is not all that free compared to a lot of countries, you can't really do anything without a permit and multiple forms of ID, pot is still illegal, the media, while technically free, is dominated by the mainstream media to the point that the influence of the alternative media is permitted only because it is not influential in comparison, we have more people in jail than any country in the world because we believe in revenge and not in rehabilitation and treatment, it costs a fortune to rent, to the point that poor people can't even live in some states.
Americans are basically raised to believe the outside world is still living in the 1800s at the latest and the stone age in many places. Most Americans have no idea that western Europe and much of Asia is far more modern in infrastructure than most of the States are, and ignore the fact that places like New Orleans are practically third world and even though we don't chop off people's hands like a few Middle Eastern countries do, we do still use the death penalty even though countries like Turkey have even gotten rid of it and put people in jail for decades for relatively minor crimes such as drug offenses. Not to mention a very large percentage of Americans probably believe the world is 6,000 years old and that evolution is a myth.
American idealism is a strange brew of Christianity, materialism, and individualism. Religion without spirituality, Christ without the compassion. Everything is about individual rights even though the average American loves to complain about how irresponsible people unlike themselves are.
Americans are the most submissive to authority people ever. Americans demand swift and cold justice to all evil-doers, unless they wear a suit, then they deserve our scorn but otherwise deserve to get off scott-free. Americans believe being in the Army automatically makes you a hero, even if you kill innocent people in other countries for fun. We constantly re-elect the same types of people into office even though they never do us any good, because we believe that strongly in the good of the status quo.
Americans would rather let people with cancer just die than have universal healthcare. Hard work is valued infinitely over having a good time; that's why most Americans only get 3 weeks off their job the WHOLE FREAKING YEAR.
I thought only a certain type of American (ie, a redneck) was super-patriotic and jingoistic, but I've come to discover a vast majority of my people basically think we're superior to everyone else.
Stop kidding yourselves guys - we are not the light of the world. Not anymore at least.
"Yup, you nailed it. Poor people just don't want to try. That's why there has never been an example of a school that has invested in heavily in staff retention and also funding for higher level classes that have seen tremendous improvements. Nope, not one esp. not in DC or Harlem."
Poor people do try and they do succeed, my family is an example of this. However, if you have lived around Detroit and DC (I grew up near the former and live near the latter), you would see despite spending massive amounts money per student there is NO improvement. There is little value in investing in AP and IB courses when practically no students want to avail themselves of it. Heck just recently Detroit Public Schools is offering free oil changes and gym shoes just so parents would become interested in their own kids futures. Yea, real world class material to work with.
Detroit Public Schools Offering Perks Card to Parents (http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/detroit-schools-seeks-parental-involvement-discounts-to-come-20101027-mr - broken link)
"Oh and there has never been an OCED study that concluded that the US and UK have very similar tax rates. Not one. That the average tax burden per individual is roughly the same, nope, never has a study ever been done."
Please provide a link which states such a tax burden is equivalent instead of crooning about it. I have already provided links backing my assertion.
"I almost forgot, the US is listed as having a better health system than the British. Year after year. I mean, it's not as if the US has the highest rates of uninsured individuals in the first world."
Do not confuse the quality of health care services with coverage. The UK's NHS may cover a greater % of people but their service is horrible.
"Nope, California as well as many other states don't have housing prices comparable to England. Only NYC (not LA, SD, SF, DC, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Boston...) have higher costs of living."
Yes, yes lets list the housing cost of the most expensive cities in the US and compare it to England as a whole. Does it change the fact that the AVERAGE cost of living in the US is lower than in the UK as a whole?
"I almost forgot education is cheaper in the US along with health care. Thus, keeping cost of living down."
Hmm, well public schools are free. And virtually everyone can go to university via student loans (and if you are smart you can get a significantly reduced tuition via scholarships). College is cheaper in Europe, however, it is only limited to smart or elite persons (which has the same effect as giving academically excellent students in the US scholarships).
"Right, since in the US both houses of Congress are an accurate reflection of the demographics of the US."
African Americans make up 13% of the US population and comprise 9.5% of the members of Congress. Not exactly a raging disparity. Hispanics do have a large disparity but that is related to the fact that many do not vote and many are not citizens as they are illegal. Please tell me how many minorities are in the Germain Parliment? Heck German citizenship is largely determined by blood only. There are third and fourth generation Turks in Germany that not allowed citizenship.
Only in the Netherlands pot is legal.
So moving to ''Europe'' wouldn't help much.
But hey, we're not overcrowded here at all, and it's easy to get in here. Perfect for potsmokers, just all come, I'm not staying here anywhere. ;]
Actually small amounts of marijuana are also legal in Spain and Portugal.
It's funny how anytime there is a criticism leveled against this country with the hopes of making it better, that the usual countries chose to compare with the US where you can live is the third world countries.
There are many other developed countries out there that are on par, or better in than the US on many aspects, but choose a place like Somalia?
Really?
Actually anybody who travels outside the United States to countries like Korea, Australia, New Zealand, England, Norway, Denamrk, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, France, etc. can find comprable standards of living to those in the United States provided of course you have the financial means to live a nice neighborhood. You can find places to live in countries like Panama, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Argentina, Uraguay etc. The issue is that few Americans on a percentage basis really consider living anywhere else.
Shouldn't good Americans be critical of their society? Doesn't change start from critical of elements that seem to hamper progress?
First off, I'm proud of being American. However, I dislike many aspects of what that means. I don't agree with the increasing gap between rich and poor. I don't agree with a large percentage of people who think that homosexuality is an abomination. The whole bomb first ask questions later mentality of our foreign policy is another thing I think we should change (simplistic, I know, but that's the gist of entering into Iraq).
We are ignorant of the outside world. People who are more international are called elitist. We praise ignorance and denounce science. We laud men of blind faith and chastise critical thinking atheists.
In our nation compassion means that a significant percentage of people do not have healthcare. Our idea of educating the future is to put them in massive debt and cut funding.
I love America. However, I feel that there are many things that could be done to make it better.
The people who blindly state that the poster should leave, don't realize that the poster probably likes America than you do. Being critical is a virtue.
There seems to be a feeling among many that somehow that the United States should be immune from criticism. Many of these people are advocates of "American Exceptionalism" which is based on the belief that America is the best country on the face of the planet.
Yeah, people from like MEXICO and INDIA. Do you see masses of people from Canada, Sweden, Australia, etc still coming here?
Most people from underdevelop countries have aspirations of coming to America for a better life. Most people in developed or emerging market countries see America as a great place to come to get a skill or education but in the long term they would rather go back and live in their countries. I've talk to many people here from China and India that are strickly interested in being in the United States for education or job experience but have no interest in living here permanently.
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