The lack of basic human rights, the use of the death penalty, mistreatment of veterans, the criminalisation of homelessness in places like Florida, trigger-happy police, unfathomably corrupt and incompetent governments, the existence of the military-industrial complex, paranoid conspiracy-theorists, and Flat-Earthers. No basic, universal healthcare. Crumbling infrastructure, and no fast rail. Rampant consumerism, corrupt mainstream media, and excessive censorship on social media. I could go on.
capitalism, more or less.
The exploitation of the lower class to benefit the top 10% who already have more than enough.
If you would tax the rich, you could provide basic housing, healthcare, retirement, free education, ... for all americans.
And this steep poverty line, causes crimes, drugabuse, violence, ... which could be much better if they had at least the bare minimum of safety.
Also workers unions are destroyed, so the US has no mandatory minimum vacation days, like 99% of the world, you are only allowed to be sick for a certain number of days a year, there is no mandatory paternal leave for mothers and their baby, ...
The myth of American exceptionalism.
Opinion
24Opinion
This is a massive myth promoted by leftists:
While it is true America is often lacking in glamorous buildings and a high speed rail, just compare the way Americans live compared to Europeans. Small houses, apartments, lack of cars, and all sorts.
Some of these questions I can't really relate to, because I don't live in Europe. However, I can tell you that we haven't experienced any wheat or egg shortages. Wasn't the egg shortage in the United States last year?
When it comes to disposable income, nope, you're wrong. It's Australia.
Vehicle accident deaths are considered to be manslaughter in the US? What? Seriously? Wow, that is absolutely stupid.
Multiple languages? Nope, just English.
I don't think they mistreat veterans. Of course you can't help everyone, but in general, veterans get better treatment then other citizens, with all the free shit and discounts they get, the program that pays for their college who's name is slipping my mind right now. The priority they get when applying for jobs. I actually think veterans in America get treated better than anywhere else. In other countries, soldiers are just seen as regular people, no greater and no worse than any other citizen. I know you here about homeless veterans, but trust me, veterans in this country are treated very well, yet they still want MORE.
But in general I agree with you, and to answer your question, it's basically an ego thing. America has always seen itself as a leader and not a follower. American people are extremely nationalistic or "patriotic" as THEY call it and think they're the greatest country on earth and the American way is the RIGHT way. Americans love to do their own thing, even if other countries' methods have proven to work better
But you also need to take into account that the U. S. is the third most populated nation on earth. It's extremely difficult to implement something like free education or universal health care to 300 million people.
"300 million people"
Isn't the USA not one of the most, but THE most, prosperous nation on the globe according to many of its own citizens? Doesn't the US government spend more on "defence" than the next ten nations combined? Couldn't some of that money be redirected to where it will actually help, rather than harm, people for once?
"According to many of its citizens", sure😂 But in reality, not at all. The US actually has the lowest standard of living of any developed nation.
The "defense" thing is probably true
Yeah...
I put "defense" in quotation marks, because it's more like policing and colonialism than defense. The last time U. S. soldiers actually fought for OUR freedom was WWII.
I guess you could argue they were defending us from terrorism, but were they, really?
The last 20 years in Afghanistan and the Middle East were no different than the Vietnam and Korea. Trillions of tax payer dollars wasted and millions of lives lost because the U. S. didn't like their form of government..
Richard Nixon at least ended our chemical weapons program and said those scientists will be better utilized to create things that can SAVE lives.
I think you would have liked Nixon.
Yes, you're right. The reality is that the U. S. isn't rich if we take into account things other than money (like quality of life, happiness). The government is rich though, but it doesn't spend the taxpayer's money wisely, instead sending it overseas or on the latest useless aircraft carrier.
What a shame I never got to know him :(
You pretty much summed it up.
You should read about him. It's a shame his Watergate overshadowed the rest of his presidency, because I actually think he was out best president
From my understanding they still think they are NOT behind and therefore dont want to change anything about it. The U. S was at some point one of the most liberal countries and than it stopped evolving or even went backwards.
Also what I realised is, that a lot of americans seem to be so focused on america alone, that they have no idea what the world around them does.
They went from the mostly true statement 'we are the best' to the self telling lie 'we are the best' while changing nothing else.
"'Murrica number one!!!", I believe, is the chant.
Your source is flawed, misleading, and wrong. Also, "universal healthcare" in other countries is, for the most part, a scam:
https://uk.style.yahoo.com/woman-squeezed-lump-thought-spot-breast-cancer-tumour-103232958.html
"At her appointment, Harrison was referred for further tests but was told there was a nine-month waiting list, so she decided to go private and paid £200 for an ultrasound."
We might have $25 or $50 co-pays for prescriptions and routine doctor visits, but there are definitely NO waiting lists to see specialists in the United States. "Free Universal Healthcare" = crappy bullshit service.
You do realize that the United States is leading in medical malpractice lawsuits, right? Which, to me at least, translates into "you don't have to wait to get an incompetent doctor".
@DryGermanGuy In the United States, anyone can sue anyone at any time. Simply filing a lawsuit against someone in any profession doesn't automatically mean that person being sued is guilty of something. There's also this:
www.newsweek.com/.../worlds-best-hospitals-2023
On the entire planet, 22 of the top 95, 15 of the top 50, 5 of the top 10, and the top 4 hospitals worldwide are located in the United States.
I stand by my entire original post, and I stand by my accurate comment that "free universal healthcare" is a farce and crappy bullshit service... especially when it matters the most (when it becomes medically necessary for a patient to deal with specialists).
How is my source "flawed, misleading and wrong"? Specifically. I'd really like to know, because my source was Amnesty International, if it's the image of the world I used that you're referring to here.
And other thing. Last year I had to have surgery, and I had this performed privately, but I still had to wait seven hours for a bed to be made available, so your implication that private is better than public is BS, at least as far as my own experience with having used both goes.
Amnesty International is as useful for accurate information on the United States as the United Nations. They're both ultra-liberal, anti-American circle-jerks. Meanwhile, the United States foolishly gives hundreds of millions of dollars every year (most in the world) to keep these useless organizations funded.
Did you see the list of best hospitals in the world?
www.newsweek.com/.../worlds-best-hospitals-2023
On the entire planet, 22 of the top 95, 15 of the top 50, 5 of the top 10, and the top 4 hospitals worldwide are located in the United States.
Did you read the story I posted from Yahoo News? You're going to compare waiting for 7 hours for private funded surgery with waiting 9 months for public funded surgery? If the public funded system was better, then why didn't you just wait the 9 months to have your surgery done, instead of waiting 7 hours? We both know the answer to that question.
The best hospitals. Yes, and who can afford to be treated there? Only those who have insurance (so that rules out most people), and the wealthy. You don't have a system like Medicare, where when you're admitted to hospital you don't have to worry whether or not you'll be able to afford it.
basic human rights? you mean like how we don't have the police break down our doors and arrest us in our own homes if we post something online that disagrees with our current political leaders? How we didn't get the shit beat out of us for not wearing masks AT THE BEACH, and we don't throw people off the rooftops just for being gay? Those kinds of human rights? lol catch up, rest of the world. Oh yeah, and how we don't torture, sterilize, and enslave people because they're a certain race or ethnicity?
Have you got your "I simp for China" t-shirt in the mail yet? If not, I'm sure it's on the way.
Simp for China? No, I don't "simp" for anyone, but you can't use what's known as "whataboutism" to deflect from your own nation's shortcomings.
if you wanna ignore the things I just posted here, where the USA FAR exceeds the rest of the world, that's up to you but my points still stand and speak for themselves. And they say that the rest of the world's human rights are stone age in comparison the USA. NO country is perfect. How super awkward of you to single one out and crap all over it with your anti-American bs.
God you're deluded. The USA far exceeds the rest of the world in:
1. Gun crime
2. Crime in general
3. Incarcerations
4. Homelessness
5. Military spending
6. Invading other countries
7. Staging coups
8. Cost of health care
I think the Death Penalty should be used more, especially for mass murderers. Enough of this being easy on crime. Speaking of which, the US can send billions to other countries yet has not built a new prison since Lassie was a pup.
The only caveat I would add is this: In the situations you described, you would need DNA and/or video evidence to implement the death penalty in eligible cases.
Easy on crime? You people have more citizens in prison than any other nation on Earth, with the possible exceptions of China or North Korea!
Yeah, and the prisons are run by gangs who are ready to kill any officer they can. But, if they are serving a life sentence they don't care. Because they will just sit on Death Row for 20 years. The death penalty means nothing these days so is not a deterrent for crime.
This is gonna sound crazy, but here me out.
The government. Those in power have the goal of dumbing down the population as much as possible as it makes them compliant workers.
Add that to their plan to ban guns, and you quickly get Germany, 1938, ready to be taken over...
You were right. You do sound crazy, because what you've written here is.
Close your eyes. Get yourself very calm. Almost to the point of sleeping. Imagine a world without the USA. Let that sink in deeply. The USA does not exist. You must feel wonderful. The evil empire is gone. All the evil people are gone. How surreal and soothing that must feel.
Now, open your eyes... and tell me what does the non-USA-existing world look like?
Well, there'd be fewer wars, less garbage on TV, no "music" like rap and hip-hop, no political correctness, and we wouldn't have identity politics. So, overall, the rest of us would be better off. You people are just too loud, obnoxious, and violent.
Ah yes, the USA is the only major country doing all those things. But ok, let's go with your theory. The rest of the world would be better off if the USA did not exist. I am curious if you think there would be any negative consequences from that?
P. S. Yes I am from the USA and FWIW I've visited almost 30 countries.
No, but the USA is where all of those things originally came from, and then we ended up with them as well. Do the world a big favour, and keep your crap within your borders!
I agree the lack of public transport options outside of the major cities isn’t great.
I also disagree with the death penalty, not because I disagree with murders being executed, but because at some point they get it wrong and there’s always going to be some innocent people murdered as a result.
I think healthcare should be available to all.
Also it isn’t great that the public have access to military grade weapons. I don’t mind people owning guns but there should be some limits, who actually needs an assault rifle!
Use of propaganda and extreme pushing of rugged individualism makes most civilians think they just have to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" (which was literally meant to mean something impossible) and they keep their heads down while corporations and politicians play games like "if you don't work you don't get healthcare* and "the most victimized in our society are actually homeless because they chose to be"
I'm in agreement with a lot of those things you mentioned being problems. Yet, despite all of that, we're still the most, or one of the most, sought after country on the planet. Perhaps those issues aren't as problematic as you'd like to think, or perhaps what we have to offer trumps those issues. Additionally, it seems like your picture provided doesn't use metrics per-capita (or at least it doesn't indicate that).
If a country of 10 people gives the death penalty to 1 person, or a country of 1,000 people gives the death penalty to 100 people, neither of those countries is "better" in that regard, because they both give the death penalty to 10% of their civilians.
Because your ideal of progress is to get to a totalitarian socialist dictatorship ruled by satanists. America, fights against your ideals, so you see America as regressive. In reality you're just evil, and America is good.
Oh puhleeeese! Lay off the propaganda. It's clearly rotting your brain. You're sounding like a FOX News host, or a PragerU subscriber.
By the way, I didn't like Ardern either. The power had clearly got to her head. I never voted for her, not once.
You're just jealous! :D
It's the BEST country in the world, if only because we don't have crazy people like you in it. :P
"America" NEVER saved us from anything, so what the hell are you even going on about? Oh, that's right, I forgot - you people see yourselves as "savours" from "tyranny" of just about every country on this globe. You even "save us" from ourselves from time to time, because apparently we can't govern ourselves, and we don't have your zany "right to bear arms". LOL. What a clown you are :D
Go ask your Australian neighbors. At least they are more educated than you... But eh maybe you'll get one of those cool haircuts the Uyghurs got...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FiTfJfea0c
You didn't "save" Australia either! God you're an idiot :D
Go get get an education you low IQ communist. You're one of the dumbest communists I run into in years. You don't even understand events from two generations ago. You're totally oblivious to even your own country's history. It's pretty hilarious how uneducated you are. What a yokel.
Kiss my ass dumbass! :P
Depends on the crime. So crimes don't deserve the death penalty.
So do, example: murders, holding people hostage, rape, child rape, child molestation, wife (woman) beating and vice-versa. Crimes of that nature deserve the death penalty.
It's not. Most of what you listed is just plain wrong, highly subjective or extreme cherry picking.
Well, your update explains why you are so misinformed. Amnesty International has very little credibility.
Amnesty International has a LOT of credibility! The fact that you don't think so tells me all I need to know about how misinformed you are.
You use their information to judge the US compared to other countries when Amnesty International ADMITS that they hold the US to a higher standard than other countries. That's like saying the US has higher mountains than the Himalayas when they use sea level to measure the Himalayas, and the bottom of the ocean to measure the US mountains. You can't compare unless you use the same standard.
They only have credibility if you believe their bullshit. That doesn't mean that everything they say is wrong. But they ARE very biased, and many of the things they state are highly subjective. That means they have no credibility.
When I read your list all I can do is shake my head because it's total nonsense, regardless of the source.
YOU have no credibility here! Why should I believe some anonymous online troll instead of an organisation that has, and continues to, do all it can to alleviate injustice in the world today?
How about you actually move to the US and live there for at least five years, preferably in multiple places. Then decide for yourself. The large majority of people who spend any significant time in US say it gets a bad rep by the rest of the world.
Bottom line is that you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Just the idea that you actually believe what you wrote tells me you aren't using your brain. Even with very little knowledge about it, it should raise all kinds of red flags that make you question if it's true.
"How about you actually move to the US and live there for at least five years..."
Yeah, no thanks. I don't want to live in a crime-ridden, violent Third-World shithole.
Sure, as oppose to New Zealand, where you couldn't partake in society unless you experimented upon...
"Experimented upon" by what? By any chance do you mean the vaccines that were designed to prevent, or at least ameliorate, the spread of a highly contagious disease? Oh, that's right, you perhaps think it was just a small part in a plan by Bill Gates, the lizard-aliens and the Illuminati to take over the world, or... something.
We have our challenges but to say we are behind the rest of the world in just about everything is ridiculous. And anyone that quotes Amber Heard… well it gives me pause and I find their reasoning dubious. So, uh, no MHO for me huh? :D
Ah, one of those people who believe that if someone notorious (like Adolf Hitler, or Amber Heard) said something (ex. water is wet, the sky is blue, the Pope is Catholic), it can't possibly be true because they were bad people! LOL! :D
Wow, you got me there. Yes you did, yes you did! Here, have a bone.
That went right over your little head, didn't it.
whoooooooooooooooooooooosh!
Let me ask you something. If Amber Heard told you the Earth was spherical, and not flat, would you believe her or would you say to her, "No, that can't be right, because you're a BAD person"? Do you see how silly it is to reject a claim simply because the person who made it wasn't among the best of us?
If you think America is the worst place to live in, you must be living a pretty sheltered life...
No, I don't live a sheltered life. Do you?
Im against the death penalty but not because i think that some criminals shoudnt be killed.
I dont want the government to have the power to legally kill. that might turn out really really bad.
Also u can argue its way more cruel to lock someone up for 45 years instaed of killing them
No fast rail? Yeah, better build one between Montana and Nebraska to please the European Marxists!
Is there anything about the US you do like? There are things I like about Europe. I’m not permanently butthurt about their history.
List of things I like about the US.
1.
@siri137 What do you think of this?
time.com/.../
Ah yes, the referendum. Approx. 60% voted "no", and that's a good sign people are finally rejecting divisive identity politics. It's a win for common sense. Racism has no place in a nation's constitution!
Yes. Does it not demonstrate that not all Americans are solely focused on what happens within our borders? Does it not also demonstrate that we are not alone in the same difficulties we face?
Russia, China and India and the smaller countries surrounding them are way behind the U. S. in human rights.
Among well developed countries the U. S. isn't a homogeneous country and is far more greedy than those countries that are well developed such causes the U. S. to lag behind.
Because our leadership doesn't care about the people. Only themselves.
The homeless issue is the same in every country.
No, it isn't actually.
While I don't agree with about half of your points the answer to your question is America is a Corporatocracy.
I don't know anything about you, but I bet that if you are not an American we came to assist your country from something or someone that was going to violate your rights.
We’re still the best country on our side of the hemisphere. Js. Almost every country south of us is in far worse condition.
Because USA does all its death penalties in other countries during war
It's how the USA makes a profit, kiddo.
It's not so bad.
Dumb A$& politicians
flat earthers? wtf
You can also add your opinion below!
Girl's Behavior 
Guy's Behavior 
Flirting 
Dating 
Relationships 
Fashion & Beauty 
Health & Fitness 
Marriage & Weddings 
Shopping & Gifts 
Technology & Internet 
Break Up & Divorce 
Education & Career 
Entertainment & Arts 
Family & Friends 
Food & Beverage 
Hobbies & Leisure 
Other 
Religion & Spirituality 
Society & Politics 
Sports 
Travel 
Trending & News 
Most Helpful Opinions