Is the U.S. really as advanced a country as believed?

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

NOTE: I'm not out to offend any Americans. This thread is meant for discussion of a certain perception of the United States. No disrespect to Americans is intended.

The United States is the world's richest and most powerful country. There's no question the U.S. holds a high profile on the world stage.

There are those who would have you believe this is the most advanced and innovative country on the planet, leading the world in most major areas.

But is the U.S. really the most advanced country when it comes to digital technology, environmental issues, health care and university education, amongst other arenas?

The U.S. regularly ranks out of the top 10 on the "Best places to live" list put out each year and fares even less well on surveys relating to quality of health care, but still folks will tell you the U.S. is on the "cutting edge" of a lot of different things and sets the standard that other nations follow.

The U.S. pays more for internet than other countries and more for cellular service, yet U.S. telecoms will still tell you America has the best wireless service and device selection anywhere in the world.

The Ivy League schools in the United States are considered some of the world's best, but the tuition constantly goes up and those institutions become more and more elitist. Is a Harvard Degree really better than one attained at say, Oxford?

There's a notion that major bands, actors and other performers haven't really "made it" unless they've made it big in the U.S. Of course there have been many international acts that have done well in other countries and not in the U.S., but "making it in america" is still used by many to judge the success of a performer or act. The idea that success in the U.S. is a high plateau as one can get to in the entertainment industry has been around quite awhile.

The U.S. dollar has long been the currency against which others are guaged. Using the United States as the "gold standard" like this further drives home the belief among some that the U.S. is supposed be above and beyond all the rest.

So I'm wondering, how you folks feel about that?

[Flyndaran]

The problem is that the U.S. doesn't compare to other countries. It is so huge that it better fits as Europe itself or a large part of a continent.
That means that to nearly every question about the U.S. the answer is yes and no.
Rich in some places, dirt poor in others. Advanced technologically in some areas, and slightly backward in others.

[Slytovhand]

Well now.... interesting...

There's a few different ideas thrown about here, and not all are entirely accurate.

In answer to your main question - not a hope in hell!!!

I think most of the problem is that the US believes all those things, and therefore doesn't need to question it... nor improve! The way 'Merika does things is best, so we don't need to change nuffin!

There is a definite need to define a couple of terms from the outset... such as 'richest' and 'powerful'. Sure, there's a hell of a lot of money floating around - there's also a hell of a lot of debt. There's a massive military,and a massive military budget... but so does a few other countries have that... it trades a lot - but do you want to mess with China and some other big traders??


Most advanced or innovative?? Bah! Rubbish! Sure, there's a lot of new stuff that does come out of the US, and there's a lot of money thrown into research... but look at the fads etc that pop up every year (month, week, day) in Japan... (I'm not saying they're good - just that they've got 'innovation' down pat!!)

Advanced... again, Bah! Sure, lots of stuff, but many other countries are ahead in many other fields... just pick them.... the US has it's fair share, but so do the others...

Your other arenas aren't really even worth mentioning, which is why you've thrown up the question... in some fields, in some places, it's great... as a nation as a whole.. nope! (but you'd be hard pressed to find any 1 country that is best at everything...).

Schools... again, hard to say... probably doesn't really compete with a lot of countries even remotely... universities... not quite fair to pick Oxford as your benchmark.. it's had a massive reputation for a couple of centuries now. Again, some universities are great, some are not... simple! But I think the standard of US education in schools (and by default, unis ) is dropping... sadly...(overall, and in general.. theres' exceptions everywhere).

Entertainment... probably the 1 place where you've got a leg up... but that's mostly due to the absolute masses of money that gets thrown into the industry. $20Million to an actor for 1 movie?? You don't get that in many places! And 280 Million people in 1 country... again, not many countries can boast that - with the cash to spend!


US dollar... all I can say is... don't plan on keeping them for too long... after WWII, the US was the most powerful nation on the planet... mostly because it didn't have the crap bombed out of it! So, it's infrastructure remained intact, and could produce stuff while the rest of the world was recovering... and bingo, you have a superpower (not to mention the weapons too! And that little discovery called 'mass production'). Also, due to that, it could put out loans to everyone... so, it had a hegemony on currency trading. But now, large chunks of the planet has caught up (and overtaken)... so, what used to be very valuable has slowly fallen behind. And, if the US goes any further into recession, you can bet the rest of the world will dump the USD as it's trading currency and head on over to the Euro... that's going to hurt... a lot!!!!

What the US really needs to do, is what you've basically implied.... stop thinking it's the greatest, and start looking at how to become the greatest... by looking at how other countries do things better!

[Rapscallion]

As was already said, the US is a conglomeration of fifty infividual countries under one banner, as I understand it. They're all in it together, but they have their differences. People often forget this aspect.

Rapscallion

[Mr Slugger]

See I don't think the US is the best at much of anything but it's got the people to try. I mean China has more people, but there's alot of backward people over there.

The entertainment industry is the thing that the US is probably best for, but yes it's because we've got got a crap load of people who like entertainment so therefore entertainment is big.

As far as internet and celluar service. We pay more because of our size. I mean 10 years ago I was getting on the internet in my area on a 384kps connection via a satellite dish because 64k was the only thing in my area. Now I could a 100mbps connection if I wanted it. My cell phone couldn't surf the net 10 years ago. Now I get high speed access, and this is almost nationwide. It's tough and costs alot of money to change that in a nation this big. And yes I'm sure there's some bloat. But at the same time I don't think that areas of of this country need high speed wireless. No one there is using it, but they have it because if we're traveling through there we want it there.

A history teacher once was talking about the world wars. Which of course yes was where the US became a superpower. And one of the things that made the US a superpower was that when we decided to get into those wars we weren't the best fighters, we didn't have the best plans, or the most advanced equipment. However when the country was able to churn out so much stuff so fast. I mean I think this gives a good example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militar...g_World_War_II

Other than a couple of categories no one really compares. And I think it's as simple as that. Maybe we don't have the the smartest scientists, but we have alot of them. We might not be cutting edge like Japan on tech, but you've got alot more people to sell tech to in order for it to work.

The other thing is yes we have some technologically advanced cities, but not all of them are. I mean there are some area like here in the northeast that houses are still wired with 60-100 year old wiring. I mean my house up until 10 years ago had 50 year old telephone wiring in it. And it was only two years ago when the phone company switched it all to new tech. And in Boston they're still running 20-30 year old trains. But there's cities out on the west coast that everything is new, but it's because everything is fairly new. They don't have the issues of do we fix 150 water pipes in the city or do we buy new train cars?

But I think somethings also are not all about the shiny, and the techy stuff. For instance. The Big Dig. Now while some will scream about it being over budget and all that as a construction project it was huge. I mean to completely rebuild and old city's highway system and to dig under the entire city, under skyscrapers, old train lines, etc. and just get it done while everything was running is amazing. (I think I saw a show once that said on portion of the tunnel was 8 feet from an active subway station) And I don't think anywhere else has a project of that size been done, and chances are in the future any old city attempting to do the same thing will look to that as the road work. And I mean I heard that they are digging through the alps for train lines rather than going over them. Which is good, but New Yorkers have been digging underground for long before that project was started for new a new aquaduct.

Now do I think we're the most advanced country in the world? No, because the country as a whole can't really be judged that way. But I do think that this country does do some incredible things, and we've got the manpower to pull some of it off.

[Flyndaran]

As was already said, the US is a conglomeration of fifty infividual countries under one banner, as I understand it. They're all in it together, but they have their differences. People often forget this aspect.

Rapscallion

I live in Oregon, which is more like a couple of individual countries all by its lonesome. Big city northerners, rural southerners, Native Americans on the reservation in eastern Oregon, and forest-folk of the west coast.