Interesting Clip US Greatest Country in the World?

Daryl wrote:Tenshinai, I grew up on an Australian Outback sheep station with many thousands of sheep. There is no such thing as a clever sheep. I recently reread Elizabeth Moon's Gird/Pak stories and the quote "sheep are born looking for a place to die" is very apt.
Despite all of our deadly creatures we have one of the highest life expectancies in the world, so even Scandinavians should be confident enough to visit. A funny advertisement here has Aussie blokes scaring Swedish female backpackers into sharing their tent because of the threat from "Drop bears", koalas.

Back on topic, if you define greatest as the most powerful, then the US is the greatest by far. If you define greatest as the best place to live and bring up a family then a few other places come up for consideration.

Daryl wrote:Tenshinai, I grew up on an Australian Outback sheep station with many thousands of sheep. There is no such thing as a clever sheep. I recently reread Elizabeth Moon's Gird/Pak stories and the quote "sheep are born looking for a place to die" is very apt.
Despite all of our deadly creatures we have one of the highest life expectancies in the world, so even Scandinavians should be confident enough to visit. A funny advertisement here has Aussie blokes scaring Swedish female backpackers into sharing their tent because of the threat from "Drop bears", koalas.

Back on topic, if you define greatest as the most powerful, then the US is the greatest by far. If you define greatest as the best place to live and bring up a family then a few other places come up for consideration.

Daryl wrote:Tenshinai, I grew up on an Australian Outback sheep station with many thousands of sheep. There is no such thing as a clever sheep. I recently reread Elizabeth Moon's Gird/Pak stories and the quote "sheep are born looking for a place to die" is very apt.
Despite all of our deadly creatures we have one of the highest life expectancies in the world, so even Scandinavians should be confident enough to visit. A funny advertisement here has Aussie blokes scaring Swedish female backpackers into sharing their tent because of the threat from "Drop bears", koalas.

Back on topic, if you define greatest as the most powerful, then the US is the greatest by far. If you define greatest as the best place to live and bring up a family then a few other places come up for consideration.

Tenshinai, I grew up on an Australian Outback sheep station with many thousands of sheep. There is no such thing as a clever sheep. I recently reread Elizabeth Moon's Gird/Pak stories and the quote "sheep are born looking for a place to die" is very apt.

pokermind wrote:Deflation on the common person's major asset, their home, inflation of everything else, a Fed that keeps the interest rate an order of magnitude below the inflation rate discouraging saving. Politicians so corrupt that most people would trust a used car salesman before they would trust a politician. One set of laws for the power elite while we commoners see our personal rights and liberties trampled. The American people having for the first time a belief that their children's world will be worse than their own. All brought about by the mistaken belief that if government steals your wealth to distribute to the bureaucrats things will get better. Where did my country go

And you suggest more government? I am not convinced

Poker

Daryl wrote:A matter of definition, and everyone in a reasonably good country would naturally think theirs would be the best anyway. The US is the most powerful in military and economic terms, plus probably the most influential in politics and the arts, and you have silicone valley plus other hi tech industries.
In the terms used here of how it relates to the individual, then yes by the normal benchmarks of life expectancy, median income, education, future aspirations, income security, health system, percentage incarcerated, etc; the US is lagging overall, as can be found by Googling the reports.
I do hope that previous comments I have made here are seen as I intended as honest puzzled questions, not as overall criticisms.
One area that continues to puzzle is that of all the developed countries the US is the most right wing and nongovernment interventionist; yet when ever this comes up the Tea Party and similar say that the solution is to further restrict the role of government. If the small government free market is so great then why is the US in this fix? And why do heavily welfared countries like Scandinavian ones come out so well?
My ill informed opinion is along the lines of having a system that - lets the mega rich pay very little tax or wages, while restricting the disposable income of the workers by low wages so they can't spend to stimulate the economy, while restricting welfare so many end up costing a lot of money to keep in jail, while pandering to the arms industry by starting wars, and having expensive duplication of services from not having a strong national government - leads to the current situation.
No country is perfect and I certainly criticize my own more harshly than this from knowing the problems better and having a citizen's right to do so.

PeterZ wrote:Even with all you write, when the fecal matter hits the rotary impeller the US will be the last nation standing. That is if we don't balkanize first.

Cypress might well be the first pebble to go in a Euro landslide. If the other PIIGS risk getting hit with a similar "deposit tax", capital will flee Europian banks in huge waves. I don't see the Euro surviving that sort of capital drain. Where then will the meek hearted seek refuge?

Spacekiwi wrote:

PeterZ wrote:Even with all you write, when the fecal matter hits the rotary impeller the US will be the last nation standing. That is if we don't balkanize first.

Cypress might well be the first pebble to go in a Euro landslide. If the other PIIGS risk getting hit with a similar "deposit tax", capital will flee Europian banks in huge waves. I don't see the Euro surviving that sort of capital drain. Where then will the meek hearted seek refuge?

You forget China and Russia may do ok out of this. they may weaken, but china may well do better then the US overall. Or india for that matter. Yes they are behind at the moment compared to the US, but they are growing faster then The US, had less problems with the GFC for several reasons, and have much higher population bases. They also have very short travel distances to multiple trading partners in multiple directions, and a shorter distance to natural resources.

Daryl wrote:Good point PeterZ, in that corruption destroys efficiency. If a contractor gets the business because he is either your brother in law or has paid the biggest bribe ahead of the best value tenderer then naturally things are going to be worse. Our western democracies do have some corruption (campaign funds spring to mind along with free fact finding tours) but no where near as much as elsewhere. Plus in the societies that tend to shoot the messenger the warning bells don't ring in time.
Regarding Europe there are essentially three zones; Greece, Italy and so who have long regarded taxes as being optional, others like Germany and the Scandinavian countries that are in good shape, and France/UK that are in between.
Not sure which would be the last country standing in a full meltdown, and am not eager to learn. I've got solar power, my own water supply, a vegetable garden, can do most things, and plenty of ammunition; so I may be the last standing.

Daryl wrote:Good point PeterZ, in that corruption destroys efficiency. If a contractor gets the business because he is either your brother in law or has paid the biggest bribe ahead of the best value tenderer then naturally things are going to be worse. Our western democracies do have some corruption (campaign funds spring to mind along with free fact finding tours) but no where near as much as elsewhere. Plus in the societies that tend to shoot the messenger the warning bells don't ring in time.
Regarding Europe there are essentially three zones; Greece, Italy and so who have long regarded taxes as being optional, others like Germany and the Scandinavian countries that are in good shape, and France/UK that are in between.
Not sure which would be the last country standing in a full meltdown, and am not eager to learn. I've got solar power, my own water supply, a vegetable garden, can do most things, and plenty of ammunition; so I may be the last standing.