General Discussion

What's right with America?

Let's start with our much maligned economy. I'm not trying to sugarcoat it, times are definitely tough for an awful lot of families right now. But you know what? We've made it through a depression; we've made it through wars, oil shocks, and major terrorist attacks and we're still standing. In fact, we're not just standing, we're towering over the rest of the world.

Our economy is almost as big as the next four largest economies on Earth (Japan, Germany, China and Great Britain) combined. The state of California alone has an economy as large as the entire country of France. Illinois has the same GDP as all of Mexico. New York matches the entire GDP of Brazil. Florida's economy is as large as South Korea's. Texas has a GDP roughly equal to Canada's. Michigan's economy is as large as the entire country of Argentina.

It takes a lot longer to turn around an aircraft carrier than it does a dinghy, but the problem we have is with our ship's captain -- the pea-brains in Washington -- not her crew.

What's right with America? How about the way we educate our children. Sure, I complain a lot about left-wing professors and how some wealthy private universities hoard their billions while charging obscene amounts for tuition, but the truth is that our universities are always ranked among the best in the world.

Students aren't fleeing America to go to college in Japan, India, or China -- it's the other way around. We open our colleges and universities to more than 80,000 foreign professors, scholars and educators a year and we have more students in college right now than those three countries combined.

What's right with America? Our world-class universities don't require you to have an elite family name or Rockefeller-type wealth to get in. We don't care about your race, gender or nationality. You just have to be smart enough and work hard for it. What a concept, huh?

What's right with America? How about the way we treat the less fortunate? With no help from our government, Americans gave a record $306 billion to charities last year alone. We give twice as much as the next closest country and, relative to the size of our economies, we give 1,000 percent more than the French.

What's right with America? It's not just the wealthy who are generous. Two-thirds of American families making under $100,000 a year give to charity. Compassion is ingrained in our culture like no other.

What's right with America? How about our supposedly third-world health care system? We spend more on health care per person than Switzerland, Germany, Canada, or any other country you can think of. Do we still have problems? Absolutely, but don't fall for "the grass is greener" crowd; every country has health care problems.

What's right with America? We love our country. World Values Survey found that 77 percent of Americans are very proud of their nationality. That puts us in a first place tie with the Irish. Australia was next and no one else was really even close.

I could go on and on, but my point is that we don't need the so often wished for "change" in this country, we just need perspective.

While most of us inherently know that we've won the lottery by living here, we don't often think about the reasons why.

It is often easy to lost sight of things that we as Americans do well.  Sure our Country is broken in many ways but it is also doing very well in many ways too. 

Originally posted by Cabe2323

I could go on and on, but my point is that we don't need the so often wished for "change" in this country, we just need perspective.

While most of us inherently know that we've won the lottery by living here, we don't often think about the reasons why.

 

It is often easy to lost sight of things that we as Americans do well.  Sure our Country is broken in many ways but it is also doing very well in many ways too. 

Good principles don't equate to good practice. Every single category above needs serious changes.

Originally posted by DailyBuzz

Originally posted by Cabe2323

I could go on and on, but my point is that we don't need the so often wished for "change" in this country, we just need perspective.

While most of us inherently know that we've won the lottery by living here, we don't often think about the reasons why.

 

It is often easy to lost sight of things that we as Americans do well.  Sure our Country is broken in many ways but it is also doing very well in many ways too. 

 

Good principles don't equate to good practice. Every single category above needs serious changes.

Like what?  What honestly needs serious changes.  Our University system obviously works great.  Heck even terrorists get educated in American Universities. 

What needs serious changes in our charity?  Our citizens give more money to the world then any other country.  And not just more but WAY more.  If you mean that our Federal government shouldn't be giving any charity at all then sure I agree with you.  Charity should be voluntary.  Hence it is Charity.  Using Tax dollars to provide Charity should be illegal. 

What really needs to be changed about the fundamentals of our Economy.  Sure our Economy is hurting right now but it is still a larger Economy then any other Country in the World.  (Sorry but the European Union isn't a country) 

And as was stated in the Article our healthcare system inherently works.  Universal Healthcare is not a good option either.  Both systems have major flaws but at least our system gives people freedom.  Heck if you don't want healthcare (which there are a lot of the uninsured that refuse to carry healthcare by choice) insurance then you don't have to carry it.  There are people who save that money each month and put it into a "healthcare" fund.  What is so wrong with choice.  Plus universal healthcare is not a very good system either in many ways.  There is problems for many with waiting lists, etc. 

 I tend to agree. As a lower income individual I must admit that my life is pretty peachy even in these tougher times. I call them tougher because honestly for me they arent that tough. I make a little over minimum wage and have been blessed with the circumstances to achieve the goals which were set before me. Understandably the cost of materials has taken a hunk out of my savings.

 The only thing I wish was under more control was my cities council. They essentially have taken all of the tax funds and given it to themselves. Closing down schools, libraries, parks and all non-essential services. We tried to fight back and failed. The state backs them up saying they have the right to the same standard of living as higher income regions. Absolute bullshit considering our tax base is 1/100ths the size of the north. The poor shouldnt carry the pompus. Unfortunately the people are docile and easily swayed by flahsy gimmicks. Promises of change from new people are easily ignored once people are voted in.

 I suppose the only choice we have is to effectively extract punative funds from these individuals after theyve been voted out. It has occured. Sigh, our biggest enemy is ourself.

Good post.  You'll get flamed for it, but its a good post nonetheless.

Whats wrong with America?  How about public school systems grade K-12.  I grew up half in the U.S. and half in Japan, because my father was in the Air Force.  The education I recieved overseas from Department of Defense schools was way superior than the public schools in the U.S.

Want to take that a step further?  My Japanese counterparts went to school 6 Days a week, and they had longer days and more extra-cirricluar activities.  The public schools in America need a huge revamp.  Students are getting dumber (test scores are proof) when compared to other Nations worldwide.

And you have the nerve to point out that those smarter individuals from other countries are coming to OUR Universities?  They should be full of American students, but they are not.

I went to Arizona State University, took an upper level physics class, walked in on the first day and there were a bunch of Indian, and Asian people in the class and was like, whoa wtf?  Where are all the American kids?  Oh yeah, they probably dropped out of high school, or couldn't get into a good college because their test scores/GPA sucked.

Correct me if I'm wrong but 40% of the Americans can't afford healthcare. Sure, all countries have their problems with healthcare but that's probably worse then any of the healthcare-problems that we face in the rest of the Western world.

Originally posted by Aragoni

Correct me if I'm wrong but 40% of the Americans can't afford healthcare. Sure, all countries have their problems with healthcare but that's probably worse then any of the healthcare-problems that we face in the rest of the Western world.

40% is extremely high.  It is around 25 -40 million people last I saw.  That also includes people that decide to save money they won't purchase health insurance.  For instance my Mom was like that for a long time.  She made around 40-60K but chose not to purchase health insurance on her own.  (She is a private contractor as a medical Transcriptionist). 

I agree that any uninsured people are a problem or any people without medical care, but I don't want to give up the higher quality of care that you recieve as a private citizen as well as the freedom to choose your care provider.