7 graphs that prove America is overrated

by Simon 152 Replies latest social current

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  finally awake

  willingness to work hard is *not* a guarantee that a person will achieve financial prosperity. I have seen many people who are more than willing to work hard, but continue to live on the edge of poverty due to other bad choices. One young man, not yet 30 years old, has 7 children to support. He has no high school diploma and no special job skills. He has a learning disability and can barely read, but he'll bust his butt 14 hours a day without complaint. I doubt he'll ever achieve even a middle class lifestyle.

  On the other hand, I am far lazier and less inclined to "work hard" than that young man. However, I did well in school (natural ability rather than hard work), went to college, and had the foresight to get a degree in a field that was easy (for me - natural ability not effort) and well paying. I work just 7.5 hours a day, get 50 paid days off per year, plus weekends, limited travel and very limited overtime. I earn substantially more than the average or median salary for where I live.

  In the end, America is like Las Vegas - it's fantastic if you are lucky and crappy if you are not. You can win big, but you can also go bust and there's no safety net until you're at rock bottom.
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  Think About It

  Wow, based on 1/7 of your hand picked criteria.....Rwanda is the best country in the world. Not even the Watchtower could hand pick graphs better to prove it's personal agenda.

  Think About It (Proud American living in Canada)
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  Hummingbird001

  Think About It (Proud American living in Canada)

  People will be nostalgic about their homeland, no matter where it is. I love my country, but I am enjoying the benefits of living in another country.

  Hummingbird (Proud Canadian living in America)
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  LisaRose

  I am amazed at people putting down America who have never been there. As far as the statistics, I will go with what the great American writer, Samuel Clemons (AKA Mark Twain) said about lies, that there are three kinds, lies, damn lies and statistics. Not that I question those particular statistics, but when you isolate very specific things like that they don't tell the whole story. Yes, we don't give as much maternity leave as some countries, but I know many companies that give six weeks, so it is not true that no one here gets maternity leave. Yes we are in a recession, many countries are. This is a great country, yes, right now things are tough, but I believe we will overcome these issues.

  I love this country because we have so much variety, from the beautiful Pacific northwest, to the tropical beauty of Hawaii, to the great Rocky Mountain, the vast beauty of the desert and the grand canyon. We have a varied population that includes many cultures and traditions. I live in the vibrant San Francisco bay area, where I can be at the beach in the morning and be in the Sierra mountains by evening. We have immigrant populations from nearly every country, which means there are great restaurants of every type of cuisine Indian, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Thai, Japanese, Fench, Greek, etc. We have so many things to do, my husband and I have been here two years and haven't seen a fraction of the interesting places to go. We have amazing fruits and vegetables and fresh seafood available year round. Our weather is nearly perfect. If you have never seen the Golden Gate bridge rising up out of the fog, you have missed out.

  One of the reasons this country is great is because we have welcomed immigrants with open arms, and they have come and keep coming. If America is such a bad place, why does everyone still want to come? Because with all our faults, there is still great opportunity for those who want to work hard. Those that are not making it are those who in the past easily found a job, with little or no higher education, that had great benefits, job security, and a fat pension. Those days are gone, those jobs are gone, we are in a global economy. Those with good educations, who are willing to work hard in a field that is in demand, are still getting jobs. We will adjust, we are good at adapting. The job market is recovering here. The real estate market has rebounded and houses sell in days for way over the asking price. Prices in some areas are close to the highest price before the recession.

  I have visited other countries, and they are wonderful, but this is my home and there is no place I'd rather be.
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  Simon

  For the record, I've been to the USA multiple time - East coast, West coast, North and South. Just haven't done the middle bit (does flying over it count?)

  Americans are very nice people. They really don't deserve the government and idiologies foistered on them.
• 

  mamochan13

  Well, lots of things wrong with some of the assumptions here. First, I must say I suspect where these graphs came from and what comparators they used to reach their conclusions.

  Second…Simon, I’m surprised, given the province you and I live in, that you would ever be critical of another country’s record on health care, given the ridiculous scandals and waste and mismanagement our system has experienced. I’m not sure we’re all that stellar here in Canada on many of the other measurements either.

  However, I do agree that because the U.S. claims to be the best country in the world they leave themselves open to this kind of criticism by promoting their exceptionalism. There are some very worrisome things about living in the US (the surveillance graph is concerning, but England is the same). I didn’t realize the no maternity leave thing. That’s unfortunate. Vacations….well, I don’t get vacations either, nor do I get paid for a day off. That’s not limited to the US.

  The idea that hard work is rewarded is a fallacy. Yep. Absolutely 100 percent agree. I work three jobs and cannot get ahead. I know countless others just like me. We work hard, very, very hard. But we get no rewards. *jumping on my soapbox* In my province, it is the wealthy, the privileged, those who are friends of the people in power who get the good jobs, who see all kinds of rewards, even though they don’t work very hard. The little guys on the bottom who scramble every day to make society function and who work their buns off….nope. Sorry. They just get the endless treadmill. It’s not a factor of the so-called American Dream. It’s here in Canada, too.

  I love Canada. But I’ve loved every part of the US that I visited. I loved Central America when I lived there, too. You can love your country and be proud of it without having to put down another country.

  I just have to add one final thing to those posters who claim everyone is beating down the doors to come to America. Um…no. Many, many people have absolutely no interest in living in the US. I think that’s a fallacy that has been perpetuated to support the myth that America is the best place in the world to live.
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  Hummingbird001

  Mamochan13:

  I just have to add one final thing to those posters who claim everyone is beating down the doors to come to America. Um…no. Many, many people have absolutely no interest in living in the US. I think that’s a fallacy that has been perpetuated to support the myth that America is the best place in the world to live.

  That is true. I am living in the US, taking advantage of their depressed housing and economic economy. And the nicer weather.

  But, honestly, I love the Americans. I have been treated nothing but friendly and welcoming. But our real estate broker did say there are tons of international investors in the US right now. So the US people may have to get used to a more international flavour in their country.......

  But I try to fit in with their culture. I feel like a visitor in a country that is not mine, so I try to fit in.
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  never a jw

  First AAWA, then Republicans, now USA bashing. Take one of the 52 week vacation allotment Canadians get. You need it. You sound better when you don't speak (write).
• 

  mamochan13

  52 week vacation allotment Canadians get.

  Whoah!!! I get a 52-week vacation allotment??? Please sign me up!!! Do I need to travel to the US to validate this?
• 

  villagegirl

  Holy Cow Simon - Please don't let the world know how "not nice"

  we Canadians really are I lived 25 years in California, but I was born

  in Ottawa Ontario and returned to Canada in 1989

  The first thing I noticed was all the bashing of Americans. Why ?

  It doesn't make any sense Simon.

  Because Americans BUY 85% of what Canada produces.

  The Chinese, who we apparently LOVE do nothing but screw us over and BUY

  only .8 % of what we produce. China is a one way street of

  buying up, and owning our oil reserves and any other natural resource

  they can get their hands on even though they have a government that does

  not recognize Human Rights AT ALL

  and China executes 5,000 people a year by taking them out and

  shooting them through the head. That is 100,000 executions in 20 years.

  Of their own citizens. These people we love ? No freedom of speech in China,

  no freedom of the press, its a Communist Dictatorship

  and we allow so many Chinese in Canada that Vancouver is 52% Chinese ?

  You are hating on the wrong group Simon. Americans feed and clothe you becuase

  they support our economy. And Americans believe in freedom of speech, freedom

  of the press and civil rights. China kills its own citizens for the crime of disagreeing

  with the government, at the rate of 50,000 in the last ten years,

  that is more deaths than the Americans wars on terror.

  We are the dependent child of the USA.

  So why so self righteous about being Canadian ?