In 1988, the US was ranked "the best place to be born." Today it is #16. What happened?

reply to post by Krazysh0t


I didn't say nothing was wrong. I'm simply saying that we still have a lot of freedoms we seem to just take for granted.

I've seen interviews of Chinese citizens that freaked out when one spoke poorly of the way things were going in China.

They were scared of losing their freedom. They did not ideally speak against their government.

We do this daily here, we get so used to speaking poorly of our country that we are blinded to the fact we still have the right to do this.

Things might not be great, but at least we can speak up about it.

reply to post by silent thunder


It is part of the huge propaganda machine to ruduce the self image of americans. If everyone here kept thinking they were somebody then it would be harder to force feed any large scale downgrade of living conditions.

The bad thing is, we deserve it for the lack of overall effort from our people. It makes me sick to see how many people think their life is an episode of Jersey Shore. People (a growing majority) have to stopped acting like a bunch of half baked retards or the world will treat us accordingly.

reply to post by ldyserenity


It's a symptom of an underlying endemic problem in the USA.

reply to post by silent thunder


What happened is that individuals in the US started caring more about money than they did each other. They forgot the lessons of the past that led to those ideal conditions in the first place. They became greedy and self centered instead of communally focused. They stopped thinking in terms of their grandchildrens future and became extremely narcissistic and self-indulgent with immediate gratification the order of the day.. They stopped investing in critical thinking and shifted to authoritarian "education" instead, if it even can be called education. The populace allowed and participated in the poisoning our air, water and soil while rationalizing it away as progress and growth. We didn't revolt when Kennedy was assassinated by our own government. We didn't revolt when Bush stole the presidency. We didn't revolt when the federal reserve was created. We didn't revolt because we were too busy living the "good life" to be involved.

In 1988, the US was ranked "the best place to be born." Today it is #16. What happened?

They lied to Americans in 1988

erm is it just me or is the UK not on the new chart?

we 101? or something?... cant be right nigeria being higher and even on the list?

or did they just choose not to survey us...
sux being left on sidelines

reply to post by Insearchofthetruth1987


Britain is ranked 27th

These lists are just a matter of opinion but i agree things were better in the 80s. So basically we would ask what happened during 80s to set this slide?

January 20, 1981 – January 20, 1989
Ronald Reagan, Presidential term

Well...gee, wonder what could have happened?

Also, in the 80s we put out some damn good heavy metal. Once that was over it was all downhill.

Does it matter to any of this that they used two different measurements for the two surveys? I mean, they used some different tests in the second survey. You'll see it if you read the article and click on their link to "Methodology."

Might it be that what we really have is two completely different surveys based on what The Economist thought was important at the time?

Has the US slipped? Sure, we don't need a survey for that. But, it seems that comparing these two is a mistake.

reply to post by micmerci


It's called short term boom, long term ever decreasing quality of life.

reply to post by MystikMushroom


I still don't get what you're saying are the parents a bad example yes, is the kid, yes, the show I am not so sure public ratings were low (so we're not that dumb yet), but they are (parents and child) are not typical in America, maybe you're saying the fact that that's what people think are typical Americans are, then Yeah I agree that is a problem, but my kids are neither fat, stupid, or dysfunctional and we are good parents and I believe 90% of the US is nothing like that family, that's why they're on tv. Kind of like the old time sideshows and they've been around forever!

reply to post by ldyserenity


Chris Christie.

G W Bush

second

Corporatism and a Supreme Court that can equate a legal business construct as an individual.

Denmark is most definetly the best country to be born in. Australia should be at the bottom of the list.

Goodness Gracious ! Do you think two decades of Mexico and the rest of the world wholesale exportation of their worst and most undesireable to the USA after the 1986 amnesty whic followed the 1964 amesty and they have seen the pattern stay here long enough and you may or may not become a citizen if you so desire.

I don't blame the immigrants. I blame the system who made it so welcoming to them. Right now they have a better chance to get ahead than their children do.

Originally posted by Avgudar
Denmark is most definetly the best country to be born in. Australia should be at the bottom of the list.

Good call, the less popular Aust is, the less people will want to come here. How about taking us off the list altogether.

reply to post by VforVendettea


No, you're blaming the immigrants. You are essentially saying that their presence (I believe you called them "worst and most undesireable") in this country is what has tanked us as a desirable place in which to be born. Candy coat it anyway you want but THAT is what you said.

I've never been to the US...I've actually never been outside of Europe.And maybe my views are a little simplistic.....but how relevant are these statistics back then and even now to the average person? No matter who is deemed the best country to be born in, I suspect it means very little to those born in in the more run down and disadvantaged communities.....life is as good as it is on your own back yard!
I did warn you it was a simplistic view

reply to post by Logos23

You're not missing anything. Our cities are pigsties, our television is stultifying and the children here are loud, obnoxious, spoiled brats.