Generalizations like these are exciting. Let me try too...
I've yet to meet an American who didn't think at least one one of these, if not all, were completely broken.
Source: I live in America.
I've yet to meet an American who didn't think at least one one of these, if not all, were completely broken.
Source: I live in America.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/16/fox-news-poll-america-w...
> I've yet to meet an American who didn't think at least one one of these, if not all, were completely broken.
More importantly, what are any of those people doing about fixing the things that are broken?
The US is a good country and the citizens are indeed well off. We're not trending in a good direction on average and a lot of things need to be fixed, but it's still a very good place to live.
Spend some time looking at the statistics [1] and you'll see that in almost all key areas, America ranks dead-last among developed countries, and is often more comparable to developing countries than developed ones.
Compared to undeveloped countries, you are right, America is a very good place to live for the average Joe on the street. Compared to developed countries, it is not.
The thing, I think, that most of us miss is that, well (and I am in this category too,) most of us think of ourselves as above average.
As Steinbeck said, "Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires."
From my experiences, even just looking at my own feelings, this is absolutely something built into the American culture. I go on like I'm wealthy, and I do own a company with a very high revenue, but profit? what I actually get paid? well, I'm barely above average. But I still see myself as 'above average'
I think this explains most of the very American phenomina of poor folks voting for various policies that disproportionately favor rich folks.
Can you be more specific with your assertions? Linking to a huge dump of statistics and making claims about them is a bit disingenuous. What makes it not good for an 'average joe' compared to developed countries?
Where do you live, might I ask? Have you spent significant time in America?
I've visited Jamaica, Scotland, England, France, Canada, and South Africa and interacted with expats from a number of countries and I've never had the impression that any developed nation would provide me a better quality of life. (Okay, I lie, when it comes to soccer/football, almost any European country would make my life better). In fact, in every country the people I've interacted with have universally complained about the same issues that are fundamentally broken in America (healthcare, immigration, education, etc).
Granted, I am most certainly a privileged American. I'm a white male. I have a masters degree, a job making more than median household income.
tl;dr: I'm not sure why you've decided to champion the cause that America is bad on HN today, certainly America has a lot of issues, but every country does.
Most importantly, how are you trying to fix the areas that are broken? Are you even doing anything towards fixing them?
> Where do you live, might I ask? Have you spent significant time in America?
I'm in Canada these days, I lived a year on the West Coast of the US and a year on the East. I've spent another year driving all around, I've spent time in ~40 states.
> In fact, in every country the people I've interacted with have universally complained about the same issues that are fundamentally broken in America (healthcare, immigration, education, etc).
Right, because they're interested in constant improvement. It doesn't matter how good healthcare in Norway is (brilliant) - it can always be imrpoved upon.
That is the mentality that is lacking in America these days - the drive to constantly improve upon things are sometimes good and sometimes bad.
> I've never had the impression that any developed nation would provide me a better quality of life.
You're OK with more than double the chance of being murdered? or involved in a violent crime? You're fine with double the chance your kids or their friends will be born into poverty? You're happy your child is massively more likely to be obese and have serious medical complications because of that? How about incarceration rates? How about police violence rates? Student debt? (you don't even realize you graduate into servitude)
If you're happy, that's great. Other countries do it better.
I know several Americans who think those are all in fine shape. They tend to be Republicans living in places like Arizona. I don't meet a lot of people like that in Los Angeles, but they really do exist.
No 'republican' around here is happy with anything, everything is broken and it's all Obama's fault. :)
Seriously, his belief in individual liberty lead to sharp disagreements with his party on abortion, gay rights and drug laws, with the result that by the 1990s he was endorsing and voting for Democrats over Republicans.