USA what is your excuse?

USA what is your excuse?

"You are either successful or an excuse"

Generally people across the world don't tell everyone that their country is great. But many people post on here about how great America is and so I was going to start a thread asking what was so great about America.

Then I started thing about how great America is, is it so great after all?
Well I don't think it is, considering the amount of land, natural resources, climate, terrain and people you have.

Lets start with sport, in the 2008 Olympics you had the most medals overall, but only twice as many as lower population countries such as Australia and the UK.
When was the last time a national USA team won, the soccer world cup, the rugby world cup, formula one racing?

You have the largest economy, but the largest exporters are? not the USA You are the biggest importer though.

Ok education, best education system in the world? no
But you have some of the top universities.

Inventions, what have Americans invented then?
I will give you a clue, it wasn't the www, digital computers, television, telephone, railways, the jet engine, hovercraft, radar car, submarine, photography.
First in Space? no

The USA has the largest defense budget, so why is country full of drugs and illegals?

Best health care ? no


Now perhaps USA would be the greatest country on Earth if it wasn't for the banking families of Europe; are they conspiring against you?

So USA what is your excuse?

First, I don't agree with your premis. Second, I don't see the need to justify my country to anyone other than myself. What we have accomplished is up for discussion, but justification is not. Has anyone asked that Britain justify their colonization and the problems it has caused that others have had to try to remedy?? Works both ways!! Much of what one's citizens call success is anothers excess!

Zindo

Originally posted by ZindoDoone
First, I don't agree with your premis. Second, I don't see the need to justify my country to anyone other than myself. What we have accomplished is up for discussion, but justification is not. Has anyone asked that Britain justify their colonization and the problems it has caused that others have had to try to remedy?? Works both ways!! Much of what one's citizens call success is anothers excess!

Zindo

I agree.

What makes England so great? You have a pretty big clock and some crazy guys with big fuzzy hats but the reason America was colonized was to get away from the crown.

I agree with you in that Britain has done a lot of bad things to other countries going back hundreds of years.
But British people don't post here saying how great Britain is, normally the opposite.

Just to clarify a point for anyone posting about Great Britain, from Wikipedia

After the Old English period, Britain was used as a historical term only. Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae (circa 1136) refers to the island of Great Britain as Britannia major ("Greater Britain"), to distinguish it from Britannia minor ("Lesser Britain"), the continental region which approximates to modern Brittany

Great Britain - Wikipedia

Whoa easy there big fella. Any more outbursts like that and I'm gonna hand out red badges without warning.

If you cant discuss this in a civil manner, don't discuss it.

Edited by me spiderj because it was way over the line and I'm feeling nice.

[edit on 11/8/2008 by Spiderj]

why does america need an excuse? i agree that its messed up but still better then most places. what gives you the right to judge our education, our government, or us.

We squabble amongst ourselves over what is right or wrong with our country but America is America and we all love America. I would say most of us don't really care what the rest of the world thinks.

reply to post by sickboy1313


the colonisation of america had nothing to do with escaping the crown, and i dont know anyone who is proud of britains past empire, please also get your geography correct, britain and england are not one in the same, there are 4 countries that make up the united kingdom.

colonisation of america



[edit on 8/11/2008 by whoswatchinwho]

[edit on 8/11/2008 by whoswatchinwho]

First off I have to laugh at nasty's comment. Star for you sir lol.

My country is not perfect by any means, I think you are perhaps eluding to the fact that the vast majority of the posts have something to do with America?

Mabey it would be different if we were all posting on a British based forum perhaps I would be asking whats so great about Brittan?

So you have to be the best of everything to like your country? You can't just be happy to live there. And some of your references are debateable. But since it seems your just fishing for points or an argument, I am not going to bother.

Are you really using the olympics as a reference?
Since only one person can win a medal at a time, I don't think how many people populate your country has anything to do with it. You can have a population of 325. If you have the best high jumper, you have the best high jumper.

Even if we didn't "invent" something, we can mass produce it, sponsor it, and make it accessible to everybody. And we give most people the freedom to do so. Which is why most inventors come here. While Thomas Edison didn't invent the lightbulb, he made it usable and accessible, as did Ford did with the car.

No we don't have the best education system, thanks to the soon to be ex POTUS. But we hope that with the new guy, that will change. Even if we don't have the best education, people do have a choice at who goes to school, and where. There are a lot of countries that have much better schools that send their children here, just so they can have an opportunity that they would not have at home, like the females for example.Same with the healthcare system.

while we are not the best at everything, we are not the worst at everything either. Maybe that is what people like, a nice happy medium.

We do work harder then any other nation. Americans work 400 hours more per year then the next leading country, Norway. We have half the vacation days. So while we have a lot and catch heat for it, we have earned it. And we pay for every bit of it too. The first thing foreigners realize when coming here that it is intense, and most comment how they find the pace brutal. We are competitive, tenacious, and if we want something, we fight for it. I think that is the real threat to others, the ability to make things happen, we are constant and secure.


I don't see a lot of Americans coming on here saying, what is so great about Europe. Europe sucks!

So since there are so many anti-USA threads, we have to be threat somehow, or there wouldn't be so much whining, we wouldn't have to be defending ourselves so much. If we were nothing and that horrible, nobody would care enough to say something.

So if we do like our little corner of the world, so what? Why does it even bother you?

Lets be fair.

Compared to the rest of the world America is still a very, very young country. Europe use to be a war mongoring, civilian torturing, histeria causing, unwashed bunch of people. I'm talking about the everyday citizen, not just the government.

So in all reality USA is alot further along then other countries were when they were our age.

I know this is why I feel the need to exclaim how proud I am of my country.

reply to post by lightchild


I don't know how to answer your question. What country are you from, why not have advertisements telling people where you are from to not immigrate here since its so dreadful as you claim.

I don't know how to answer your question, I'm an American I know nothing else, although I have lived and traveled to many different countries. The only people YOU should be asking your questions to is the Millions upon Millions that come here legally and illegally...

Ask them WHY immigrate to the U.S. its so awful, so bad, you will be slaves...bla bla bla...

If you can't convince them to stop coming here then maybe you could threaten to shoot the people that leave your country that don't know any better.


[edit on 8-11-2008 by Gateway]

reply to post by nixie_nox



I agree with everything you said, except the part about us being the hardest working. I have to say that would go to either China or Japan. Unless you have a graph from this century to educate me. That would be appreciated.

reply to post by nixie_nox


Thank you for your thoughtful reply a * for you.

So if we do like our little corner of the world, so what? Why does it even bother you?

because I keep seeing it

I really think that the USA should be greatest country in the World you have got so much going for you.
Including the long hours you work and your short vacations. In the UK there is a legal minimum of 20 days plus bank holidays for everyone.

I agree that the Americans are the worst when it comes to bragging about how great they are. No country ever has ever been such braggarts.
However, there is something to be said for positive thinking, right? They keep aspiring to be great and often achieve it.
Sure, we can say that of late, perhaps, it ain't been so great, but ....
America, traditionally has been a free-for-all of creativity, contest and winner take all. They hated tradition, status and class and favoured individualism and ingenuity. They loved a good fight - in the good sense - where anyone was free to challenge the establishment, the authority, the good old boys clique, and everyone had potentially, or in theory at least, the possibility of doing good. But you had to prove yourself. No-one was going to make it easy for you.
Their culture held up what was most admirable in men - strength, ingenuity and self confidence in the ability to get things done. By the same token, it respected that YOU TOO were capable of these things.
Some of these things were done to the extreme, to be sure, and the down-side is self evident. Not everyone in fact had equal opportunity. They are obviously still working on it.
I live next door to the USA. They are my favourite people to hate, but I LOVE them more than any other.
I sometimes look at America's turbulent in-fighting and arguing as similar to a stinking, hot, smoldering pile of compost. It produces the most fertile fertilizer to nourish the most beautiful flowers.
I admire them for their willingness to scrap it up and fight and argue amongst each other until some beautiful truths come out in the end.
I wouldn't have any other neighbour even if I could choose.
1 Canadian.

The citizens of America aren't the ones to blame. Any shortcomings that come out of this country are decided and manipulated by the administrations and powers to be.We would be the #1 exporter if our corporate greedy country didn't outsource all our damn jobs.

It's no different than any country. As if we actually have a say in anything.

We brag about our country. I never bragged that i'm better than you or anyone else for being American. It's just called pride. You have it and so does almost everyone.I respect all people who have respect for others regardless of ethnicity.

What's funny is how everyone criticizes this country but rushes over and fights for citizenship and rights. What's even more pathetic is these people driving around with flags representing their countries. As far as I'm concerned this is pathetic. Why rush to another country if your so proud of your own?

This country is huge, beautiful, diverse and resourceful. I can't say i've been to many countries, but as far as I'm concerned, there's no need to be. I'm happy right where I am.

The government is another story though.

Population.

Consider:

If we were to assume that there is a more or less equal distribution of people who are outspoken about their country's greatness, regardless of whether they live in the UK or in the USA, then we would still have a good deal more Americans who are openly nationalistic than British, simply because of the population difference.

A rough estimate based on census info which is found on Wikipedia yields these populations for 2007-2008:

USA: 305,603,000
UK: 60,975,000

Therefore, the USA has roughly five times the population of the UK. And therefore, if we assume an equal distribution of nationalistic individuals, there would be five times as many people saying "America rocks" as there are people who say "Britain rocks" (and believe you me, there are plenty who do the latter).

For every one person spouting off about the UK's greatness, there are five spouting off about America's. Frankly I'd say this sounds about right. Therefore your attempt to generalize Americans as being more blindly nationalistic than the British seems to me to be misguided. It's simply a matter of population distribution.

[edit on 8-11-2008 by Magnus47]

Originally posted by lightchild


I really think that the USA should be greatest country in the World you have got so much going for you.
Including the long hours you work and your short vacations. In the UK there is a legal minimum of 20 days plus bank holidays for everyone.

Believe me, Most of us would love to adopt that part of the UK's legislation!
I just got my first vacation in 5 years. I had to get layed off to get that???

Zindo

If you want to see brags, just search for Texas brags. We are good at it and have been for a long time.

reply to post by wayno

sometimes look at America's turbulent in-fighting and arguing as similar to a stinking, hot, smoldering pile of compost. It produces the most fertile fertilizer to nourish the most beautiful flowers. I admire them for their willingness to scrap it up and fight and argue amongst each other until some beautiful truths come out in the end.

Yeah, it's gets very ugly here....but it gets ugly because we are allowed to do so. We are allowed to speak our minds. We can fail and rise again. Anyone can be successful here if they put their minds to it. It doesn't matter what race you are or what you believe in...you can still do anything if u put your mind to it. You will have naysayers....but that's what keeps you fighting....it's what keeps you going to prove those same people wrong.

But of course there is ALWAYS room to improve and here is no different than anywhere else. We have a ton of problems right now, but i think we can get through it as long as we can keep our Constitutional rights intact.

With all this being said...The US has not been a good leader lately and it needs to change. I just hope that others remember that the actions our government takes is not necessarily what the people want or are asking for.