We weren’t talking about moral character. We were talking about money.
That’s irrelevant. The OP asked about a country.
Well, in that case I guess the EU would qualify (as they have their own budget to dispose of) and would be the #1 donor in absolute terms.
Wind Power
Golf
Population Growth
Strawberries
Corn
Most intense lasers
I forgot:
telescopes
bourbon (:p)
hip hop
I am not doubting you but I would like to have citations to put those in context.
Wikipedia states that Germany is #1 in installed wind power in absolute terms and in fact the USA is way down in installed capacity per capita. In fact I am surprised by how little intalled wind power the USA has. Where did you get your information? Is the rest of it just as reliable?
Wind power by country (MW) year 2007
Germany 22,247
USA 16,818
Spain 15,145
Denmark 3,125
Wind capacity in 2007 (W per person)
Denmark 576
Spain 345
Germany 269
USA 55
pssst…he actually is German, I think. But don’t mention the war.
From what I’ve read he’s basically right. I don’t think you can “immigrants” from other EU countries as such. Legally they are not; they would be like my moving from L.A. to Denver. Not that I don’t wish I could just apply for a job in another country the way you guys can, and not worry about work visas or any of that.
The mass migration to the U.S. is like the tribal migrations of late antiquity and the early middle ages. It’s literally changing the face and ethnic makeup of this country, a thing which you don’t see in Germany. California is is zeroing in on a 50% Hispanic population.
Didn’t say it was per year. But 7 million is still a pretty big number compared to 1 (?) in the other direction.
Germans, and every other group, would still be coming in droves if we let them. Although the U.S. accepts more legal immigrants than all other countries in the world combined, every immigration category fills up every year, year after year. And anyone who can get here illegally and get away with it does so.
It’s antiquated because it’s good. Full of silly old-fashioned goodness like freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, and limited government. It’s outlived Germany’s past, shall we say, experiments with government.
People vote with their feet - and we get more foot traffic than we can handle. So America must be doing something right.
It is well that you have decided to have no more interaction with brazil84, as this sort of direct incitement to a fight is very clearly not in keeping with this Forum.
If you have both decided to ignore each other, fine. Otherwise, take your squabbles to the BBQ Pit.
[ /Moderating ]
Context:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_States
Highest average capacity, and in the very near future it will lead outright. The US has just too much usable land area for Germany to keep up.
I’m not completely convinced that having a high prison population necessarily means a bad government. I guess it would depend on what they’re in for. It’s not political prisoners filling the cells. I don’t mean to sound naive, I know that ideally, good government = low crime rate, but could it be that the US is simply more efficient at arresting and prosecuting up criminals? Of course, why are they criminals in the first place, lack of opportunity? Desperation? I know that argument, but I’m not sure how much to believe it.
and
Woah, slow down.
The question is what the US leads in. Some say it’s “International generosity”: this is not the case: the US is ranked low by that criteria.
Others say, “International giving”. Well, they’re correct, AFAIK. But frankly, there’s a simpler and clearer way of making this point: the US has the largest economy and the largest market in the world. Given that it will be #1 in consuming all sorts of products and resources for example, but we don’t have to enumerate them one by one.
But if you’re a third world country looking for donations, or an entrepreneur from anywhere looking for a place to sell your wares, the US deserves a look.
Er, Siam. Prisons are inputs. Crime is the output. If the US has high crime and a high prison rate, something is off kilter.
(As it happens, many third world countries have much higher crime rates. And IIRC, many 1st world countries have higher property crime levels, though the US murder rate is the highest in the OECD. But many middle income countries have higher murder rates.)
Yes yes, I know that. I know that something is usually “off kilter” if there is a high crime rate. But I often find automatically saying, “See? High crime means bad America,” to be a little too simplistic.
I remember reading in the 1990s that crime was at a decades-long low. Was that because of the good government of the Clinton administration? Or was that because the previous Republican governments of Reagan and Bush Sr promoted getting tough on crime, and the criminals were all locked up instead of being loose on the streets? That was the debate I was reading back then.
Ok then.
I’d say that crime rates and prison rates are starting places. If they’re supposed to end the discussion – well then the conversation was probably childish to begin with.
That said, good treatments of crime in America are few and far between. I liked Freakonomics’ presentation, if only because they did a decent compare and contrast of the various explanations for crime trends within the US. But I’ve yet to read anything I consider even near-definitive.
Another point I’d like to throw out for consideration is the possibility that a high incarceration rate in the US may be the result of proper police procedure. In Thailand and certain other contries I’m familiar with, it’s quite common for the police simply to shoot some bastard even if he’s in the process of giving himself up. The feeling is this is a bad person, and we’re all better off without him, so what the hell, just kill him. And the public tends to agree. For all of their gentleness, Thais generally subscribe to the philosophy of “Kill those who need killin’.” Sure, this sort of thing happens in the US and other Western countries, but certainly not on the scale it happens in some other places, and certainly not with such a high level of public approbation.
One example is a few years ago, when Burmese rebels of a certain ethnic group crossed over into Thailand in the upper peninsula and took hostages at a local hospital. Exactly what they thought they were going to achieve is anyone’s guess. A commando unit managed to subdue the hostage-takers with no loss of life. The military then herded the hostage-takers – about 10-12 of them, as I recall – into a room and shot the lot of them, even though they had already surrendered and were in custody. The small voice of protest over this action was drowned out by an overwhelming chorus of: “Why are you defending such scum? Just kill them!” And not just among the sweating masses either; even the higly educated voiced strong approval for these exrajudicial killings. There are other high-profile examples, and their numbers actually serve to underscore the number of low-profile incidents that occur on a daily basis. If the police here were to follow proper procedure, the already-overcrowded Thai jails would be much more crowded, and the incarceration rate would be quite a bit higher, I’m sure.
So, maybe the US just chooses to arrest and imprison more of its criminals than murder them outright? Just a thought.
Why would Europeans be coming here in droves if we let them? Please understand, I’m not saying this to express any negative opinion on America, but most of Europe is prosperous and orderly, the people have had stable democratic governments for decades, and the horrors of the early 20th century do not seem in the least likely to repeat themselves. Why would they want to leave? I suppose one could buy a bigger house if one wanted to emigrate to Wyoming or Idaho, than one could in Belgium, but it doesn’t seem like enough of a reason.
A silly thought I would say. Are you proposing that in Europe, Japan and other developed countries prison populations are low because criminals run rampant and free? Or because police shoot suspects on sight therefore obviating the need for prisons? I find that just plain silly.
I think the explanation is to be found in the different social structures. American society has much less family and social cohesion than other developed countries and I believe there lies the cause. I believe that as, due to immigration and other reasons, European societies lose some of that cohesion crime and prison population will rise. The only way to avoid it is to fully integrate immigrants and other people who are not fully integrated and that is a very difficult task.
Crime and prison population are not evenly spread across American society. Those segments with stable family and social bonds have much lower rate of people incarcerated than segments with disfunctional family and social bonds. The same thing happens in every other country. The difference is that in other countries those bonds are stronger and the segment which is outside those bonds is much smaller. I would think that as immigration grows in Europe, if those immigrants are not well integrated then crime and prison populations will rise.
But to propose European countries might have a low prison population because criminals are allowed to run free is just silly.
On the other hand and come to think about it another factor may be that some things which in America would land you in prison in Europe would be dealt with other types of punishment like fines or community service. I am thinking of smoking pot and such things.
Again, if you qualify things enough then anyone can find things in which they are #1 and the small town of West Undershirt can say that their eolic generator produced peak power for 20 minutes in 1986 and it has not been surpassed yet.
If you compare the USA with Europe (which I think is a more apt comparison), the USA still has a long way to go to catch up in total installed wind power capacity and on a per capita basis which I believe is more significant. I suppose it is only natural that one day the USA will surpass Europe in installed wind power per capita but, as you say, that is only natural given the greater land area. What I do not understand is why it is Europe who is leading the way, not America. America is trying to catch up.
As I have already said, I think in most cases per capita comparisons are more meaningful but if we are to compare absolute numbers then I would say the EU has a larger economy than the USA and many absolute figures will be higher in the EU. For example, I am guessing the EU would be ahead of the USA in total energy consumption but would be behind the USA on a per capita energy consumption.
Right now I believe by economy size the order is EU, USA, China and that China will surpass the USA in less than 20 years so that the USA will fall to a third place.
Regarding immigration I think many Americans are quite misinformed and think Europe does not have immigration rates anywhere comparable to the USA or that there is not a significant amount of illegal immigration into Europe which is quite mistaken. As an example Immigration to Spain - Wikipedia says Spain’s foreign resident population went from 0.5% in 1981 to 11.3% in 2008. And I suppose that is the legal population and that there is a significant further quantity of unregistered people.
Africans are dying by the hundreds in their attempts to cross over into Europe. They take to the sea in small, overloaded fishing boats called “cayucos” in Spanish and many perish at sea. Sometimes the entire boat is lost at sea. Sometimes they run out of food and water and people start dying and are thrown overboard. Sometimes they arrive with half the boat full of dead bodies.
BBC NEWS | Have Your Say | One village's African boat trauma
BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Immigrant boats
BBC NEWS | Europe | Spain to get migrant patrol help
Spain intercepts 180 African immigrants in single vessel | World news | The Guardian
The EU has airplanes which try to spot these boats in order to rescue them (and return the people back to Africa) but even with this sometimes the boats manage to make it and bathers find themselves helping people who are on the verge of dying. Some small town in Southern Spain asked for government help because they could not afford the burials of so many dead immigrants who arrived by boat and even bodies which were washing up on the shore.
Not to mention the immigration through airports and by land where people just never leave when they are supposed to.
I do not believe this is true in the least. Most Europeans I know would not want to live in the USA at all. I also wonder what the numbers of Europeans living in the USA and the numbers of Americans living in Europe are. If anyone can provide data it would be welcome.
I find this extremely hard to believe. Do you have some cites for that? I believe many Americans are awfully misinformed about these things and somehow think the rest of the world only wants to go to America. I find this ignorance very narcissistic and ugly.
Same things which happens in Europe and any other developed country. What makes you think America is unique in that?
Nobody has said America is not doing something right. This thread is about aspects in which America leads, not about aspects where America is doing something right.