Would the USA be better off if it was still controlled by the UK?

Answer 1

It would not be better off if it was still a colony, but had they not won independence (with French help), by 2006 it would have been granted independence, like Canada. In some senses it would not be better off but would probably have a better social structure and less of a gap between rich and poor, as is the case in other countries which have used the British model.

Answer 2

Absolutely, if you look to other former British colonies (Canada, Australia and New Zealand) there is much less poverty, health care for ALL is superior, and standards of education are considerably higher.
Crime Rates (and gun crime in particular) would not even approach levels seen today in the USA (with the right to own guns).
Also the USA is the worlds biggest debtor with the treasury being in debt to the Chinese , Japanese and to a lesser extent to the UK.
The USA is now at a point where it can never reasonably be expected to repay its treasury debt and I don't believe that a British administration would have allowed (quite) such a mess of its finances.I think that if USA had been granted its independence within the last 100 years or so that it would be a much better place, perhaps less materialistic and more concerned with the environment and social welfare.
Slavery was abolished in the British colonies 32 years earlier than in the USA so that is a whole generation of African Americans who would have gained freedom and it would not have required a civil war in the USA for that to happen.
America has however afforded security in Europe in the last century and has been instrumental in repelling the threat of communism even if it has at times placed Western Europe in jeopardy during the cold war.
America has turned the tables on its former colonial administration and has now embarked on a period of Military Imperialism of its own (much like the British in the 19th century)
I can't help thinking that this will prove to be a backward step and that the US has learnt nothing from past British, French, Spanish mistakes.
Lastly the rest of the world would not be so afflicted by american culture (best and worst) and we would probably not have to put up with such an appalling movie business!

Answer 3

No, but the USA would be much better off if Bush wasn't President. Or just if our government wasn't made up of only Republicans and Democrats, but rather a large mix of parties with different interests so that the voice of the government is TRULY the voice of the people.

Answer 4

UK politicians can not even control the rate of spin that the government puts out, so controlling anything else would not work. We had an Empire but I would not give this bunch the running of a "Piss up in a Brewery".

Answer 5

No because the UK taxes their people to death, they pay 5 or 6 dollars a gallon for gas. That is why the war started between us, the Brits tried to tax the colonies clear across the ocean. Remember the Boston tea party. and the slogan no taxation without representation.

Answer 6

We can barely control ourselves, I doubt we could manage the administration of such a massive colony. The UK is really little more than a pet of the USA now.

Answer 7

Would the UK be better off? I don't think either would be better off. The way things are positioned now, we can support each other in bringing some form of sanity to the world.

Answer 8

If it means avoiding people like Bush in power, then yes. I don't like taxation without representation, but still... at least the British can be influenced by the European powers to come to their senses. We are so full of ourselves and arrogant, that when faced with the truth that we are wrong, we don't admit it, and say that we are right, yet everyone else is not thinking correctly.

Answer 9

Hard to say. I guess you can compare that hypothetical situation to Canada, Australia, and even to New Zealand. It wasn't until the last half of the century that Canada was able to gain it's independence from Britain with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Answer 10

Heck NO.

The UK controlled the U.S remember? We went no where but backwards. This is INDEPENDENT country, and we celebrate that every 4th of July.

USA!