# What's wrong with YOUR country? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 14, 2003, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452 "2003-07-14T19:32:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452/81 "2003-07-16T11:55:06Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by GMRyujin_ > We break it down by states here. Since I live in Georgia, I get to make fun of people from Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Whereas, when I lived in Louisiana, I made fun of people from Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. See? What do you do if you live in Mississippi? ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452/82 "2003-07-16T11:55:17Z")
Here’s _The Age_ referring to Hollingworth as Australia’s erstwhile head of state: [http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/10/1052280481624.html](http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/10/1052280481624.html) Here’s Crean and McClelland (ironically, as reported by the ARM): [http://www.act.republic.org.au/alpmr26may03.htm](http://www.act.republic.org.au/alpmr26may03.htm) Here’s CNN: [http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/05/11/aust.govgen.howard/](http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/05/11/aust.govgen.howard/) … of course it would be equally possible for you to find numerous references to the Queen as Australia’s head of state. My point, however, is that it is not just “rampant Monarchists” who have entertained the idea of the G-G as head of state. There is, as I earlier stated, “some constitutional argument” – which incidentally may stem from the absense of the expression “Head of State” in the Commonwealth Constitution. ---
**Author:** ![woolly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ebca7d/32.png) [@woolly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woolly)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452/83 "2003-07-16T12:08:16Z")
Bugger it. I’ve just sent all my hair shirts to the dry-cleaners and along comes this thread. 🙂 Fortunately I have the services of an expert as back-up: [http://www.news.com.au/common/story\_page/0,4057,6760977%5E421,00.html](http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6760977%255E421,00.html) (American born) Senior Lecturer in American history Dr David Mosler told the 2003 Fulbright Symposium at Griffith University (Brisbane) yesterday (13/07/2003) that he decided : > [@](#): > > Australia was “an unreformable society” after the loss of the 1999 republic referendum. > > Australians … had no flag of their own; a weak sense of nationhood; no prime minister in the Lodge, with John Howard living in Sydney; no national bushfire or water plans, even with the worst drought in history; and no “broad knowledge of nation in public discourse or popular culture”. Australians had replaced “Empire with Yanks” after 1942, and the country retained a “quasi-colonial status”. > > He said Australian governments, attuned to the British, Americans, Japanese and global capital markets, had “sold off the farm” - electricity, water, ports, airports, resources - while Australians weren’t offended by such “treasonous behaviour”. As a consequence Australia should become the 51st state of the USA because Australia would get: > [@](#): > > [ul] > [li]Access to the world’s best higher education system. [/li][li]Large savings on embassies[/li][li]Being part of the world’s most effective defence system. [/li][li]Merger with the world’s strongest currency. [/li][li]Being part of the world’s biggest economy. [/li][li]A constitution bringing a republic and a Bill of Rights[/li][li]Fielding teams in the US national basketball, baseball and gridiron competitions[/li][/ul] There you have it, the definitive critique. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452/84 "2003-07-16T12:23:23Z")
U.S. resident here. Dull architecture. Outside of downtown skyscrapers, U.S. architecture is all pretty much the same – a row of boxes with windows and painted signs on the front. Back in the middle of the century, we built interesting, expressive buildings – weird, kitschy buidings like the hotel shaped like a dinosaur or the restaurants shaped like various kinds of food – coffeepots, hot dogs, fish, etc. We also built wild-ass Populuxe palaces like Fontainebleu in Miami Beach, or the Gobbler hotel out in the Dells (where all the walls are covered in shag carpeting of various colors). In fact, I once found a bank in Alma, Georgia that was a great little bit of Populuxe architecture – it had a Sputnik tower rising above it and a huge silver arch encircling it. What happened to that spirit of exploration and zest? Now, it’s an endless chain of boxes, housing all the same businesses – Chili’s, Applebees, On The Border, etc for restaurants, and tanning salons, video rental stores, dry cleaners and Chinese restaurants for tenants. Geez, nowadays if you want to escape from visual monotony, you have to go someplace where nature dominates. It used to be the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![nickannan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bcef8e/32.png) [@nickannan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nickannan)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452/85 "2003-07-16T13:22:32Z")
Problems with Scotland… every 12 year old has a baby (not kidding!) terrible diet leading to ridiculous levels of heart disease etc ignorance, racism, very limited worldview the chip on the shoulder about ‘the english’ kids seem to run wild with no fear of the law and weather that changes by the hour the best of scotland the most beautiful land in the world ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452/86 "2003-07-16T13:32:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by woolly \* > \*\*Bugger it. I’ve just sent all my hair shirts to the dry-cleaners and along comes this thread. 🙂 > > Fortunately I have the services of an expert as back-up: > > (American born) Senior Lecturer in American history Dr David Mosler told the 2003 Fulbright Symposium at Griffith University (Brisbane) yesterday (13/07/2003) that he decided : > As a consequence Australia should become the 51st state of the USA because Australia would get: \*\* Pfft! You guys need to catch up. We’ve been moaning about everything you’ve listed _ **and** _ we’ve been doing it for ages. You can be the 52nd. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![elf6c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@elf6c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elf6c)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452/87 "2003-07-16T13:35:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GMRyujin \* > \*\*We break it down by states here. Since I live in Georgia, I get to make fun of people from Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Whereas, when I lived in Louisiana, I made fun of people from Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. See? > > Alright, so it’s probably a regoinal thing, but I’m sure it’s similar. \*\* I think you’re right: In Virginia we make fun of West Virginia, Tennessee, D.C. In New Hampshire, we made fun of Massachusetts and Vermont, In California, we were only vaguely aware that there were other states. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452/88 "2003-07-16T14:07:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by amanset \* > \*\*Sorry, I am talking about the UK. > > The Swedish rail system is starting to go a bit crazy though. It is losing money like it is going out of fashion \*\* Well, passenger rail systems rarely do make money so that’s hardly a strike against a country. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452/89 "2003-07-16T14:14:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Evil Captor \* > \*\* > > We also built wild-ass Populuxe palaces like Fontainebleu in Miami Beach, or the Gobbler hotel out in the Dells (where all the walls are covered in shag carpeting of various colors). \*\* I recommend all Dopers to go look at the Gobbler on James Lilek’s site if they haven’t already ([www.lileks.com](http://www.lileks.com)). ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452/90 "2003-07-16T19:47:23Z")
gripes about US: -Nobody assumes personal responisiblity for their fuckups any more. We’re a nation of finger pointers. It’s always better to shift the blame rather than own up to your own mistakes. -Quality is tossed aside in favor of dumbing everything down to the greatest common denominator. Just make it good enough so that the optimal number of consumers buy into it and away we go. -The “God is on Our Side” mentality -the perception that every person in the country is a potential customer and falls into a certain demographic. -Can’t we just _butt out_ of other countries’ affairs? Quit planting dangerous seeds that will bite us in the ass later? Stop this bullshit of having to clean up our messes and making the rest of the world hate us more. ---
**Author:** ![Svt4Him](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@Svt4Him](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svt4Him)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452/91 "2003-07-16T21:17:30Z")
Canada: Could have had US technology, French cooking and British hospitality. Instead got US hospitality, French technology and British cooking. But I love Canada. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-wrong-with-your-country/188452.md?page=4)