Lethal
Retired Moderator
I watched this at the other forum I help moderate, and I thought it was brilliant.
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This is why America is not the greatest country
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DeathMoJo
The Navy Guy
Explains it, but sadly, 99% of the population will remain oblivious to what goes on around us.
LiKuidd
Well-Known Member
america is like .... poop... straight poop. but i do love living here haha.
GloriousBagel
Well-Known Member
I personally believe that there is no "greatest country" in our planet. Every country has their ups and downs. But to be honest the U.S. is the best country to live in, where some can seek the opportunity to succeed. The reason so many foreigners come to the U.S., my parents immigrated from Mexico and Spain. They took the opportunity to go to college and what not, which is why they love this country. This country is badass but far from the best, like the guy said in that monologue our country is swaying from our once righteous path which made us the best, but it's never to late to become the best once again.
MadMike
Well-Known Member
Luuk.vanRiel
The Eternal Poster
Well. I think america is way better than holland imo. Sure in holland we have better healthcare. Perfect roads and barely any natural disasters except minor flooding every now and then in the riverdelta. But in USA you pay way less taxes. If you want lets say... A Ford Mustang here in the netherlands. Youl end up paying over 100.000€. In america you would buy it for 30.000€. So in fact you pay the government two extra cars. The fuuuu. And the worst thing is. You pay road taxes, double the price on fuel, ownership taxes, forced insurance, and if you honk unnecesary youll end up paying 350€. That just makes owning any other car than an smart impossible to own for anyone with a average paycheck. Sure we have good roads and save crossing but i'd prefer a few holes or cracks over buying one decent car and giving the government another two.
Graveflower
Well-Known Member
It is in our complacency that we find our decadence.
Buramu
Mod Of Steel
So what's you reference? How many other countries have you sampled?
I have extensively traveled the world, and while there are a lot of countries I would never want to live in, the US would not be very high on my list either. If anything, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany or Scandinavian countries would end up a lot higher on my list. And that's coming from someone living the Netherlands, hence already having very few things to complain about (except our ridiculous taxes which are subsequently wasted on supporting the financial incompetence of weaker countries in Southern Europe).
GloriousBagel
Well-Known Member
I thought I explained why in my post
Mikaru
Well-Known Member
And you don't think foreigners can study and get a job/life in other countries?
GloriousBagel
Well-Known Member
Not at all, I'm just saying that generally speaking many people prefer coming to the states, people immigrate to many different countries as well.
Graveflower
Well-Known Member
I don't plan on staying in the US. Not too keen on going to Europe either, maybe Japan or Canada. Maybe London.
Buramu
Mod Of Steel
London is also Europe, unless you mean London, Ontario.
Graveflower
Well-Known Member
I know I meant if Europe only London.
GloriousBagel
Well-Known Member
Maybe he meant Southern Europe?
GoForRockets
Well-Known Member
I like the show. Only 3 episodes has aired so far.
Yanikun
Well-Known Member
... Do you not realize how expensive education is in the US, especially for foreigners? My father is a doctor and my mom is a midwife, I'm the last child in the family and yet they're struggling to pay for my education in the US despite my having done the first half in a community college and doing the second half at the cheapest State school around. It costs $8000 for just four classes. Education is very far away from what's great about America. I can tell you truly education in France kicks American education's butt in every single way, and there are many countries that do.
Then, why did I come to the US? For three reasons. One, I fell in love with a girl (I know, I know...). Two, I want to be a TV writer and the television industry in Los Angeles is lightyears ahead of that of France. Three, California is a fantastic place to live. If I had to name one thing the US might be the greatest country on Earth for, it's for the land itself. Sunshine and heat in one direction, snowy mountains in another, great plains here, frozen lakes there, a desert that way, skyscrapers this way. The US has a wonderful diversity of environments and climates and is home to some of the most beautiful places on Earth. That's, for me, the only way I think the US is so great. It also helps that they speak English and Spanish there as they're two widely spoken languages in a diversity of places worldwide; that makes it appealing to a lot of foreigners like myself.
Other than that, the US is a very young country with a lot to learn. It's really not all that great, there are many countries doing a better job at most things. The best place to start is really for some Americans to stop thinking their country is so special and so great. We're not talking about a football team here, we're talking about one country in a world with so many others.
Boogly
Active Member
If a country paid me millions of dollars to be a mediocre actor I for one wouldn't complain about it Mr. Daniels
GunMonkeyINTL
Well-Known Member
You have clearly never seen Escanaba in da moonlight. The very pinnacle of the cinematic arts.
GunMonkeyINTL
Well-Known Member
When I watched that video, I found myself getting a little peeved, as I thought that it was just more of the Americans-hating-America tripe that got ushered in by the wanna-be-communist tree-hugging pole-smokers in the '60s, that are now running our country, and epitomized by our current president ("Dear Leader", he prefers to be called). But, once he hit the "it used to be" part of the speech, I realized that it was actually a very patriotic idea that, I believe, many patriotic Americans would subscribe to if they would consider the point for a moment.
I don't think the question of whether the US is the greatest country on Earth is one of empirical data or historical evidence. Rather, it is one of frame-of-mind. Trying to argue whether the US or France is better, on an empirical plane, is like arguing whether vanilla ice cream or seedless grapes are better. I think once the emprical pros and cons were compared and canceled, China would have us all beat and the discussion would be over.
I won't claim to have lived in any other country, as my primary residence has always been in the US, but I have spent noteworthy periods of time in dozens of countries - at least enough time to get a feel for the place and what makes it unique.
I, as an American, and a damned patriotic one at that, do believe that the US is the greatest country on Earth. My basis for that, which in my mind is indisputible, is our freedom. Not the freedom we have today, but the freedom we used to know.
Now, as the speech pointed out, most other nations have "freedom". If you throw out the few examples of traditional monarchies (those without strong democratic parliments like UK and Thailand have), and the dictatorships (looking at you North Korea, Cuba etc.), and horribly corrupt "democracies" (ahem Iran, Venezuela), then every nation on Earth has some level of freedom. What makes the United States great is that freedom is baked into the pie. Freedom was the fundamental goal of our founders.
Our Constitution which, contrary to current trends in thinking, I believe belongs on the short list of great documents right next to the Magna Carta, provides the ideal basis for an enduring freedom. The strongest, yet most often overlooked, characteristic of our Constitution, is that the power of the government is strictly limited to the powers enumerated in the document. Until our Constitution was amended, our government didn't even have the power to levy taxes, mint a currency, or form an Army. Now, of course, we need those things, but it took heavy consideration, and the overwhelming popular approval of the American people, to allow it to happen. Until that point, the people of the domocracies of the world had to go to their government to ask for permission to do something. From its birth, the US government had to go to its people to ask for permission to do something. Our government doesn't grant us our freedoms, God did and, in turn, WE grant our government its powers. Those were untested waters at the time, and it took real balls to jump into them.
Now, of course, we started to lose sight of what our Constitution means a couple generations back and have allowed our government to become a self-interested, independent-functioning entity that tramples on that document at every turn. I believe that if we turned things around; got back to true capitalism, shed the socialist tendencies of France, the UK, and most of the rest of the world - in other words, forced our government to function according to our Consititution - then we would win back some of those claims of greatness that we have lost to the rest of the world in the last 40 years.
Unfortunately, I don't think we, or any other country, will ever return to that model of true freedom.
We're all France now.
I don't think the question of whether the US is the greatest country on Earth is one of empirical data or historical evidence. Rather, it is one of frame-of-mind. Trying to argue whether the US or France is better, on an empirical plane, is like arguing whether vanilla ice cream or seedless grapes are better. I think once the emprical pros and cons were compared and canceled, China would have us all beat and the discussion would be over.
I won't claim to have lived in any other country, as my primary residence has always been in the US, but I have spent noteworthy periods of time in dozens of countries - at least enough time to get a feel for the place and what makes it unique.
I, as an American, and a damned patriotic one at that, do believe that the US is the greatest country on Earth. My basis for that, which in my mind is indisputible, is our freedom. Not the freedom we have today, but the freedom we used to know.
Now, as the speech pointed out, most other nations have "freedom". If you throw out the few examples of traditional monarchies (those without strong democratic parliments like UK and Thailand have), and the dictatorships (looking at you North Korea, Cuba etc.), and horribly corrupt "democracies" (ahem Iran, Venezuela), then every nation on Earth has some level of freedom. What makes the United States great is that freedom is baked into the pie. Freedom was the fundamental goal of our founders.
Our Constitution which, contrary to current trends in thinking, I believe belongs on the short list of great documents right next to the Magna Carta, provides the ideal basis for an enduring freedom. The strongest, yet most often overlooked, characteristic of our Constitution, is that the power of the government is strictly limited to the powers enumerated in the document. Until our Constitution was amended, our government didn't even have the power to levy taxes, mint a currency, or form an Army. Now, of course, we need those things, but it took heavy consideration, and the overwhelming popular approval of the American people, to allow it to happen. Until that point, the people of the domocracies of the world had to go to their government to ask for permission to do something. From its birth, the US government had to go to its people to ask for permission to do something. Our government doesn't grant us our freedoms, God did and, in turn, WE grant our government its powers. Those were untested waters at the time, and it took real balls to jump into them.
Now, of course, we started to lose sight of what our Constitution means a couple generations back and have allowed our government to become a self-interested, independent-functioning entity that tramples on that document at every turn. I believe that if we turned things around; got back to true capitalism, shed the socialist tendencies of France, the UK, and most of the rest of the world - in other words, forced our government to function according to our Consititution - then we would win back some of those claims of greatness that we have lost to the rest of the world in the last 40 years.
Unfortunately, I don't think we, or any other country, will ever return to that model of true freedom.
We're all France now.
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