# Is the US the luckiest nation on Earth?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-us-the-luckiest-nation-on-earth/751429>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 7, 2016, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-us-the-luckiest-nation-on-earth/751429 "2016-04-07T12:51:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-us-the-luckiest-nation-on-earth/751429/21 "2016-04-07T22:36:15Z")

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> [@Chihuahua](#):
>
> The US has also done a remarkable job of crushing corruption and encouraging freedoms. This is not luck, but the result of a lot of hard work, shared national values, and the steady evolution of ideas and legal doctrine. The most exceptional thing about the US is our willingness tolerate a peaceful transition of power even between rival political groups, in that we place the importance of “the system” over the importance of any one individual. Our military, for example, does not swear loyalty to the President as a unique individual. Our ability to accomplish this is not “luck” at all but rather a deliberate and conscious decision made by the collective to support our national values and public policy. Compare this to certain other nations, where the executive power is invested in the person of the dictator (rather than his office) and transitions of power are marked by violence and the death or imprisonment of the outgoing leader, and it quickly becomes clear that the US is one of the few countries in the world that has really mastered this.

I totally agree with all of this. Natural resources and lack of nearby military enemies are great, but those things don’t make a great nation alone. The secret of America’s success is setting up government the right way from the beginning. The right way being:  
[ul]  
[li]Democratic elections.[/li][li]Separation of powers with checks and balances.[/li][li]Freedom of religion, speech, press, trial by jury, and other rights clearly stated in the Constitution.[/li][li]Economic freedom. People can work hard and keep the earnings from that hard work.[/li][/ul]  
Any nation that tries government under that basic outline will have success, not necessarily identical to America’s but close enough.

The presence of slavery in the historical record is an unfortunate fact, but serves to further confirm the facts. The South was the least free region of the country until about 1965 it was also by far the poorest region. The North, where the economy was based in freedom, turned out much wealthier.

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