No, but Democracy itself is a value that definitely improves the living standards of any group of people, getting rid of a giant pile of injustices, even if not making them as prosperous or technologically advanced. And as the first successful attempt at a Liberal Democracy, the Americans deserve the props.
What can be more relevant or influential than that?
Hmm, come to think of it, we didn’t have even close to a fair democracy until the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Women weren’t given the right to vote until 1920. Voter fraud, intimidation, and disenfranchisement occurred throughout 1999-2008.
I am struggling to find some way to read this other than you think it would be quite a challenge to list “wonderful contributions to the world” made by any country other than the U.S., but that can’t possibly be what you mean. Can it?
… wait, remote control TV? This is a whoosh, right?
What do you do? Get up and walk across the room to change the channel?
You know what? I’m changing my answer: screw democracy, TV remotes are the real answer to this thread.
Israel brought us the flash drive.
mandala, meet Australia.
Or Canada.
Or, if its population you are talking about rather than area, from not so long ago, India (which then included Pakistan and Bangladesh).
No, that’s not what I meant.
It seemed that the poster I was responding to was implying that we were clueless and thought that what we gave to the world was wonderful, when it wasn’t. Like us Americans all think we are God’s gift to the world, and they would be sitting in the dark without us.
I disagree-while American’s do tend on average to assume everything we do is awesome and no one else can do it, there should be no denying that most if not all of the things in the poll are good, and (mostly) come from the USA. It seemed to me that Shakester’s comment was another knee-jerk anti-USA post.
So, my question for Shakester was, if he thought we were clueless, could he list things he thought were comparable, or better, to those in the list. To see if we are deluding ourselves, and that our light bulbs, internet, NASA, are nothing compared to anything else the rest of the world does. That is, if he didn’t like the poll choices, list a few different ones.
And TV remotes were mentioned in post 17, along with fake boobs.
And don’t forget-we did stave off the alien invasion, and made July 4th the WORLD’s Independence Day!
What’s the most wonderful thing the USA has done?
Pioneered many space technologies.
What’s the least wonderful thing the USA has done?
Created NASA.
Australia? The country that sneezes when the British Queen catches a cold in London?
Canada - the nation that celebrates the day the British created and named it. And that retained formal British political control until 1982? Sure!
India - had a decent mass independence movement, but had little effect until WW2 happened and reduced Britain to a mere shadow of her former power.
Nobody dealt with British imperialism better than the Americans did. With the exception of Hitler, maybe.
Helped win WWII. It couldn’t have been done with the US. Or the USSR with respect to the Nazis. The Soviets did the heavy lifting in Europe and the Western efforts were not nearly as impressive in comparison. The Western Front a fraction of the size of the Eastern Front. But the US can hog much of the glory for beating Imperial Japan like a rented mule in the Pacific.
Number 2? Movies!
This is the only answer.
Raising the ire of the bitterly pathetic. It’s at least the most amusing.
And you wonder why they dislike us despite winning two World Wars.
:rolleyes:
Because of TV remotes? Or the fake boobs? Who else is gonna invent that? Huh? The French?
YOU-ESS-AY!
Powered flight. I’m confused though. 2 Americans invented it. Is that the same thing as saying the USA invented it?
Americans invented the dreadnought acoustic guitar, the acoustic guitar with the neck joining the body at the 14th fret, the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster, and the Gibson Les Paul. And the Sousaphone. And the electric light bulb, telephone, and distributing electricity to the home.
Not to take away from their contribution to the war but the Russians received supplies and equipment from the US. They paid one hell of a price for being in closer proximity to Germany than the US. We just happened to stumble into the war at a time in history when we had massive amounts of manufacturing capacity and 2 oceans separating us from the fighting.
I’d cast a vote for the internet if it was available. It has probably been the single most influential contribution to history.
The American revolutionaries didn’t have an objection to the British system as a system. Their objection was that they weren’t part of it. The political principle at the time - in Great Britain - was that the legitimacy of the government was based on the consent of the people. So the parliamentary system in 1776 was simultaneously a legitimate government in Britain and an illegitimate government in America.
Air conditioning. Vote for women. Freedom of speech. Separation of church and state.