The greatest nation on earth

[faustian]

I'd say the US is the greatest nation on earth because the economic/military hegemony possessed by the US is the greatest on earth and it's not even close. I'm not arguing whether that's morally right or wrong or whether it should be that way, I'm just asserting that's what it is.

 

[BelieveInChael]

Depends how you define great, when I think of a "great" country, I simply think of a country I would like to live in - America is definitely up there.

This is why it confuses me when idiots say China "owns" America nowadays - half the country still lives in poverty.

 

[D3THRONED]

Except for the fact that China pretty much owns America now....

China is smart as fuck. They didn't have to kill anyone and they basically own us in everything but title.

You do realize china owns less than 2 trillion of US debt..

 

[anaconda]

Jeff Daniels lines are wonderful in this........

Came to post this. Leaving satisfied.

I randomly saw one episode of this show and I am super excited to start watching it from the beginning. It is incredibly well done.

 

[Jake Sonyou]

Our military is the strongest on Earth and for no other reason.

 

[ElCapitano]

Because America saved the world in WWII.

Without us we'd all be speaking German and at least half the planet would just be blue-eyed, blonde-haired assholes.

As payment, the rest of the world has to kiss our asses for at least another century.

And I was just listening to Rammstein - Amerika, I'm wondering what the song's about.

 

[KOQ24]

Exactly, especially the UK and Russia have a big part in this.

Sadly, Sweden's efforts was mostly to aid Hitler, which according to some contributed to the prolonging of the war. :icon_sad:

 

[MusclesMarinara]

If I was to take a serious stab at it I'd say it's because we are made up of many different peoples all living under the dream of the possibility of a better future with equal opportunities for all.
Sadly reality falls quite a bit shy of that ideal.

 

[total nonsense]

we like to troll the rest of the world and apparently it works.

Listen nobody is stopping you or your politicians from claiming that your or any other country is the best, it's just most of us won't care.

In summary, gotten to

 

[total nonsense]

Jeff Daniels lines are wonderful in this........

Except that of course no country can claim to be the best is every single category. It's like saying Lebron doesn't lead the league in scoring, in rebounding, & assists plus he has turn overs therefore he can't possibly be the best basketball player in the NBA. That argument is fairly retarded.

 

[Thanos]

Because we have a military base in your country

Guaranteed

 

[Unknown Pleasures]

Then they talk about God blessing America too.

If you're dumb enough to believe a guy in the sky exists, let alone that government acts as prescribed in holy books, there's no limit to the stupid shit people believe. So poloticians say stupid things.

 

[Abezal]

At no point in its history was the US the greatest nation on earth.

 

[Sean Buckley]

I believe they were at one point. But like every other super power in human history, the days of them even being the super power are numbered. I think the last 20-30 years we have seen a pretty severe decline for several reason's...

 

[Stev3]

you know you're the best country when everybody wants to go there. Which is THE USA

 

[Youthanized]

You have to be the greatest country in the world to sell houses and burgers to each other, where's did you learned otherwise?

 

[MortalWombat]

Economically a prime force? The USA has a huge debt. And fairly high unemployment.
Culturally? Just a matter of opinion really. But the USA has huge crime rates, every moron can buy a gun. Those are things a lot of people dislike about the USA.

I'm not saying the USA isn't a great country, but let's not pretend it's the best place in the world to live, because it's not objectively true.

US is still the largest economy in the world. That'll change soon, but the new holder of that mantle will have big question marks around it, so that's economically.

Everything is a matter of opinion, but a strong argument can be made.

Economically: very, very debatable.
Politically: what does that mean?
Culturally: I might give you that, US culture has enormous influence! But does the mere fact that a culture is compatible with the masses (and in most countries it's more the lower classes which accept American culture, ie music, movies, clothes; the higher classes almost always cling to the traditional culture of their place, eg classical music) make a nation great? I associate something more with "greatness" but the mere fact of factual effectiveness of cultural export, something morally for example.

I would have thought that economically is the least debatable of them all, but maybe you think the others are even more dubious. The reason I think it's less debatable is because there are objective measures you can apply to compare things in this sphere.

Politically means that it has the greatest power to shape the world's actions. Whether it's climate change or Syria, when something's going on, people look to see what the US does. Not everyone agrees or follows, but everyone notices. The fact that Obama needs to say that US will not take any unilateral action in Syria means a lot. Australia (I keep going back to it cos that's where I am) doesn't need to say that, since no one in their right mind would ever think that it would.

Culturally, like I said, it can be argued. The other side can be argued too. For what it's worth, I personally think 20th century USA contributed hugely not just in "mass" culture, but in the high brow sense too - art, film, literature, music.

 

[Mayhem Man]

I'll answer this as a European. Being American has for me always signified a mental state, and as such it's open for all. It's a belief in certain ideals and the freedom of man. Being that USA is a great country, it protected us with a nuclear umbrella and fought for our principles long after we lost the ability to do it ourselves. The alternative to U.S. dominance is scary to any European.

And last but not least; cheeseburgers, weapons, movies, work, taxation, Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming governor.

 

[Blayt7hh]

I like this revisionist history about WW2 going on all over the place. It seems like people taking either side of the argument are greatly undervaluing the other.

I mean, you guys do remember that while Russia might have gotten to Berlin first (and lets ignore the fact that they didn't have to cross an OCEAN to get there), they did so against a Germany fending off the largest invasion in history from the other front. That invasion was set in motion by a country simultaneously fighting a war against another world power in an entirely different ocean.

I'm not trying to undersell Russia, obviously they played an equal, maybe greater role in defeating Germany. But I see a lot of European posters try to shit on the American role in WW2, and that does kind of get under my skin. Especially since western Europe pretty much sided with big brother America during the cold war for protection from the Soviet Union. And lets face it, if we weren't their flexing on your behalf Europe probably would have been taken over by the Soviet Union.

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

Because America saved the world in WWII.

Without us we'd all be speaking German and at least half the planet would just be blue-eyed, blonde-haired assholes.

As payment, the rest of the world has to kiss our asses for at least another century.

Lol, hardly.

The Normandy invasion was a year late by that time most of the German troops were getting killed in Russia.