Is America the greatest country in the world?

[anotheratheisthere]

this post has two sections.

The fist half will just be a list of facts. Objetive statistical data from reputable and trustworthy sources such as the UN or the US DOS. they are in no particular order, I just added them as I found them.

The second half will be my interpretation of what these figures mean, and an invitation to discussion.

FACT: America is the industrialized country with the highest murder rate in the world. A higher rate than many third world countries.

FACT: America is the industrialized country with the highest rape rate in the world

FACT: America is the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world. more than China or Cuba. The percentage of people who are deprived of their freedom in America is greater than that in any other country, possibly in History.

FACT: We are the greatest exporters of weapons in the world.

FACT: Over the last 50 years, the US Government has killed more civilians than any other entity in the world.

FACT: 12 countries have a higher Quality of Life/Human Developement Index than the US.

FACT: We rank 38th in life expectancy.

FACT: We rank 48 in Infant Mortality, doing worse than Cuba.

FACT: We rank 19th in literacy. Below Cuba, Estonia, Latvia, Barbados, Slovenia, Lithuania, Armania, Hungary, Poland, Albania, Russia and more.

FACT: Our children rank in the bottom half amoung industrialized countries in math skills, scientific knowledge and problem solving skillls.

FACT: We have a larger percentage of people living below the poverty line than at least 7 countries, according to the CIA, and 12 countries according to the UN

FACT: We are the only industrialized country where people go bankrupt if they get sick

FACT: We are the only industrialized country where if you can't afford life saving surgery, you die.

FACT: We have more obese people per capita than any country in the world.

FACT: We have more obese people in the military per capita than any country in the world

FACT: We are ranked 37th in quality of healthcare

FACT: We spend more money per capita on healthcare than any country in the world.

FACT: We spend more money on war (aka "National Defense") than any other country. More than all countries in Europe combined.

FACT: We waste more energy per capita than any country in the world.

FACT: We drink more water per capita than any country in the world.

FACT: We are not number 1 in high school or college graduation rate

FACT: We are not the number 1 in post graduate degree issuance rate

FACT: We rank 20th in internet access as a percentage of the total population.

FACT: 14 countries have more Nobel recepients per capita than the US. Among the countries that beat us, 3 are third world countries.

FACT: We have the greatest income inequality in the civilized world. We are the only industrialized country in the world where the top 1% has more money than the bottom 95%. (South Africa beats us, but I am not sure if it counts as a developed nation)

FACT: We have the highest teen birth rate and teen abourtion rate in the undustrialized world. More than double that of most European countries.

FACT: 9 countries have more income per capita than the US. If you incorporate income inequality in the equation, or if you exclude the top 1% from the calculation, the median "Middle Class" American has lower income per capita than almost all European countries.

FACT: The average US Soldier has a lower net worth than the average soldier in 11 European countries.

FACT: We have one of the lowest voter turnout rate in the civilized world.

FACT: We have more serial killers per capita than any country in the world.

FACT: We have the greatest rate of pedophilia in the world.

FACT: In America, a lower percentage of people have a passport, or has ever visited a foreign country, than in any Eurpoean country.

FACT: Less people speak a 2nd language in America than in any country in Europe.

FACT: Less people know the name of their chief executive in America, than in any other European Country.

FACT: Less people know what form of Government their country has in America than anywhere in Europe.

FACT: THe US ranks 97th on the "Global Peace Index", which measures the peacefulness of a country.

FACT: 4 countries are rated Higher than the US on the Wall street Journal's "Index of Economic Freedom"

FACT: The US ranks 48th on the Press Freedom Index

FACT: The US has a higher suicide rate than 22 other countries

FACT: The US has more incest per capita than any industrialized country

FACT: The US ranks 151st on GDP Growth Rate, meaning 150 countries are getting richer at a faster rate than the US is.

FACT: The US ranks 30th in the Privacy Index, which determines the degree to which citizens are protected from corporate and governmental surveilance.

FACT: The US ranks 39th in the Environmental Performance Index, which measures the degree to which a country's policies avoids damaging the environment.

FACT: America is the only country in the civilized world where "Intelligent design" is actually taught in science classrooms.

FACT: America is the country in which the highest percentage of the population thinks Chrsitianity predates Judaism.

FACT: Among industrialized countries, America has the largest percentage of people who think the world is flat, largest percentage who think the world is literally 6000 years old, and largest percentage of people who think the sun orbits around the earth.

FACT: America is the country with the largest arsenal of nulear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction.

I don't know if I have much of a conclusion to make, except maybe this:

People who say "America is the greatest country in the world" are delusional.

I can understand a statement such as "I love my country more than anything in the world" because it's a subjective statement. I can even understand "America is a great country", or "America's creation (except for slavery and the genocide of native americans) was an amazing new experiment in democracy and freedom, which can be matched by no more than a half dozen similarly great phenomenons"

But a statement such as "America is the greatest country in the world" is an objective, quantifiable and demonstrably false statement.

One could say "America is the strongest military power in the world, although comunist China owns our ass economically, so military might doesn't really matter that much, since we couldn't get away with using it against anybody other than 3rd world countries".

One could say "America used to be the greatest country in the world, before Asia had emerged, and when Europe was still trying to rebuild itself after WWII", but how is that relevant to the current situation?

Ok, maybe I'm wrong. I'd LOVE TO be wrong. If somebody has a rational explanation for how America is the Greatest Country in the World, please let me know.

[Miles]

Sorry, but your mere word here isn't enough. Need links for your "Facts." Too many times too many people have played too fast and loose with the "facts."

[anotheratheisthere]

Sorry, but your mere word here isn't enough. Need links for your "Facts." Too many times too many people have played too fast and loose with the "facts."

I am not your mommy, I am not your daddy, I am not your nanny and I am not your babysitter. I am not in the business of spoon feeding you.

I spent about 40 minutes doing all the research. It's not hard.

While the US doesn't have the best internet access in the world, I'm sure you can get on google.com.

Soif there is any data in my list that you suspect is inaccurate, look it up, and if you find evidence that my data was inaccurate, refute it. What are you waiting for?

You said "Sorry but your mere word here isn't enough". Who the heck is asking you to take my word for it? Look it up, dude.


Hey, aren't you the same guy who said "Sorry, but your word isn't enough here. Need chapter and verse." when I wrote in my post about Mark 16:17-18 that "It's an irrefutable fact that the Bible has numerous passages commanding believers to "Spread the word"???

Man your ignorance and laziness know no bounds! The "Great Commission" is one of the most well known passages in the Bible. If you just google "spread the word" you get half a million hits.

Not only are you a Christian so ignorant about your own religion that you don't know one its central pillars, but you are so lazy that you can't even look it up before doubting its existence and exposing yourself to ridicule.

And now you expect me to go back and copy and paste about 100 links to about 100 stats? You're probably too lazy to click on the link anyway!

What's next, are you going to say "show me a link to your sources" if I say "The US Constitution gives me the right to free speech"?

Get real

[anotheratheisthere]

Sorry, but your mere word here isn't enough. Need links for your "Facts." Too many times too many people have played too fast and loose with the "facts."

Correction to my earlier post.

I am not REFUSING to provide you with any source, by any means. If there is any specific stat for which you can't find a reliable source, tell me and I'll gladly post the link.

But I sure as the non-existence of hell ain't gonna do the whole work for your lazy ass!

HINT: Start your research from wikipedia. Just enter the keywords relating to the stat in the search window. They'll have link to the Government or UN agency that published the data.

[Abraxas]

I don't think much of this is really news. We have a declining quality of life, declining education standards, declining infrastructure, declining economic power, declining military hegemony. Our industry has been replaced by ineffectual paper pushing and money shuffling. We are entirely unable to provide for ourselves, requiring the import of vast levels of both foreign resources and foreign capital to even keep lumbering. Our political system is beyond dysfunctional and probably beyond repair, the media useless, the courts broken.

Of course America is not the greatest country in the world, it doesn't even place.

[anotheratheisthere]

Ah, another two I found:

FACT: The US owes communist China more money than the combined value of all the real estate in california

FACT: The US ranks 19th in average IQ, below Poland, China, Hungary and many others.

[Miles]

I am not your mommy, I am not your daddy, I am not your nanny and I am not your babysitter. I am not in the business of spoon feeding you.

My, my. I must have really hit a sore spot.* In any case, in as much as your ego has convinced you that everyone should take you at your word, I'll leave you to you and your adoring and fans, and simply watch from the side lines. As it stands, your OP is worthless.








* Of course we both know the real reason don't we: If ya can't deliver the goods it's because you have no goods to deliver.

Oh yes, not that it matters a wit to you, but for others here who may be wondering, proper protocol when using the work of others is to give them credit for it, or in the case of web sources, alternatively provide a link. And this means going beyond such lame attempts as, "the UN or the US DOS."

[Abraxas]

I am not your mommy, I am not your daddy, I am not your nanny and I am not your babysitter. I am not in the business of spoon feeding you.

My, my. I must have really hit a sore spot.* In any case, in as much as your ego has convinced you that everyone should take you at your word, I'll leave you to you and your adoring and fans, and simply watch from the side lines. As it stands, your OP is worthless.

* Of course we both know the real reason don't we: If ya can't deliver the goods it's because you have no goods to deliver.

Oh yes, not that it matters a wit to you, but for others here who may be wondering, proper protocol when using the work of others is to give them credit for it, or in the case of web sources, alternatively provide a link. And this means going beyond such lame attempts as, "the UN or the US DOS."

I'll grant the OP was poorly formed and even more poorly sourced, but that aside, do you have any grounds to contest the content? Do you deny the US has fallen behind on things like quality of life, education, and health care when compared to other western democracies?

I personally find it galling that you on the one hand rip him for a lack of contribution when your own posts have done no better. What have I done to be dismissed casually as "one of (his) fans"? If you disagree with my conclusions, challenge me on them. Ask me to source them. Provide an alternate point of view. Simply walking in and dismissing everyone who shares a certain viewpoint certainly is not conductive to debate, and doing so by linking all those who happen to agree on a certain position to one poorly constructed post brings with it a myriad of fallacies such as hasty generalization and style over substance.

If you want to contribute, contribute, but don't come in here and write me off or others who I happen to agree with by attacking them for hollow posts when you provide nothing of your own. You said it yourself, "If ya can't deliver the goods it's because you have no goods to deliver", and, with that in mind, what can you deliver?

[anotheratheisthere]

I am not your mommy, I am not your daddy, I am not your nanny and I am not your babysitter. I am not in the business of spoon feeding you.

My, my. I must have really hit a sore spot.* In any case, in as much as your ego has convinced you that everyone should take you at your word, I'll leave you to you and your adoring and fans, and simply watch from the side lines. As it stands, your OP is worthless.
* Of course we both know the real reason don't we: If ya can't deliver the goods it's because you have no goods to deliver.

Oh yes, not that it matters a wit to you, but for others here who may be wondering, proper protocol when using the work of others is to give them credit for it, or in the case of web sources, alternatively provide a link. And this means going beyond such lame attempts as, "the UN or the US DOS."

Ok, it took me about 15 minutes, and I located the sources to about half the stats I pointed out. see below.

It's 4am and I'm going to bed.

If you have any specific claim you'd like to contest for which I have not linked a source, let me know and I'll look it up for you. Also, I can make you a peanut butter sandwich, I can walk you to the bus stop, I can console you when you're sad because you couldn't find a prom date and I can check for monsters underneath your bed before tucking you in. Then one day when you grow up, you can learn that before making carpet accusations about the accuracy of somebody else's statements, you may want to do a few minutes of research, and thus avoid being laughed at by everybody.

Let the record show that you are proved irrefutably wrong in your claim that "If ya can't deliver the goods it's because you have no goods to deliver", as related to my having refused to link the sources previously.

FACT: America is the industrialized country with the highest murder rate in the world. A higher rate than many third world countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... icide_rate

FACT: America is the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world. more than China or Cuba. The percentage of people who are deprived of their freedom in America is greater than that in any other country, possibly in History. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Priso ... 7_2008.PNG

FACT: We are the greatest exporters of weapons in the world.

FACT: Over the last 50 years, the US Government has killed more civilians than any other entity in the world.

FACT: 12 countries have a higher Quality of Life/Human Developement Index than the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... ment_Index

FACT: We rank 38th in life expectancy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Expec ... 05-2010.29

FACT: We rank 48 in Infant Mortality, doing worse than Cuba. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... ality_rate

FACT: We rank 19th in literacy. Below Cuba, Estonia, Latvia, Barbados, Slovenia, Lithuania, Armania, Hungary, Poland, Albania, Russia and more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... eracy_rate

FACT: Our children rank in the bottom half amoung industrialized countries in math skills, scientific knowledge and problem solving skillls.

FACT: We have a larger percentage of people living below the poverty line than at least 7 countries, according to the CIA, and 12 countries according to the UN http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... in_poverty

FACT: We are the only industrialized country where people go bankrupt if they get sick

FACT: We are the only industrialized country where if you can't afford life saving surgery, you die.

FACT: We have more obese people per capita than any country in the world.

FACT: We have more obese people in the military per capita than any country in the world

FACT: We are ranked 37th in quality of healthcare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_ranking

FACT: We spend more money per capita on healthcare than any country in the world.

FACT: We spend more money on war (aka "National Defense") than any other country. More than all countries in Europe combined. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... penditures

FACT: We waste more energy per capita than any country in the world.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... onsumption

FACT: We drink more water per capita than any country in the world.

FACT: We are not number 1 in high school or college graduation rate. Go to whitehouse.gov

FACT: We are not the number 1 in post graduate degree issuance rate go to Whitehouse.gov

FACT: We rank 20th in internet access as a percentage of the total population. https://www.cia.gov/library/publication ... 3rank.html

FACT: 14 countries have more Nobel recepients per capita than the US. Among the countries that beat us, 3 are third world countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_No ... per_capita

FACT: We have the greatest income inequality in the civilized world. We are the only industrialized country in the world where the top 1% has more money than the bottom 95%. (South Africa beats us, but I am not sure if it counts as a developed nation) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gini_ ... t_2009.png

FACT: We have the highest teen birth rate and teen abourtion rate in the undustrialized world. More than double that of most European countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Teena ... t_2006.jpg

FACT: 9 countries have more income per capita than the US. If you incorporate income inequality in the equation, or if you exclude the top 1% from the calculation, the median "Middle Class" American has lower income per capita than almost all European countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... per_capita

FACT: The average US Soldier has a lower net worth than the average soldier in 11 European countries.

FACT: We have one of the lowest voter turnout rate in the civilized world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout

FACT: We have more serial killers per capita than any country in the world.

FACT: We have the greatest rate of pedophilia in the world.

FACT: In America, a lower percentage of people have a passport, or has ever visited a foreign country, than in any Eurpoean country.

FACT: Less people speak a 2nd language in America than in any country in Europe.

FACT: Less people know the name of their chief executive in America, than in any other European Country.

FACT: Less people know what form of Government their country has in America than anywhere in Europe.

FACT: THe US ranks 97th on the "Global Peace Index", which measures the peacefulness of a country. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_peace_index

FACT: 4 countries are rated Higher than the US on the Wall street Journal's "Index of Economic Freedom" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_economic_freedom

FACT: The US ranks 48th on the Press Freedom Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_Freedom_Index

FACT: The US has a higher suicide rate than 22 other countries http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_rate

FACT: The US has more incest per capita than any industrialized country

FACT: The US ranks 151st on GDP Growth Rate, meaning 150 countries are getting richer at a faster rate than the US is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... rowth_rate

FACT: The US ranks 30th in the Privacy Index, which determines the degree to which citizens are protected from corporate and governmental surveilance.

FACT: The US ranks 39th in the Environmental Performance Index, which measures the degree to which a country's policies avoids damaging the environment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmen ... ance_Index

FACT: America is the only country in the civilized world where "Intelligent design" is actually taught in science classrooms.

FACT: America is the country in which the highest percentage of the population thinks Chrsitianity predates Judaism.

FACT: Among industrialized countries, America has the largest percentage of people who think the world is flat, largest percentage who think the world is literally 6000 years old, and largest percentage of people who think the sun orbits around the earth.

FACT: America is the country with the largest arsenal of nulear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_arsenal

[anotheratheisthere]

I am not your mommy, I am not your daddy, I am not your nanny and I am not your babysitter. I am not in the business of spoon feeding you.

My, my. I must have really hit a sore spot.* In any case, in as much as your ego has convinced you that everyone should take you at your word, I'll leave you to you and your adoring and fans, and simply watch from the side lines. As it stands, your OP is worthless.

* Of course we both know the real reason don't we: If ya can't deliver the goods it's because you have no goods to deliver.

Oh yes, not that it matters a wit to you, but for others here who may be wondering, proper protocol when using the work of others is to give them credit for it, or in the case of web sources, alternatively provide a link. And this means going beyond such lame attempts as, "the UN or the US DOS."

I'll grant the OP was poorly formed and even more poorly sourced, but that aside, do you have any grounds to contest the content? Do you deny the US has fallen behind on things like quality of life, education, and health care when compared to other western democracies?

I personally find it galling that you on the one hand rip him for a lack of contribution when your own posts have done no better. What have I done to be dismissed casually as "one of (his) fans"? If you disagree with my conclusions, challenge me on them. Ask me to source them. Provide an alternate point of view. Simply walking in and dismissing everyone who shares a certain viewpoint certainly is not conductive to debate, and doing so by linking all those who happen to agree on a certain position to one poorly constructed post brings with it a myriad of fallacies such as hasty generalization and style over substance.

If you want to contribute, contribute, but don't come in here and write me off or others who I happen to agree with by attacking them for hollow posts when you provide nothing of your own. You said it yourself, "If ya can't deliver the goods it's because you have no goods to deliver", and, with that in mind, what can you deliver?

I spent a few minutes on it and sourced about half of my claims. Hopefully this improvement allows you to defend my statement against people like Miles even more effectively than you already did