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Participating in war and conflict is not necessarily backwards and primitive, depending on the situation. For example, there was an ethnic cleansing going on in the Balkans during the 1990s and the major European powers couldn't do squat to stop it. They didn't want to use force, but rather solve the problem diplomatically. Diplomacy didn't get anywhere and there was lack of political will to stop the bloodshed. It took the US to order NATO strikes in order to end the violence. US participated in "war and conflict" and the European powers didn't, but in this case, the US is the reason the violence ended. Being at peace is a good goal, but pragmatic approaches sometimes require force. That's the way the world works.
Yes, the Nordic countries would come out on top. But it can be very misleading to say that. The US has over 310 million people and the Nordic countries combined have less than 30 million people, a tiny fraction compared to the US. While the Nordic countries may have a higher GDP per capita than the US overall, the massive size difference distorts the statistics. For example, the states of Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey have GDP per capitas roughly equivalent to the Nordic countries, if not slightly higher. The combined population of those states is greater than the population of the whole Nordic region. While averages offer statistical satisfaction, the variations in the US make those averages less relevant. There are plenty of people in the US that have higher material standard of living than those in the Nordic countries, as well as those that have lower standard of living. The deviation is quite considerable.
The US is corrupt relative to what country(s)? The US is less corrupt than most countries in the world and fare well even with the industrialized countries, although it's not the cream of the crop in this caseanyway. The court of law is very strong and individual property rights are as well.
absolutely absurd comment. Don't let the media and television distort the underlying reality by fixating on the wars in Iraq, Vietnam, and Afghanistan to the point where it seems like all the US does is cause war. The reality for the vast majority of the world (and the world is much much bigger than those places I mentioned), the US has been an overwhelmingly positive influence. As the leading proponent of globalization and supplier of financial capital, it is without doubt that the US played a leading role in the vast development of the world economy in the recent decades. Poverty rates have been dropping dramatically in many regions of the world and living standards have been rising. Some 400-600 million people in China escaped severe poverty in the last 30 years, much of that due to Western capital flooding in China. Let's not forget that after WWII, the US played an instrumental role in the development of the Western European economies, in which the high living standards in Western Europe today rests on. To say the US has been more tyrannical than productive is a dangerously ignorant thing to say. Those conflicts in Vietnam and Iraq do not outweigh the positive influence the US had in the world.
Absolutely false. The average American enjoys higher living standards than the average person in Western Europe. There are small pockets in Western Europe in which you can say that have equal or higher standard of living. But US as a whole compared to Western Europe as a whole? The US definitely wins. Japan is a modern and advanced economy, but living standards aren't necessarily higher than the US, I'd say on par with the US at the most.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dunno what to put here
What are you do desperate to prove?
And how exactly does the US enjoy higher living standards than the average person in western Europe? What planet do you live on? I like Americans, but damn, many of you on City Data just seem incapable of accepting the US is not the greatest place on planet Earth.
Why you so mad? People bash the US all day long on this forum but it's not OK for someone to offer a defense?
Place in Asia are in my opinion. There should be more Asian places. The US and Japan are I think but I think China will take that title soon. Who cares anyway.
You think you are not talking out of your ass just as I don't believe I was talking out of my ass. I have a lot of first hand experience on a personal level regarding lving standards in both the US and Western Europe. You have a completely different idea on what constitutes as an advanced nation, a high living standard, and you do not fully agree with my first statement as you said, your ideas focus around capital and not the health of a society as a whole. I cannot come back with a piece by piece response with someone like you because neither one of us will alter the others viewpoint nor make anything sound profound or intelligent to eachother.
The facts are quite simple, Americans have higher average disposable incomes and consume more than the average German or French. You speak of the health of a society, which is an incredibly vague statement, when strict job security laws have stagnated economic growth and resulted in decades of depression-level unemployment rates in major Western European economies. What kind of health of a society are you referring to when jobs are harder to come by, when immigrants are struggling to find jobs let alone make a measely 400 euros a month and put up with nationalism?
* cringes when he sees people still using "First World" and "Third World" *
Americans think the US is the best, always has been and always will . . . and maybe by some measures it does all right. But countries like Japan, Finland, South Korea, Singapore, and others in Scandanavia are superior to the US in terms of their significantly lower rates of crime, the quality and availability of health care, the primary and secondary education systems, relatively lower rates of divorce, and low rates of drug abuse. With the exception of South Korea, which has mandatory military service and is still technically at war with North Korea, those countries are refreshingly more pacifist than the US, whose militarism almost seems old-fashioned in 2012 (and even though South Korea musters a large army, I'd hardly call it militaristic).
Sure, those countries have their own problems (and people who know these countries beyond what they read in TIME magazine can comment on them), but they do much better in terms of quality of life, and don't fight tolerance, education, or progress so vigilantly.
Americans tend to have a hard time viewing other countries as "advanced" or "developed", and it surprises them to learn the rest of the world doesn't necessarily see us as too "advanced" or "developed" either.
* cringes when he sees people still using "First World" and "Third World" *
Americans think the US is the best, always has been and always will . . . and maybe by some measures it does all right. But countries like Japan, Finland, South Korea, Singapore, and others in Scandanavia are superior to the US in terms of their significantly lower rates of crime, the quality and availability of health care, the primary and secondary education systems, relatively lower rates of divorce, and low rates of drug abuse. With the exception of South Korea, which has mandatory military service and is still technically at war with North Korea, those countries are refreshingly more pacifist than the US, whose militarism almost seems old-fashioned in 2012 (and even though South Korea musters a large army, I'd hardly call it militaristic).
Sure, those countries have their own problems (and people who know these countries beyond what they read in TIME magazine can comment on them), but they do much better in terms of quality of life, and don't fight tolerance, education, or progress so vigilantly.
Americans tend to have a hard time viewing other countries as "advanced" or "developed", and it surprises them to learn the rest of the world doesn't necessarily see us as too "advanced" or "developed" either.
It's number 1 and the best for us because its home, we love the "American Culture" (Car culture, Main Street USA, American suburbia, etc..) and we love the diversity which brings other cultures (Chinatown, Little Italy, Little Tokyo, etc..). There is nothing wrong with loving where your own country.
We all know that different nations excel at different qualities. But which nation would you choose as being the most advanced in the world based on a wide range of criteria - including social, political, economic, scientific, cultural, esthetic and other qualities?
Select as many nations as you like which fit the bill. Please explain your choices.
Technologically the USA, Japan & Israel are at the top.
Scientifically the USA & Israel at the top.
Medically the USA & Israel at the top.
I think culturally & socially the USA is at the top.
Economically Japan is at the top.
Many countries can be called asthetic. So I wouldn't know which one to rate at the top.
So in general I think the USA is the most advanced except that it is current economic state is bad and doesn't seem to be improving significantly. It is possible in the future that China will overtake the USA economically.
Technologically the USA, Japan & Israel are at the top.
Scientifically the USA & Israel at the top.
Medically the USA & Israel at the top.
I think culturally & socially the USA is at the top.
Economically Japan is at the top.
Many countries can be called asthetic. So I wouldn't know which one to rate at the top.
So in general I think the USA is the most advanced except that it is current economic state is bad and doesn't seem to be improving significantly. It is possible in the future that China will overtake the USA economically.
are you serious ?
I have nothing against Israel, but to me, Israel is far behind US, Japan, Germany, France, Switzerland, South Korea and Finland....
Hmmm. Only 3 countries in Asia listed. Hard to take this poll seriously with only 3 Asian countries as options.
Because if you think about Asia, China, Japan and S. Korea are pretty much the only self-sustaining countries. Singapore is alright, I guess but it's not up to their level. I think a lot of Asian countries are mostly developing nations. If you think about India, it's mostly poverty there and many American companies send their customer services there because people speak English well. But there are A LOT of slums in India and most of South Asia are just developing countries.
In terms of advanced, I think Japan and China are the most advanced. I remember seeing a digital camera in Japan that didn't come out in the US until years later. There are so many things Japan and China have in advanced that isn't foreseeable in the US until years later. Front-facing cameras on phones have been available in Asia for quite a while but has just been available to the US recently. There are often a lot of "new" things I'm quite fascinated with, but my mom is never surprised because many of these things have been learned in Asia.
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absolutely absurd comment. Don't let the media and television distort the underlying reality by fixating on the wars in Iraq, Vietnam, and Afghanistan to the point where it seems like all the US does is cause war. The reality for the vast majority of the world (and the world is much much bigger than those places I mentioned), the US has been an overwhelmingly positive influence. As the leading proponent of globalization and supplier of financial capital, it is without doubt that the US played a leading role in the vast development of the world economy in the recent decades. Poverty rates have been dropping dramatically in many regions of the world and living standards have been rising. Some 400-600 million people in China escaped severe poverty in the last 30 years, much of that due to Western capital flooding in China. Let's not forget that after WWII, the US played an instrumental role in the development of the Western European economies, in which the high living standards in Western Europe today rests on. To say the US has been more tyrannical than productive is a dangerously ignorant thing to say. Those conflicts in Vietnam and Iraq do not outweigh the positive influence the US had in the world.
