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I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It's not perfect, but once you live in other countries for a bit, even

I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It's not perfect, but once you live in other countries for a bit, even if you enjoy the experience, you appreciate the U.S. a lot more.

tdb7893 8y ago
It might be the greatest if you have a decent amount of money. My experiences with poorer rural communities really changed my perspective on the US (and I assume inner cities communities would also have the same effect).
ben_w 8y ago
My system one thinking has the impression the USA is better than Russia or Saudi Arabia but kinda swings and roundabouts with China. My system two thinking, given what people say about things rather than personal experience, puts a lot of caveats on top of the China comparison. However, basing my judgement purely on direct personal experience: regarding “greatest the world has ever seen”… I’d rather have been born a random citizen of France, Netherlands, (west) Germany, Switzerland, or the UK, than a random citizen of the USA — and again, that’s just out of the places I’ve actually visited or lived in. Going back to second hand impressions: Canada, Ireland, and most of Scandinavia seems better than the impression I have of the USA from three visits of one month each.
coldtea 8y ago
>I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It's not perfect, but once you live in other countries for a bit, even if you enjoy the experience, you appreciate the U.S. a lot more. Depends on whether you have lived in an advanced Western European country. It also depends of your tolerance of rednecks, prudes, puritans, and ignorant people (which exist everywhere in the world, but have particularly large concentrations there). Or on your tolerance of a messed up party system, a messed up legal system, a messed up prison system (and the biggest incarceration rates in the world), cops that have an open license to shoot people, and the worse and more widespread racism this side of South Africa. Or on your tolerance on very bad statistics on violence (especially gun violence). Or on your tolerance for businesses having near feudal reign on their workers. That said, if you have the money, and the connections, the US is a pretty good deal to spend them. Not to mention very nice landscapes, and generally good hearted and optimistic people (besides the aforementioned negatives). Plus, for some industries (basically IT and movies), they're tops.
- cjf4 8y ago
  >Depends on whether you have lived in an advanced Western European country. All of which enjoy the shadow of nuclear security provided by the United States.
  - Semirhage 8y ago
    You do know that France is a nuclear power, right?
  - soperj 8y ago
    The US of late has caused more shit than anything. The Syrian war is a direct consequence of going into Iraq for no reason.
    - Semirhage 8y ago
      Let’s go back a bit. The US intervened in Afghanistan against the Soviets decades ago, training what would become Al Qaeda, which would later attack the US. In response the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq (again) destabilizing the region and leading to the birth of ISIS, the “Arab Spring” and the Syrian civil war. It’s just waves of blowback from bad decisions without any concept that the groundwork for more blowback is being laid.
  - KirinDave 8y ago
    That was true briefly for a few years. The EU is itself a fairly well-armed nuclear power. psst They're also quietly better at cybersecurity than the US government.
    - bepotts 8y ago
      This isn't true at all. The EU is just now starting to think about self defense because of Trump. Trump's insurgence is putting into question the US-led world order and NATO alliances. Without the US, NATO is functionally useless. The EU is under the security blanket of the US, whether it likes to believe it or not. Hell, most of those countries pay less than 2 percent of their budgets towards their own defense, and they get pissy when the past three US Presidents call them out on it.
lord_ring_111 8y ago
Of late i have noticed is u praise us or condemn other countries you get down voted.
- LeftTurnSignal 8y ago
  That's been common for a long time. I still don't get why someone has to say A is better than everything else. The second someone says A is better, there's an army of people frothing at the mouth who will (usually justifiably) say the opposite. There doesn't seem like any happy mediums anymore. One person is wrong, one person is right, but I'm pretty sure they're usually both right and both wrong. tl;dr People are silly.
iskander 8y ago
Meh. I've spent enough time in the Netherlands and Israel to know that the quality of life in both countries is, in many ways, way better than here. Socialized medicine and cheap education go a really long way toward making people happy (even if they have less disposable income).
- aagha 8y ago
  Where do you live now? Why?
  - iskander 8y ago
    I currently live split between NY and Miami but am starting to look at jobs outside the US.
Hasknewbie 8y ago
>> [T]he greatest country the world has ever seen Something tells me you have not seen (let alone lived in) that many countries. If you had, you'd know different societies have different ups and downs. Some countries have more taxes, they also have more perks (e.g. schools and healthcare are not a lottery); some have less money, but also less problems (lower crime rate, low pollution). "Greatest" is meaningless.
jdietrich 8y ago
This claim sticks in the throat of a lot of Europeans, because of the visible level of inequality in the US. We see many of your citizens suffering in ways that simply wouldn't happen in our countries; we struggle to find a charitable way of reconciling that with the claim that America is the best country. If you're the richest and most powerful nation in history, why do you have the highest incarceration rate in the world? Why do so many sick and injured Americans end up bankrupt or die prematurely? Why do parts of Michigan look post-apocalyptic? Why are many of your schools still de-facto segregated? Why is there a Wikipedia article titled "List of tent cities in the United States"? We could understand a claim like "America is really weird - we're ridiculously wealthy, but our government is profoundly dysfunctional in ways that are hard to fix, which causes a great deal of avoidable suffering". That makes sense to us. A claim like "America is the greatest country the world has ever seen" sounds obscenely callous without some very strong caveats attached.
- bepotts 8y ago
  Even when Europeans critique the United States, they're critiquing the US from the US liberal perspective. > Why do so many sick and injured Americans end up bankrupt or die prematurely? Because we don't have a national healthcare system. Why? Because people vote against it. The party in charge of the entire country would cut the government by half if it had the power to do so, and they keep getting elected because a large portion of the country agrees with them. Even within the Democratic party, large portions don't want a national healthcare system (though polling on this has changed in recent years). Why? Because if you have a job you probably have a healthcare plan, and a good portion of the country doesn't want their taxes raised to pay for healthcare ran by the government. Even liberals in the US have trouble understanding this. > Why do parts of Michigan look post-apocalyptic? Michigan is a gorgeous state (you'd know this if you were at all familiar with it) with one of the best universities in the world, and a GDP higher than most EU countries. If Michigan is post-apocalyptic, then most EU countries are favelas in Rio after a nuclear holocaust. > Why are many of your schools still de-facto segregated? Why is there a Wikipedia article titled "List of tent cities in the United States"? We have income inequality. We don't have a consensus on what to do about it. > We could understand a claim like "America is really weird - we're ridiculously wealthy, but our government is profoundly dysfunctional in ways that are hard to fix, which causes a great deal of avoidable suffering". That makes sense to us. A claim like "America is the greatest country the world has ever seen" sounds obscenely callous without some very strong caveats attached. Sure, but many Americans don't understand why you guys are so reliant and on your government and refuse to take ownership of your own lives. Many would argue that your constant need for government to provide for you is why the EU, for being almost twice the size of the US, lacks the cultural and political influence, and innovation that the US has. The US, for better or worse, is a "get mine and don't worry about anyone else" country. Even the "left" in the US gets upset when something of "theirs" is threatened to be taken for the better good - just look at the housing situation in liberal San Francisco.
sneak 8y ago
I lived in Germany for ten years. I like the US even less now. What makes you believe that what you say is true?
endisukaj 8y ago
People who say stuff like this are usually people who have never set foot outside the US.
eli_gottlieb 8y ago
>I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. How the bloody heck can you quantify this, and provided you can, why not just throw out the blindly nationalistic rhetoric and use the measurements?
s73v3r_ 8y ago
The "greatest country the world has ever seen" would not let people die simply because they could not afford medical care.

tdb7893 8y ago

It might be the greatest if you have a decent amount of money. My experiences with poorer rural communities really changed my perspective on the US (and I assume inner cities communities would also have the same effect).

ben_w 8y ago

My system one thinking has the impression the USA is better than Russia or Saudi Arabia but kinda swings and roundabouts with China. My system two thinking, given what people say about things rather than personal experience, puts a lot of caveats on top of the China comparison. However, basing my judgement purely on direct personal experience: regarding “greatest the world has ever seen”… I’d rather have been born a random citizen of France, Netherlands, (west) Germany, Switzerland, or the UK, than a random citizen of the USA — and again, that’s just out of the places I’ve actually visited or lived in. Going back to second hand impressions: Canada, Ireland, and most of Scandinavia seems better than the impression I have of the USA from three visits of one month each.

coldtea 8y ago

>I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. It's not perfect, but once you live in other countries for a bit, even if you enjoy the experience, you appreciate the U.S. a lot more. Depends on whether you have lived in an advanced Western European country. It also depends of your tolerance of rednecks, prudes, puritans, and ignorant people (which exist everywhere in the world, but have particularly large concentrations there). Or on your tolerance of a messed up party system, a messed up legal system, a messed up prison system (and the biggest incarceration rates in the world), cops that have an open license to shoot people, and the worse and more widespread racism this side of South Africa. Or on your tolerance on very bad statistics on violence (especially gun violence). Or on your tolerance for businesses having near feudal reign on their workers. That said, if you have the money, and the connections, the US is a pretty good deal to spend them. Not to mention very nice landscapes, and generally good hearted and optimistic people (besides the aforementioned negatives). Plus, for some industries (basically IT and movies), they're tops.

cjf4 8y ago
>Depends on whether you have lived in an advanced Western European country. All of which enjoy the shadow of nuclear security provided by the United States.
- Semirhage 8y ago
  You do know that France is a nuclear power, right?
- soperj 8y ago
  The US of late has caused more shit than anything. The Syrian war is a direct consequence of going into Iraq for no reason.
  - Semirhage 8y ago
    Let’s go back a bit. The US intervened in Afghanistan against the Soviets decades ago, training what would become Al Qaeda, which would later attack the US. In response the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq (again) destabilizing the region and leading to the birth of ISIS, the “Arab Spring” and the Syrian civil war. It’s just waves of blowback from bad decisions without any concept that the groundwork for more blowback is being laid.
- KirinDave 8y ago
  That was true briefly for a few years. The EU is itself a fairly well-armed nuclear power. psst They're also quietly better at cybersecurity than the US government.
  - bepotts 8y ago
    This isn't true at all. The EU is just now starting to think about self defense because of Trump. Trump's insurgence is putting into question the US-led world order and NATO alliances. Without the US, NATO is functionally useless. The EU is under the security blanket of the US, whether it likes to believe it or not. Hell, most of those countries pay less than 2 percent of their budgets towards their own defense, and they get pissy when the past three US Presidents call them out on it.

lord_ring_111 8y ago

Of late i have noticed is u praise us or condemn other countries you get down voted.

LeftTurnSignal 8y ago
That's been common for a long time. I still don't get why someone has to say A is better than everything else. The second someone says A is better, there's an army of people frothing at the mouth who will (usually justifiably) say the opposite. There doesn't seem like any happy mediums anymore. One person is wrong, one person is right, but I'm pretty sure they're usually both right and both wrong. tl;dr People are silly.

iskander 8y ago

Meh. I've spent enough time in the Netherlands and Israel to know that the quality of life in both countries is, in many ways, way better than here. Socialized medicine and cheap education go a really long way toward making people happy (even if they have less disposable income).

aagha 8y ago
Where do you live now? Why?
- iskander 8y ago
  I currently live split between NY and Miami but am starting to look at jobs outside the US.

Hasknewbie 8y ago

>> [T]he greatest country the world has ever seen Something tells me you have not seen (let alone lived in) that many countries. If you had, you'd know different societies have different ups and downs. Some countries have more taxes, they also have more perks (e.g. schools and healthcare are not a lottery); some have less money, but also less problems (lower crime rate, low pollution). "Greatest" is meaningless.

jdietrich 8y ago

This claim sticks in the throat of a lot of Europeans, because of the visible level of inequality in the US. We see many of your citizens suffering in ways that simply wouldn't happen in our countries; we struggle to find a charitable way of reconciling that with the claim that America is the best country. If you're the richest and most powerful nation in history, why do you have the highest incarceration rate in the world? Why do so many sick and injured Americans end up bankrupt or die prematurely? Why do parts of Michigan look post-apocalyptic? Why are many of your schools still de-facto segregated? Why is there a Wikipedia article titled "List of tent cities in the United States"? We could understand a claim like "America is really weird - we're ridiculously wealthy, but our government is profoundly dysfunctional in ways that are hard to fix, which causes a great deal of avoidable suffering". That makes sense to us. A claim like "America is the greatest country the world has ever seen" sounds obscenely callous without some very strong caveats attached.

bepotts 8y ago
Even when Europeans critique the United States, they're critiquing the US from the US liberal perspective. > Why do so many sick and injured Americans end up bankrupt or die prematurely? Because we don't have a national healthcare system. Why? Because people vote against it. The party in charge of the entire country would cut the government by half if it had the power to do so, and they keep getting elected because a large portion of the country agrees with them. Even within the Democratic party, large portions don't want a national healthcare system (though polling on this has changed in recent years). Why? Because if you have a job you probably have a healthcare plan, and a good portion of the country doesn't want their taxes raised to pay for healthcare ran by the government. Even liberals in the US have trouble understanding this. > Why do parts of Michigan look post-apocalyptic? Michigan is a gorgeous state (you'd know this if you were at all familiar with it) with one of the best universities in the world, and a GDP higher than most EU countries. If Michigan is post-apocalyptic, then most EU countries are favelas in Rio after a nuclear holocaust. > Why are many of your schools still de-facto segregated? Why is there a Wikipedia article titled "List of tent cities in the United States"? We have income inequality. We don't have a consensus on what to do about it. > We could understand a claim like "America is really weird - we're ridiculously wealthy, but our government is profoundly dysfunctional in ways that are hard to fix, which causes a great deal of avoidable suffering". That makes sense to us. A claim like "America is the greatest country the world has ever seen" sounds obscenely callous without some very strong caveats attached. Sure, but many Americans don't understand why you guys are so reliant and on your government and refuse to take ownership of your own lives. Many would argue that your constant need for government to provide for you is why the EU, for being almost twice the size of the US, lacks the cultural and political influence, and innovation that the US has. The US, for better or worse, is a "get mine and don't worry about anyone else" country. Even the "left" in the US gets upset when something of "theirs" is threatened to be taken for the better good - just look at the housing situation in liberal San Francisco.

sneak 8y ago

I lived in Germany for ten years. I like the US even less now. What makes you believe that what you say is true?

endisukaj 8y ago

People who say stuff like this are usually people who have never set foot outside the US.

eli_gottlieb 8y ago

>I'll go ahead and say the United States is the greatest country the world has ever seen. How the bloody heck can you quantify this, and provided you can, why not just throw out the blindly nationalistic rhetoric and use the measurements?

s73v3r_ 8y ago

The "greatest country the world has ever seen" would not let people die simply because they could not afford medical care.