Why does the world feel justified by judging America?

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The "fiscally conservative" option is to support free at the point of access healthcare for all citizens.

The American system is needlessly inefficient; as a result, the government spends much more per capita in order to provide [url=http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/images/publications/fund-report/2014/june/davis_mirror_2014_es1_for_web.jpg?h=511&w=740&la=en
]an inferior service[/url], and indeed not provide much of a service at all to many people.

(I am mostly comparing with Britain's NHS, but several other countries also achieve the same thing)

If you want to spend less on healthcare, remove the bureaucracy and give it to everyone - perversely, the inefficiencies you remove make up for the extra services you provide.

Unless, of course, you are against governments providing services rather than governments spending money, in which case I apologise for this irrelevant post.

That's probably an apples-to-oranges comparison. The only direct comparisons that I've found list overall fatalities per 100,000 person-years, and per 1 billiion vehicle-kilometers.

Germany is more urban and less rural than the US, their roads are consequently better lit, their weather isn't as bad as the northern US, and driving is considered a privilege for the established and wealthy. Getting your driver's license costs 1,000-1,500 euros, gas is twice as expensive, and you can be ticketed for driving a rust-bucket. Probably because of the higher cost, Germans tend to start driving at a later age. Those aren't necessarily bad things, but they make it harder for someone who isn't already wealthy to do work that requires a vehicle.

Last edited by NobodyKnows on 15 Aug 2014, 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You mean free for people who can get in. That would be the Gymnasium (prep-school) crowd. So yes, lots of public money spent to educate the already-wealthy. Very progressive.

^

This, more or less. What is more not only does America have influence in countries which it has touched culturally it actively excercises its power to save or topple governments in other countries irrespective of the wishes of the indigenous people. That is another driver as to why America is hated more than say, China or Russia.

My German friend went to college for free and her dad was a farmer, her mom was a secretary, so I doubt what you are saying.

Last edited by AspE on 15 Aug 2014, 1:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hahahahahaha, more than China or Russia? As if America is exempt from colonial period behavior? I'm sorry but this idea is quite ridiculous, it's the pot calling the kettle black. And if we're going to go down that road, then America is nowhere near as bad as Great Britain, Russia, China, and Japan when it comes to those issues. The whole world has always been sh***y to some extent. When we were putting Japanese people in internment camps Japanese soldiers (yes, this was even organized by high ranking officers) were keeping POW's alive while they amputated their limbs and cannibalized on them. If you don't believe me read Eugene Sledge's memoirs from the war.

There are different types of college in Germany, and it matters which one you go to. Technical jobs in the US rarely require a Ph.D, but in continental Europe they often do. Somebody can go to college without going to gymnasium, but they're likely to be given a different title, lower pay and lower social status. There aren't many ways to work your way up.

A relative of mine is an engineer at Siemens despite not going to gymnasium, but he doesn't have the opportunity for advancement that a Ph.D engineer would have, and for that he would have needed to go to gymnasium. That decision is usually made sometime in grade-school, and your life course is pretty much set thereafter.

In the modern context, the effects of British imperialism are no where nearly as keenly felt as the enforcement of the American military industrial complex. The UK has but Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and a few rocks left in the atlantic and Pacific ocean to claim as its sphere of outer sovereignty. Yes, the world has always been sh***y but America has changed the narrative and rules of the game in arguably,a much more insidious way. Its the first empire that has succeeded in privatising its imperialist assets and interests in order to obfuscate the guilt and culpability of its government.

You could argue that China has copied this somewhat with its recent adventures in Africa but the USA has been using economic hitmen on private sector payrolls throughout the four corners of the earth.

Right, and Russia is just apologizing profusely for sucking up another old satellite state every five or six years. We're not the only ones changing the modern narrative, and we certainly aren't the only country exacerbating things in the Middle East. People seem to forget that other countries participated in the American war efforts there in the 2000's, and let's not also forget how many other countries have invested interests there, even sending oodles of money to Iran (need I mention Russia again), and Iran is effectively the purse strings of smugglers and terrorists all around their neighboring regions.

That's a heck of a first-world attitude. Africa is what it is today because of European imperialism. You could argue that conditions would be just as bad if Europeans hadn't invaded, but then you open the door to Americans making similarly Machiavellian arguments about our own power.

I say they are jealous.

Any nation that has the military and economic might to heavily sway international affairs really doesn't feel the need to apologize for it, and they are universally HATED by everyone who DOES NOT have that level of power and influence.

Not that such nations can't do bad things worthy of being disliked for, but most nations complain basically because THEY can't wield the same level of power and influence. A nations pointing fingers at the USA for stuff they've done as well (if not worse) is just a hypocrite. You'd have to have the power and influence and choose NOT to do the same to take a stand on moral grounds.

However all that power/influence still isn't powerful enough. You don't win asymmetric warfare. Huge military spend hasn't achieve that aim it is nearly all defensive ultimately. When was the last conflict won by the US?

I think is a question of attitude. Even allies sometime face palm at the arrogance and ignorance of some individuals. It is not everyone. However there stuff the US can learn from the rest of the world is not all one way.

In the cold war US was so focused on the communist threat, it ignored other threats and even supported them. Take Angola, arguably they prolonged that conflict by at least a decade if not more. it was stupid too becuase it was against their own interests. Cabinda is the second biggest oil rich location in Africa, and Chevron is the major player thanks to Dos Santos, not Savimbi who would have kicked. Regan actually believed the bs about Savimbi simply being anti-Marxist. The guy was an out war lord. However a brilliant military tactician, trained by the the Chinese.

Also beyond defending the soldier who fought and lost their lives, what was the actual point of Vietnam? It wasn't a direct threat. Vietnam ended up pretty much as it was goign to. You could argue it is somewhat better than China, and certainly North Korea, which has used cold war rhetoric and the War State to indoctrinate its citizens.

Depends on the politician I guess...

Yeah I think that pretty much sums it up pretty well.

Or maybe they are afraid that a nation run mostly by politicians bought out over corporate intersts...might do with all that military and economic might and dislike the sort of aggogance that would suggest the only reason anyone would have an issue with the U.S and its policies is becuase they are jealous about not being as 'powerful' also though I think it is more citizens of other countries that criticize the U.S don't think they are jelous about power I think many of them do base opinions on what they see as wrong doing rather than simply 'they are more powerful....waaaaa' but i could be wrong.

I think that is a bit of an oversimplification. Chalking up a whole range of complex reasons to simply "being jealous" reeks of some sort of weird defence mechanism. Black and white thinking isn't a good thing.

(I'm not an American and I don't dislike America, but I wouldn't want to live there.)