Originally posted by: Coldkilla
-We're the fattest nation
Because our diet is completely borked. Government got involved and told us 40% of our food should be coming from grains and pastas. Yet, these are the foods that are converted to glucose the fastest (and thus cause the highest and quickest insulin spikes, which cause our liver to go into overtime converting the glucose into fat, because the high glucose levels that these foods create in our bodies are toxic). It is no wonder that we are fat.
-We're the dumbest nation
Mmmmm.......we still attract all the smart people of the world for business.
-We don't produce anything, you hardly see "Made in USA" anymore..
I don't know enough about this to make a comment; about what we produce and what we don't, and the long term effects of the large trade deficit, and if it will equalize. Seeing how well everything else works, I'm skeptical of saying that this won't, so I'll just say I haven't found the answer yet, and that I haven't researched it much (this specifically) either.
Mmm, maybe, but the benefit of letting the market control it (and keeping the government out...even though that rarely happens) ensures that the majority of us have a job most of the time.
-We outsource all of the well paying jobs to other countries
Rather, we outsource the simple jobs that do not require an education, to other countries. This is good because it frees up our economy to produce more design-intense items. Your argument is quite similar to the argument automotive workers made when the big 3 started replacing jobs with machines. As usual, life is unfair sometimes, but go back and get an education in something that the market will hire you for. If we legislate that we can't outsource jobs, then we'll be legislating ourselves into non-competition with the rest of the world, because someone else will produce what we produce, but will do it for much less, and they will sell it over here, and those people will lose their jobs anyways. If you want to place tariffs to take care of this then that's another discussions, but it'll basically lead to a stagnant economy.
-We have a horrible health care system (Being ripped off severely for nearly all medications)
If there weren't rewards for pharmaceuticals, they wouldn't sink the money to employ all the biochemist PHDs to research for and create these drugs. Further, our healthcare system is remarkably efficient. Try getting care in a nation where it's all paid for. Need to go to the dentist for a cavity? In Scotland you'll wait 6 months before you can get it. But, cavities can't wait that long. So you have to make your own plans, with your own money, in addition to the money you pay in taxes. In Bulgaria you have to pay extra, under the table, for the operations...and also bribe the doctors at least $10K or you...might not wake up. All because the government got involved in providing healthcare and legislating how much doctors get to officially make. The market will demand what it costs to be a doctor. If they don't get it, then you won't get the care.
-We're one of the most major polluters, and complain about every cent increase while gas in other countries exceeds 7 dollars a gallon.
Because they have ridiculous taxes on the fuel. It's also important to realize there are no subdivisions in Europe, every community is built to be self sufficient-- because those cities were built when we did not have cars. Hence supermarkets are always within walking distance. In Europe you have the choice to not own a car. Most cities in America don't have a public transportation system that is good enough for you to not have to own a car. In America, cars are a necessity for life 90% of the time. So is driving at least 20 miles a day to get to and from work, because our cities were built without thought of expensive transportation. So while the Europeans pay $7/gallon, they only have to drive one mile. We pay $4.00 a gallon and have to drive 3 miles. Hence we're paying more than they are for gas.
As for pollution, our worst cities are still 10 times better than China's worst cities. At least we build nuclear plants. They just erect more coal plants, WITHOUT electrostatic precipitators (scrubbers). In some cities in China, the sky is never blue, it is brown, always brown. But hey, lets just legislate ourselves into non-competition and not deal with the biggest source of pollution, China's coal plants. Let's put a Carbon tax on all energy. Such a thing would increase the base operating cost of running a business and living, across the board, and hurt our economy; and provide very little benefit.
Now, if you want to talk about keeping things like mercury out of the environment, that's cool, because there is no obvious economic incentive to not release mercury, and there is a clear and defined consequence (no fuzzy global warming theories), aka women not being able to eat non-freshwater fish (salmon from salmon farms are ok of course) while they are pregnant, because of the effect on the baby.
But, gosh darnit, be careful when you get the government involved. Have you heard about the CFL's by 2012? The government mandated that everyone be using CFLs instead of incandescents by 2012, to conserve energy. What do you think people are going to do with these? There is no nationalized recycling plan. They're just going to toss those into the trash, where they are going to break, and release the 2-3 mm-sized beads of mercury into the environment. Would have been better to just let them burn the extra energy with the incandescents, because at least the scrubbers capture most of the mercury released when we burn coal.
-Our dollar is in the trash
Yeah...but it's bringing some business to America like crazy. Europeans are flying to New York to buy their clothes because it's cheaper here, including the round trip ticket, than buying there. It's also making all of our products much more attractive. For example Boeing vs. Airbus. Both are priced in dollars, but one is produced mostly in America, the other mostly in EU countries. Guess which one is doing better? Overall you may be right though; I think there would be a greater benefit to a stronger dollar. Never was a fan of spending when you don't have the money.
-Our public education system is broken (college costs, etc)
Thanks largely in part to handouts like Pell Grants. Pell grants upset the market for tuition (leading to increased tuition costs) and depress the wages of workers, because they increase the number students that are able to attend university. Remove Pell grants, and suddenly tuition costs several thousand dollars more. Fewer students attend university. Universities have to fire some professors and hire actual TEACHERS, not researchers, until they can make tuition affordable enough again to bring the equilibrium 10k students that their school can handle. Ever wonder why hardly any companies employ PhD's? Because their market value has been inflated by educational institutions. We need fewer PhDs, and the best way to do that is to remove one of the methods that enables Universities to over-pay them, to remove the free money, the Pell grants. Pell grants are a blind "investment" with no intelligent decision required. If your Expected Family Contribution is less than a certain % of your total tuition cost, your get a Pell Grant. Worst idea ever, because the Pell grants, if the desire is to decrease the out of pocket expense to students attending university, have to keep increasing to stay ahead of the rising tuition costs.
If the market needs more workers, then wages will increase across the board until the incentive to take on the loans and enter the market reaches the cost of taking on the loans. Instead Pell grants saturate the market with employees that are not needed, thus depressing the wage each employee can demand.
-Our nations "word" means nothing internationally
I'm not very concerned with the rest of the world because they whine if we don't try to fix things, and if we do, they whine some more. South Korea whines because we have troops in their country. They'd whine if we left too, because North Korea, with the help (arms probably) of their allies China, would waltz down into SK and there would be mass bloodshed. North Korea is frickin crazy.
You know what the government there tells people when the UN drops food and supplies? That it is because we, the rest of the world, are so in awe of their progressive society and government and how wonderfully things are run there, that we send tribute in hopes that they will like us. And the people believe it, because they have nothing else to believe. So who cares if SK doesn't like our presence, having American troops that can go kick NK into submission, should they try anything, is one of the few things keeping them from getting aggressive.
-We call Bush an idiot now, but who put him in power?
I agree, people are too short sighted.
-Loans from credit cards are insane, I read over a half TRILLION dollars, we buy things we cannot simply afford.
I fail to see this as a problem. Stupid people will be stupid, there's nothing you can do to stop that. Nor is there anything we should do to insulate them from being stupid. Right? If you're buying things you can't afford, you're not being wise. This is not the fault of the credit institutions, but of the people that are living outside their means. I know the mortgage companies can be tricksy, but honestly, all it takes is a couple saturday afternoons reading about finances on the internet, and someone can calculate for themselves, and decide for themselves, whether or not they should be taking on this $200k loan when they are only making $20k/year. Yet Democrats would have us believe it is someone else's fault, that it's too much work for the person looking at taking out a $200k loan to research for themselves, think for themselves about the truth of the situation. If people would just do this, we wouldn't have a housing bubble, we wouldn't have people buying houses on speculation, on AMRs when they know they aren't going to be able to refi with a standard loan that is affordable. But the Democrats say it's someone else's fault, never the loanee's fault for not being educated.
Democrats are almost always insular, never introspective. They never ask "could it be that my actions are bringing this pain on me?" They always exclaim that it's someone else's fault. This obvious character flaw is why I don't take their arguments for much weight, because their fundamental reasoning capabilities are so obviously flawed. It's also why I'm hesitant to vote for Obama, not because I think Obama thinks like this or is this way, but because so many people who do, are going to vote for him. Makes me afraid I'm missing something about him.
-We call ourselves "the greatest place on earth", arrogant then too.
And we still have the best economy, even with how it is doing now (which isn't that bad). You should go see other countries. America is nothing compared to many African countries engaged in, more or less, eternal war, with eachother. Not saying America doesn't have problems, and that the problems aren't serious, because many of them are, but they're nothing in comparison to what they COULD be.
-We put money in the hands of other countries before our own (paying billions in aid packages and other fundings because we're "rich" and can spread the "wealth")
Sure, this one doesn't make sense to me either.