Although I generally agree with the criticsm in your idea, factually I doubt that, unless you narrowly define the terms. There have been simply too many wars and invasion in the last thousands of years of history for the US to be the number one. What about the Mongols, or the Romans? The colonial countries during the age of exploration?
It’s probably not defining the terms too narrowly in a thread like this to limit the answers to nations that still exist. I don’t think we can really think of modern italy or mongolia as the roman or mongolian empires.
The question was asked if the US lead in anything, not if they were number one on a list of historical examples.
Offhand, I can’t think of anything like that in the German press (though I might be biased). Generally we see any tendency towards “American situation” as bad (teen violence, gangs, commercialism, liberatarianism, creationism, …)
Why don’t you start doing something right, then we can write about it?
And your nature is wonderful. Pity you go ahead and destroy so much of the enviroment.
The scholarships are for many things besides academics and athletics. Often just being the right combination of minority qualification and low income with average grades will get you scholarships. We have a large system of affordable state and community colleges that varies by states that allows most that want an education to get one with college loans.
Those stories you hear are an exception and a very small percent. You knowledge about this is as distorted as the potential immigrant that still thinks America is the land of easy opportunity. Apparently the incorrect picture is being presented to the world for both good and ill. For instance, many people that don’t know America believe that the USA is far more violent than it really is and mistake the violence of the inner cities for the violence of the entire nation. The picture is again distorted by headlines and Hollywood.
I think you already know that you should judge both the excessively good and bad reports and images as distortions of the truth.
BTW: Our hospital overall provide very good medical care, the US problem is more along the lines of too many of our people do not have medical coverage or are underinsured. I would happily put our hospitals and medical care against most of the world as long as we are talking about people with good coverage. That is probably about 80% of Americans.
I’d say we’re still the leading ‘idea factory’ for the world. There is very little of modern technology that wasn’t invented or seriously improved here. We’ve lost the edge in manufacturing, I’d agree, but best new technology has almost always been, and mostly still is, made in the USA.
Take a look at NASA Tech Briefs http://www.techbriefs.com/ (any self respecting geek already has a subscription)… NASA alone (or it’s contractors, anyway) out innovate most nations.
I’d also add music to the list (or at least popular music)… I’ve been lucky enough to spend time on 5 continents, and American rock and roll was always available, and often live. Blues and jazz too (including the newer acts, not just the classics), but less often available live.
I’d give the edge in earthquake research to Japan, but other earth science and weather research… if some other nation is ahead there, I can’t think of who it might be - and google is failing me.
We have the finest legal system the world has ever known. It isn’t perfect, but believe it or not, thousands of dedicated professionals spend their lives trying to make it that way.
We resolve disputed elections in this country with briefs and arguments in a court of law, rather than with tanks and bombs on a battlefield.
We strive to provide every person, rich or poor, of any race and either gender, with equal protection under the law.
We provide meaningful rights to citizens, including those accused of crimes.
We have a Constitution that is more than mere words on paper, despite the attitude of the current administration.
What do we lead in,
How about embarassing celebrities and media outlets obsessed with them?
Okay, a list with cites behind it, but from 2002:
Number one among the top twenty industrialized nations in…
(My comments in italics)
quoted from “Stupid White Man, p. 174-175”, by Michael Moore, 2002 ed. Penguin books.
I also think you have the highest number and percentage of poor children and the lowest amount of social help for your population among industrialized nations.
Are you serious, or this is a whoosh? First, how do you measure the “finest” system? Have you compared it to other civilized nations (or do you believe that the US is the only civilized country in the world?)
Secondly, a lot of observers, both Americans and outsiders, have agreed that your justice system is seriously broken and anything but just; that the many cases of mistrials are not single instances, but indications of fundamental flaws in the system.
I wouldn’t crow about the debacle with the Florida election as resolving an election, if I were you. Most outside observers consider this instance fraud instead of justice, by stopping the recount.
So do the EU countries. I don’t know what measure you used, but some would say that we achieve it better to provide the poor and minorities with fair protection, but I don’t have figures at hand.
Unless they are at Guantanamo, or the Patriot Act applies to them, in which case they have no rights at all. Yes, you have a wonderful system.
Isn’t that a contradiction in itself? If the current admin. walks all over the bill of rights (and the public re-elects Shrub! effectivly rubber-stamping his previouy actions) and nobody stops them, neither the population nor the courts nor the house/congress/senate, then how is the Constitution not only words?
Yes, loans. So people will still be burdened with huge loans in the area of tens of thousands of dollars when finishing college, as I have heard, yes? And because of the strange American system, each college has a status that determines the worth of your certificate - if you went to Harvard or Yale or something prestigious and expensive, your exam is worth a lot, but if you went to community college, only second-rate jobs will be open to you, is that not so?
In Germany, it doesn’t matter whether you got your Dr. degree from the “elite” (new label) University LMU at Munich or from small podunk town Greifswald (near the East Sea). It might matter if you went to a University that specialised into a certain subject, and some Chairs are famous because of their professors who turn out a succession of quality graduates - but that’s only important in research and academics not when applying for a job.
And until recently (sadly, we’ve emulated Americans in that respect) University was free in Germany. (Now it’s 500 Euros tuition per semester, plus living expenses and rent, of course, which are already high).
I don’t believe only headlines, but what I read on the dope and in news about reports and statistics and polls. Personal anecdotes on the Dope certainly suggest a trend.
As for Hollywood - it shows how a large percentage of Americans think and agree with, esp. in the series stuff that’s shown over here. What’s acceptable and normal to the population by lack of reaction or outrage from any character is an interesting indicator. Or the background of typical characters in a show, sampled across several shows.
This is certainly true with regards to reports in European media. I hadn’t seen Kellner’s post when I posted, but depending on what you look at, it’s also true. There are certainly articles complaining about German bureaucracy which praise the US lack of regulations when opening a business. The sucess stories of individuals are usually presented not as success of the system, but of the individual.
One example are the doctorates and professors and advanced students going or leaving the US for Germany and vice versa. Several years ago, an article in a magazine extolled the wonderful benefits of leaving stuffy provincial not-enough-money Germany behind to do research or study in the US, and how the US universities were rolling out the red carpet and enticing professors with sugar-sweet extra deals, and how laid-back the atmosphere was, and how much grant money there was.
Not much later, another article in a similar magazine talked at lenght about the trend of German students and professors returning home because of the disappointment with staying in the US - the homesickness for German culture, how superficial the American culture was, how tiring and time-wasting the running after funds and grant money, begging externally, how political things were at universities … So you can see praise and the good points, or you can see the bad points, and find data for both. Which is right?
How much do you know about European hospitals? And 80% of Americans have good coverage - that seems high compared with the discussions on the dope. They might have some coverage, but are 80% really covered for everything?
I also dislike knowing that everything in the hospital will run up staggering bills and that doctors have huge debts from medical school hanging over their heads which they have to pay off. We already have enough doctors in our country who only want to earn a lot of money instead of helping people as motivation for taking up the profession.
Well, he did say citizens. they don’t send US citizens to Guantanamo I don’t think.
Certainly people will perceive a degree from a prestigious University as being more impressive, but no, the degrees are exactly the same regardless of where you earn them. Community colleges only cover the first two years though, so that is a different degree than a 4 year diploma. The two years of credits from a CC are transferable to a 4 year university however.
Are you sure? There certainly are US citizens that have been disappeared by the intelligence community, but I don’t know offhand the nationalities of all (roughly 500?) prisoners on Gitmo. I also don’t recall the nationalities of all the victims that the CIA handed over to “friendly” agencies/countries to let them be tortured there (like Egypt). I do know that several victims did belong to other countries - there was one Canadian, and one German, citizen, where the own countries did embarassangly nothing to get them released, either by diplomatic pressure or with intelligence information. A black mark against our government.
And weren’t there several young men who grew up as Americans in the US before they converted to Islam and went and joined the Taliban, who were captured in Afghanistan?
They’d be wrong about that.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/media_watch/jan-june01/recount_4-3.html
There was one American who was held at Guantanamo for a time. He was Saudi raised and they claim they didn’t know he was American. He has since been sent back to Saudi Arabia and I think he renounced his American citizenship.
The second scenario you mentioned only includes one guy, John Walker Lindh. He was captured in Afghanistan but he was never held at Gitmo.
I have to disagree with this. The fact that a scientist is “imported” does not take away the fact that it was America who gave him the opportunity and means to do it. America was discovered by Spain, not just by an Italian. America put a man on the moon not just a German guy by the name of Von Braun.
It is not only science but also commercial entrepreneurship, marketing, etc. I do believe America has the right conditions which make entrepeneurship and innovation to flourish. Stories like that of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Yahoo, Youtube, Google, ebay, etc. happen mostly in America. You often see companies which are American but they manufacture in Asia and sell in Europe.
The argument of 99% of Americans against immigration is exactly the opposite. In any case this is silly. People are trying to escape poverty and will go where ever they can. The amount of people trying to get into Europe is just as large and they are dying by the hundreds in their attempts. Americans like to think they are the only place where people want to go but most people who have comfortable lives would not like to move there. Most Europeans certainly wouldn’t.
For over 60 years now, since the end of WWII, the economic power of Europe has been growing with respect to the economic power of America. America has gone from being the largest creditor nation to the largest debtor. I am quite sure America’s share of the world’s economy has been steadily shrinking in the last 60 years. Part of America’s problem today is that most Americans are not adapting well to America not being what it was.
Regarding CO2 emissions, as I have pointed out, it makes much more sense to tally per capita emissions and the USA is still way ahead there. If we are to count absolute numbers then the Vatican would be the best, I suppose.
But that link says that Gore would’ve lost if the count had continued. I meant (maybe I didn’t make that clear) that stopping the recount by court was not the correct way to decide an election. Esp. given the familiar circumstances in that case (Shrubs brother as governor of Florida, the Court who stopped the re-count staffed with judges appointed by Bush sr.).
I meant it makes a difference if somebody immigrates to or is native to the US and becomes a quality scientist because of its good education system - or if somebody is taught in another country (with a different attitude towards education) and then is “imported” as adult, because the later endangers the US once the poorer countries stop exporting their trained skilled people and keep them at home to work for India and China and their own leap ahead instead. Since you stopped home-growing a lot of potential with the anti-science/ anti-intellectual bias and the bad high school non-standards, a large gap in the current generation of Americans to do research will probably lead to lack of foundation in 20 years ahead.
Sorry you don’t like the fact we’re not socialized and we have to take out loans to get a higher education. It does not stop those who want to get a degree from getting a degree and as far as Harvard and the Ivy leagues go, it helps a lot in politics and business, but not so much in technical and medical and science and accounting and etc. I think you are overstating the case.
As to medical. About 240 million out of 300 million have good coverage. I checked the math twice as you questioned it and I get 80%. 
What is bad is we have nearly 50 million with virtually no coverage and they are really screwed by our lack of UHC. Overall Americans with coverage have access to better and more health care than most of the developed world, the problem is we have left 20% of our citizens in really bad shape.
As to the Doctors have loans, again, we cannot even get UHC never mind free college. How many countries have free college?
And my point is that the situation was resolved in a court of law. Peacefully. Both candidates accepted the decision. Gore, to his credit, while presiding over a joint session of Congress held to certify the results, over-ruled objections to the electoral votes of Florida raised by 20 members of the House of Representatives, because the applicable rules require such objections to be co-sponsored by a Senator, and there were no co-sponsors.