Is America the best country to live in?

I hear statistics from time to time about how high our crime rate is, teen pregnancy etc etc.


But yet you hear this line said all the time "America is the best country" America is number #1

Is it? Are there other countries who have their shit together better than us?

Wealthy, good social benefits, positive on almost every lifestyle rating (excluding warm weather)

American is #1 when it comes to military strength - no other country even comes close.

Some people confuse overwhelming force with being a humane, prosperous place to live.

confuse overwhelming force with being a humane, prosperous place to live"

LMFAO!

:evilgrin:

Health care crisis
Poor education systems
High Crime rates
fading civil liberties
inflation
pollution on rise

I am sure there are better places to live.

not only do they not have enough money but they are totally failing. I read an article in the paper today from Bill Gates about the sad state of our high schools here in America and how far ahead other countries are.

But I am not sure more money is the right answer, though it is the American way to solve domestic problems (throw money at it until it goes away).

As I understand it, other developed nations are spending comparable or even less amounts and getting markedly better results. I am not ready to commit to massive additional education until we get a better handle on what would be more effective.

Which schools?

But try and fund domestic programs and it's a BAD THING.

The blessed St. Ronnie perfected this philosophy.

I'd rather "throw money at schools" than the frikkin' missile defense shield

Is to keep doing the same thing and get a different result.

Gates was right, the current US school system and structure are not going get us where we need to go. Other countries spend less and get more. However Japanese or European style solutions may not work in the US.

I want to see the schools better, but first want to see some serious analysis of alternatives as to structure, methods, and goals. This is not support for vouchers or the like, which are just private/fundie versions of the same thing. I would be really interested in seeing some serious alternatives looked at as a way to revamps and revitalize education in the US. More money in the current system would not appear to be the answer.

My bias/background for this is industrial design. A number of industries were up against practical limits of production volume, quality, and resultant price. New concepts came along, prices drop and quality improves. Have to think that something along those lines is possible for education.

If those in power make it so that someone from humble poor beginnings are no longer able to rise out of their circumstances by getting a good education then America is no longer the best country.

think that there are many other places in the world I would rather live in. We are often told that we have the 'highest quality of life' than another place. How can that be when our wages are stagnate and energy costs sky-rocket? How can we have so many homeless and children in proverty? When 42 million don't have access to health insurance nor health care? When our corporations, who don't give a fig about the country, control everything, including the government? I would like to live in Ireland or Scotland or Amstersdam.

The US isn't the freest. The US isn't the best educated. The US isn't the safest. The US doesn't have the lowest child mortality rate. The US doesn't have the longest life expectancy. The US doesn't have the best medical care. The US doesn't have the highest standard of living. The US doesn't have the lowest murder rate. etc etc

In fact the only thing that the US does best is wage war.

on edit: correct glaring mistake.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

does anybody know the difference?

is should have said "isn't the best educated"

It is the only country in the world where our massive WMD arsenal is not pointed. While a half brain with a twitchy finger sits with his finger on the button awaiting political and economic advice (How will it play in the media?).

http://207.44.245.159/article8191.htm

We used to be the best in the world when the government forced the rich to cough up and share the wealth this country produces with the people who produce it.

If you're in the top half, it's equivalent to European countries.

If you're a working person, it bites here. Luckily for the rich, most worrkingg people will never be able to afford to live overseas to sea what a "nightmare" single-payer healthcare, free college, social safety net, gun control, etc. produces (safe, well-educated, healthy countries)

we have far too many poor and homeless

our healthcare payment system lags behind other developed nations; as many as 20% of Murkans adn 33% of children have no health-care coverage

we have high illiteracy rates

we have high infant mortality (among "developed" nations)

except for private-sector pop-"art," we create very little art

civil liberties are under systematic attack from the right

we are a conquering, occupying nation

we are a corporatist state, so by definition the country is unfriendly to workers

the list is much longer and gets longer by the hour

it seems like i read this.

Most of the northern and western European countries are pretty well ahead of the US as far as that goes. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, etc...

In many respects, the US is better than most countries, even in Europe. For most people, it's better than most countries.

For some people it's worse. If you focus on the majority, you get once conclusion; if you define best in terms of how the minority fares, it's worse.

Most "quality of life style" compares income; this is misleading. The Euro's increased in the last year ... so their quality of life has increased? Ummm ... no. We make less money, have to pay for health care, yet having seen a few European cities, I'd still prefer Houston. Apart from the public transportation (which is impossible to have at Prague or London standards in a city like Houston).

In terms of opportunity for college, the US is ahead of Europe. I could go back to school when I was in my late 30s. I didn't have to take a battery of tests each year to stay in the college-track sequence in high school. In fact, people that were never college-track in school can go to college.

It's a mixed bag.

"yet having seen a few European cities, I'd still prefer Houston"

OMFG, that's one seriously "challenging" statement.

May I ask what cities in Europe you have had the misfortune to visit? Because, few if any, cities in the western hemisphere suck as much as Houston.

I didn't spend much time in Stockholm or Helsinki, but enough in London to think it's a great place to visit, but certainly doesn't suit me. Prague, I stayed in too long. Brno, well, I could stand living on the outskirts of Brno. Not in the center, though.

But I prefer Australian wine to French, Czech beers to German, and Ahmed chilli pickle to other brands.

I also prefer Eugene to Houston (I'd say I prefer Rochester to Houston, but the snow's a bit much after the first 8 feet or so).

I grew up in suburbs, don't like crowds, and these days would rather play a Cardoso milonga or Sor fantasy than sit in a crowded room listening to a symphony.

De gustibus ...

Is this a serious post? I must be irony-challened.

Has anyone here ever lived there?

I would love to live in London. I'm not disloyal to the USA, but I love London.

We're #1...USA USA USA...

Although some Western European countries come in a close second.

most of which are minor drug possession offenses.