Would the world be better without the US?

Question

Before you jump for a quick answer, stop and imagine for a second a world without the United States. Commonly, when a question like this is asked, most people immediately think of America's most obvious influence on the world, her military. Sure, without the US we'd probably, maybe; be speaking German, all communists, or surrounded by chaos and instability. But lets stop for a sec and look at America's cultural influence on the world, arguably equally as influential as her military. Imagine a world without the US, we wouldn't have Hollywood, probably wouldn't be as materialistic or superficial as a society, wouldn't have guns and weapons littered all over the world, wouldn't have hip hop or MTV spreading around the globe, no globalization, better corporate ethics, wouldn't all be addicted to capitalism, global warming wouldn't be as much of a phenomenon, no nukes or doomsday clock... The list goes on. So what do you think? Would we all be better off if the United States never existed?

Answer 1

Your question is sort of like asking if an elephant would be better without ears. The world is what it is and the US is part of the mix.

Answer 2

Obviously, no, we would not be better off. Guns and weapons would still be "littered all over the world," we're not the only ones with guns. Ask Russia and China what they think about stopping arms suppliers Globalization would have still occcurred, Britain was doing a pretty good job of heading that way in the Colonial days. Further, you say "globalization" like it is a bad thing outright; that's arguable. Ditto on MTV and hiphop; remove America because of those two things? Are you serious? Corporate ethics would still be questionable, more than likely, because someone will always want to push boundaries when dollar amounts start to climb. Capitalism has, thus far, been the most effective system, period. The rest are nice in theory, crappy in application. Ask the average Chinese or Russian citizen; I have. Nuclear weapons would likely still have been invented; never underestimate mankind's ability to devise ways to kill each other. And despite our shadow of being a "materialistic and superficial" society, the massive economy that drives the U.S. has given the world countless medical and scientific advances beyond Bratz collectibles and Abercrombie. The U.S., in turn, has been the principal fund supplier for the U.N. (well, I guess that counts against the U.S., but I digress). The U.S. also funnels aid to developing countries by the millions. American culture has its weak points, to be sure: every time I see Paris Hilton on TV, I want to vomit. But to declare (as you seem to be by implication) that the U.S. is the root of all evil in the modern world is to overlook all the contributions (social, political, economical, scientific, etc...) that this great country has provided.

Answer 3

no. not at all. Despite our huge involvement in just about everything, and our influence in just about everything, we actually do the world a load of good. We are constantly performing studies to help with disease. We study space and many other fields that a lot of other nations either can't study or are unable to study to our extent. We would still have the materialistic and superficial people you speak of. They are called human beings. Everyone, despite what they say, is superficial and materialistic. Being "addicted to capitalism" is no where near as bad as everyone makes it sound. But to be truthful, we are no where near true capitalism as Adam Smith first envisioned. True capitalism has no government regulations and is able to sustain itself in and of the fact that people would not work for or attend any buisness that did not maintain decent standards, therefore allowing the invisible hand to control the market. Money would be spent on the best products avaliable, not distributed to prevent monopoly's. The US is a major stabalizer in the world today. We represent to all other countries that freedom is indeed attainable, and what should be done in order to maintain a healthy economic and socio-politcal life. While we are not at "the top of our game" right now, we are also fighting for something that we strongly believe in. Freedom. This in and of itself proves that the US should exist. And besides, the world would get around to all the things you mentioned. ["materialistic or superficial as a society, wouldn't have guns and weapons littered all over the world, wouldn't have hip hop or MTV spreading around the globe, no globalization, better corporate ethics, wouldn't all be addicted to capitalism, global warming wouldn't be as much of a phenomenon, no nukes or doomsday clock..."] They would just be a little slower about it.

Answer 4

Would the world be better? Lets look at all the major conflicts the U.S. has been involved in:
1) The Phillipine Inserection: granted this was America's first act of imperialism, it did lead to the Phillipines becoming it own sovereign nation in 1946. Furthermore, it was in Spainish rule, meaning in WW2, it would have been in facist control.... think about that, at least we were willing to help FIGHT for the Phillipine people.
2) Spanish-American War: this war gained Cuba its eventual freedom from Spanish colonialism... way to screw them over huh?
3) WW1: France would have fallen without us coming into the war, they were having mutinies in 1917. We didn't enter until April. Germany would have been able to focus soley on Britian. Serbia, Areminia Christians, and to a lesser extent Poles would have been nearly wiped out during the war.
4) WW2: lack of U.S. intervention would have lead to the raping of Chinese, Phillipine and other Asian villiages by the Japanese. Australia and New Zealand and India would eventually fall as British attention is focused on Germany. Most of the Jews, Slavs, Poles, and Communists (yes, there is worse than Bush) would be killed in the Holocaust. All of Europe would be speaking German. Africa would have been split up between Italy and Germany.
5) Korea: South Korea would fall within a couple of weeks (they had us pushed back nearly to the sea, even with the aid of the US and NATO) and would be a communist state, and more likely be an economic slum like North Korea today.
6) Vietnam: would have also fallen quickly, and yes the South was against communism. Compare Korea and Vietnam, thats the world without the US.
7)Gulf War: Kuwait has no major country to back it up, besides the UK, but they speak German now, so thats lost.

Also without the US you wouldn't have the United Nations, which by the way, watches the many nations and makes sure they don't go crazy making nuclear weapons. And as for the spread of guns, if you look closely, AK-47s are way more common than M16s.

As for the materialism? Well the world probably wouldn't have to worry about that as it would either be communist or run by Nazis. Under communism, you wouldn't have to worry about capitalism or corporate ethics, and there wouldn't be it and no one would care about corporate ethics.

As I said, the world would be jacked up, to say the least. As an American, to the rest of the world, you're welcome.

Answer 5

Impossible to say... Maybe something like US- was an inevitability. Some OTHER country like us would've popped up, somewhere. And then... -look at Canada. They're not so very different from us, & the people are decent, prosperous & relatively happy. Would they be otherwise or worse off- without us? I don't know. The bottom line IS; I don't think we are so "wonderfull" a country- that we can act like we have the market "cornered" on what's BEST for the rest of the World. We have MORE than enough problems within our OWN borders- to keep us from minding other peoples business in theirs.

Answer 6

Your question is very one-sided. The Myanmarese military police have been raping virgins there for a decade. (Unfortunately, simultaneously fixing all such threats and abuses throughout the world is just not possible.) Imagine how much worse they'd be though were there no U.S. or U.N. to worry about! You'd be seeing more like the Rape of Nanking, the Khmer Rouge, the Holocaust. There'd be a lot more of all that -- a hell of a lot more war! The Catholic church would still be spreading by murder and lies as the dominant force in the world and exercising its tyranny over the mind of man.

Yes, the wars and overthrows that keep a country from developing would have prevented us from forming capitalism. But capitalism is only the American expression of greed and power. Most Americans are not greedy money-addicts just as most communists are not addicted to smashing babies' heads against trees while playing loud noise to drown out the screams of both they and their mothers. Greed and power-hunger exist in all countries -- they are just manifested differently. Pursuing money is much better than dominating or suppressing others in order to feel accomplished!

Furthermore, whereas intelligence is valued in free society, it has been sought out and eliminated in communist states because compliant idiots are easier to control than people with minds of their own. In order to prevent dissension, communist rulers have tended to kill anyone who might dissent. A society that can listen to criticism and come up with solutions will of course be far more productive and therefore naturally more powerful than a ruling force that kills its greatest minds for fear of criticism or dissension! Without the U.S., those of us who consider ourselves independent thinkers would most likely have been killed by now so that stupid, compliant, androids might have replaced us!

Listing primarily the negatives about the U.S. would be like listing primarily the negatives about you (while leaving out a lot of positives) in order to manipulate people into thinking you're a bad person. That just wouldn't be fair or logical would it?

Democracy is based on the idea that putting the power in the hands of the people actually minimizes corruption. I will acknowledge, however, that when the people willingly relinquish their power and mindlessly believe the brainwashing propaganda paid for by corporations, we're right back where we started. To say that America shouldn't exist would be ignorant of all its positive influences (yes, there are negatives as well, but only a hypocrite would pretend to be perfect). To say that the apathy of the voters is allowing corporations via the votes they purchase through propaganda to control the world, and that the world is therefore still controlled by the greedy despite democracy, would be more accurate. The problem is the willing forfeit of power by lazy-minded people. The solution -- people aware and involved -- is possible and would be quite beneficial. But can the masses actually care enough to be involved? Or will they forever be controlled even when given every opportunity to have control? That, in my opinion, is what this experiment is all about!

Answer 7

The U.S is responsible for alot of the problems in the world. Wars that never should've been and so on. Yet the world knows the U. S. as a place to have a better life. What it is actually compared to the rest of the world, a place where the spoiled live, the ungrateful, the lazy, many over aboundantly wealthy. Without all these things, without the U.S. we would live in one of these other countries, we would be the late night infomercials. We might even appreciate life as the less fortunate live it.

Answer 8

Without the military we would be under fascist rule. Germany would have forced the nuke out of Einstein instead of the US smuggling him out. Japan would still be in an age of imperial stagnation.

England would have come up with hip hop, after all aren't they the center for counter culture and rebellion, or so they like to think anyways.

Ford would never have come up with the idea for the assembly line so mass production would never have come about. Franklin would have never discovered electricity, Edison never invented the light bulb, phonograph, etc. Eli Whitney would never have invented the cotton gin, or come up with interchangeable parts.

The US has done some stupid things in its history, but I would hardly call Europe's, Africa's, Asia's, South America's, or even the rest of North America's history clean either. As for America, and as much as you will hate to hear it, if you have talked to anyone who travels abroad it is one of the most polite, most aware of its morale problems, and most open to immigration and immigrant rights countries out there.

Materialism came about long before America. As for global warming, watch the street sweeper scene in Mary Poppins. You know that black cloud of soot that hangs over the whole thing, that was pre-electricity London. That would be what the world would be living with if it weren't for some of the discoveries and inventions of Americans. If you say someone else would have come up with it, then you are saying that someone else would have come up with everything else also and so it would have done no good to get rid of us.

Answer 9

Without America today, these things would all still exist. However, the US is such a pivetol influence around the world that without it wars would start, not end ! The world would become an international conflict, so much so, that the next war will be fought with sticks and stones !

Answer 10

You act as though the US is so terrible and the rest of the world are simply victims. Pull your head out and smell the coffee. Take a look at other cultures and you'll find they are either worse than the U.S.'s or just as bad, without outside influence. Try to research how much of this corrupt money is doled out to foreign countries and see where they would be politically, culturally and ethically, and I think you would be surprised.

Answer 11

That is a hard question. We would have been a welcome sprout of innovation if the human race was a more evolved and peaceful animal. Unfortunately we have the world being abused at a rate that is too vast to control and too many of us will keep our creature comforts until they are ripped from our cold dead fingers.
Our children will pay a tremendous price and just maybe after we grow up as a species we might survive....and we might not.