You should better understand your question before answering, or —
— do you really just want us to be the United States of Free Stuff?
I think you should retract this piece and spend a few months checking facts. That done, you’ll probably not rewrite this, you’ll start over.
I’m not a crazy patriot. I am a US citizen but, I’ve spent over half of my adult life living and working in other countries so, I have a very objective view of the United States.
Have you read a European newspaper in the past 30 years? We are not the only rich country with regular mass shootings. They’re happening in many countries and, have for centuries. When people want to kill, they use the best tool at hand. Since the Chinese invented firearms, that tool’s been a gun.
The crime rate experienced by white Americans is slightly lower than that experienced by the average European. America’s violent crime statistics are skewed so far by black crime that the entire country feels as though it’s under siege. Statistics say otherwise.
Even though they’re only 12.6% of the population, 53% of murder victims in America are black people. Most of the murderers are black and most of their victims are black. Get out of the cities and the US murder rate drops to 3.0 per 100,000. The murder rate in the EU is…drumroll…3.0 per 100,000. White Americans experience almost exactly the same amount of violent crime as Europeans but, the amount of property crime experienced by white Americans is far lower than the amount experienced by the average Brit.
American crime statistics are grossly misleading because of black crime. The stats are clear. We experience two different Americas. One is quite safe, safer than it’s been in 40 years. The other is more dangerous. Denial gets us nowhere. The best way to approach the problem is to break down the statistics, see who’s killing who, understand why, then find a solution.
1/3 of state and Federal prisoners are illegal aliens. Want to get our rate of incarceration in line with Europe’s? Secure the border and deport our illegal prison population.
We have a higher infant mortality rate than other countries because we count every fetus that gets to the birth canal whereas, every other country in the world counts only healthy babies. We try to save everyone and we count every infant death, even the 20 week premie crack babies most countries don’t try to save.
Did you really believe our infant medical care was less good than Bulgaria’s? If so, let me find a bridge to sell you.
A huge component of the UN’s quality of life analysis has to do with income inequality. The authors don’t like income inequality. We’re all supposed to make the same amount of money, no matter what we do or how well we do it.
Does this mean Cuba and North Korea, two countries in which everyone is paid the same amount, have high qualities of life?
It’s not that we don’t care about people. We have a very generous system of public support. Add all Federal wealth transfer programs together and we spend $10,400 per capita transferring wealth from more well to do citizens to less well to do citizens. Yes, we’re paying $10,400 in taxes per capita — not counting state and local taxes, to fund gift programs to the less well to do. How many Americans receive these gifts? Less than half. That means the average person on public support is getting over $20,800 per year.
Is that not substantial enough for you? How generous must we be?
The average family living below the US’s official poverty level has electricity, running water, 2 televisions, 2 cars and air conditioning and free health care.
The average family living in official poverty in the US has a standard of living higher than the average middle class family in Europe. Why is this less important than the UN’s claim there are too many wealthy Americans?
Oh, yeah, that health care thing? The private health care I get in the US is far superior to the care I got in any of the other dozen countries in which I’ve lived, including the UK, where my company considered the public health care system so bad, they provided me with private care — a luxury for Brits but, still inferior to the care I get in the US. You’re still too young to know the difference between good and bad health care. Only after you have significant exposure to it will you know. I’m hoping you live long enough to tell the difference and hoping you’re honest enough to write about it in 30 years.
There is a reason wealthy people from around the world come to the US for medical treatment. It is the best you can buy, if you can pay for it. If not, you’ll get the best the rest of us choose to give to you — free of charge.
Exactly what kind of public transport would you like outside major cities? Rail tracks and freight trains run through all cities and almost all small towns in America. Amtrak can use any of them but doesn’t because there’s no demand. Even the trains Amtrak provides almost all run at a loss because — most people don’t want to take 3 day trains. They want to take 3 hour flights.
True, you can’t take a train to much of small town America but, that doesn’t mean you can’t get wherever you want to go.There are over 5,000 primary airports in the United States. Nearly every town of 30,000 has an airport with scheduled commercial flights. Compare that to just 460 commercial airports in Europe.
Clearly, if trains are your thing, you’ll be happier traveling in Europe but, if you don’t mind planes and like getting to your destination quickly, you’ll be happier in the United States.
Is greatness determined by which means of transportation the public prefers to use? Are trains really greater than airplanes? Really?
Your destination’s too small for a commercial flight? You can always rent a car but, if that’s too much trouble, nearly every American town of 3,000 is on a scheduled commercial bus route. Greyhound, leave the driving to them.
Refuse to rent a car and don’t like buses? How about a taxi or uber car?
Still not good enough? What kind of public transport do you want in the cornfields of Iowa, the wheatfields of Kansas and the sagebrush deserts of Texas? What kind of mass transit do you propose in places with population densities of less than 2 per square mile? Do you want us to deliver you in air conditioned luxury to any patch of ground in the country — free of charge?
Apart from, quoting a UN report that rates countries by social equality values, you’ve offered no support for your assertion that America is no longer great nor any solutions for the picayune problems (If you’re incapable of getting around in America, I’m sorry, but you’re incapable of living.) that seem to irritate you — perhaps you don’t understand the question you’ve asked.
What makes a country great?
Is greatness in a nation the promise of an easy life for everyone?
Does a nation’s greatness stem from the promise of equal outcomes for everyone irrespective of their talents and efforts? Is a people’s greatness the promise that none of them will be allowed to fail and, in order to ensure no one’s self esteem is bruised, no one else will be allowed to succeed too much?
In my decades of wandering, I have come to know countries with vastly different geographic and social conditions but, I have encountered only two kinds of people — those who pulled their own weight and, those who expected others to pull their weight for them. In the third world, out of tradition and necessity, no one does not pull his own weight. In your world, that’s less and less true.
If you’re willing to pull your own weight, there is no country in the world greater than the United States. If you want others to pull your weight for you then, you’ll find the United States less appealing.
But, you can always try Cuba; national wage $25 per month, with extreme shortages of everything from food to soap. Now there’s a great country.
Define your terms, understand your question, then come back when you have something useful to say.
