If America is so great, what makes it better than any other country?
2007-06-23 14:59:09 · 17 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Other - Politics & Government
A little of both.
It use to be a lot better but our egos are too big to see that we are on the decline...if not flat out destruction of our country.
2007-06-23 15:02:42 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
First I just have to say that I have never seen so many great answers to a question in this forum as I have seen here! Excellent question, apparently!
I was going to say BOTH, unequivocally. We ARE a great country, and we DEFINITELY have an ego problem.
The whole story is so easy to buy when you grow up here, founded by heroes who rose up against England because they were being treated unfairly, lived with slavery for the next 65 years until they decided to wage war to abolish that aberration, minded their own business until they had no choice but to fight World Wars One and Two, and so on and on....
All of that being said, there is a lot of spin in the easy answer. We are not as altruistic as we think we are. We ARE innovative, but we are placing ideological restraints on our science to the point of hobbling it, and we are steadfastly refusing to address our energy and our medical situations.
We went to war in the wrong place and for the wrong reasons, more than once--and straight out of PNAC's playbook, which basically says that America can do no wrong, precisely because it IS America.
I can't help coming back to the great country, though. For all of our faults (and they are many and horrible) there is a certain spirit here that is wonderful, and the Constitution (if we'd only follow it) is the most excellent governing document ever formulated by men. I guess I still believe in it, no matter how often or how bitterly I've been disillusioned. Maybe that's just the normal national chauvinism of your average Joe anywhere in the world, but I've lived a lot of places, and that's what I think.
Anyway, that's the best I've got right now. I'm a twelfth generation white American, so I guess I'm in it, for good or bad....
2007-06-23 16:13:57 · answer #2 · answered by oimwoomwio 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The US is a great country. But we also spend too much time patting ourselves on the back, when we should be fixing this nation's crumbling physical, social, and medical infrastructure.
Living and working in other nations has taught me that the US is a great nation for the freedoms we possess, the breadth and beauty of our nation. Our culture has a richness that is often disregarded.
But we have a pathetic sense of history, which causes us to build temporary buildings and communities and to tear down the architecture both physical and emotional that exists around us. A drive from Tulsa to Dallas will reveal nothing new...just more Blockbusters, What-a-Burgers, McDonalds, Wal-Marts...and oh hey look a Target Greatland. This uni-culture is destroying us slowly but surely. How many Sonics do we need. And at what point do I cross into Indiana and know that I am in Indiana or Ohio or Tennessee. In fifty years what will be different about Atlanta vs. Columbus...or any other American city.
European cities are so full of wonderful architecture and the good sense to take care of it. I have been in private homes in places like Tuebingen, Germany that date back to the end of the Thirty Years War. I'm not talking about museum or historical homes. I'm talking about a professor's house.
I remember in 2003, I was in Regensburg, Germany for business meetings. The Sunday evening before the meetings, we took a stroll through the center of the city. It was alive with people. The stores were all closed, but people were out enjoying the beauty of the city (rebuilt following heavy US bombing). It is one of the joys of European cities that you can acutally walk or bike nearly everywhere in relative safety. If I try biking or walking out of my Tulsa subdivision I take my life in my own hands.
American cities, particularly in the Midwest are built for cars not people.
And trains...oh how I wish we had trains in this country...no not Amtrak...but something that the SNCF or Deutsche Bahn. Can you imagine the changes to our society if a family wakes up in St. Louis in the morning and decides to go Christmas shopping on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. And instead of a 6-7 hour drive up I-55 or I-57, they hop on a highspeed train, enjoy lunch on the train --- maybe gamble a bit on the casino car and arrive at the main station in Chicago in less than 2 hours. How about going to see the Cards play the Cubs at Wrigley or wow...what if a guy were to live in St. Louis and commute to a job in Chicago???
Maybe we can get Richard Branson to create Virgin Rail and give this country the rail service it deserves.
Sorry for the ramble, but as much as I love this country, it definitely could do with some constructive change that would make it even greater.
2007-06-23 15:27:47 · answer #3 · answered by KERMIT M 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a great country that currently has too many people thinking it is greater than it is and too many people thinking it is much worse than it is.
What makes America great is the freedom and prosperity. If you don't understand, think about living in countries that don't have indoor plumbing and roads, let alone jobs and banks and fun little electronics like computers. Or how about France, whose unemployment rate consistently hovers around 20%? Or what about China, where there are no minimum wage or worker safety laws and the people have no freedom of speech or expression?
America embodies all that is best about people. We don't always do the right things with it, and we don't always turn that emobiment into the right actions, but at least we have that potential.
Compare the number of people who come to live in America from all over the world to the number of Americans who go to permanently live somewhere else and become citizens of another country. No contest.
2007-06-23 15:09:17 · answer #4 · answered by Farly the Seer 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It really is a great country along with many other countries America is great. America really gives its people opertunity to do what ever they want. Taxes are not high like they are in many other countries, things are not expensive, living conditions are good. America is a great country. If it was not so great than why would millions of people every year from other countries try to move here?
2007-06-23 15:08:21 · answer #5 · answered by Steven H 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I think Michael Moore can answer this question best Gee. Here in Australia the people l know think ego in America is high. Plus the saying shoot first then ask questions seems to rule.
2007-06-24 00:20:24 · answer #6 · answered by stirling_strauss 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it's like the pretty girl that knows it...
but she knows it so much, it completely ruins her personality...
she thinks she's 10 times better than anyone and she can do whatever she wants... and if anyone has a problem with it, they are just "jealous"...
but, girls like that... they always end up alone and depressed... maybe a few desperate guys wanting to "score with the hot chick" are the only ones that hang around anymore... and eventually they even leave, either through "scoring" and not caring anymore or just getting tired of waiting...
can she change, sure... will she? probably not before she hits bottom... and with all that wasted time... everyone else has left her far behind and there's other "hot new girls" that are nice... and she's just old...
2007-06-23 15:11:14 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Both
Better because:
Unemployment rate of less than 5%
2.5 trillion dollar budget
Average currency
15k airports
And the world's strongest military- 6 thousand deliverable nukes
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/summary.htm
2007-06-24 02:53:57 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
We have a culture that encourages invention and success. We have the greatest universities. We are extremely wealthy, particularly after WWII because we have never been invaded, to any serious degree.
Mostly it is the freedom and lack of an over-reaching government, for the most part. There is a political party that would like to reduce that second part.
We have tremendous natural resources.
2007-06-23 15:05:19 · answer #9 · answered by bravozulu 7 · 6⤊ 1⤋
we are a great country but do have to much ego and as far as the leaders this country is going down.
2007-06-23 15:05:10 · answer #10 · answered by DRAGON 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋