Thursday, June 28, 2012

What Makes America The Best Country In The World?

Is America the best country in the world? What makes it the best? Is it all of the freedom that we enjoy? We know that we arnt the only country in the world who has some sort of document that sets up government in a way that protects the citizens rights..and we certainly arnt the only country that has a democratic system..

Maybe its the attitude of its citizens. We all support the "American dream". What IS the American dream? The American dream, is being able to make something out of yourself, no matter what social class you come from. Is this really possible, and are there really no other countries like that?

I'll use our past presidents as an example. The American dream means that ANYONE could be anything they wanted regardless of class, even the president of the united states. So, why is it that there were only seven out of forty four presidents who were anything less then a lawyer or teacher who ran our country? you might say, but that's ridiculous..all lawyers and teachers arnt successful...No, but do you know how much money it takes to go to school to become a lawyer? More then an average working class person of that time could afford, and that's just not something a lower class citizen could identify themselves with.

Speaking of the attitude of our citizens, is a countries nationalism really proof of anything? If that's the case, why is it that we are skeptical of other countries that support blind nationalism?

Maybe we are the best country in the world because we do the most good for our citizens. How well are our citizens taken care of?

Here are a few figures, that show us how we rank with other countries in the world:

7th in literacy.
27th in math.
22nd in science.
49th in life expectancy.
178th in infant mortality.
3rd in median household income.
4rth in labor force.
4th in exports.

Now, compare that to the things that we lead the world in. Here are two that I am the most ashamed of:

1st in incarcerated citizens per capita.
1st in defense spending..which is more then the next twenty six countries combined.

Now, of course we do have programs such as social security, medicare and medicaid to name a few, but most people will agree that there are aspects of these programs that need reform.

Looking at these few examples, I think its safe to say that we dont have the right to call our selves "the best country". Are we a good country? yes, I think everyone should be proud, but at the same time, realize that when there is something to be critical about, the best thing to do is to fix the problem, not ignoring it by blind nationalism.

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