It was this post in another thread that prompted me:
Quote:
The Liberal attitude is again clearly exposed. Liberals think the USA is inferior to other countries.
Why not leave our country if you do not like it.
Your distaste for the private sector is so obvious you would no doubt be happier in one of the great socialist countries.
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Liberals may think that we're inferior to other countries. Why would that be?
Because we are.
We used to be at the top of so many categories. Granted some of that came about because of the simple fact that every other industrialized nation in the world had been bombed out (WWII).
Our life expectancy is less than other countries - we now are bordering on "top of the 3rd world" status.
We used to have the best cars. Not now. (Though we seem poised for a comeback)
Fastest trains. Not now.
Best airlines. Not now.
Tallest building. Not now.
Smartest kids. Not now.
Best health care. Not now.
Our infrastructure is falling apart (the entire greater Boston area is under 'boil water' orders) while the Chinese are on a building boom. When the I-35 bridge in Minnesota collapsed, the Chinese were *shocked*. They couldn't believe this happened to us. Estimates at repairing our failing infrastructure start at a couple trillion dollars and go up from there.
We complain about being addicted to oil and yet it take NINE YEARS to get federal approval for an offshore wind farm that would supply 75% of Cape Cod's electrical needs because of the VIEW? And when that gets debunked they convince Native American tribes that there's an ancestral burying ground out there (because of where the shoreline was - I'm not making this up - 10,000 years ago) and that the wind farm will interfere with tribal sunrise rituals????? (Oh, and it suppose to endanger air traffic as well, even though it's dozens of miles form the nearest airport)
We are a fading empire. It's not too late to change things - not by a long shot. But when you have people ignoring reality, sticking with sloganeering instead of looking at ourselves with an honest set of eyes - nothing will happen.
As an example, let's look at the federal gas tax. It started out at 4 cents per gallon in 1956. This was enough to build and maintain the Interstate Highways - as designed back in the late 1950s. Now it's 18.4 cents per gallon. If adjusted for inflation alone (since 1956) it should be 28.3 cents. However, what isn't accounted for is the increased efficiency of cars since that time period. In other words, the commuter in 1956 was burning FAR more gasoline than in 2010. Given that, in 1956, it was not uncommon to get less than 9 MPG (I can only find references to individual models - I've yet to find estimates for what overall average MPG stats were in the 50s and 60s) it wouldn't be a push to say that we're averaging burning half the gas for the same jobs that we were 50 years ago - so the same person would be paying half the tax as they would be paying (per mile).
Now we don't even want to hike taxes to pay for the things we've already built - never mind building new, better, greater things.
Why should I leave my country? I am *damn* proud to be an American. What's wrong with trying to make it better (or at least trying to stop the slide)?
As much as taxes take a chunk out of my salary, it's hard to argue with the numbers that show us being taxed less (as a percentage of GDP) than any of our 'peers'. What I'd love to see is a comparison of government spending 'efficiency' - as in what countries waste how much. We read a lot of reports on waste here, but I'd like to see how we rank amongst other countries.