Interesting
 

The number one Country in the world that everyone wants to visit or live in or get medical attention from is the good old USA.

If you want to debate that stop quoting Liberal web sites and start naming the Countries you find better and explain why we have such demand for our Medical services if they are so much better.

You must have forgotten that even the Newfounfland Prime Minister came to the USA for his recent surgery. Maybe that fact did not appear anywhere but on
Fox News.

Apparently, I won't get an answer to my question - what countries are superior?

Playing devil's advocate, I will say that djplong's opinion is true that America isn't the great nation is once was. My next question to work toward a solution is: why? Why isn't the United States of America the once great nation it was?

In order for me to logically discuss the question, I have to understand and agree that America was once a great nation. If I do agree with this, then I must ask what made America a great nation to begin with. In order to understand this demiss that djplong's theory rests on, we must assume that, at one time this nation was a great country.

What made us great enough in the first place to navigate toward this downward spin djplong assumes we are on?

What made this country the land of opportunity for many people, people of diverse nationalities, diverse values and opinions a nation that produced the greatest prosperity the world has ever seen?

Before we can agree to discuss djplong's opinion, we must understand what liberties and freedoms made this country great in the first place. What system and enterprise intertwined with politics allowed us to once be the great nation we once were.

If we work with this principle, we can rebuild this country. If you go outside of the confines of our Constitution, you are trying to remake what made us great and I agree with Yoda to the extent of asking what state are you going to move to.

Donna,it's not constant never was constant and never will be constant.You just aren't telling the truth. I only know of one person who constntly bashes the U.S and thats the guy from Iran. To say Obama does it constantly is simply a lie. Again your objectivity is clouded by hate.

Waynet,

There is the obvious bashing and there is the more subtle bashing. Many of his beliefs and opinions are a form of bashing. When you are against things that have worked for over 200 years, well, what can I say?
If you really want, I can make a long list of things that is anti-American that he condones.
You are either naive or just don't listen to the bashing that liberals and so-called progressives do on a daily basis.

subtle bashing????what the heck is that? his beliefs and opinions are a form of bashing? What he believes cannot be bashing and what might those beliefs be? what things is he against and I need proof and finally yes I want a list of anti-American things he stands for.

I think my basic problem with this entire thread is the word INFERIOR

This country may not rank #1 in all areas no matter how it is scored, but inferior ?

BKCUNNINGHAM keeps askiing....."What countries are superior?" to no avail...NOT ONE SINGLE response to that question.

I never looked at my country and tried to rank it anywhere. It is, to me, the best country in the world..bar none ! I wouldnt trade this for anywhere on earth.

DJPLONG wants to list for some reason our "ranking" in areas, albeit in the context of what someone said about "Liberals think the USA is inferior to other countries." but continues to say...."Liberals may think that we're inferior to other countries. Why would that be?

Because we are."


Again, not #1....ok.....not the leading country in all areas...ok......needs work in lots of areas....ok....BUT NEVER INFERIOR !

It bothers me that folks could even think that ! This is the greatest country in the world...the most giving of people and the home country that educates all those smart folks in other countries...this is the country where the rest of the world looks at for direction whether it is correct or not.

To those who think it is inferior...I just dont know what to say.

Inferior is a very harsh word. I for one do not think of the U.S. as inferior. I do think we can improve in some areas(alternative energies) but I also think we can teach the rest of the world lots of things also. I see no need to be #1 in all areas anyhow. I don't even know what that means. I do think we need to take care of our citizens old and young a little better and this is where the differences of opinion come in. Even though those differences can be great we must never stop trying to make this the best place on earth.

I agree with some of what you said but draw the line for the Nanny State. The USA was once known as the land of opportunity and independence. Too many people now think that they are owed something. Everybody has their hand out. This dependent attitude instead of independent attitude will bring down Nations. Ask Greece.

I have lived in Europe and the Far East. While I enjoyed both experiences the USA is far superior to any other country. If it wasn't people wouldn't be trying to get here, legally or illegally.

:mademyday: Great post, Yoda.


Here is a good video about America.



http://www.pjtv.com/v/3492

Cashman - you make my point for me.

First, it wasn't the Canadian Prime Minister. It was the Premier of Newfoundland (equivalent to a U.S. governor) Danny Williams. Secondly, yes, he came to the U.S. BECAUSE HE WAS WEALTHY AND COULD AFFORD IT.

I will completely agree with you 100% that we have the best (and most expensive) health care delivery system in the world IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT.

Again, my own experience in Montreal showed the stark differences. For the same procedures in the United States that cost over $2000, I was charged just over $500 in Montreal and I got virtually identical quality of care. If Williams wants to "jump the line" on his own dime, that's his right.

bkcunningham1: This country is doing what every "Great Empire" does sooner or later - it rests on it's laurels. It enjoys the fruits of it's labor. Eventually it gets lazy (perhaps a poor choice of words but it's all I can think of at the moment).

We complain that we're taxed too high when numbers show the opposite (when compared to other countries) and the anger goes to the wrong place (protesting in D.C. when federal taxes go down instead of in all the state capitols where taxes ARE going up).

We won't pay to maintain our infrastructure.

We can't even agree to sacrifice a LITTLE (if you can call it a sacrifice) for something like wind farms to help us get off the Middle East Ransom. Or, maybe more accurately, we allow a few nutjobs to be completely effective in their obstructionist goals.

We argue for 8 years over what to do with Ground Zero.

Our great public works projects are either put off indefinitely or built to some pretty shoddy standards (Boston's Big Dig).

We can't improve the schools because, among other reasons, teacher's unions won't allow a meritocracy.

We can't improve the government because civil service rules are the same way.

...and don't get me started on the TSA.

We used to have faith in our government - and it did good things, great things. Tell me - do you think for one minute we could build the Hoover Dam today? If we didn't have rail lines going through our cities, do you think we could have Grand Central, Penn Station or any of the country's Union Stations today with the way environmentalists are? Could we so much as invent the automobile now?

Somewhere between 1963 and 1974 it all started to fall apart. The Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, Watergate... Our opinion of D.C. has changed.

Make no mistake. One area where I believe we are still the best in the world, bar none, is possibilities.

There's nothing we can't do here with the right amount of will. I'm not saying steamroll over everything, but things like the Cape Wind project demonstrate our problems. Years of reviews, plans, wasted money on studies, etc. They're finally ready to build. What happens? Some of the NIMBYs convince a local Native american tribe that there MIGHT be a 10,000 year old burial ground out there - and that the wind turbines MIGHT "interfere" with their sunrise rituals.

No. After 8 (now 9) years of arguing against it, you LOST. ENOUGH. You go home and wait to find out that your life will be like Mull, MA (who built a wind turbine and haven't seen their electrical rates increase in some 10 years).

If you buy a house near an old rail line, you don't get to argue against it when they want to run commuter trains on it.

There comes a time when you have to say it's time for the wackjobs to shut up and get out of the way.

Your nutjob that opposed the wind farms was the left's hero, Ted(the swimmer) Kennedy. He has to be the biggest hypocrite(among other things) in history. He didn't want view obstructed form his compound or sailing routes.


Your reference to lazy is spot on. Americans have become spoiled and dependent, which is very sad because we were once known as the land of opportunity and independence.

Yes, Ted Kennedy was, for a while, the lead nutjob on the anti-Cape-Wind crusade. At first, he led the pack of blue bloods that complained about the way it would look. Eventually even Walter Cronkite abandoned that crew as he saw the benefits of Cape Wind. Kennedy and those others opposed, however, kept scrambling around to find another reason when the "unpleasant view" position got ridiculed in the press. Imagine someone living under the Tobin Bridge (which cuts through Chelsea like an elevated scar) hearing his senator whine about the view...

Reason after reason has been invented - and they even dragged Native American tribes into it now.

It has REALLY demonstrated the hypocrisy of some.

Djplong
 

It seem that my last question to you has been deleted because it was rude.

I will rephrase it.

Who is NUMBER ONE? Can you tell us?

Affectionately,

Yoda

Define the question.

Ok, that's oversimplifying. But here's what I mean.

Who are you? What do you want? "Number One" is subjective if you're just going to lump everything into one sound-bite-sized basket.

I'm sure you've seen those articles about "best place to live" or Rand McNally's old "Places Rated Almanac". They take a shopping cart full of variables, rank each place on them and then churn the numbers through a formula. Money magazine did the same things and proclaimed that Nashua NH (the city next to where I live) as the best place to live in 1987 and 1997.

So I'll ask you - "Number One" at what? ...and for whom?

My first wife seems to think Canada is the place to be. She's got 3 kids, the middle one is about to graduate and as soon as that happens, she's moving there with the youngest. She likes the health care, reduced stress and the fact that she'll be getting back together with the father of her youngest.

My best friend came here legally from South Africa (though you'd swear he was from London). He jokes about being an "African American" when his skin complexion resembles that of copier paper :) He jumped through all the flaming hoops to go through the process to become a citizen. For him, safety (crime was exploding in South Africa) and opportunity were paramount.

For me, I wouldn't permanently move anywhere else. Sure, I want to travel internationally - and I finally get my chance later this year. That doesn't mean I think my country is perfect. No matter how good, there is ALWAYS room for improvement.

Again, it's subjective. Take universities - since people like to point out that, by most measures, we still have the best universities (as a whole) in the world. Now look at tuition inflation, professors protected by tenure who make 6 figures and work 10-12 hours a week and drawing that salary from the backs of those who can least afford it (the proitotypical 'starving college student'). Overall, is that better than, say, Costa Rica where everyone gets a college education? My oldest daughter could NEVER have gone to college if it weren't for the $15,000/semester in scholarships she got from the school. My younger daughter, who's grades were still good but not quite as good, has no such prospect.

What if you love to drive? Is the wide-open U.S. the best (except where there are traffic jams) or is it Germany where you can go as fast as you want on the autobahn?

What if you came down with cancer and your health insurance company just cancelled your insurance?

Those are all subjective. There are things that can be measured objectively (like the life-expectancy stats I quoted yesterday, or things like military and health-care expenditures). You can say "most expensive" or "cheapest" for a lot of things.

But you're asking a subjective question. So I'll ask you - "Number One" by what measure?

As far as I'm concerned, I'll repeat what I said to my fiancee this past weekend. In my opinion, the United States is still the country that exists under the best of all practical possibilities. But, like our forefathers, we have to WORK and PLAN to make it so. We have to get off the oil drug, have a comprehensive transportation and energy plan - after all that's what helped us get to our position. We need to find a way to stop wasting so much money (i.e. objectively, we pay more for health care than anyone, subjectively, we're not getting what we pay for by a lot of metrics). We need to talk more and shout less. We need to think more long-term instead of Next Quarter. We need to hold corporations responsible for their actions instead of bailing them out.

Yes, we're still known as The Land Of Opportunity - but you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see how much more difficult that is.