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Is the U.S. really the most "free" country of the world?
The U.S. imprisons people left and right. It has the highest incarceration rate of anywhere in the world. Government supervision (parole and probation) is way big. People are sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison sometimes for minor offences!
Murder and crime in the U.S. are way worse than other first class world countries. You could go out for a walk late at night, go down some alleyway, some thugs run up on you with guns, rob you, and then shoot you dead. No witnesses. It happens. The homicide rate is 10 times that of Japan or Singapore.
The police are way out of control in the U.S. You hear of police violence daily. You could get stopped by the cops and if they don't like what you're doing and think you're reaching for a weapon when it's really your cell phone, you could go down in a hail of bullets very easily! 6 feet under will be your new home.
What's your opinion?
It depends on the kind of freedom your talking about.
Can you walk down the street with an alcoholic drink in the US. Most places that I know of no. Many other country's you can so America is less free in that sense.
I work on boats and anywhere in the US I can leave the marina and go fishing/cruise or take a delivery to another state. I don't have to have written permission to do that. I can leave the US at will with the boat and not need permission as well. It is purely my decision and my responsibility. Other country's I need permission to leave the marina and permission to leave the country. Likewise, a "port captain" may close the port so nobody can leave. In these examples the US is a much freer nation.
There are many other examples that can go both ways. Pick your freedoms. For me I am very free here and can freely go about doing whatever I want to do. I wish more places here would let me walk down the street to another club with a beer in my hand or have the DUI laws a little more lenient (come on 2 drinks- that's 2 wines or beers with dinner) but a line has to be drawn somewhere in regards to that and I have seen what happens in other country's where they have laws but turn a blind eye to it so I'll accept our laws and call a cab.
As far as people doing time. Well don't rob banks and kill people. Here we will punish you. Many other country's won't enforce the laws they have on the books so people actually do get away with murder.
And the supposed police violence is already being covered in another thread. That is all media hype. Don't pull a gun on a cop and you probably won't get shot. We have over 300 million people here so because of that we are going t have a lot of cops. Not rocket science to figure that there will be a couple of bad ones. We also have a large number of large city's and a few of those have bad gang problems. Guess what? Where I live they don't affect me one bit. I am safe here and the police, as in most of the country, are not a problem. The US overall is a very safe country. Eliminate the gangs from just a handfull of major cities and that can clearly be seen.
Maybe at one point we were the most "free" but other countries have done such things such as legalized marijuana and same sex marriage (nationwide), have no last calls at bars/clubs, and they also have lower drinking ages, and incarcerate a much smaller percentage of their population and have enough public transit infrastructure to make owning a car unnecessary in order to perform daily tasks such as commuting to work. Not to mention that Edward Snowden recently revealed two years ago that the NSA has recently been accused of spying on peoples private phone conversations, which means most people don't even have a right to privacy anymore.
While the US still probably has a good quality of life relative to the rest of the world, as an American who has had the luxery to travel overseas I don't see how the US can be considered to be the most "free" country in the world in it's current state relative to other developed countries
Maybe at one point we were the most "free" but other countries have done such things such as legalized marijuana and same sex marriage (nationwide), have no last calls at bars/clubs, and they also have lower drinking ages, and incarcerate a much smaller percentage of their population and have enough public transit infrastructure to make owning a car unnecessary in order to perform daily tasks such as commuting to work. Not to mention that Edward Snowden recently revealed two years ago that the NSA has recently been accused of spying on peoples private phone conversations, which means most people don't even have a right to privacy anymore.
While the US still probably has a good quality of life relative to the rest of the world, as an American who has had the luxery to travel overseas I don't see how the US can be considered to be the most "free" country in the world in it's current state relative to other developed countries
Not even close. Depends on what you meanby "free", though.
In terms of free enterprise in the marketplace, American are so strangled by regulations, licensing, government forms, financial reporting, etc., that only a well-funded corporation has any chance of competing successfully in any marketplace.
In terms of governance, the US has recently been scoring below average for election fairness. In about 15% of all Congressional elections, the incumbent runs unopposed. Voters who do not live in one of a few swing states are effectively disenfranchised in presidential elections. Two parties with virtually identical objectives have a stranglehhold on ballot access.
In terms of the everyday freedom to move about at will, America is indistinguishable from even third world countries. In nearly every nation in Africa,Asia and South America, people feel perfectly free to get on a bus and go where they please, shop where they want, buy what they like, and any money they have is their to spend as they please with nobody demanding that they account for it. Any person can work at any trade so long as the private enterprise employer is willing to hire him, and few jobs require a degree that can be attained only at exorbitant or prohibitive cost.
The only sense I can think of in which Americans have a higher degree of freedom is that Americans are not required to carry ID papers with them at all times -- only when driving an automobile or aboard a common carrier. But so few people go out without driving a car, papers-please is nearly universal in America as well.
As far as I know, Americans are the only people in the world for whom it is a criminal offense to not report money they have to their government, even when outside the USA. The US government has sweeping power to confiscate cash or freeze bank accounts of any person on the slightest pretext, even in banks in most foreign countries, by threatening sanctions against non-compliant foreign banks, including Switzerland. It is also a criminal offense for Americans to travel to some countries without their government's permission, and to associate with certain people in any country while traveling abroad, subject to arrest when returning home. Most other countries have no such criminalizing statutes.
I find that most of the freest countries in the world tend to be recent former oppressive states. As in, their dictatorships had ended within the last 60 years; recent enough that pervasive government abuse of authority is still fresh in much of the population's mind.
it is clear that the USA is not the freest country of all, neither from a social point of view or an economical point of view. But I would say it is in the top 30 in both social and economical list, which is pretty good for a country its size and population.
Ok. Many Americans and non-Americans have too much time on their hands ranting statistics about America.
I never seen so much scrutiny and bashing for any other country to this volume than the USA on the internet. If America is not your fit then you should look into relocating if the country feels horrible to you and not as "free" compared to others. But I am really getting sick of these kind of threads over and over.
I would think the moderator would be flagging and closing these useless threads as they have been done in the past.
Isn't a big part of living in a democratic and free society the right to highlight things wrong with it and fixing it?
If being a good American means pretending that the problems in this country doesn't exist then this country really isn't free.
Is the U.S. really the most "free" country of the world?
Good question.
What's your opinion?
Actually it's not a good question.
Freedom is a nebulous and personal concept. It really has little or nothing to do with this or that country, provided that it is not in the midst of an all-out war or that an individual lives in a violent household.
Some of the most remembered thinkers/writers on freedom lived in mastodonic, economically sluggish regimes and in personally trying circumstances.
And they did not make excuses for failure to achieve personal freedom.
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