I am astounded how much our country has fallen since so many people decided to elect a moron to Make America Great Again. It seems our checks and balances are not what we thought they were.
Our laws and constitution are being threatened every day. The statue of liberty is a sham. We are seen as fools on the world stage as we turn our backs on our allies.
Can we get America back?
36
Phooey on the format. How about a transcript?
27
It is important to enthusiastically say America is great to discourage Trump from destroying our nation and the world with actions he deludes his followers into believing will Make America Great Again š¢
2
America is still the greatest country in the world. Above all we have given economic stability to the world through the mighty dollar. But it will not be for much longer. China and Russia are trying to bypass the dollar and now many countries are doing the same. All international trade used to be in US dollars. Now it is about 80% and is falling by 2% (?) each year. Once it falls below 50% quite a lot of hell will break lose. Also if the digital currencies become widely accepted and the big business like Amazon start their own currencies than the situation will haste America's downfall.
The #1 problem that our leaders must address is that America is an emotionally challenged country. Emotional health is the foundation of health and yet there is no manual or testing for emotional health. All the ills of society are emotionally challenged behavior. Crime alone costs over a trillion dollars.
America can be transformed into an emotional health super power. The first step we need to take is to elect a president who recognizes this problem and takes steps to correct this situation.
Also America must not get into any more wars. Ever since the Vietnam war we have not won any wars and it has cost trillions of dollars that we will be paying for a long time to come. Especially wars in Asia. Either we quit and let the enemy win like in Vietnam or we stay there and keep fighting forever draining our resources and causing pain and death to our armed forces. It is easy to get in but
5
The premise that once was America has been trampled to dust.
13
Fine! Please bring this story to our border so all those waiting to enter the US will return to their home countries or pick another destination!
22
I have friends and know people that are leaving or wondering where to go to start new lives. The myth of America is no longer valid for those of us who see the decline of the country. Trump is not the cause of the decline but merely the visible proof, the symptom of the decline. We've been heading this way for quite a while. While I thought the end was ushered in with our entry into the Viet Nam war, I had to amend that to constructing a constitution that made a Black person, 3/5 of a person. With a start like that, how could you go right? The Founding Fathers satisfied the slave-owning states and created the brew that began to wreck us. The concept of 3/5 of a person has never left the DNA of this country (though that concept was amended). It remains at the heart of our thinking, as does the superiority of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male. And, shouldn't we put this reliance of a god to further the decline of a nation? All theocracies do badly. Latin America is a good example. We're coming close to those 3rd World countries. We're in a decline, and the death throes are too sad, because it was a country that could have shown the world how capitalism and democracy could have worked. Instead, it showed how greed and hypocrisy trump the common good.
21
Click bait and great American opportunism at it's finest. America's great because you can make these opinion videos!
America, love it, or leave it!
17
US, the richest, most powerful nation on the planet.... with one of the highest rates worldwide of gun related deaths. The richest, most powerful nation in the world and the only developed nation without universal healthcare. These two sad facts absolutely confirm the US is not the greatest country on earth. Look at the rankings of best countries to live in and the US isnāt in the top 10. Politicians need to repeat the "greatest country" chant to absolve themselves of the poor job theyāve done running this country.
17
And yet there is no lack of people trying to move to America.
20
O Canada, we celebrated you yesterday and not a
whisper of it in US press.
When Obama addressed our parliament he said the world
needs more Canada.. and I daresay, less USA.
We clean your clocks in literacy, math and yes, we
have universal healthcare. We are multicultural, bilingual,
abortion is legal here and so is same sex marriage from coast to coast to coast. The US is big with riches, with fat
and now with cruelty and corruption. Time to clean house
America. Vote!
32
Even since way before the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome, has there not been a succession of countries whose greatest-ness has been eclipsed? Along the lines more recently of the sun never setting on the British empire, the thousand year reich? Why would the United States be different, prospectively or retrospectively.
5
Your video does an excellent job of bringing the point across memorably - not easy to do with all those statistics. Anyone who doesn't understand that America isn't really the greatest country on Earth doesn't read enough and hasn't seen enough of the world. The most one can say is that America is the most influential and belligerent country in the world.
7
Ok. Move to the one that is greatest. You wonāt. Why, because when you put it all together, it is the USA that people love. Itās like falling in loveāall the stats are menigless; itās how it all comes togetherāthe character and chemistry. We are āš»Aliāflawed but still the greatest.
6
Other countries aren't as rosy as they appear.
Scandinavian countries are plagued with xenophobia, high rates of personal debt (Denmark is the highest in the world), high cancer rates, segregated labor forces, and high carbon emission rates per capita (around the same as the US). They have also done comparatively little for the world.
Germany is great, but xenophobic. They also haven't shown themselves to be durable. Modern Germany has been around not even 30 years. They also have Nazism in their not too distant past.
The UK has plenty of problems as anyone who reads news knows. They have Brexit, xenophobia, etc.
France is pretty nationalistic these days. Very, very high rates of antisemitism--many Jews are fleeing France and people are advised not to wear a yarmulke in public. The US is loads better in this regard.
I could go on...
The US is the greatest nation on the planet. No, we don't have the highest standard of living. Yes, we can improve dramatically.
So, why do I say the US is the greatest country on earth?
1) We brought democracy to the modern world. These other countries wouldn't be so great if not for our influence.
2) We have protected democracy. Without the US, the Nazis might have won, the Soviet Union would likely still exist (unless the Nazis destroyed them). Communism and fascism would be much more widespread.
3) The US has maintained a high level longer than other countries. Our democracy is durable, especially compared to these other newcomers.
12
My European relatives think US for profit health care is ābarbaric. ā
15
How in the world is this "America bashing"? Are people too afraid to face facts, and perhaps learn from them? The chest-thumping reaction to this video and denial of reality is frightening.
17
Good. Then the 100,000 plus crossing into our country each month can turn around and go home. Please.
14
As a Trump supporter, I want to thank you for helping Trump in 2020!!
12
How about keeping things in perspective? Sure we are flawed - racism, a pathetic health care system, a goon in the white house - there's a lot to feel like the US is not as great as we were once told it was. But which countries in Europe are you talking about? England? They have a lot of issues the same as us. Germany? How different are their problems really? America was never the Greatest County on Earth - just the most egomaniacal one in declaring that after WWII
Honestly, the grass is always greener on the other side. If we spent a bit more energy improving what we have we can certainly be proud of the country we live in.
4
If you live in China, or North Korea, living in a daily trauma of being intimated, jailed without proper trial, tortured or even death, you will say America is a great country.
You can call the US president his name, can ridiculed him publicly and can even draw cartoon on his crazy hair. Should you try one tenth of all these in China, it is a severe penalty of possible life imprisonment, then you will say America is a great country.
Yes America is not perfect, but Amercian people has liberty and freedom. You might disagree with me that freedom is worthless compare to say healthcare, good job, or even a nice house. You will know how important it is if you are stopped on streets by polices and check your phone, your ID card, and take away everything you have work so hard for, " confiscation" of your private properties, you will know how important liberty and freedom is, then you will say Amercia is a great country.
11
āItās only the truth that hurts,ā any middle school child will remind you.
This well-done video also doesnāt mention that we live in a gerrimandered ādemocracyā in which the minority rules.
5
Why are Americans so obsessed with being āthe best,ā an absolutely meaningless title?
6
As Lee Greenwood made so clear in the Reagan era, the "little people" of America's egos desperately depend on their pride and vanity about America's supposed "freedom" and general wonderfulness. That's why Trump could build his whole popularity on promising to boost the pathetic, desperate, deluded egos of the Archie Bunkers of America. Expect mass suicide as both China and India become richer than America in the next quarter century. If "little" Americans don't have America to brag about, they won't be able to brag about anything.
2
Foe a while it looked like the USA was going down hill but since Putin started calling the shots things are looking better. Congratulations.
2
Americans have discarded the device that made them healthy, risk free better educated and affluent That was traditional two-parent family. A vast government program will not provide healthy, risk free, meaningful life. Meanwhile, Americaās problems are becoming costly and unsurmountable. Since we turned away from the "best device" that prevented and pre-emptied, managed, all those issues for a very low cost to the individual and the society. The sources of American poverty, dysfunction, crime and incarceration, addiction and disease stem from lack of stable two-parent family life. For example, the crisis in Black-America could be attributed to one single cause. That is 75% of Black children are born to a single parent. No government program can fix that. Research show without a two-parent traditional family, the risks sky-rocket for children, young and for the adult . Most American problems are life style oriented. From obesity, diabetes, drug addiction, womenās poor reproductive health, high infant mortality, alarming low quality poor sperm health among men, HIV epidemic, gun violenceā none of these are going to be solved by a vast government programā which has to be run and managed by another massive government bureaucracy, supported by increasing peopleās tax burden.
It's time to remind ourselves JFK's immortal words- "ask not what your country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country." Good for America and for you! No government is needed.
2
If your a billionaire real estate, con man this is the greatest of times.
2
Please show this video at our southern border so all those thousands and thousands and unending thousands of misguided people will turn back South. Save them before they make this tragic error. Why do they want to come to this train wreck of a country?!
10
Yes, there are many great things about America. But please (those of you who are doing this) Stop shoving it down our throats. You either know this , or you don't & no amount of cheer leading is going to change things.
America IS sliding backwards in many ways. The video was very hard to watch, because so much of what was said IS true.
I would like someone to tell me just how America is great while we operate Concentration camps that house Children? How is this possible ? Deny it all you like deniers, but it IS occurring.
This one incident alone is enough to take us off the "America is Great" list. You can compile a list of reasons why we are the best, but the negative list is growing very very fast ! Saying these things isn't about Self -hate. Its about what is happening in this once great nation. And it is happening NOW.
4
[Insert country of personal birth] is the greatest country in the world! What a coincidence.
1
This line of thought is, tragically, a defining feature of modern liberalism. Anyone who has spent any amount of time abroad understands that different countries have different problems. Go to Korea - racism is rampant. Go to Mexico - poverty and crime are widespread. It's only if you haven't been abroad can you suffer from the illusion that America isn't exceptional.
7
And what, pray tell, are you doing to improve America? One cameo shot of Michelle Obama doesn't hide the subliminal message ... elect a Democrat and these problems will be fixed.
You are cordially invited to find a "better" country ... one without warts. Obviously the advantages here outweigh the issues for most Americans.
4
Thanks, NY Times writers for stating the obvious.
I think we first have to strive to reach āgoodā.
3
ask the Yellow Vests how they feel about their country.
3
Ah, but only America has President Donald J. Trump.
1
Can you picture Michael Jordan or Henry Louis Gates Jr. digging for yams in West Africa, the land of their ancestors?
2
Exceptionalism is like humility - if you have to say you have it - you donāt
Jerry W N E Kingdom VT
3
Really why do all the economic vampires from 3rd world states want to come here if we don't have a great opportunity for people?
I don't care if you don't call America great.
Maybe if we all insult America, the world will believe the false news you are spinning and stop coming here!
Now that would be great!
6
America is great.
5
Move if you don't agree.
7
While I certainly feel that the myth of American exceptionalism pimped by the right is incorrect and misleading, I am also not willing to participate in the teardown of American culture proposed by the left.
Both sides are ridiculous.
2
If this country is as bad as people like the authors would have us believe, why is one of our biggest problems people breaking our laws trying to immigrate?
Somewhat related, if we are so racist, if we are as some would say a white supremacist nation, why are the most successful ethnic groups non-white? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_groups_in_the_United_States_by_household_income
I don't understand the America-hatred on the Left. Are we great? Yes. Show me a country that has done more to allow its citizens to thrive and to make the world a safer place. Are we perfect? Far from it.
9
One of the most flawed idea, A nation greatness created by it's political leader.
This notion is belong to Fascist, Extremist Socialist, Communist and religious fanatics.
A nation can create it's greatness by it's institutions,
I mean by that Mitch McConnell senate is not stand high ranking in that score.
2
It is not patriotic to declare America āthe greatest country on Earth.ā It is poorly disguised xenophobia and arrogance.
5
It's always the same few Scandinavian countries and Germany that the left brings up as better than the US. One thing these countries all have in common is their white population is greater 80%. Maybe many on the left are just closet racists and can't handle the fact that our country is immensely diverse (63% white, 20% ESL households) and the numbers don't and can't tell the whole story?
4
The basic flaw in all this "greatest nation..." nonsense is demonstrated in the video. "Greatest"... based on what???
Once you use any kind of empirical measure to back it up, that comparison becomes ludicrous. It would need to be some sort of Balanced Scorecard ranking countries based on a long list of measures, but then we would infinitely argue over what measures to include, measurement parameters and weighting. Since that is hardly even done in the US, it just comes down to the same old hollow insistence, from troglodytes in beer-stained, sleeveless flag shirts.
1
AMEN. No country on earth is "great". No country has ever been "great". No country on earth will ever be "great".
2
All the biggest US corporations are fiscally registered in Europe and not in the USA, in order to cheat and pay zero taxes by hiding under fake fiduciaries in Ireland and repatriating the cash benefice through the London exchange banking via the US secret offshore banks in the Caribbean .
While invading and destroying the European economies .
That is Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Starbucks, Netflix , and others .
The gigantic fiscal fraud on the EU budget and the back of European workers amounts to 20 % of the annual budget, equivalent to the deficit annually.
That is how the USA are great : invading and cheating with dishonest generalized business practices.
1
Carl Schurz, United States Senator from Missouri, may have misunderstood Stephen Decatur, but he got it right when he amended the basic premise of all true patriots:
āMy country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.ā
And if you have never listened closely to Paul Simon's "American Tune", now is your chance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE3kKUEY5WU
July 5th will be another working day, America.
Try to get some rest.
4
This video will be an instant viral hit in China where any criticism of itself or its leaders is banned. The mere fact it is not banned here makes this country great. Perhaps not the greatest.
2
Will everyone chill out. This video is about perspective. Perspective is a good thing. The US has done many great things, the most important of which was defeating Hitler. However, if it very flawed. The constitution speaks about creating a more perfect union. Grammar aside, lets start there
1
I, for one, have never felt a need to live in "The Greatest Country,"
Right now, for example, we are living in a place where innocent migrants are being locked up and deprived of basic human rights on the southern border. Such actions cannot be regarded as expressing greatness. We are only as free as are the least among us.
2
It depends on your priorities. If you value freedom over equality this is the greatest country on Earth. Your choice.
1
America is an absolutely unique country.
You canāt compare it to small countries like Norway.
Or one party countries like China.
Or Theocratic Royal Family Kingdoms like Saudi Arabia.
Or dictatorships like Russia
Or island countries like U.K.
So stats in this video are meaningless.
7
If we were a great country, we would not be treating immigrants and refugees so horribly.
If we were a great country we would not be hostage to this adminstration of white supremacists and a horrifyingly fascist leader.
I am not alone in that I am deeply ashamed of my country at this time.
I still do love this country, and dearly hope we can turn things around.
2
Lots of comments about how everybody wants to go and live in USA. Well yes from 3rd world world countries, not so much from first bworld copuintries.
4
Discussion of Americaās āgreatnessā is obviously a very subjective exercise. My knee-jerk reaction is that no country can be great if it voluntarily chooses trump, with his grifter family and merry band of sycophants, as its president. But in contrast to those running the country, I continue to be heartened by the decency, kindness, and generosity of everyday Americans, including many who support a president who possesses no values whatsoever.
1
If you need to say it so often you must be insecure about it. People who are secure about themselves or their country don't need to boast.
3
America was never the āGreatestā or āGreatā. Whatās so great about the genocide of Native Americans, slavery, Jim Crow, wars of Empire (past and present), coup dāetats, death squads, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and now the slide towards Fascism.
The American Narrative has always been well indoctrinated fabrication based on deceit, self deceit and worst of all the willful ignorance of most Americans.
Not self hating but not totally in love with myself Mike.
2
Feel free to re-locate to any country you believe better.
5
Still a country where we can take the opening monologue from the Newsroom, rip it off almost verbatim, repackage it, and call it original and insightful content. New York Times, still Americaās āmost trusted news source!ā
2
It's like a little kid saying, "My daddy is the bestest daddy in the whole wide world!"--an immature expression of pride and love for what you're attached to, having nothing to do with objective reality.
3
Agreed!
Yeah, there's some sad truth in that video. "Politicians love to say it's the greatest..."---> If you depend on someone else to bring you good news, you've given up your freedom to make your own. Many are waiting for someone to come along and make America great again, but I think it is up to you and me. In addition to eating your hot dogs this 4th, go out and volunteer for something (anything).
1
If you do not like the USA do not visit.
3
So you think America is the greatest nation on earth? Have you read the history of America and all the atrocities we have committed against humankind on our way to the top?
1
There are two things you certainly can't do and be a successful American politician at the national level. One is suggesting you might not believe in god. The other is failing to parrot nationalist mythology.
3
i imagine those defending america in the comments section haven't traveled much.
3
I wonder how Americaās racial diversity has correlated with the decline assumed in this piece?
1
It's tacky to insult someone a few days before their birthday. All you're doing is giving fodder to Trump, who will say liberals and the NYTimes hate our country. Honestly, I can't think of a more bone-headed op-ed to run right before the Fourth of July.
4
Greatest country on earth? I am a German. My country went down that superiority-road before. Didn't lead us exactly to a good place.
153
This typical American display of bragging about being the greatest and best nation on earth has been ringing hollow for some time, but with this president and this majority in the Senate it has just become a cynical joke. When I grew up we looked up to America. Now we just wonder why you are hurting yourselves so much. All this billionaires, all these unnecessary expensive wars and still no decent medical care or affordable education for all. Nuts.
1755
@Bart
I agree with you. Perhaps
13
@Bart
I agree with you about the wars. America was not created to be powerful or dominate any part of the world outside the states. It was created to secure its peopleās liberties and the right to live out their lives as they see fit: healthy or self-abused, ignorant or wise, provident or penurious. It was created to provide healthcare or education, but leaves such matters to the people acting as individuals, private communities, or via state governments.
We ARE in part, a ādeveloping nationā by geography and history and by the constant influx of new people. We are not Europe. We are a new world nation just as are Mexico and Brazil. We are European, American Indian, African, Asian and Latin American. So ādevelopmentā statistics are a blend of all those things.
The liberty to defines oneās own reasons for living includes trying to become a billionaire if they want to and can make it happen. What is wrong with billionaires? Two of our most controversial billionaires, Soros and Koch, just got together to establish a foundation dedicated to weaning us off the habit of foreign military interventions.
4
@Bart
I have always looked up to the Netherlands, even during the dark days of WWII with the coming to power of Mussert and the NSB. Simply because I knew that in the end, they would not prevail.
I still look up to the Netherlands today.
The U.S.? Not at all.
70
America is ONLY great when we adhere to the Constitution and expand the rights of the citizens of this country; it could be a lot better if we had a sane foreign policy that didn't love Endless War and intervening in other countries and destabilizing their govts. America could be sooo much better if we didn't worship at the alter of heartless, soulless libertarian capitalism that rewards the wealthy and punishes the rest. I could go on re: our potential, but I think you get the picture. With the current administration, it is--quite frankly--a scary, embarrassing, cruel nightmare!
662
@Sage
The video compare Americans to QEDC nations that are mostly nations that owe their freedom to U.S. military intervention in World War I and World War II.
5
@Sage
I just think it's mostly critical thinking and knowledge of history, that should prevent intelligent people to proclaiming this country great, considering all the dark history.
I guess every nation's natural desire is to feel they live in a great country, but this blind patriotism easily creates demagogues all over the globe.
24
@William Case: And your point is? We can only bring democracy at the barrel of a gun? Conquer the rest of the world and force them to be "free"? Then why are we backsliding to the system we originally liberated others from?
21
America *is* great. It's just nowhere near as great as Americans frequently think, particularly relative to other countries. In my experience, Americans often have a warped perception of America as having more "freedom" than other countries, and being unquestionably the best country in which to live. Neither is remotely true.
5
Itās not all about the numbers. We have the Constitution, institutions, and the vision to be great. We just need to work really really hard to realize the vision and stop undermining ourselves with partisan, divisive politics that drive grave inequalities and injustices. Happy 4th!
4
My main problem with us thinking that America is the greatest is that we think our way is the best way and then we start believing there is nothing to learn from other countries. We start believing there's no better way than the American way.
4
Folks that feel this way have an easy solution, Canada. Same language, baisic culture, just buy some winter gear. Oh, and donāt come back.
More seriously, the point you miss is what the US has been able to accomplish in a very non homogeneous nation. Donāt tell me about the Nordic countries. They canāt handle a few refugees. We have at least a million legal immigrants each year. And more clamoring to get it, legally or illegally.
4
@Tim Dowd, c'mon. There's a difference between boastful bragging "We're number 1, in everything, throughout eternity!" and actual greatness.
trump folks are funny: "America is already #1 forever and uber alles", while wearing trucker caps that urge us to, um, make America great again.
Also tanks on parade on July 4th! republicans just love them some authoritarian stuff these days!
Europe is great - If you are white.
A few years ago I went to UK. The roads/trains/infrastructure were better there. But still, after coming back to New Jersey, I literally kissed the earth.
It felt like I was holding my breath in UK all the time. I can't imagine other countries in Europe if UK felt that way.
2
@mu The UK is the less friendly nation in Europe.
America is the Sears of the OECD countries. It has been top dog for a long time and just like Sears, it cannot see that it is no longer the best at what it does. It's not that America is doing anything wrong, it's just that it has rested on its laurels for too long. It believes its own propaganda and is not progressing. Other countries are doing the socially healthy things so much better. This is why we score so dismally in a lot of the measures of a progressive, healthy society. We love that money and hate those taxes. That's why the rich love America. They have the wherewithal to avoid most taxes. What taxes are paid are not enough to fund a good society for all. The rich are making out like bandits. That's America's problem to solve. Then we can move up the rankings.
But if you believe you're the best, you don't need to change or improve. That's where the problem lies right now.
7
I've traveled quite a bit to countries in Europe and the Americas and 99% of the people we have met would love to have the opportunity to live and work here, if it weren't for leaving their families. I also have many Canadian friends and a few from Great Britain, Amsterdam and Denmark that live here who could explain a few things about that wonderful healthcare system they left behind and the lack of real opportunities in their countries, along with the struggles they are having with immigration and assimilation. If you have any foreign friends or co workers, ask them why they are here and whether they want to stay? Ask your African American, or female or gay friends if things are worse for them than 50 years ago?
We, like all countries , are a work in progress and sometimes we have setbacks, but mostly we move forward in leaps and bounds. It's a huge challenge when you have the diversity and population the size of the US, but it still remains as the country that many people wish they could live in.
I wonder who financed this videoš¤
10
I love to go up against America.
But this op-ed is all wrong.
Take both sides of the illegal immigrants debate. The pros really stand for an America that cannot be replicated anywhere. Similarly even the cons show that America is on its feet and awake to the dangers of its liberal attitude.
Such a balance of positions and ideas is impossible to find anywhere else.
Education ? I think your HRD guys / gals give way too much credence to the educational standing of Asian countries or even European countries. For my money, I would love to staff a company with only American employees and go out against a company staffed with Asian employees. The problem is not in their ability or education but the playing field is against them.
Trump is simply the wrong person with the wrong ideas and wrong personality to level the playing field, but that does not mean America has a level playing field. It has been too generous with sharing its technology and patents and courses, and too lax with the costs and too easygoing not only with jobs but also with outsourcing.
Even if one were to admit the so called competitiveness of Asians, lets remember that edge has been the result of the fact that they were allowed to participate in the American universe of business, education and technology and research.
No way is America an average country. No way European countries believe more in democracy.
The global market that fuels the economy of so many countries is America.
3
As I look though the comments it's clear that American nationalism is as strong and corrosive as it's ever been.
People want and need to feel good about who they are and their sense of nationhood does that.
Ironically, religion is supposed to provide that sense of self purpose and America is a very religious country. But Christian virtue apparently is not enough.
The prevailing negative comments to this video show the visceral reaction when people feel that their identity is being threatened. Nationalism has always played that role.
If I'm not a "great" American, than who am I?
Trump skillfully captured these feeling and turned them into votes. He promised good feelings and for many he's delivered just that. Trump's America is powerful, it stands up to friend and foe alike, our military can defeat anyone, we broke no free loaders and we protect our own, whether that means borders or economic advantage.
Of course Trump's real policies do none of that. But that's the difference between emotion and reason, numbers and feelings.
This video appealed to reason, Trump appealed to emotion. Guess who won?
5
@Drspock
"If I'm not a "great" American, than who am I?"
Now that's what I come up against and cant figure out about the "Americans" I meet.
No, this piece does not actually apply reason. It applies fixed criteria that are specifically designed beforehand (yes, using reason) to make America "not great", and make it seem that the cure is to make America "Socialist" or "Communist".
This is standard left wing stuff, nothing new here.
I always worry when as a country we constantly need to tell ourselves that we are the greatest. This breeds complacency and hubris. What makes a country great is when it recognizes its own problems and tries to improve. America has made its greatest strides when it recognized that such things as slavery were wrong, or that child labor was wrong, and it set out to reform. I have no interest in our basking in past glories real or mythical, because the future is more important. For the same reason, I don't go around telling everyone that I am the greatest, and I would not want my kids to do so either. We all are imperfect and we all have places where we can improve. Focusing on how you get better -- not on how great you imagine yourself to be --- is the path to success.
4
I have expressed this sentiment for many years. When I read the comments from people who stand by the "America is the Greatest Country in the World", it's like they didn't actually hear what the video was about. Yes, we used to be the greatest, just like Muhammad Ali used to be, but things change. We changed. And the changes are occurring very quickly. Americans are no longer the best educated (far from it), hardest working (hah! A joke because there are jobs Americans won't' do), and the richest (the rich are the richest).
It's fine to be the most technologically advanced. However, who benefits when we are not able to handle it? Maybe we need some sort of wake up call? But I don't know about that either. If Trump isn't the greatest wake-up call to the threat to our country then I don't know what else is.
5
A lot of comments simply dismissed ranking facts in the video; thatās not helpful. Recognizing where we need to improve and then working hard and together (compromising?!) is how we become great for all citizens. Our countryās foundation and vision is great, no doubt. Itās our responsibility to execute on the vision with effort, tolerance and compassion.
4
So many of the comments are angry with this article. It amazes me how many of my fellow Americans wear blinders. Reminds me of the Romans. Great businesses, great teams, great leaders and great people take the time for honest introspection. Many of our political leaders aren't intellectually honest enough to do this. The numbers are telling the story of our decline. We are way behind many countries in terms of health care, education, equality and more. Our ranking in the democracy index continues to fall every year. We need to look in the mirror and be honest with ourselves. We have a great foundation that many have sacrificed their lives and limbs to keep secure. An unhealthy and poorly educated country will not be able to maintain its place as a leader in the world. Take off the self-righteous faux patriotic blinders and get real. Then we will return to the path of greatness.
4
More disturbing than the assertion that the United States is the greatest nation on earth is the need of some Americans to say it. It is akin to American exceptionalism and becomes damaging when you realize that your country does not live up to your image of it. Letās just agree that there is no greatest nation on earth. Is that so hard?
2
A Place is people --but how many of us are aware of the ongoing accelerated death of the very thing that defines the people: The Arts, (the Realists) now dumbing downward in both quality and attendance. Hmmm...
Reading most of my fellow citizens' comments make me know our "place" (... house built on sand?) has lost its spinal center and are no longer "the greatest," if ever, as it continues to morph into developing nation status... across the board.
2
I asked my nieces the other day where they would like to go overseas. Their first reaction was:
"Just not America. I don't want to get shot."
She is a 10 year old Australian girl.
No-one, and I mean no-one, is fooled.
7
As a matter of fact, the United States is the most colossally aggressive empire in world history: the number of US military bases around the world is simply bewildering. Through its bases, the US spreads its economic and cultural influence by profaning, subjugating and silencing others. On all continents it finances and arms the governments and guerrilla movements it favours, frequently switching sides. The US employs death squads to do away with dissidents, and wages war when needed. Every now and then, as a reminder, the US bombs old proud Iraq. The US is the most wretchedly villainous state of all times. Anyone aware of global issues can easily imagine how vast the hatred for the United States a corrupted, swollen, paralysing and suffocating political entity must be across the Third World and among the thinking minority of the West too.
5
This September, in addition to school supplies, many American children will be putting stop-the-bleed kits in their backpacks. Why? Because we are too sick as a nation to protect our children (and each other) from meaningless slaughter. The business-as- usual response to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CTāthoughts and prayers from our cowardly Congress and conspiracy theories from craven lunaticsāwas the last straw for me. December 14, 2012 is a day that should live on in infamy. I'll reconsider arguments for our greatness when we have the collective and political will to address our insane worship of guns.
7
Just don't start calling yourself The Lucky Country.
That is the one we use in Australia.
(I am sure other non-English speaking countries use it too, and I just an unaware.)
1
Why so much insistence on the "greatness" of any country? It all sounds like the compensatory rants of a terribly insecure child. Why the continued need to compare? Why not just live the best that a person, or community, can?
Whatever the accuracy of such patriotic blather, it is all so very undignified.
5
For those who continue to proclaim America as the greatest country in the world, especially after viewing this video and what they've seen with their own eyes over the last decades, it seems to be a case of not letting facts getting in the way of a good narrative. The hype of America as the greatest is like the privileged white person looking in the mirror and asking, "who's the fairest of them all", and then answering, "me, of course". But let's give credit where credit is due. If we're not the greatest for our treatment of minorities, the poor, homosexuals, the disabled, the sick, etc., we're certainly the greatest at hyping ourselves.
5
I knew this would get the chauvinists out in force, accusing the authors of betrayal, cowardice, ignoring this or that aspect of the Made-Great-Again America.
I'd just call it "the residual arrogance of Empire," and point to the Brits as the last ones to get tipped off their self-awarded pedestal of greatness. They discovered, as the U.S. is in the process of doing, that Greatness requires tending, feeding, maintenance, and care. Those are in very short supply in a United States that is hardening into "factions," the most warned-against evil in The Founders' lexicon. And the two biggest factional competitions are between the hard-right, racist, militarist, white-supremacist Republicans and their polar opposites on the left, and the ultra-wealthy, power-wielding, One Percent, and their economic underlings.
For those distressed at the thought of not being accorded The Greatest Nation on Earth award, they can content themselves that they have the Biggest Huckster on Earth at the helm--ready to tell them all the lies they want to hear about how well things are going in this best of all possible worlds.
4
The United States is a great country. It is true that the US does not live up to its values, but you could not publish in article like this in many countries around the world. The standard of living in this country is off the charts. The author of this piece apparently takes all of this for granted. The U.S. is a great, non-exceptional country that is deeply, deeply hypocritical.
2
One thing I have noticed reading these comments is how myopic the average educated American has become.
Of course, the standard of living here can improve and we have many problems. But that is a small part of the picture. If you look at the big picture, you will see the following.
1) America has done more to fight fascism and dictators than any other country. The Nazis and the Soviet Union would likely still be around without us, and those 2 along with China would be the world powers. Sure, the war in Iraq is unpopular and has been questionably effective, but Saddam was a terrible dictator who had hundreds of political opponents executed and who used rape as a political tool. It is good that we as a country feel the need to remove dictators like him.
2) We have done more for Democracy and Liberalism (freedom of speech, religion, tolerance, multiculturalism, etc.) than probably any other country. We have not been perfect, but Democracy and Liberalism would not be nearly so widespread without us, and other great countries would be quite different if not for our influence.
3) Our democracy has been durable. Other currently great countries have only been great very recently--last 50 years or so.
4) We have done more for science than probably any other country in history.
5) We have 15 of the top 20 universities in the world according to Times Higher.
6) We do more for world safety than any other country. China and Russia would probably lead the world without us.
8
Imagine how cool would āMake Norway great againā sound to the undereducated masses of Norwegians.
Since America is so bad, halting immigration and preventing people from coming here would be the best thing we can do. Heaven forbid they'd actually want to move here.
6
America is great for most people but it could be better for everyone. America has the talent and wealth to be the greatest country but filthy greed and fear keeps it down. America squanders wealth on a military machine so it can bully the rest of the world and steal whatever it wants. Why does the greatest country have military fighting in so many other countries and why do they support the most odious leaders and factions. Why do they support Saudi Arabia and Israel. The American people are great but their leaders are the greediest people on earth and they resent anyone else having anything. Trump and the other politicians are the epitome of greed and envy. If you want to make America greater then get rid of the garbage that pretends to be your leaders. The land of the dollar bill.
3
This video was made with the intent to get as many clicks (and therefore ad revenue) as possible.
The "poverty rate" bit is a total lie.
Each country defines differently.
by the way..
Who is best?
Please don't say Canada.
Everywhere warm is swarming with those cheap skinflints who "throw nickels like they are manhole covers" when they flock south in the winter.
1
Wow , what a negative attitude. A few things we are best at which were missed;
1 International charity and food for poor
2 Diversity, and with that diversity comes large variation in the statistics being cited
3 Opportunity...don't deny it
4 Liberty
If you don't like it , leave it.
5
Well, it's the run-up to the Fourth of July and here is this piece. "Great" has never meant welfare state statistics. "Great" Britain meant something else entirely. Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Trotsky and Lenin in their ideals, the destruction of Nazism, make Russia great. Man on the Moon, the founding of the USA, the Golden Age of Hollywood, Abraham Lincoln, the destruction of the Confederacy and slavery, FDR, the destruction of Nazism, make America great (and not "again"). Revolution against millennia of reactionary tyranny, astonishing economic and social advancement, colossal cultural development and economic dominance, savage war against Japanese militarism, make China great. Iceland and Costa Rica and Norway never did any of this stuff . . . though I'm sure Reykjavik is a much safer place to live than Chicago.
Happy Fourth!
1
Nearly every one of the statistics cited are deeply flawed to the point of irrelevance.
Taking just the poverty rate comparison between the U.S. and Mexico, the latter stands at more than 40% as measured by the Mexican government. And, at $5000, the median income in Mexico is less than 10% that of the U.S. at nearly $60,000. Our official poverty income level is 4 times the median income in Mexico. For the statistically challenged, thatās median income, not average, to limit the skew caused by the hated 1%.
Nearly every other comparison is similarly flawed.
The U.S. is far from perfect but we remain the shining beacon on the hill even when our light is occasionally dimmed.
7
The United States of America gave you this freedom and this opportunity to voice this opinionāone that is inherently flawed, but is nonetheless granted a huge platform. What a blessing.
4
Too many Americans believe that it is sufficient just to utter the bromide that "America is Great". That just saying so makes America great. If words alone could sustain greatness then Russia would have succeeded in its invasion of Afghanistan and the United States invasion of Iraq would have been "... a piece of cake".
America's greatness is not derived from mindless utterances but from other enabling factors like civility, honor, respect, and decorum. What is the point in having laws and a constitution but we do not honor them? Why bother have checks and balances in our Federal government but we treat them as window dressing?
It is one thing to read about the fall of past great societies like the Roman Empire, but another thing to bear witness to the decline of an existing great country, our United States of America. How fascinating it is to witness one political party in particular, chip, chip, chip away at the foundation of our greatness. Who thought that these members of Congress would sacrifice the future of their country for more, unadulterated power. But we must believe what we see for our eyes are not playing tricks on us.
1
How about we make America less grating on my nerves
1
Food for thought if only someone was thinking.
2
when you quote "80%" voting turnout in australia, you are aware you can go to jail if you dont vote here?
7
Interesting point! I did a little searching on the Australian Voting FAQ page and see that the government considers voting a duty, not a right or a privilege. (Like jury duty or paying taxes.) If an Australian citizen doesn't vote and cannot provide a valid excuse, they're fined $20. I didn't see anything about going to jail, though.
If we shifted our perception of voting from a Right to a Duty, I wonder what kind of change (if any) there'd be in this country.
3
What I choose to take from this is we shouldn't get too caught up in the superlative, "Greatest". Though we seem to occupy a unique place in history, we're still measuring it, aren't we? So there is room for a little humility when we travel abroad. For one, some who visit the U.S. don't believe we're doing very well in areas of homelessness.
Americans are good people, albeit naive. Unfortunately they've bought into right and left instead of right and wrong.
3
We are witnessing the single most anguishing time, I believe, in Americaās history.
We wake up to the excruciating news of seeing our country
more and more demoralized as Trump is āin our faces constantlyā with his venom and totally supported by that totally toxic
United States Senate.
If EVER we will survive this, it will take a larger Miracle than we ever thought possible.
1
So what about those Aussies, Canadians, and Brits who lack a robust right to free speech? How about Australia where only about 3 percent of *reported* rapes result in a conviction? Or England and Wales where only about 1.7 percent of *reported* rapes are even prosecuted?
How about the UK where threats from rapists to sue their victims for defamation has a hugely chilling effect on reporting?
How about all of the wrongful child theft cases in the UK based on the mass hysteria of satanic panic and stupid social workers believing that nonsense, and by the time it was all debunked, the kids had been adopted out and the victimized biological parents never got redress?
And how about the perfectly legal ban in the UK on reporting wrongful actions of family courts?
I remember back in 1989 or so when I was living in the UK and it was still perfectly legal for a man to rape his wife.
I remember back in 1990 when I was living in London and my housemate, a social work student, had an assigned child-protection book that spoke of highly organized, ritual, satanic, sexual abuse as though it was a real thing.
Give me the First Amendment, thanks.
3
We're Number 1 in watching TV. That explains our dismal education statistics. Television does not exist to provide us with news and entertainment. Television exists to provide a marketplace for advertisers. Every hour of broadcast television contains 16 minutes of commercials, all designed to persuade you to buy something that you really don't need.
Consider what passes for "entertainment" on TV these days: cop dramas, lawyer dramas, doctor dramas, the occasional sit-com, sports (college and professional), and "reality TV." Television dumbs down everything it touches. Watching TV makes our country STUPID.
You want to "Make America Great Again"? Shut off the tube. Pick up a book. Read to your kids. Encourage them to read.
1
Brilliant! This should be required viewing for every member of Congress, every judge, every state official, everybody in America. Let's try to live up to this reputation by fixing the mess made horrific by the Trump team of grifters.
2
The U.S. is not and never was the greatest or even great. It was built on genocide of the indigenous population and slavery. It currently ranks very low in the indices that comprise a decent standard of living compared to other industrialized nations, as the video points out. It incarcerates the highest percentage of its population and spends an obscene amount on military spending while millions go poor and hungry. Itās population is fat and watch too much T.V. With the resulting high level of stupidity that allows a Trump to be elected. Great video. It needs to be said. Letās be honest with ourselves.
3
STOP!
You are just feeding the trolls with that line of reasoning.
Remember, it is a fact that so many Trump supporters said they voted for him because they believed America had left them behind. Think Roseanne!
So of course they vote for Trump who understands their complaints. He says so every rally. & tells them exactly who is to blame!
But America is still the greatest. The America before the 70ās.
The idealized America is the greatest country in the world. The trumpist version? Hardly.
Hard to go with that comment considering the state of our country today. The cruelty and injustice at our border, treating asylum seekers like criminals, children dying, border patrol people telling people to drink out of toilets and laughing at the distress of these human beings - this is great? separating children from their mothers and families? What have we become today? This is not "great" , this is banana republic behavior from a country that once rescued Europe from dictatorship and now has no sympathy for immigrants. What a disgrace we are now. What an embarrassment to the world and ourselves.
2
We have a fully corrupted hateful vindictive justice system, no health care, almost no public education to brag about, roads, internet, cable all a joke we pay more than anyone else and get less than anyone else while the poor has to provide welfare for the wealthy. Our so called politicians exist for the sole purpose of taking bribes to maintain our stupid vile duopoly. We use to be a "can do" country now we are a "can't" "won't" "don't" nation.
1
I guess it was great, but only militarily in the late 40's.
Great? Not by a very long shot. But but myths die slowly. The US has not been 'great' for a long time. The GOP and its chief shill like to look for and blame anyone and anything they can for discontent, thereby deflecting from the main reason for the decline....themselves and their policies. Extreme wealth concentration is anathema to economic development and protecting it leads to moral and social atrocities. We are witnessing the decay daily. Anyone who says America is great either has not been anywhere else, is not paying attention, or is part of the privileged group who doesn't want to look.
People south of the border think America is great. They want to come here for a better life. It saddens me because I know when they cross the border they will be discriminated against if they are poor and aren't white.
Women in Saudi Arabia don't have the rights that women in the US have. If they came here, they would see that women have to fight for their rights every day. Women don't have the power to stop sexual harassment where they work.
This country still is largely run by white men who want to control everybody. People born here are having to fight for their rights as American citizens.
Some things are good here in America and it works for most white men. For the rest of us, not so much.
Reading the comments about how great our country *used* to be.
Not mentioned: I keep waking up in a country that could actually re-elect Donald Trump, also known as "unindicted co-conspirator #1, who is presiding over the decimation of the scientific establishment that made us successful. I think this proves that we are now, officially, too stupid to run a Democracy.
1
for those who watched this garbage and agree with it, you have two choices--leave or help improve things and quit complaining.
And you need to remember that a large part of the problem is that we are a diverse country. Most European countries are not nearly as diverse population wise as the US. Now sometimes that's good, but sometimes it's not so good.
For example, our homicide rate is higher than most European nations. However, if you factor out the murder rates for Blacks and Hispanics -- or put another way, if you look only at the murder rate for non Hispanic whites, suddenly our murder rate is like that of European nations, although many Whites own guns.
Ditto scores on scholastic achievement. Plus we've tended to dumb down public schools over the last 30+ years.
Shorter life expectancy. In part that is due to high murder rates, likelihood of dying in military service. True, we have high levels of obesity, but that's because we have an abundance of food and little requirement for physical labor for the bulk of the population.
But the biggest problem with many of the comments here (s well as the film) is the knee jerk reaction -- yeah, America's not so great man, right on -- is not questioning how these rankings were derived. And where is the jingoism? I haven't seen or read anything that suggests that's a problem.
Are we perfect? No. But I'll take the USA over anywhere else.
6
American ideals are possibly the greatest in the world (if we replace all men with all people in the Decleration of Independence)...it is a huge tragedy that it seems to be moving further and further away from them...
1
Will McAvoy in "Newsroom" said it all.
My take is that this constant repetition of "we are the greatest nation on earth" , repeated over and over again like a religious dogma, serves exactly the same purpose as a religious dogma - brainwash. Nobody - or hardly anybody - would want to question something that you have heard since you were born.
That way the American people seem to accept eg an election system that is decided by PACS (ie rich donors) and Gerrymandering, a health care system that ignores basic needs and an education system that keeps a lot of talent away from education. ItĀ“s a shame, Ā“cause I think the US has the potential to be the greatest nation - perhaps some day.
America is the greatest country in world if you can afford it. If you can afford housing, healthcare, higher education, and invest in a retirement plan it is the greatest country in the world.
If you canāt afford it ... well you get the picture.
1
Classic straw man.
Say the words āAmericaā and āgreatest countryāāand sure as the sun rises over the East Coast, you get hordes of Timesreaders screeching in outrage.
But most Americans donāt walk around constantly saying this is the greatest country on Earth.
Most of us work through the day, getting by, and with perhaps some awareness that our lives here are, collectively, so very much betterāfreer, materially well-off & more secureāthan any comparable mass of people in any other country.
...and of course, thereās inevitably, annoyingly, the many individuals or groups who project their own negativity, ingratitude or personal unhappiness onto the country as a whole, idiotically imagining that everyone else, in any other nation, has a better life than theirsāand blaming that on Americaās imperfections.
4
I would suggest that we stop supporting & protecting other countries then & use our taxes here.
Interesting that so many suggest we increase donations to other county yet point out deficiencies at home.
Excellent. Give me reality or give me mediocrity.
I think that America used to be great but that was a long time ago.
Then they started inventing reasons and lying to invade smaller countries killing, maiming and displacing millions of people.
Not a lot of greatness in that.
Lack of respect for others, costs respect for oneself.
1
Well, sure the US isn't so great when you compare it to nations that do some things better than we do...Stop doing that. Only compare us to places that are objectively worse in nearly every way.
The USA is the greatest USA that ever USA-ed. Period.
1
Greetings from Australia, where we outrank you in pretty much every metric worth measuring.
Except gun ownership. Weāre happy to let you keep that one.
3
When you are the greatest country in earth, you donāt have to everyone that you are. Others will tell you that.
Do you think the best athletes, etc, go around telling everyone about their greatness?
Now think of does, and whether they really are...
Itās about being honest with ourselves and doing the right thing....because America does have a lot of problems that are in need of real and good solutions.....
When you reach the top there is only one way to go and thatās down and boy are you going fast. I am sad for all of you.
2
@Jo Ann - Says a person from Switzerland, a country with a fraction of the U.S. population, much less diversity, and, I would venture to guess, many 1%ers, given its banking industry for the rich and powerful of the world. I actually think Switzerland is lovely and would not mind living there myself. It just rings hollow, however, when folks from a tidy, insulated little country express their schadenfreude toward the U.S.
2
USA is clearly the greatest nation on earth. There is a reason why US economy is the most dynamic in the developed world, why itās the most inventive country on the planet... and yes, civilized world relies on USA to defend it....
3
A large part of the blame for many of the sociological problems in the US-gun violence, incarceration rate, crime statistics--is people's desire to "live beyond their means." which is caused by the innate belief that America is the land of UNlimited possibilities.
An anecdote says it all-- yesterday at the Pride Parade in San Francisco I shook hands with someone very, very wealthy. After the parade I returned home. In the train station there was a Black man whom an West Indian woman and me gave money. I started a conversation with him because he seemed to be a good man and in pain, and probably, a little mentally confused. He told me he was from Oakland, CA; his mother had died (at which point a tear started coming down his cheek), and he had no one in the world and was here waiting for his death to arrive.
To me this is in a nutshell America---one really need to know "how to play his/her life-- really-- well; otherwise......this has been my own experience---no matter how hard one tries--the very worst can happen to you. its true that this can happen almost anywhere--but in other countries (Europe) there is a safety net--may be because of this, I guess.
And, yes, it's truth the Constitution is probably the greatest political document, but, sadly, its words are not followed.
@a rational European: Please don't confuse the Declaration of Independence with the US Constitution. The former is only a letter of intent, never realized, with no legal force.
I have absolutely no interest in my country being great. I very much want my country to be good.
1
In my own professional field I try to compare my work to the best in my field, not to the worse. Of course the US is a far better place to live than Russia, India, etc ā but we should be comparing ourselves to the standards of Germany, France, Scandinavia, Europe in general, Japan, perhaps even England --- from whom we buy, for example, many of our vehicles from because they are simply better made.
1
The video is, to me, on point, nothing to be disputed. It is one slice of the American pie. Others could cut it differently.
Every culture relies on one "myth" or another to keep it going -- not a lie or a fable but a set of deep beliefs and stories, values that shape daily, ongoing life, usually without much questioning.
The myth of being the greatest is one that's been manipulated and desecrated by greed, by lust for profit, by ego and lack of social responsibility -- all embodied now by our president, ironically selling the slogan of "Make America Great Again."
Our problem now: what's going to give us hope, keep us going, provide us with deep values, and offer a vision for future well-being?
I haven't lived in every (roughly 200) country on earth. So, I can't say if the United States is the 'greatest'.
But it is certainly good enough for me -- and obviously the choice of far more immigrants than any other country.
As such, the country should be carefully evolved rather than recklessly transformed.
3
I'm sure all of those who are arguing that the U.S. is still the greatest country aren't Trump supporters, but I have a question for those who are. Was there ever a time when the U.S. was not the greatest country? Perhaps when it wasn't great at all until Trump made it so again?
It all depends on how you select the statistics for your arguments about "greatness" in comparison to other countries. If you select Science, Medicine and Education, why not compare the number of Nobel Prize Winners in science and medicine categories from the USA vs the world from the last 50 years. We have more winners in pure numbers than all the rest combined. Must be a statistical anomaly. Perhaps these people all studied in one of the "20 other countries" that rank higher in education performance. I won't defend the public school systems in America because any organization permeated by government support, unions, and all the other "dead" baggage can't excel in any environment. Look how well our government has done with managing healthcare. Let's face it. Our government IS healthcare or to add up Medicare, Medicaid, and all the other support programs, about 20% of our GDP. However, our high quality private education institutions still turn out the best in the world in any discipline (medicine, science, engineering, etc). Ultimately, if you don't believe America is #1, try living in these other "great" countries for ten years for a different perspective.
3
It is difficult for many to look into a mirror of what is happening to our society and our country. Perhaps, the reflection we see is one we intensely dislike ~~ so it can't be us, right? The mirror must be broken or something else is wrong; that just "can't be true". Rather, we must look, see the truth, and work to fix what is broken.
4
We are definitively the most powerful military. We have the worst health care at the highest cost. We have the most deaths from gun violence of any civilized nation. What does that say about how much we value life versus the wealth of the rich?
7
This raises an interesting question: Are Americans now entitled to asylum in Europe or Japan? We're told that people from Central America have a right to come to the US, as they are fleeing places that are violent and poor. But while the Honduras has about five times the rate of violent crime as the US, the US has about five times the rate of violent crime as Germany. And as to poverty: People in Europe don't normally have to resort to GoFundMe campaigns to afford chemotherapy.
So I'd call upon Nancy Pelosi and the rest to advocate for the right of Americans to obtain asylum in Europe. Immigration is, after all, apparently an unmitigated good, so we'll probably invigorate the European economy. And in any event, no human being is illegal.
6
Deliciously sarcastic!!
1
@RC I like you.
2
I was in Wales about 20 years ago when I injured my eye. I went to the hospital at 10pm. A specialist came to examine me. I didn't pay a penny for this care. That wouldn't happen here. I believe a great country wants its citizens to be healthy and well cared for. When I hear about the masses of children in our country going without proper food it sickens me and angers me. While our leader is making the despots of the world his friends he is neglecting the things that made us a great country. I hope we can go back to this before we fall apart completely.
6
As an immigrant, I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to live in the USAāand America is great. But there are many places that have more effective health care, maternal leave, food quality policies, alternative energy commitments, better useful education and a better general quality of life.
Every time I return to the US, I feel I should kiss the ground...but there are other places we could look to for national greatness...this these do not include a horrible, erratic and inhumane leadership from the top down.
7
Wow, what's next, a video denying that the Founding Fathers were possessed of peerless intelligence, wisdom and probity?
161
@Keitr
What do the founding fathers have to do with our decades-long decline in almost all measurable statistic of well-being, and the high-jacking of our democracy, health care, and our public services by the highest bidder?
In other words, No.
73
@Keitr
"peerless intelligence, wisdom and probity?" All 7?
You reinforce the point of the video nicely.
25
@Keitr
They designed the electoral college. That tells you all you need to know.
50
The United States of America is the Greatest Country on earth. Fixed the headline for you.
157
@MiguelM-Earth is the greatest planet in the solar system.
53
@MiguelM -- The 19th century naturalists (Emerson, Thoreau, etc.) wouldn't agree with you. Nor would that century's landscape painters.
In fact, it's doubtful that more than a minority of those who called America home in the 19th century and before would rate this country is "the Greatest on earth."
On the contrary, they'd be utterly mortified to see what has become of their once beautiful, spacious land and their fickle descendants.
85
@MiguelM
A country with a falling life expectancy is most certainly not the greatest place on earth. There is no such place as "the greatest country on earth" - there are good places, not so good places and pretty horrible places. The US is somewhere in there, but the greatest country on earth? Give me a break! And one sad byproduct of endlessly hyping this country as above the rest is that US-America does not want to learn from other countries - some of which have developed problem solutions we should learn from. But, alas, if you always think you are not from this earth but above it, there is no reason to learn from anybody. Sad!
122
Business use bench marks all the time and people generally accept those conclusions. When countries are compared as to the status of responsibility to it citizens those with a lower standing decry that the metric is slanted. The facts are the facts and waving a flag will not change the bottom line.
1
More and more Americans have recognized the injustices, cruelties and absurdities of American capitalism. Yesterday my young plumber in New Hampshire told me that he could not afford to buy medical insurance and simply did not pay his medical bills. Then my niece told me that she had a fifty thousand dollar debt to pay for her nursing school. Yesterday was Canada Day. Canada is already great.
8
The "Greatness" of America has been redefined by political slogans and bickering. We are not perfect, we will only be great if recognize our problems and move forward and progress. Our greatness doesn't come from following our founding documents literally, it comes from resting on these documents and improving their foundation. All structures age and need reinforcement, improvement, embellishment. Our greatness is the ability to change and progress. Unfortunately our current leader and some who want to be our leader just want to revert backwards. We live in a changing world, full of new knowledge and a changing global culture. We can not ignore the world we live in today with its problems and new ideas, to do so will be our demise. We should stop arguing about how great we are or aren't and just get to work working on the problems we have that are unavoidable.
2
Its the greatest country for me to live in but I can see it is not always the case for other people. Im open to the fact that America is filled with all different experiences.
WIth that said, the last few years under Trump has brought about a cloud of sadness, shame, grief and fear. It doesnt
feel like the same country.
6
Call it what you want, but this country is not living up to its ideals and potential. Previous generations were more about "walk" -- less about "talk."
2
America has been resting on her laurels since the end of WW2. It's past time to address her current successes, failures and needs.
Hopefully, younger citizens can better evaluate and remedy the problems of our country; after all, it's theirs to inherit.
Those of us from the 1960s & before are literally a dying breed, unable or unwilling to acknowledge the obvious while tenaciously holding onto power.
6
Great is subjective. It all boils down to standards. If you are a refugee from Guatemala looking for a better situation then America looks pretty great. At least until they get here.
At any rate we are certainly better than many and in certain ways exponentially worse than others. What used to make us great was our dedication to helping our neighbors in need simply because we could and we thought it was the right thing to do. I am not so sure that is who we are anymore.
Perhaps a new mantra is in order. How about Corporate America is great, everything else is just a by product to be saved or tossed depending on it's level of profit.
5
I've always thought the phrase "America is the greatest" to be a silly, useless platitude. Why? Because no one is the greatest at everything! The phrase begs the question: greatest at what? If we try to answer that question, we'll really understand who and what we are and we'll be able to make a roadmap to get to a better place.
For instance, many Americans have looked at the numbers and experiences of people in the medical world and decided that America is not the greatest at health care. Maybe we have the greatest insurance industry, I don't know, but clearly our medical system doesn't work when you define working as delivering affordable health care to everyone. Because of this analysis, most of those running for president has presented a health care plan of some kind.
If we hide behind generalist statements like "we are the best", we miss the opportunity to self-evaluate and make plans for improvement.
And, yes, Americans can make a long list of the things for which we really are the best. But, I think we should be careful, for many of America's shining lights are dimming under this administration.
4
The problem is not so much that people are calling America great. It is more about WHY they are calling America great, or WHAT they think would make America great. Try asking a Trump supporter how they plan to "make America great again." This question usually sows some very fruitful confusion. If they answer "freedom" or "democracy," they come into conflict wtih White House policy (oh sorry, that doesnt exist any more. I mean they contradict the ethos of the president's tweets). If they talk about American power or influence etc, they contradict the political philosophy of the nation's founders.
3
I have friends and know people that are leaving or wondering where to go to start new lives. The myth of America is no longer valid for those of us who see the decline of the country. Trump is not the cause of the decline but merely the visible proof, the symptom of the decline. We've been heading this way for quite a while. While I thought the end was ushered in with our
entry into the Viet Nam war, I had to amend that to constructing a constitution that made a Black person, 3/5 of a person. With a start like that, how could you go right?
The Founding Fathers satisfied the slave-owning states and
created the brew that began to wreck us. The concept of
3/5 of a person has never left the DNA of this country (though that concept was amended). It remains at the heart of our thinking, as does the superiority of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male. And, shouldn't we put this reliance of a god to further the decline of a nation? All theocracies do badly. Latin America is a good example. We're coming close to those 3rd World countries. We're in a decline, and the death throes are too sad, because it was
a country that could have shown the world how capitalism and democracy could have worked. Instead, it showed how
greed and hypocrisy trump the common good.
2
America is great and is the greatest nation on earth!!! If the authors don't want to hear this or do not believe it as they claim, I am sure they have the ability to move to a country that they believe is better than the USA. Their continued presence in our country is hypocritical to say the least.
6
@samuel
Did you watch the film?
Please address the points in it before you show me the door. My patriotism and love for this country is strong enough for me to face facts and lists of things that need improvement. We can always do better for more of our citizens. How's that for a start?
3
Some people don't get America. That's because they don't get liberty. And it shows: "liberals" never use the word. Which Democratic candidate even mentioned liberty last week? They were too busy talking about their pet government program proposals and who they think is a racist. Except for Biden, the left has grown more socialist and intolerant. In this way, America is losing its exceptionalism and becoming like deeply troubled Europe. That's not a good thing.
9
How does mentioning the words liberty or freedom make America exceptional? Did you watch the video at all? We are a work in progress. We treated our ministries as third class citizens for much of the countryās history. What good is freedom and liberty for those people when they canāt exercise them?
The GOP has given tax cut after tax cuts to the wealthy leaving the country without any resources for healthcare or education. Do you think we donāt need to get better for all Americans?
2
Hmm. Those who have slammed the video apparently didn't watch it. I suggest watch it, hear the narrator's comments, and keep in mind this point that the film brings up: patriotism can slide into jingoism, and currently, we are seeing that full frontal, thanks to Trump's rhetoric, and it is horrible.
5
Finally, the opportunity to reveal the dirty little secret behind the perpetual boom claim of America being the greatest country on earth. Truth is, we never really wanted to be.
2
Well, then, urgently, make it great again!
Most Americans who go one about "we live in the greatest country in the world" have never been anywhere else.
6
The Times Editorial Board has allowed 4 Minutes and 42 Seconds of one-sided bunk. 1,500 characters are insufficient to rebut this propaganda.
Some overlooked examples:
The USA has been number one in most Nobel Prize categories since the inception of these Awards.
Warts and all, this country is still THE BEACON that attracts others across oceans and deserts to the land where there can still be gold in the streets.
The USA has championed public health (municipal water chlorination, immunizations, etc.) to such a significant degree that most bacterial and viral communicable diseases are either rare or have been wiped out.
When innovation to produce products that make life on Earth better, most of these were conceived of and mass produced in the USA.
A 4 minute 42 second short film on what I've just communicated is (at least) of equal value to what these authors have foisted upon us.
6
@dmanuta - Thanks for sharing. I'm quite sure most people are aware of all the glorious achievements that led to this nation being considered by many as "the greatest on earth." No need to state the obvious. But this topic is about owning up to the very real and disturbing and persistent trends that, taken together, lead many who are honest in their thinking to question whether the 21st century will be the end of a long run of "greatness" and whether our propensity for beating our collective chest and crowing about our superiority is either helpful in any way, or healthy. Consider that.
5
@dmanuta Let us not forget that America is also way ahead of Europe when it comes to teen pregnancies, infant mortality, mass shootings an incarcerations per capita.
1
Don't ever tell me, a senior moderate liberal leaning guy in a red state, that America isn't great.
America has always been a nation of extremes: depressing flaws, soaring heights. A work in progress that is far from perfect.
And I would not have been born anywhere else.
I still believe in America. It's obvious the NYT doesn't.
I don't believe Trump's America is the future, just another trip down a blind path. We've taken them before.
2
I could only watch about half of this video.
Poverty? Blame Democrat programs that don't work. It was LBJ who came up with the anti-poverty program in the 1960's, and here we are trillions of dollars later and still a huge problem with poverty. Blame the Dems.
Poor performance on standardized tests? Again, it's the Democrats who run the schools, and it's the Democrats who came up with the idea of a Department of Education under Carter. Furthermore, it's the Democrats who insist on every child being in school regardless of handicaps or inabilities to performa as students.
Poor infant mortality? Are measuring that the same way as other countries? Almost certainly not. Where would you rather give birth, the U.S. or, say, the Middle East?
Higher per capita health spending? Great! That is the BEST thing to spend money on! Much better than spending it on a new hi-definition wide screen!
4
No, *at worst* it's not inaccurate, it's truly dangerous. The Brand - "America is the greatest (insert your favorite adjective) on Earth!" - encourages belligerence, intolerance, backward thinking, corruption, and a total absence of self-awareness of how it fails its own people.
It would do America a lot of good to spend a few decades taking a hard look at itself. But when one is convinced one is great - or fabulous! or stupendous! or incredible! or unbelievable! or fantastic! - one will see himself as great no matter what the mirror says. Maybe there should be more of an effort to be *good* rather than great.
4
Once great. 1942-1965. After WW-2 ended came an inevitable Pax Americana, its period of imperial overreach, like night follows day.
Empires, however structured and styled, end the same way: first in defeat, then downfall. The Cuban Missile Crisis was the first hint of what was coming: defeat in the Indochina War, a debacle that spawned a host of poisonous daughters. Resurrection of Nixon, followed by Reagan. And the āGoldwater conservative renaissanceā.
Rupert Murdoch obtained American citizenship in September, 1985 in return for this promise: to build the young, nascent Republican base into a reactionary colossus, a sturmabteilung that could establish a permanent Republican majority. A pact with the Devil because it was that base that installed Trump in the Oval Office. Now led around by the nose, it keeps him there.
Roger Ailesā Fox News corrupted and debased American political culture to such an extent that what had once been inconceivable, outrageously absurd and unacceptable (āTrumpworldā, in a phrase) became normal and acceptable
Meanwhile, America fought and lost a series of Muslim Wars across the great arc of the Muslim world; a dozen Muslim countries. Now, itās exhausted. With no way out. Broke financially to be sure but also spiritually, emotionally.
Used up.
And lost.
So much so that some Republican leaders knowingly serve the interests of a hostile Russia, our greatest foreign enemy, thinking that it will help keep them in power.
2
There are plenty of Americans who are fully aware of the problems this country faces, yet still feel fortunate to live here.
1
It is time to wake up America, while you went about your life trying not to get involve with who was running your country, just working, taking care of your children, and smiling at your neighbors, the world has got very greedy, selfish, individualist, and full of hate. The army no long takes just anyone and teaches them how to be a good citizen, the churches are empty on most Sundays, cheating to get your children in college is a new business opportunity for consultants, talented athletes cheap in front of everyone because he can, and the president lies just because he can.
Waiting for a justice system to stop this or waiting to vote in a election that in many states is rigged by the Republicans (sanctioned by the Republican surpreme court) is causing a lot of frustration, angry, lost of faith in a country we used to love and be willing to die for, ānot so much any more.ā
2
Whenever a group boasts about their 'exceptionalism', it's a wind-up for committing injustices or atrocities against some other group.
2
I find this realistic and it would be great if folks took it to heart. A foundation of reality is what you need to begin to make true progress. But what really makes me wince is when Canadians, who are often sadly poor imitations of Americans, boast that THEIR country is the finest in the world. How VERY American! To me that is equally ridiculous as such claims are inherently unhelpful to anyone, even on as great a foundation of merit as there may be. And wanna know Canada's faults? 1. poor on climate change and threatening to get A LOT WORSE with bone head Conservative fakes threatening to win the federal government 2. a horribly vulnerable federal system with a built in formula for dictatorship called "the not withstanding clause" 3. very poor rules for information disclosure all through government making our real estate markets champions at international money laundering.... and that is just a start at ways we are inferior to the highly flawed USA. I could go on.....but there are ways in which we are pretty good...but what is the value of a swollen ego?
1
This. Perfect. Needs to be said.
And if the next commentator accuses me of not being a patriot when I point out our many failings (#1 in mass shootings! #1 in medical bankruptcy!), I will point out thusly that Donald Trump's debasement of our country and its established institutions has done more to make me a screaming American patriot than any other development in my middle-aged life.
You can bet your bottom dollar this outraged American is voting against the Republican party in the coming election so we can get on with turning this ship around.
1
Why is it important to be the greatest, to state that we are the greatest, or to aspire to be the greatest?
The foundersā precepts paved the way for a country more egalitarian than what they lived or envisioned.
The United States is a unique political experiment whose preservation requires āeternal vigilance.ā
Being the best that we can be, not āthe greatest,ā should be the goal.
So many commenters jumping on the defensive. The video simply asks us to look squarely at the challenges we face as a nation. An honest assessment is the first step. We need to address these issues, not wish them away.
3
The United States ĆS a great country. It has so very much potential to become greater,as Dr King said ,"to live up to the true meaning of its creed". Time will tell.
2
People are suffering terrible hardships and literally dying to get into this country every day. Thatās the obvious point of those saying we are tired of the endless USA bashing. Take a moment to reflect on that.
3
Sorry youāre tired. Iām tired of those who label as America-bashing any and all realistic and clear-eyed reappraisals of where we as a nation. The phrase suggests a willful closemindeness, not to mention an effort to stifle dissent. Reminds me of a certain someone who calls all people who disagree with him treasonous.
1
americans are like that thar frog that lives at the bottom of a well and thinks its the entire world.
bloviating about its greatness and uniqueness without a smidgeon of a clue about what's going on the 95% or so of the planet that has the misfortune of not living in the greatest country in the history the universe.
for example, i'd bet the farm that if harris or warren become potus we will be subjected to breathless stories about 'only in america' when, I reality, oodles of countries have had women presidents or prime ministers.
America is just as close to being a banana republic with the potential to blow up the world.
and it is beyond ironic when americans call other nations 'rogue countries'.
it's been, to be polite, tiresome for many, many years.
3
we definitely have a split narrative in this country. in the next presidential election the campaign slogan for dems should be make America great again with a blue hat. Trump needs to get a new slogan. maga has not come true under him.
It was relief to spend years in Europe when I didn't have to hear every country call themselves the greatest place on earth every single day. If you are the best at anything you don't have to say it endlessly. Maybe we are the greatest. Maybe we aren't. Who cares? Just get on with life.
1
I've found that generally, those who most fervently claim America is the greatest, are those who've spent the least amount of time outside of it.
6
Itās no wonder why we favor assisted suicide and so many of us suffer from depression. Look at all of our statistics!
It never has been great. Only Americans, the world's least travelled citizens, believe it is.
1
The USA is not the greatest Country on the planet but it can strive to be but we are not there yet. We still have a lot of work to do still. There is much progress that needs to happen.We have began to fall behind many of the other industrialized countries and that is very telling from one of the richest countries in the world.
Being rich is good in America, You get America Plus with premium services including a justice system tailored to your white collar needs, a revenue service that does a cursory review of your complicated tax forms, superb private schools in which every student is superb, access to great universities which have a need for generous donors, no lines at airports to slow down access to your private jet, and communties to live where the places the underclass reside are invisible to you.
Many rich citizens in other countries say their nation is number one. Who's right. All ot them. The best part of being rich is you are not bound by borders. If you like, emigrate to the USA is for a $1 million investment in your new country. Enjoy the greatness.
I have traveled to many countries ranging from first world beautiful places like Norway to Papaua New Guinea where pay back killings are still done and foreigners live in fenced compounds. The latter have Birds of Paradise which are the world's most beautiful birds.
My first ancestor came to this Jamestown, VA in 1608 and was a investor in the Virginia Company and Captain John Smith Spoke of Lieutenant Burton being a good fellow. My ancestor was here seeking a better life, just like the people crossing our southern border today.
Yes we do currently have a leader who is - the readers of the NYT know what he is. But that to me is another indication of our ability to chose our leaders - we can chose great ones and on occasion a donald.
When I see the variety of lives people live in our country, everything from people living under bridges to mansions, I say WOW. Yes we have people who are incredibly wealthy and though they are not robber barons, they the 1% do control way too much wealth. I look at our socialist Bernie and think of the vast difference between the way the Norwegians live where young people have their own places to live and Swedes living next door, feel fortunate if one of the parents of the couple have space enough for both to live in their place.
Yes we have our problems but as Winston Churchill said, "The Americans keep trying until they get it right". Yes Winston, the donald will disappear into the waste can of history.
3
President LBJ signed into legislation the outlines for the 'Great Society' which was to shovel billions into ghettos and elsewhere. Back then in the late 1960's, the poverty rate was 17%....and after billions and even trillions of dollars 'invested' - it remains at 17% today....so it's clearly not about the money.
2
In the moments, sometimes too few and far between, when the rhetoric and the actions of the United States of America meet, there can be no doubt that ours is the greatest country in the world. Travelling the world and interacting with people across the globe is one of the greatest gifts we can give our children. It is only then, when the phrase, "it's a wonderful place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there" is uttered in complete and total honesty. America, warts and all, is STILL the preferred destination of immigrants (legal or otherwise) in countries all across our planet.
2
I humbly suggest that we should each go and live some years in another country among the democracies before proclaiming that America is the greatest. Taking a guided tour is not the equivalent.
3
Those who think that the US is THE greatest have never travelled abroad, or have, but only with a tour consisting solely of americans who are close-minded and blind to evidence. Our ideals, as put forth by our country's founders, are the greatest and have been adopted by many countries. But in practice there are many countries as good, or even better, at upholding and continuing to impliment our ideals than the US with its present executive and senate.
2
When we think we are perfect as people, we never have to look inward, which means we never need to change anything. The same goes with our country. It's fine to be self-critical with the goal of changing what we can to, hopefully, become a better person and country.
2
We are free to stay in this great country to make it greater or, if we think someplace else is better- to go there. Fortunately, we have a choice!
7
I don't root for teams just b/c they are local, don't follow the family faith or even necessarily like family members if they aren't people I actually like But, I love my home country - America. It is the essential nation in the world. These other countries that people say are so much better, well, American sacrifices are why many of those countries can even be there, protected by us. History didn't stop after WWII, but without American trucks, Russian soldiers weren't even getting to the front. Without lend lease, Britain might have folded. What would the world even look like now after it? Who confronted the USSR during the cold war. Not us alone, of course - we love allies - but we were essential, especially in its eventual collapse. Why is it that other small, mostly homogenous countries can have universal health care? If they were not under our umbrella, could they?
How about right now? Why have so many people fled here? Why do people in other countries want to go to our schools? Why does Barack Obama repeatedly say that if you are a minority and could be born any time any place - it would be right now, right here?
Why are we the currency of exchange for the world? Why wherever you go do they love U.S. dollars?
We have our problems and always will. There are no utopias. It can be a rough, very competitive place. But it is the greatest country and I am very lucky to be born here. So are you, but maybe you don't know it.
6
America, weāre told, is a nation based in certain fundamental principles, but we no longer agree on what those fundamental principles are. Weāre a FREE people, unless we need something-and then thereās a price-indentured servitude and the expectation of total obedience and subjugation. Ask any employee how free they are to challenge the organization or their pay. American employment is no longer based on shared sacrifice and shared prosperity. Itās a hostage crisis, and has been since NAFTA. Privilege is no longer based on merit. The cream canāt rise in an economy churning in chaos and instability, but the wealthy are solidifying their political power, using the profits of labor to buy the representation meant for all of us. Yes, everyone needs to contribute, but unearned wealth protects itself by buying power. No one who hasnāt been āin the arenaā can know the struggles and overcome the obstacles. Money canāt buy those lessons. Show me the cream that has risen through hard work and sacrifice and Iāll show you a leader. Show me the entitlement of inherited wealth and Iāll show you a tyrant who cannot survive without inherited wealth and the power it has to buy. America is great when it is focused on the common good, and the balance of power, not the consolidation of power and wealth. We are not a people who value power, but a people who value balance. We need to find our way back to the policies that balance power and the resources that power distributes.
1
I believe the USA was once a great country, one could argue it isnāt anymore. A country is judge by how it treats it vulnerable citizens and the USA fails miserable, poor health outcomes, mass incarcerations, poor education system unless you have money and that also goes for health. Chronic obesity endemic. People donāt get properly paid. We Australian never pretend to call ourselves the greatest country in the world even thought we have a fairer system of government, better healthcare and education system but we are at risk of copying the US system.
4
Any entity that wants to be considered the greatest, has to keep renewing itself, proving that it is great over and over again. What an annoying requirement that is. No doubt, somewhere along the line, an advertisement for DeSoto automobiles said they were the greatest car ever made or had the greatest design, as determined by some industrial organization. Would we say that's true today, when DeSotos could no longer compete with a raft of other brands and the brand was axed in 1961 after 33 years of being successful? Dinah used to sing, "See the USA in your Chevrolet. America's the greatest land of all." The point was just to make us feel good and associate the Chevrolet brand with "the greatest land of all" that made us feel warm and fuzzy. Dinah never attempted to prove that the USA was the greatest land of all. The advertisers who created the jingle figured if she repeated it often enough, we'd just believe it because of how good it made us feel. Mwah! To reiterate, for that feeling to be valid, you have to keep proving that it's true, not just asserting it's true. Sadly, Make America Great Again and now Keep America Great are just slogans that make us feel good, lacking the proof that the feelings can be validated by the facts, as the studies referenced in the video show. Greatness is always a matter of what have you done lately that's so great?
1
The real issue underlying the question of whether one's country is "great" is SELF-ESTEEM.
On one side (more or less the left), you have people who were raised to feel that they were good people no matter what. These people are able to be snarky about "America" and its flaws because it's external to them; they feel their baseline self-esteem is not at stake.
On the other side (more or less the right), you have people who were raised to feel that they were good people only conditionally, as adjudicated by a Higher Authority - parental, religious, governmental, whatever. Since their self-esteem is inextricably linked to Authority, they are acutely sensitive to ANY STATEMENT about ANY AUTHORITY. If it's an Authority that they perceive as legitimate they feel their baseline self-esteem threatened by any criticism of it (e.g. the police, the USA). If it's an Authority that they perceive as illegitimate they feel their self-esteem absolutely dependent on its expulsion. This is the only meaning of Trump's pledge to "make America great again." It means "oust the False Authority that's been denying you your rightful self-esteem."
Data dumps like this piece are, like so much of the NYT, preaching to the choir. The congregation out there literally DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO LIKE THEMSELVES without their myths, at a fundamental psychological level. They need to know how before anything can change. Speak to that need. That's where the votes are; that's where a better America is.
4
@ZT - The issue here is not whether Americans "like themselves" (we have no shortage of self-esteem and self-righteousness on both sides of the political/ideological spectrum) but whether our culture has eroded into a state of permanent blight. "Hope" being a dirty 4-letter word on the right these days, we are left with a national sense of cynicism and despair, where patriotism has been swallowed whole by closed-minded nationalism and isolationism. We've devolved into a culture of OUTRAGE in which the diverse "American Family" distrusts each other. Tolerance has been supplanted by condemnation, fear and loathing. Our political state is in chaos. Our national dialogue has turned toxic. Our so-called "leaders" fiddle while DC burns, and we the people are more disenfranchised than ever. Corporate globalism runs roughshod over our democracy. That's what this article is about. It has nothing to do with how much we "like ourselves." Ponder that.
A lot of the problems listed here are caused by people exercising their freedom and behaving badly; giving them money will only make it worse. Importantly, that poverty rate is too high and is relative. The poor here would be in the top 5% globally in cash and in-kind benefits.
4
Having spent a lot of time in Europe because of family living there over the last almost 48 years, the problem with Europe, is the overcrowding. Yes, Switzerland, has the kind of healthcare system we should have in America, government mandated for all, yet private insurance, on a sliding fee schedule. However, Switzerland is very expensive, thus hard to start a small business, and even harder to purchase a home. Holland has over 18 million people in a land mass the same size as Switzerland. I was born in Minneapolis, but raised in Montana, and luckily get to spend several months a year out there as well. It is the last best place on earth, as it isn't polluted, has only 1 million people, and is the 4 the largest state in the country. Give me space, and fewer people, any day. The main thing wrong in this country, is we have an inept Congress. Good government is lacking, and it is because Congress has failed to tax for all the legislation they have passed that needed funding the last 60 years, and then you will have dangerous foreign policy decisions, and failed domestic ones, while borrowing more and more money, and running the fiscal stability of the country in the ground.
7
Masterful video but a subtle campaign technique. No one is arguing about the terrible flaws that need work, but what is important is to attack them responsibly. The Democrats' solutions are not responsible, and note that Pres.Obama, for example, talked a lot but did nothing to remedy most of the biggest problems- inner city misery , drugs, crime, poor education, poor health.
Charter schools, educated discussions and remedies to health and education and drug-related problems, not socialist pie-in-the-sky across the board broom sweeping tried by all the failed Socialist countries in the 20th Century.
The capabilities are there, and people must believe in their country and its goals.
3
@prevention - One is left to wonder what exactly the Republicons have ever done to "remedy...inner city misery, drugs, crime, poor education, poor health?!" I'm scratching my head wondering how these are strictly "inner city" problems? How are they strictly "Democrat problems?" Please do give us an example of just one way in which the Republicons' solutions have solved any of the troubles you mention.
It's the number one choice destination in the world for emigrants. Let the people decide - both disenfranchised and super-talented.
3
I am actually okay with settling down USA is a flawed democracy.
It was higher than my expectation.
2
Single Payersā Misleading Statistics
By Scott W. Atlas, WSJ Dec. 18, 2028
āCritics of American heath careāand advocates of single-payer insurance or other forms of socialized medicineāpoint to poor U.S. rankings in infant mortality and life expectancy. It turns out both are grossly flawed calculations that misleadingly make the U.S. rank low.
Americaās rate of infant mortalityādeath within the first year after birthāwas 5.9 per 1,000 live births in the latest statistics, 32nd among 35 developed countries, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. But these arenāt apples-to-apples comparisons. Unlike many other countries, the U.S. strictly adheres to the World Health Organizationās definition, recording as a live birth any baby, āirrespective of the duration of the pregnancy,ā who ābreathes or shows any other evidence of life.ā
By contrast, WHO noted in a 2008 report, it is ācommon practice in several western European countries to register as live births only those infants who survived for a specified period.ā Infants who donāt survive are ācompletely ignored for registration purposes.ā A British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology study of Western Europe found that terminology alone caused up to 40% variation and 17% false reductions in infant mortality.ā
3
@Joe Borini - Rework the percentages and get back to us. I'm not sure you have done anything to explain away our infant mortality rate, let alone our murder rate, child poverty rate, spousal abuse rate, gun violence rate, incarceration rate, obesity and ill health rate, etc. etc.
@Joe Borini
Thank you for sharing that information. I read in the NYTs comments all the time how important facts are and how much more intelligent the readership is than those who are part of the uneducated deplorable group. You were able to debunk one of the "facts" that this video is professing and without reading through all of the comments, you are one of the few to even question them.
Just saying, Dean, with regard to infant mortality the comparison asserted in the video may not be apples to apples. Why do you find that upsetting?
Lies, damn lies and statistics.
It has its flaws to be sure, but this IS the greatest country on earth. Despite the ongoing threat from the left, if you work hard enough, you can still be a success and prosper.
4
@David R - May I suggest you find someone to explain the premise of this article to you? Your accusation that the "threat" comes from the left and not equally, if not more so, from the right, is quite ludicrous, and reveals a mind unable to think outside the shackles of its registered party affiliation.
The GOP denies climate change because rich people have the means to survive it. Forget the poor.
6
To the extent that the resolution under discussion is "America is the greatest country," there are arguably many predicates.
But imo the most important are symbolized in the experience of the Pilgrims who are the first to have come seeking something they believed to be essential to their existence and which they were unable to find or fashion in England, but which they could and did accomplish here.
Yes, some/many other American accomplishments by immigrants, natives or both, are important, significant, remarkable even, but they don't partake of the same greatness.
US healthcare, the lack thereof, and unaffordability for many, is a disgrace: the US. spends about twice what other high-income nations do on health care but has the lowest life expectancy and the highest infant mortality rates.
ObamaCare was flawed, but a start the right direction; meanwhile Big Pharma has a dual pricing structure that fleeces US patients, who are not allowed to buy the same lower price drugs in Canada.
5
I was not born in the USA and moved here in my early 20s. I consider the USA the greatest country to live; it fits me. A piece of music may have the right metrics and perfect notes, but sound uninspiring. A car the greatest specs, but drive flat. A sound speaker the perfect electronic design, yet sound empty. Statistics and metrics do not tell the whole story. It has to feel good too. I am an immigrant, minority, not rich, lived abroad, traveled the world, and happy to live in the USA. I am not putting down other countries, they have their advantages, but they are not for me.
5
America is a Great Country! It's also a free country and anyone that wants to go someplace else is free to do so. I have been able to travel some and have yet to find a country I would be willing to move to. It seems that many of the people in other countries want very badly to move to America.
5
Immigrants who came here in the 19th and 20th Centuries came here from countries that were devastated economically and they also were largely poor. Land was given here freely-of course, these people were happy to be here.
Those escaping from religious persecution were relieved to be here.
The beginning of the 20th century a time of many wars and economic devastation for many European countries āItalians escaping a bankrupt country not given pensions to their military -even, were excited to get away. Of course, these people thought this was the land of honey. Same for the Irish, the Chineseā¦ā¦and.
All the people who come now from Central America ā Just too happy they are away. Their children will most likely think the US is the greatest.
All these people created the myth that the US is the greatest country on Earth.
I was happy to be here (for a while) for reasons that are very, very personal.
After a while I realized my ethnicity was a hurdle for my goals, and my qualifications were not so important--I strived to do very well. My disgust set in.
In Europe ā which I know really well because I have lived for extended periods in France, Germany, Italy. I have dated men from these 3 countries and 3 more. People are homogenous. Your qualifications is what gets you a job---the race plays no role because people are all the same.
If I can later I will continue because what I have to say its important.
3
The myth of America's "greatness", either now or in some distant past that needs to be 'made again', is just that, a myth.
American has never been all "great". But in the past, at least, America was trying to get there. In the past, America was recognizing it's errors, and trying to fix them. In the past, America was trying to live up to that "greatness" myth, and to export the ideals it was striving to reach to the rest of the world also.
Now, America kowtows and cavorts with dictators, despots, and thugs. America's leaders promote "alternative facts" and lies whenever convenient, with a frequency that destroys all American credibility.
We have our current leadership, and the political party that enables that leadership, to thank for the degradation and erosion of America's ideals. We have to recognize that by many, many quantitative measures, America is not the 'most free', not the healthiest, not the most broadly prosperous, and not "the best place on earth" any more.
We could get back on track for that... but pretending that we are already "the best" is a poor way to start that process. The very first step on the path to true "greatness" is to stop ignoring all the hard evidence of our shortfalls that are right in front of us. To stop lying to ourselves, and to stop allowing our leaders to lie to us.
Let's really "MAG" for the first time, instead of listening to the lies that degrade us.
12
Worrying about which country is 'greatest' leads to division and tribalism.
It seems like the only thing that unites people these days is hatred.
The reality is that America is great but it's no tthe only great country,
3
I would agree that thanks to a generation of feckless leaders and an electorate that is uninterested in improving their country, America is slipping. When you look at numbers and statistics that compare us to other countries, we are rarely in the lead on things that matter. But, I'm a patriot and love my country. America has the greatest overall potential of any country on Earth, and I hope every single day that we'll begin again to work towards making the most of that potential.
1
Funny video montage with the reminder that claim of greatness should always be tested against some key metrics.
Being most mighty militarily and economically does necessary translate into an happy and economically secure population.
Indeed, the large economical inequality is a symptom that something is not quite right with America democratic system. Most people should not be Ok with consolidating economic power in fewer and fewer hands and anti-competitive practices of large corporations.
The USA has been the greatest place for me from the prospective of professional opportunities and the ability to built up wealth. However, I came with a Ph.D. in science in this country, so we can't really generalize from this example. Even then, I am worried about quality of life and how easy it is to loose it all.
2
Thanks!
In the United States it is ok to criticize US laws and instititutions as dysfunctional. It is NOT ok to say that comparable laws and institutions abroad work better than ours. The US must be best, even if it is a miserable best of a bad lot. US defenders like to paraphrase Winston Churchill on democracy: "Indeed it has been said that [a given US institution] is the worst form of [such institutions] except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.ā¦ā"
We can do better. We must. Justice Story, one of America's most important jurists told the Massachusetts Bar in 1821: "Let us not vainly imagine that we have unlocked and exhausted all the stores of judicial wisdom and policy."
1
For all the love here for Scandinavia and Germany. Where are those countries' Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon? Nokia had a brief run but where is it today?
America is the only country that keeps reinventing itself even when others dismiss it as old news. We did it in WWII, again in the 1960s and the moon landing, again with computers and the Internet, and again in the social media age. And we will keep reinventing ourselves against China.
8
I've lived all over over the world, in Asia and Europe. If you ask me what is the greatest country, I don't really know what that means. I do know where the best place to live is, and that is in certain parts of California.
And if you were asking what country I would bet on, it would still be America, and it wouldn't be close. I live in China, which is a fine country with a great history and good people. But every country has its issues. Every one. There is no paradise on earth. But I think America, in terms of human resources, is still the place to be.
6
During the Age of Roosevelt, from 1932 to 1980, America was moving forward to improve the quality of life for all citizens.
Since 1980 we have been living in the Age of Reagan and our quality of life has declined.
The Financial Crisis of 2008 showed that Reaganomics does not work but we missed the chance to end the Age of Reagan.
Economic instability has led to political extremism as FDR warned and now we have Trump.
We must end the Age of Reagan by bringing back the regulations and tax codes of the Age of Roosevelt or we are doomed.
10
How can you tell if a country is great?
One measure is how many people want to come to a country to experience its greatness. And if that is the case then the US is pretty great but not the greatest. That would be France that drew 87 million international tourists (UN Tourist info, 2017) while the US drew 77 million tourists placing it third after Spain.
Oh well, maybe MAGA will kick in soon and boost those tourist numbers, the only question being where.
4
The vast majority of Canadians love their publicly-funded health care system. We live longer than Americans and our infant mortality rate is lower. Yet Republicans continue to sneer at our so-called Socialized medicine. Canadaās Quality of Life index is at the top. The United States - way, way down.
26
@Jack Noon. Nevertheless far more Canadians emigrate to the US than vice versa. It's funny how some countries have to use rankings to feel better about themselves.
2
@Jack Noon. Yet far more Canadians emigrate to the US than the other way around despite our larger population.
I was in Greece 5 years ago and despite their official unemployment rate at the time of 25% and poor outlook for their future, my Greek friends loved their country too - because they are Greek! No one can be completely objective about their country. I'm an American and I think this country still has a lot of opportunity, as do the approximately one million people from all over the world who legally immigrate to the U.S. each year. You read that right. We take in far more immigrants than any other country in the world. I do agree that Americans need to take a serious look at some of our systemic problems and work together to address them. Engaging in silly, defensive arguments over Op-Eds like this, (thanks NY Times for stoking the fires of division, once again) is a waste of time. So be encouraged. There are a lot of great places to live in the world and the U.S. is one of them.
14
By most social metrics, the US is second-tier.
In incarceration, violence, and criminal justice, it is a third-world country (or fourth).
In leadership, it is, again, second rate, refusing to face global warming and aggressively promote alternates to fossil fuels.
The US is a military force second-to-none. The "greatness" ends, there.
16
In almost every first world societal metric except for military capability, the US is anything but great.
With a disappearing middle class, the American dream is nothing more than political propaganda; another talking point.
Open a book, read the news from multiple sources, check the substantiated facts and data for yourself and don't assume the information to support this mirage is true, it's not.
12
Frankly I think the Confederacy actually won the Civil War in the end.
Look whoās running our country - so glad to be in Canada during the Trumpster DC takeover on the Mall ( unfortunately coming back ).
Not my America and definitely not proud!
9
I imagine for a lot of Americans this must make uncomfortable viewing. But I suspect that a lot of people outside the US like myself are nodding their head along in agreement. I like America. I've been a few times. Its got some great cities to visit I've met some lovely people. As a native English speaker I've naturally been a recipient of your exported culture such as TV movies book etc. which I enjoy. However its constant source of amazement to me how myopic Americans can be on the subject of their country.
There are so MANY other countries in the world that are Free and Democratic. There are so many other countries that are not suffering from crumbling infrastructure, where children go to school everyday and can not only achieve (in free education), and aren't required to practice what to do in the event of a school shooter. Countries where if you are sick you are just treated. (The last one in particular is such a key one, how can it be justifiable that the worlds richest country cannot and does not heal its sick?) America does not and has never had the monopoly on social mobility. Hundreds of thousands have come here to Australia for the same reason. Unfortunately with the US leadership of today, the promises on which your land were build, ring hollow and untrue. You no longer welcome immigrants and many of your people are in poverty. No country is a utopia. There is good and bad in every place.
21
@SouthernstarBrit. Australia has some of the most restrictive immigration laws in the Western world. There are very few illegal immigrants in Australia. The US has practically open borders compared to Australia. So I wouldn't be talking.
17
That happens when you are an island... not easy to just cross the border.
@SouthernstarBrit: Manus and Nauru
Just sayin' -- pot, meet kettle.
You know, it's funny. I actually don't see much in the way of patriotism in my liberal, east coast city. Quite to the contrary- people are only too happy to portray this place as a bastion of evil, strife with racism, sexism, classism, etc.. The neighborhood I live in was decked out in gay pride flags on every other building I passed last month. Today, 3 days from the 4th, I was able to count the number of American flags outside on one hand.
There's some nuance needed here for sure, the likes of which really isn't expressed in this piece. It's not like gun ownership is an inherent evil, the mass shooting number has issues too, such as the fact that most shootings are non-fatal and a shooting involving 3 or more people is considered a mass shooting by oft cited statistics (other countries don't use the number), they bring up police brutality and racial issues in the criminal justice system, failing to acknowledge that the populations in question do have considerably higher violent crimes per capita than the general population, etc..
Were there legitimate issues brought up? Sure. But it's not quite so doom and gloom here. If it were, why are there higher net immigration rates from Europe and Canada to here than vice versa, even as dear authors laud these places? We have problems, but you're hard pressed to find another country dealing with similar issues as we are. And for what it's worth, the most comfortable among us have been the ones whining the most in recent days.
10
Having moved to the US 25 years ago, from a rich Western European country, the "America is the greatest" myth has always seemed a bit silly to me. But it has always been taboo to express that sentiment so I just keep it to myself. Now that a large part of the population is being seduced by nationalism more people are realizing this myth has negative consequences. Also, it does seem objectively true that conditions for the non-rich in this country have become worse.
12
We were truly a great Nation and it was coronated by the day 20 July1969 when we landed Moon.
As JFK declared we do other things do before this decade out (60s) , Civil rights, Medicare etc.
Are we still great as that much, Not really. In many areas We lost our motivation and innovation ( you can contradict).
But
Our best days behind us.
3
Definition of great is by no means measurable. So if any American feel so , that is right.
Many North Korean citizen feel that , North Korea is also greatest nation and country in the world.
Let those people eat cake, No worries for measly bread.
1
eat rice cakes
There was an article in the NYT a while back that I will paraphrase here. (Sorry I cannot remember the correct citation.)
The way we love our country can be a bit like how we experience interpersonal love. Some people look with a kind of blind passion that sees only that which they love and ignores all else. Others see with a more mature eye all the faults & imperfections and still find a way to love.
To continue that line of thought, I suppose there are those that, whether through suffering or sustained injustice, have despaired of love of country at all. I empathize but do not concur. Don't give up on liberty and justice at a time when our country's need is greatest.
3
I think that if Trump is re-elected, the liberal fevers will finally break and we can start coming back together as a country. It is time to stop emphasizing what drives us apart, and celebrate what brings us together.
9
@James
Trump re-election will not bring America back together. The divisions were there before Trump and he used them to his advantage to get elected. There is a good chance he will do it again. The Democratic Party is squabbling among themselves and no matter who is nominated chances are he or she will not be able to unite the party behind them.
You cannot bridge the gap between:
pro-choice or anti-abortion,
the belief that gays, lesbians, or transgender people are an abomination or they deserve equal rights as American citizens.
the belief that America is a white christian nation that should be under the dominion of white men or we need to build a more inclusive society.
We are a nation in a state of ideological warfare, no matter who wins in 2020 that will not change.
7
Thanks for the video. The people attacking it and you are apparently unfamiliar with other countries. In the US we receive little news from around the world. It takes an effort. Cuba has a higher literacy rate than we do.
I am posting a link in the newsletter I write.
4
literacy is not of much value when you can't read the internet
The greatness of America isn't measured by the statistics the authors use. It's measured by number of people who want to emigrate here minus the the number leaving.
I don't have the data but on this measure I think America would be pretty highly ranked.
5
@J. Waddell: The people coming here are almost entirely from countries that are poor and/or war-torn. Trump may want immigrants from Norway, but the Norwegians know a good thing when they have it, and while they enjoy visiting, they're also happy to go home.
By the way, all industrialized have immigrants, both legal and illegal. Try telling a Western European, Australian, even a Japanese, that his/her country "doesn't have immigrants" and you will then see that Western European, Australian, or Japanese laughing.
1
Have been to 40 countries and lived abroad... from my travels I know:
+ Brazil has better beaches, but I am just as happy on the Jersey shore.
+ London is much more civil, but I like the hustle and bustle of NYC.
+ Germany has excellent sausages, but I would rather have a good Wisconsin bratwurst.
+ France has better wines, but I am just as happy with a California S. Blanc.
+ Saudi Arabia has the best roads and airports I have ever seen, but I am still thrilled when I land at JFK and take a ride back to Manhattan, even if it is in a beaten up smelly old cab.
+ China has an incredible high speed trains, but I like to take the Acela.
After years abroad, I am still excited to be back in America, which for me is home and always will be. That means part of my brain/soul wants to believe America is the greatest place in the world, even though the analyst in me knows that the rest of the world has caught up in most areas, and in some (such as health care for the average person and high speed trains) has surpassed our country.
True greatness requires the humility to recognize that everyday we have to strive to be better. It requires that we stop blaming others, or expect them to live at lower standards. It requires a renewal of our founding principals and a commitment by our most successful to help the nation, carry their fair share and find ways to help the least fortunate. In other words, being great is hard work, so maybe its okay to be ok.
9
@Jack S
New jersey beaches and Acela killed the spirit.
We definitely could do much better. I think we have stagnated and grown complacent while the rest of the world has surpassed us. We are selfish and backwards looking. I guess it happens. The past we seek requires people to share not just horde opportunities. That brief period after the depression was our sweet spot. We were closer to socialism then and we were more truly a land of opportunity.
We have improved on the social front though. Gay rights and weāre starting to unpack racial inequality, and true women rights. I sometimes feel like we had been living in an alternate reality ( of unicorns and cotton candy)that was ripped open by the 2016 election.
7
@Angry Cankle. Save me the hyperbole of the world has surpassed us. If you mean a few lily white Scandinavian nations, these countries have always been wealthy and also heavily dependent on state oil reserves. Their total population is about that of New England.
There's no country with a population over 100 million with the dynamism, innovation and freedom of the US. None. Japan might be cool with its trains but try living there, 50% of its younger 20-35 population are single and don't even have time to date. The numbers don't tell everything.
9
100 million is an arbitrary number. No reason to ignore Canada Switzerland Norway Australia S Korea New Zealand Chile Israel Malta Among others that are pretty good places to live. I love America and think parts are pretty great (and some places not so great) but that does not mean I cannot find other countries good or even great too.
Many great things are copied from one place to another which means the things we find great here show up all over. If we want to stay great we should recognize the need to continually renew ourselves as a country.
5
@Jonathan: Of the Scandinavia countries, only Norway has oil, and none of them are all-white anymore. If you think they are all-white, that means that you have never been there, at least not in any recent decade.
As for Japan, I know half a dozen Americans who have either taken out Japanese citizenship or are in the process of doing so and many more who have legal permanent residency there.
1
Itās the American spirit that makes America the greatest country that has ever existed on the face of the earth.
It cannot be quantified for those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
10
I do get upset that when people comment on remarks such as America isn't the Greatest Country in the World, a lot of other american's automatic reaction is - well if you feel like that- leave. Like when France wouldn't follow America into Iraq, French Fries became Freedom Fries, with the mocking of France for not following America's example, because of course the USA was correct in it's actions/invasion. Surely the ability to realise that there are problems in the US, that issues with Healthcare, Education, Immigration poverty shouldn't automatically induce hostility, but rather a reasoned discussion on how to deal with these issues. America is a great country, but people wanting to improve things shouldn't be seen as antagonists/non patriotic.
As my grandmother used to say- self praise is no praise.
4
Trump's 4th of July plans are to reinforce the myth that we are the greatest nation, while he slowly erodes any vestige of greatness on a daily basis. He fails to see the irony of his actions, which reinforces that he is trying to make up for his inadequacies as our president.
5
I feel like people completely miss the point of calling America the greatest country in the world. It is about patriotism. Who in high school did not cheer for their teams as if they were the best, even if they never won a game?? It does not mean that those cheering are blind to reality, it just means that they are proud of their school regardless of how they do.
Who here is not going to call their child the best son or daughter in the world? You know he or she is not perfect, but the love and admiration you have is beyond that for any other child. That is what patriotism is about. You celebrate the positives and even though you know there are negatives, you still would not want to be anywhere but here.
9
Hahahahaha. Good one! That was the āgreatestā comment here.
Kind of an odd video that doesn't work. Comes off as whiny and cherry picking, without context, and in some cases debatable (like with the environment - go see the World Bank data on various data points - https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.PM25.MC.ZS?most_recent_value_desc=false&view=chart ). By the way, having a subset of the population not look good across various indices is nothing new - rural south and black american populations had been called out in studies going back decades, on development spanning the late 19th century and on through the 20th century. For the continental size country, with the third largest population and largest economy, the US does stand out, especially given the fact that most other rich countries are nowhere near the same scale (exceptions maybe Japan and Germany). Many of those countries in comparisons are less than 60 million in population, on down to micro-states, who have benefited from American policies (and the EU).
5
60million is such an arbitrary number. If the point is that being big makes it hard to be great then I agree but then maybe we cannot be great until we fix Detroit and Ferguson and a few other places.
The reality is that we all live in our communities. Being in Minnesota is a bit like Sweden or Norway. And Vermont like Scotland or Eireland. New York a bit like London or Paris. America has some great cities and some really bad ones.
1
Amazing op-doc. Everything is relative and furthermore should be put to a comparative test. Clearly America, worldwide, in terms of important indicators is a solid B, in some cases B-, student. It is no surprise to most of us paying attention that our countryās prestige and well- being, internal and external, have been waning. To me the slogan America is great sounds passĆ©, not to mention jingoistic. I would criticize anyone who purported to be the best at anything without due, convincing evidenceā yes even a nation state, where I am a thankful citizen. In fact, most of us would call this approach arrogant. But itās not irreversible; for it is not from hubris that one grows, but from humility and drive for progress. This story could also mean that world values are shifting. No longer do we worship military and economic might, but we also applaud soft power and the promotion of human security in and beyond national borders. Letās hope this is the case and America learns to adapt.
3
It only depresses me further that my dreams of leaving America in my early twenties to pursue medical school and live in Denmark were not a memory.
2
We're not great. I've always hated that embarrassing selfish lie. The truth is the following. For several centuries we have believed in a set of aspirations and values, which we have often failed to live up to. We borrowed those aspirations from thinkers and movements elsewhere. Those aspirations and values are of course, in and of themselves, admirable and worth aiming for. We are not of course the only nation that believes in them. Sadly, the folks who are willing to wear hats with the word "great" on them are the very ones who are happily jettisoning that same set of vital aspirations and values, a set that includes democracy itself. Moreover, much of what we've done right was done in spite of rather than because of such folks, e.g., the Civil War, the Civil Rights Act.
14
America is great, and America is also flawed. These two things are not mutually exclusive. The authors mock simplistic jingoism while attempting to refute it with a simplistically bleak analysis.
The authors could use their deprecatory approach on any country in the world, including the OECD countries. (That's a nice starting point btw- eliminate 161 countries right off the bat and then compare the US to the remaining 35, emphasizing lists in which the US falls short.)
I could use this derisive, snarky approach in evaluating the output of the NY Times (and often do, usually only in my own head). But I still consider it to be a great paper. B/c when I consider it in its totality and in the context of other publications out there, it IS great. Just like the United States.
10
The thing I don't get is why Americans have to continue to say that "America is the greatest country". It's almost like if you say it enough, then it must be true, or it will become true, or something! There are many countries in the world that are 'great' for different reasons. But their populations and politicians don't go around proclaiming it on a regular basis in so many different forums. Don't get me wrong...the United States of America has done - and will continue to do - lots of wonderful things, and be a shining example to many others. But you don't need to keep telling everyone how great you are. Be a bit humble, and wait for others to say it to you.
17
I have wondered about this too.
Imagine you have a smart kid in your class. Now, imagine him constantly telling everyone how smart he is. How will his fellow students react on hearing his nonstop declaration? That is USA.
If I were a pseudo psychologist, I would say that USA has inferiority complex that it has to tell everyone how great it is, but then, Iām not a pseudo psychologist!
The only people besides politicians wh say America is the best country in the world havenāt actually been anywhere else so flatly, they donāt know what they are talking about. We are behind in every standard used to measure thriving democracies: access to healthcare and education, freedom of the press not undermined my the government, fair voting, reasonable investments in infrastructure and general safety.
19
Consider that the thousand-plus responding to this video are mainly paying to do so. We are not representative of the majority. Our outrage is the gift of privilege. And we love our catharsis.
Nothing is going to change substantially until the pain of living in America reaches a point that lies can no longer obscure it. Voting out Donald Trump isn't going to change much of anything. He is a symptom, a worsening one, but not a a cause. When there is no actual antidote to suffering offered, people sip the poison.
It will truly take a revolution, not an editorial or an election.
20
@Bachelard: As Climate Change progresses, there will be so much turmoil, so much suffering. The revolution will come too late.
6
Americans with above average incomes compare their standard of living with other countries when they travel. Those on lower incomes don't have that luxury. If they did, they would be less likely to fall for Trump's nationalistic bile. The true measure of a country is access to decent health and education for all.
21
If the true measure of a great country is access to education and healthcare, then Cuba would be the greatest country on earth, but sadly, there are no long lines of people moving to Cuba. On the contrary, people risk their lives to leave.
1
The US is just one country out of many. Every country has pluses and minuses. And each country makes mistakes.
On the other hand, the US has trump.
Guess that makes us the greatest (again).
2
That is unrealistic to call any country the greatest one. Why don't we settle on 'America is above average'? Because of a series of fortuitous events, America rose to the top in the 20th century. Just like England, and France before it, were the leading countries of their respective eras. Once we drop all the myths, we can feel okay about focusing on fixing the egregious problems that can realistically be remedied. Rather than striving for unrealistic goals and causes.
5
Ironic comment--I was reading the comments box about how great the US is when I happened to notice a by-line to the left of my screen from a NYT article titled "We Either Buy Insulin or We Die," from June 13. It is about how people in our country are dying from a lack of affordable medicine and health care for their diabetes. I wonder, does that fact make us the greatest country, or what??
344
@Susan funny that you had to start by labelling your comment as ironic....picking up on irony is not a strong suit for many Americans!
3
@Susan
The Times poses a rhetorical question (āIs America really that great?ā), and another Times article, with a sensationalistic, out-of-context headline, seems to answer the question.
For most NYTimes readers, this hermetically sealed mental closed-system is what passes for logic.
1
These national rankings are as useless as school rankings. Why? Because they are just de facto proxies for percentage of white middle class in the population and amount of natural resources per capita (oil).
Find me another country with the demographics of the US that does remotely as well as the US. If you're going to compare Norway with the US, why don't you compare a similar demographic and population state like Massachusetts with Norway? I guarantee you Massachusetts does better than Norway on most measures.
6
Actually, I sincerely doubt that Massachusetts would beat Norway by most standards.
4
@Susan. It signficanty beats Norway on PISA test scores
@Jonathan
Compare please, lets go much narrower, Compare Boston with Norway.
I would like to see that comparison.
I wish I could read this. I find that written news and analysis is more trustworthy and higher quality than the videos designed to push my buttons while feeding me carefully edited sound bites and images. I don't come to the Times to watch videos. I can get that on YouTube.
13
Iām with you all the way, Norwester. All the way.
We suffer from a national form of narcissism. In this respect I suppose we deserve Trump.
Among our narcissistic blindspots:
When we refer to the debacle in Vietnam, we always and only talk about the 58,000 precious American lives lost. Historians estimate the deaths at our hands of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian soldiers and civilians as high as 3,600,000. Yet it's only our tragedy.
We lost 4,000 men and women in Iraq. Reliable estimates of the carnage we caused: 200,000-400,000. Yet it's only our tragedy.
We lost 3,000 innocent people on 9/11 and our vengeful actions thereafter have taken hundreds of thousands of lives. Yet it's only our tragedy.
All of our losses are - were - horrible indeed. I served during the war in Vietnam, so I don't write this lightly. But in our American exceptionalism, our losses are the only losses that count.
We just ain't that great.
20
@Barking Doggerel
My husband served in the Army infantry in Vietnam. He is great and this is what makes America great... Our everyday people.
1
Although I understand that America is by no means the only great country, I find it incredibly distasteful to minimize and distort the reputation and accomplishments of our country -- particularly this week. It feels like propaganda, but to what end? And to boot, with a snarky tone that does not befit a major newspaper. Additionally, I find the reductive characterization of other countries (e.g. Nigeria, Pakistan) to be offensive and inappropriate. Without question, our country has formidable challenges at present, but this video does not help in any way.
12
America's average poor person is doing FAR better than most of the planet's workers of whatever status.
We have lowered levels of numerous poisons in our air while producing more goods and, under this president, more jobs.
America is the reigning world champion at welcoming legal immigrants and has apparently help that record for centuries - certainly decades.
This is indeed the best place on the planet to be a poor worker. That man or woman has MORE choices about where to work than in any other country.
But if you are among those taught to hate this country, remember - Delta is Ready when You Are!!
10
There have been a few times in history that the West, or the United States, has realized with a great start that it is not the greatest thing on earth.
For the West, it was the Crusades. Tens of thousands of European Christians who thought they were all of that went off to the Middle East. There they found bigger and better castles, a largely literate society, doctors that actually practiced medicine and cured people, cities full of libraries, schools and universities, and better and different ways of flavoring and preparing food. They went back to Europe and got to work catching up.
For the United States, it was Sputnik. The successful Russian launch of Sputnik 1 woke the entire country up and scared it to death. After that, our own space program went into high gear and we wound up going to the moon.
We need a great shock at this time to jolt much of our populace out of its collective smug ignorance. We're no longer at the top of the heap; in most measurable metrics, such as life-expectancy, income inequality, infant-mortality, freedom of the press, and all around happiness, we're not even close.
But hey, in three days millions of us will wave flags, watch fireworks, eat hot dogs, and believe we are all of that and a bag of chips. And the current occupant of the White House will use the day to make a campaign commercial instead of reflecting on the serious work that needs to be done.
8
This video is āgreatā but itās also a rip off of The opening of the pilot episode of Aaron Sorkinās āThe Newsroomā show from a few years back.
To quote the song from the great Robert Altman film Nashville:
"We must be doing something right to last 200 yearsssss"
7
Is this cup half empty, or half full? Which view is more likely to improve the country?
5
Silly rabbits.
When has the United States ever consistently lived up to our principles? When has any other nation, country or state?
We are great because we have principles and strive to live up to those principles despite knowing that we will frequently fail.
We are great because we have lived up to those principles more often than any other nation for the past 230 years.
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are not just paper.
3
Right now the U.S. is the narcissist I fell in love with, tempted by ideals of freedom, liberty, equality, and justice for all. Now I find that in reality my rights are being abused by those in power in Washington who seek to disenfranchise my vote. These same people seek to destroy the Medicare that I paid into during my working career. They'd also like to take away my Social Security. Basically, they'd like to leave me and every other woman in America subject to suppression and rape, and they want to use my reproductive organs to control me, even forcing me to carry an unwanted fetus to term and to be a slave to that child for 18 years. In other words, the U.S. has become an abusive partner, and all those promises of equality and justice have vanished in a haze of Republican gerrymandering, religious meddling in government, and Russian interference in our elections.
5
Thank you!
If you have emotional intelligence as well as facts, we know that America is no longer great about anything as far as the rest of the world is concerned. Travel outside the USA some!
1
I'm not an isolationist but think what we could be if we didn't have defend the "Free World" or more to the point they were more willing to defend themselves. I know it's an over simplification. We do it for a good reason.
If you think we are backwards and should all be living like they did in Paris and Berlin before the Great Depression maybe you're the one who's backwards and incapable of learning from history.
3
We have the freedom in America to believe whatever fantasies we want in order to commit whatever atrocities we need to get what just a greedy few of us want.
Weāre America. We hold no one responsible for anything. And we never apologize for our behavior.
And we NEVER look in the mirror.
2
True THAT! We have long ignored the cracks in our system!!
Hopefully, people will see this and start to understand why trust has disintegrated in our society so much that people elected Trump. As one supporter said, "Oh, we all know he's a liar and a conman. Everyone knows that. Still, we trust him more than we trust a regular politician."
History repeats itself, so "elites" should keep in mind what will happen to them if they continue to ignore these problems.
1
Why don't these two sages tell us which country IS the greatest?
4
Nah, this is wrong. America is the greatest country on earth. I've spent 10 years living in China, Britain and the UAE and working across the globe... America is without question the single best place on the planet.
8
Can we also stop saying āone nation, indivisible?ā Thatās downright laughable.
I still think the United States is a great country. Are we still in a funk because Hillary lost? Snap out of it.
5
We could be a great country if we have the guts
to elect Sanders for President !
1
Keep it up with these "Re-elect the President" pieces.
I'm sure you'll succeed.
7
Then the author of this hit piece should go live somewhere else. We are the greatest society on earth, however imperfect.
7
@C
Imperfect, or ruined?
@C Thank you for your measured, thoughtful comments.
You all are wrong. There are cracks, aka problems, this country has a lot going for it despite the abomination in the White House right now.
No country integrates more cultures, races and religions than the US. Europe is smoldering because Muslims there are on the periphery of society. Anti-semitism still has a voice Western Europe. Japan and Korea do not allow immigrants, or very few.
Canada and Australia cherry pick high talent immigrants. The US has 20 million residents that came to the country illegally.
Sunnis and Shiites can worship in peace here. They canāt do that in the Middle East.
The US spends a ton of money to provide defense to Europe, Japan, South Korea, Israel and function as a deterrent to potential aggression from Russia and China.
As for health care, the US subsidizes the pharma costs to the rest of the world because we donāt have a govāt mandated pricing or negotiator.
While the US has not elected a woman to President, I challenge another country with women in leadership roles across society.
US still attracts tens of millions of people who want to discard their citizenship to be Americans. If possible, I bet hundreds of millions would come here with just the shirt on their backs.
7
each point is impossible to refute
It's hard to think the United States is the greatest county on earth when many of our citizens have been used as shooting targets.
The fact that Donald Trump is President is proof that the United States is in deep trouble. Racism does not make a country great.
Anyone who reads the news just posted in other outlets regarding the disgusting hate-filled Facebook page, that thousands of our Border Patrol Agents follow and post on, cannot think we are great. Xenophobia, bigotry, misogyny are hallmarks of weakness and tyranny. When such hate is focused on helpless migrants in their ācareā, it is horrific and makes me ashamed to be an American. Every Border Patrol agent who has posted on that page needs to be fired and then prosecuted. The extreme mistreatment of migrants will be a stain on our nation forever.
I will offer a positive and negative comment...
having lived overseas for almost a decade on three continents ... the one thing that makes us great... is our ability to be proactive and find solutions. people love that about America(ns)...
now the negative...the ugly truth is capitalism unchecked is the root cause of almost every problem we have....money has become everything in America... and its a corrosive rot that will destroy all the good. you don't have to get rid of it, but you have to control it... or USA will become another 3rd world country that functions only for the rich.
9
The great things about Americaāclimate; geography; fertile, minerals-rich lands ā have absolutely nothing to do with Americans.
The things touted as great such as American democracy, manifest destiny, American capitalism and Pax Americana are all compromised by huge hypocrisy, cynicism, exploitation and of course stupendous violence.
1
Yeh, things are so bad that we are experiencing sustained waves of illegal immigration from all over the world. Please give those folks the news that we are not so great because they are obviously not getting the message. So sick of Hate America First leftists but I encourage you all to keep up this drumbeat as it will help President Trump win re-election.
7
It certainly had the option to be the greatest but instead a minority has chosen to embrace racial hatred, misogyny and White supremacy. We have allowed the wealthy to kill Democracy in favor o fa system where the wealthy take 98% of the wealth and the rest of us live paycheck to paycheck.We now have a Supreme court that has no claim to decency, they can't get political to save our democracy but had no trouble making political decisions when it came to Bush/Gore. I will not let any of my grand or great grand children go to war for or serve this country in is no longer a worthy Democracy.
Yeah, no wonder so few people are trampling over each other, trying to get here...
6
Oh my. So to which country do you think we should all move?
3
Sorry, but I can't say it any better than this: From The Newsroom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTjMqda19wk
But the best bit is at the end- only way to improve is to recognise that there is a problem. And America does have some problems at the moment- Healthcare, education, infrastructure etc. All of which can be improved.
There is a reason the term "jingoism" needed to be invented.
If the United States is not the greatest country on Earth, name a better one.
3
It's an opinion...get over it. Please stop telling me America is horrible when we are better than most other nations.
6
Americans have gotten soft and far too sensitive; we've had it too good for too long.
Over forty years ago as a Peace Corp volunteer my fellows and I would remark on just how blind most Americans are about the realities of life in a third world country.
Now we have a blowhard as our president shouting, "KAG" as he destroys the very things that made America remarkable in comparison to other nations. A good dose of stomach parasites might be a teaching moment for him.
1
Nobody takes this seriously anymore, not even deplorable Hillary's basket of deplorables. It's like saying "You too" when someone says "Have a great day."
As a naturalized citizen for almost three decades from oh-so-socialist Europe, not to improve my lot but having married and American, every time I dared to criticize some policies of the supposedly greatest country in the world, native born Americans hat the usual reply: "If you don't like it here, why don't you go back to where you come from".
In addition, America is the only advanced nation that flies as many flags all day as only autocratic regimes do on foreign shores. But at least their people don't wear their flag as bathing trunks etc., etc.
And soon our 4th of July will turn into a military parade, with men on tanks having to salute their dear Leader. Next up; parades in goose step formation.
,
4
So, you want to "make America great again"?
Well said! ā except the statement that America is only great if youāre rich. I guess you mean that only people with money have adequate access to health care, etc. , but it sounds like you are equating money and greatness. This is exactly the false equivalency that got us where we are now. People admired Trump bc he was supposedly rich and successful. And now we have a traitor in the White House. If he hasnāt sold us out to Russia and Saudi Arabia (and Iām pretty sure he has), he has clearly sold us out in the name of personal profit.
Oust traitor Trump!
1
I love the United States of America.
All of it.
5
Thanks for expressing the obvious. Too bad so many readers are not blind but refuse to see.
2:35āas that guy in the White House would say, "America. Sadly, she's no longer a 10."
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/opinion/sunday/introducing-donald-trump-diplomat.html
Living in the US beats the heck out of living under Ottoman rule.
2
It seems that increasingly, a majority of Americans are for what Republicans in all three branches of government are against, and against what Republicans are for.
America is Great Again. As a proud American who fought for his Country, I am proud to say that I AM an American.
We must continue to do all that we can to Keep America Great, Strong, and Safe, protecting America from external and internal threats.
5
A small point of order - Australia has a voting turnout of about 90% (not 80%) every election...because voting is compulsory. You are fined for not attending a polling booth on election day. It sounds a bit draconian, but it also has the distinct advantage of electorally sidelining small extremist groups.
6
@Melbourne Town
Do you let those illegally present to vote? We have more than enough of those to decide many state and federal elections if they ALL voted.
2
@The Observer Uh ... this has been rather conclusively debunked over the past several years. But I guess you consider facts like these to be fake news.
I don't think Americans will demand the change needed to improve our country unless we acknowledge where we fall short. Just saying "America is the Greatest Country on Earth" doesn't make it so and only puts blinders on to the problems around us. What has put us in the top spot- economy and military- has also caused us to fall short in others- healthcare, education, etc. This country chooses to let companies profit at the expense of their citizens (e.g. prescription drugs and the healthcare system) and approves money to be spent on wars instead of education, infrastructure, and other domestic fundamentals. Which, again, benefits government contractors as wars are very profitable, rather than the general population.
I tell friends from other countries that America is a great place to do business, but you wouldn't want to live here. It's transitioned to a plutocracy (a government of the wealthy, for the wealthy, by the wealthy) from it's original founding as a democracy. But with the right to vote, we all have a voice to elect those who can make it better.
7
"adjective, greatĀ·er, greatĀ·est.
unusually or comparatively large in size or dimensions: A great fire destroyed nearly half the city.
large in number; numerous: Great hordes of tourists descend on Europe each summer.
unusual or considerable in degree, power, intensity, etc.: great pain." (Dictionary.com)
According to the above, America is great. We are large, numerous and powerful, so hooray for us! But so is India, China, Russia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, etc. by the same definition.
What truly defines a country is deeds not just words. Any country built on genocide of the native population, slavery, public lynchings, internment of its own citizens, unequal rights for women, the poor, disadvantaged, people of color and people who are just different does not deserve to call itself anything other than remorseful and resolute to do better for its inhabitants.
People, not slogans, make a country what it is and what it can be. If a country wants to be great at something, why not focus on being compassionate or nurturing to all people and the planet.
1
@Michael Hate where you live? Why linger? Summer & fall are the best times to travel anyway. Get yourself to an airport. Find that better place. Hurry!
O.K., so we are not such a great country.
But we would still like to be.
2
@A. Stanton We certainly have the ways and means to do so, if only people would apply themselves to the greater good rather than personal benefit. It's rather pitiful in this regard nowadays.
Growing up as a baby boomer after WWII America probably was the greatest country in the world which is no longer true. I migrated to Australia 26 years ago and the standard of living for the average Aussie is higher than for the average American. Australia has universal health care costing about half of what the US spends, a high minimum wage, and good education system.
I still admire the American free enterprise system and technology startups, but the rest of the world is catching up. China and India are producing far more software engineers and engineers than the US.
Unlike when I grew up after WWII, America now has to compete in a global economy and it is not good enough to expect because you are born in America you will have a high standard of living.
10
@Joseph B. Housing in Australia is double to quadruple that of the US. Everything has a cost. Health care might be cheaper there but your housing makes up for it.
1
Whenever anyone tells me America is a great country, I tell them to look at two numbers: incarceration rates and per capita public transit ridership figures. Then cross reference those numbers with Canada and Europe. After doing so, I ask them to get back to me on why America is so great.
9
Per capita public transport means anything about being a great country? What?
2
I do indeed believe that our nation's highest ideals are the greatest of any nation on earth, but at the same time any honest American must realize that much of our past and present does not live up to this standard. To be great we must have leadership that is honest and rationaI, with actions based on reality and science, not blind partisanship or dogmatism. We must treat everyone fairly, not just those who look like us or think like us. We cannot be great unless every child born here has a realistic path to success, even if born into unfortunate circumstances. I consider it the highest form of patriotism to be clearheaded about our faults and to strive to make things better.
6
I am proud to be an American, and a single president or a few bad actions aren't likely to diminish that pride.
10
@AACNY well, OK...one can be proud to be an American and still acknowledge there's plenty of things to improve or change, and our history includes plenty of, shall we say, questionable events...
2
@AACNY
Thank you! Well stated.
There is no "greatest country on earth." Never has been. That's because countries cannot be fairly compared. The origins, the history, the cultural legacies, the manners and mannerisms of the people inhabiting any country always differ from the next.
America is, however, exceptional in ways that have been lauded by many repressive and impoverished societies, and continues to attract pilgrims -- immigrants and visitors -- who long to become part of the populace or experience it as admirers.
It's not government that makes America exceptional, it's not big business, it's not billionaires. Our wealth is the sum of our populace's creativity, generosity, resoluteness, diversity, sweat equity and courage that characterizes so many millions of our residents.
To be "great" does not mean we have to be "best." We just have to the best we can be at any moment.
4
Trader Joe's has really great corn chips, but that probably isn't a "great nation benchmark".
7
Speaking for myself, I wouldn't mind relocating to a country where I can live longer, happier, pay far less for healthcare, receive a higher education at a far lower cost, not be concerned about gun violence and have a government not influenced by campaign donations.
Would I pay more in taxes for that? Yes.
29
@Tom Q
I agree. love my country, but I hate where it's been going lately.
Any country in Europe would do.
We lost our exceptionability with the election of Trump. He has successfully changed the perception of the US to an unreliable force with a big defense budget and poor boundaries in regard to allies and friends.
2
Comparing countries are harder than comparing reviews. If both stores have an average 2.5, but A has five 0's and five 5's while B has five 2's and five 3's, who's better? What if A averages a 5 with one 5 while B averages a 4 with a mix of 100 3-5's?
Now increase the number of competitors and dimensions
1
The US took 28 years to follow when it came to giving women the right to vote. The US is 42 year and still counting of not guaranteeing equal pay like many of the other development nations. Healthcare and even clean water are not a basic human right in the US. The US had slavery longer than many nations, still allows imports from overseas slave labour, had some of the longest segregation in history which has now been replaced with incarceration. The US is number one in public and personal debt (not sure that is an accomplishment to be proud of). The Separation of Church and State is being eroded, the need for Separation of Corporation and State has never been a stronger argument (especially after the 2008 Financial Meltdown).
The US has done some amazing things and has the ability to do great things again, but it needs to be part of the world community and saying "We're #1" isn't exactly a team player, but rather a diva or a superstar acting like they can go it alone and don't need anyone else.
The first thing it needs to learn to say is "What can we do better" and with that humility, greatness can be achieved as part of this one world, one human race.
16
Mr. Trump's attempt to have a militaristic Fourth of July (tanks, jets and all) all about himself, not our independence, is a key indicia of how far we as a country have fallen.
It seems that Mr. Trump has forgotten that the Fourth of July is about the United States' independence as a sovereign country, free from oppression of others and remembrance of how we got there as well as who got us there. Never mind that we have no sympathy for the oppressed in the 21st Century, whether inside or outside of our borders.
The Fourth of July It has nothing to do with our military might.
The Fourth of July has nothing to do with politics.
The Fourth of July, has nothing to do with Donald Trump (or his kids).
Yet, it appears that Mr. Trump is so envious of military parades of totalitarian countries that he wants one to honor him, not America. Images of propaganda from Nazi Germany, Russia, and China (among others) immediately come to mind.
Yet Mr. Trump seems hell-bent on hijacking the Fourth of July into one big campaign advertisement about how great he is, not how great America was.
10
@red or green
Amusing, Trump does not define America for me. He's a transient tyrannical error and this country will weather him. The US has already weathered many horrors. Trump will not hijack MY Fourth of July fireworks nor my high regard for the millions of Americans with grace and dignity, resolve and courage.
3
Feel free to leave if you don't like it.
16
Great citizens of great nations do not leave and quit, they change what is wrong.
1
@Stephen Thank you; I have 8 more years and I'm outta here - you can sleep better at night now.
@Stephen
Gosh, change for the better can be scary. Might involve a different way of thinking or even caring. Best to just let your brain go blank as you recite the words, "America--love it or leave it."
Anyone who doesnāt think the US is by far the greatest country in the world is kidding themselves or is ignorant.
14
Anyone who thinks that the US of A are the greatest country has not travelled abroad and I do not refer to a weekend trip across the border to Mexico. Only humility and a realistic evaluation will make us better.
21
Call us when you own a passport.
3
Wow, I've no idea where to begin... Come and visit Australia and I can present a very different perspective for you. For starters, USA isn't even a truely democratic and that's not great, is it?
2
Take it from someone who moved here - this is the greatest country in the world for opportunity. I grew up under socialism - the socialism more prevalent in the world relative to the Scandinavian utopia people imagine, the one of the license raj. A world where government bureaucrats dictated most activities, where the education system was about rote learning, where human spirit was crushed - not with villainy or with malice, but with sheer indifference, every day.
America allowed me to be myself. Class room discussions where even vehement disagreement was allowed - this was the 90s so prior, perhaps, to the dogma of political correctness being prevalent.
Jobs for the taking - minimum wage, service jobs - sure. But jobs. Jobs that would not give me a decent lifestyle at 40 hours of work, sure, but jobs where I could work 80 hours and keep myself so busy that I would not have time to spend, and could therefore save.
Savings that I could re-invest in myself, in education. Perhaps not the luxury of an education for education's sake, but an education in the trades to raise myself up the economic ladder.
America is the greatest not because it offers the most to the most, but because it offers the most to those who are willing to give the most. All you need to give is hard work and the discipline of delayed self gratification. That's it.
24
Thank you, this describes (with some modifications) is my life in a nutshell!
3
May I suggest that if the authors dont like it here that they try someplace else. I am so tired of USA bashing. Yes we have issues. Name me a country of 300 million that does not. Maybe the numbers should include all those service members who died in meaningful wars (e.g. ww2) for our country. And if the USA is not so great why does everyone in the world want to come here??
15
@Weatherguy
Yup, I think the dissatisfied should go wherever the glory lies and enjoy life instead of suffering and whining in the US.
2
Weāve fallen backwards. In my life, I never thought Iād want to move to another country like Taiwan, Denmark, Canada, or Norway. So sad. What happened?
7
Love that one : ''The cracks in our systems.'' A NYT euphemism for ''Abysmal institutional dysfunctions.''
3
Terrific video! Everyone should see this! And it's ideal for people who live in white houses and throw a lot of stones.
3
The main point of this video comes at the end, contrasting patriotism with jingoism--and worse, nativism. We are built on the labor of immigrants, and Republicans want to deprive anyone who isn't white of all of the benefits that they enjoy, or that they want to convince their less affluent constituents that they enjoy. We are a nation divided, and all the benefits that we enjoy as a nation are not enjoyed by a vast proportion of the nation. The U.S. poverty rate of 18.5% is higher than Iran. Think about that.
8
Very heavily international traveller and I have lived overseas. The whole greatest thing is silly and somewhat artificial/difficult to really measure.
For example, are US literacy scores lower because we do take in tens of thousands immigrants (legal and illegal) many of whom may not be able to read?
How about the PIRLS test where 4th graders are tested internationally and where US students are tested across the board but other nations are testing a subset of their populations?
So the whole thing about greatest is the bit silly. Iām surprised you stooped to present measurements that in a lot of ways are apples to oranges.
10
@Paul
Similarly, our infant mortality rates are often apples to oranges' comparisons. We count all live births, while other countries might not count an infant that doesn't survive 24 hours.
4
Donald Trump poured gasoline on the American exceptionalism debate with his MAGA campaign slogan. Sadly those among us who have failed to succeed in America are being programmed to blame their plight on the country, itself, and that sentiment has merged with both the progressive movement to seize and redistribute wealth and power, and the political movement to unseat Trump.
Unfortunately, no politician or political movement can make our country great again, despite all of the plans, policies and programs that will be preached to us until the election. The greatness of a nation lies in the strength of its people. As the film points out, America is sliding. But why? Strange that these progressive editorialists would point as symptoms to declining educational outcomes, opiate addiction and children in poverty, when those are the very societal problems born of the progressive's anti-normative celebration of counter-cultural and self-destructive behaviors.
Most Americans who live by our national creed of liberty and individual responsibility, and who embrace and subscribe to our success norms, are doing just fine. But progressives need to paint a picture of national failure as a predicate for their radical plans to redistribute our wealth, restructure our economy into some half-baked social welfare collective, and dictate our personal behavior according to their subjective views of political correctness.
Let's not be fooled!
2
As someone who has experienced travels in Europe, lived in Germany for a bit, and traveled a large part of the US, I can say there is great deal that Americans who remained largely insular are either blind or willfully ignorant about.
There is what I call a fake patriotism that Europeans ask me about all the time (and this goes back to my first trip in 1980). We run about and wave our flags, yet patriotism isn't about flag waving, wearing flag clothing, or wrapping our cars with the flag and boasting how we are the best all the time - that's Trumpism.
Patriotism is caring enough about your country and countrymen to protects its natural resources and provide for your people. Patriotism is making sure folks can get medical care without needing to decide whether to pay the mortgage, rent, car payment, food bill, or utilities. Patriotism is having a country that other countries strive to emulate out of example.
Our Bill of Rights and Constitution are amazing documents and will forever remain an aspirational goal, but they are worthy of the effort that their promise and and potential present.
As depressing as described, there is a greatness in spirit that is uniquely American, but we seem to require someone or something to push our noses in it before it register on our conscience. As much as there is legitimate to criticize about our country, I am glad when I am home. But as our Founders said in a myriad of ways, we have quite a thing going it we keep working at it.
12
I agree wholeheartedly with this video. If you can not look at yourself truthfully how can you ever improve? We are falling behind the rest of the world because some of the population does not believe in factual knowledge.
7
@bluegirlredstate I agree with your point about self-reflection and factual knowledge, but doubt that we would observe the same phenomenon in the same way.
For example, if a poor, uneducated woman becomes pregnant, has the baby, and the demands of the child make it even harder for her to sustain herself, there are many potential ways to view the problem. I suspect the progressive would say that society failed to provide sufficient life counseling, sex education and birth control and probably did not make the option of abortion sufficiently accessible, either physically or financially. Post-birth, the progressive would point to low wages for unskilled labor, inadequate affordable housing and the lack of public daycare. And this all would appear as though our poor young woman was destined by the operation of our government to end up in this awful predicament, notwithstanding any act of free will on her part.
The conservative, on the other hand, might see a completely avoidable problem and one that might have had fewer adverse consequence and societal costs had this woman made some better decisions.
Which side is not looking at the facts?
4
I moved here in the mid 1980s with a freshly minted phd. Itās been good to me - an only slightly above a average person, I have been able to things that would have been unthinkable in the uk. Just like most real individuals the US is far from perfect but where would you prefer? UK post brexit? It was bad even pre brexit thatās why I left and will get worse. Germany with its rising nationalism? China - great if you make it to the top of the heap. How about Russia or S. America? Maybe S. Africa or New Zealand? I believe in lightly regulated free markets and would move somewhere else it I thought it would be better. Sure some places have āfreeā stuff paid for with high taxes, try the UK NHS - great for triage but if you need something big itās rationed and youāll likely die waiting or buy private if you have any money. The US has problems but it also has solutions. Much of the rest of the world just has the problems.
10
@RWFor the fourth consecutive year, Canada ranks No. 1 overall for providing a good quality of life....and it's her birthday to-day!
...
Canada. #1 in Quality of Life Rankings. ...
Sweden. #2 in Quality of Life Rankings. ...
Denmark. ...
Norway. ...
Switzerland. ...
Finland. ...
Australia. ...
Netherlands.
1
@stewart. I've traveled Canada extensively. #1 quality of life? Haha no thanks. If you make above average income in the US, life is way better here. These rankings are all meaningless. It depends all on where you live and your circumstances.
1
@stewart. Iād like to see the list of questions. I agree both #1 and 2 are relatively peaceful and moderately prosperous. Both have near arctic winters that last for months. A large part of Canada wants to break away and form a French speaking republic. Sweden is struggling to assimilate almost a 1/4 million refugees into an otherwise homogenous monoculture. Sure they both have high taxes and generous social welfare systems if thatās the main criterion they would rank high on the list. On my list they would not me at the very top.maybe in the top 10, depends who you ask and what you ask them.
1
America isn't the best country in the world, but it's next to it. You are, however, the absolute best at ballistic trauma surgery. The world has nothing to teach America about that.
11
Those who insist we are the greatest usually do not have a Passport.
16
@David Gregory
They usually ARE the ones with passports.
2
I am an American politics junkie, not because I think it's a good system, but rather I watch in fascinated horror at how dysfunctional it is. I'm also amazed at how many American commentators talk about how American democracy is the model for the rest of the world. Really?? Do they know how other political systems work? American citizens do have freedom: the freedom to work themselves to death for a pittance, the freedom to be poor and sick because of the lack of a decent healthcare system, the freedom to be shot at school because of the lack of proper gun laws etc. etc. I feel so sorry for Americans who live in such a dysfunctional society while thinking it is the best in the world. This limits their ability to improve their situation.
7
@Toni
Well, thanks for your biting assessment. Then there are the everyday people who do the heavy lifting with their families and communities to help improve conditions. Come meet me and my neighbors someday to discover the merit of the common folk.
2
Greatest country in the world seems usually to be said by people whoāve never been anywhere else.
12
@Religionistherootofallevil
On the contrary (and perhaps you've missed it) but those who laud the US have often lived under very repressive regimes elsewhere.
8
@AACNY Good point. And many of them lament the way the values they believe in are now daily betrayed by a lawless administration.
This boils down to a distinction between our potential and our ranking on the world stage. In my mind this video actually gives the USA too much credit. Think of the world we could have created coming out of WWII. We could have reformed the world with our ideals of democracy and freedom. Instead we handed over the reins to a corporate system predicated on short term profit over everything. When I hear someone younger than sixty go off about America's greatness,it sounds pathetic and it makes me sad.
3
Countries should be ranked on the number of public toilets per head of population. It is the essential rating of public caring. How does the US rank on this? And what should this scale be called? The "Uri-Nation Scale?"
3
THE WRITERS ARE CORRECT IN THEIR OBSERVATIONS. By many measures, we are behind other advanced countries in our social welfare network that's been under attack since the time of Ronnie Ray Gun. The middle class's status has dwindled during the nearly 40 years since he took office. Wages have stagnated at a level of decades ago. Benefits are nonexistent compared with the past. Trump's tax "overhaul" was the largest transfer of wealth from the 99% to the 1% in history! The 99% will pay between $1.6 and $2.2 TRILLION during the next decade. Gun violence kills far more people each year on US soil than foreign wars. The opioid epidemic has killed 70,000+ people for each of the last several years, largely due to the lack of government oversight over big pharma. Longevity in the US has decreased due, in no small part, to the leading causes of death: the opioid epidemic; gun violence and traffic accidents. We have huge losses due to alcohol and tobacco abuse. All of these causes result in upwards of 1 million deaths and injuries each year. There is a regime of crimes against humanity at the border with Mexico, where innocent children, women and men are being tortured. Trump must be indicted for Crimes Against Humanity in the World Court. We have millions of people who cannot afford healthcare, either due to lack of funds and/or lack of insurance. Yet the 99% are paying up to $2.2 trillion of tribute in the next 10 years to the de facto royalty of the 1% Trump raped US!
1
E Pluribus Unum. If we have any claim to a unique status it is this. We're a mongrel nation built by people, who, in the "old country" often fought to the death because of differences in nationality, language or religion. We're still a work in progress but it's amazing we're a nation at all.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of us who still think we need to be kept pure, free of foreign influences brought by immigrants. And we have politicians who take advantage of that by bearing false witness against our neighbors.
When I see a broadcast, video or photo, of any national gathering of Democrats and compare it to a similar group of Republicans, I see the difference between the party of inclusion and the party of exclusion. All I have to do is look.
2
A couple days ago I was watching TCM, and they ran an Army Air Corp recruitment file, starring Jimmy Stewart. This file was from 1942. During that film phrase like "protecting the American way of life" and "American is the greatest country on Earth" was used even then. There was an earlier film that day showing the US Army Band and one of the songs it played was "I am an American". See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_rblnJjRC4
Guess what? Considering "I am an American Day" celebrated the Us, as well as immigrants, maybe we need something like that again.
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKqff8I9arA
Maybe the GOP should review both these films.
The US has its problems, no doubt. But, compared to various far flung places of the world, there is a lot that Americans take for granted.
Just watch and listen to these films; they are as applicable in the 1940s, as they are today. Unfortunately, the divisions in this country, and our politicians, which perpetuate them, causes the message to be lost.
Yes, American is great for its natural resources, it farmland, and the ingenuity of its people. Our politicians, since these films were made, made these slogans about this nation's greatness, nothing but propaganda slogans, to push their own interests.
Maybe we need to have "we Are an American Day" this Thursday to replace the planned Trump Show in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial.
1
America is great when it does not have to constantly tell itself that it is. I am afraid that this discourse about greatness has been coopted by an elite - Republican & Democrat - that has largely used it to pacify a left out population.
What is most likely is that history will see it as the dominant nation that exercised its hegemony at a certain point and time. Its contributions to human civilization will be massive & I hope that - like with all great powers in history - its lasting impact will be positive while still accepting the negative.
I wish you all a Happy Independence Day & hope for a renewed sense of friendship in the coming years! I still see us as a great continent! Trump is Trump... Your strength as a nation has always been your ability to renew yourselves!!!
4
But if we're so bad, why does everyone want to come here?
And why don't more people leave?
6
@gw
Except, as the President said, Norwegians. They don't want to come.
Not surprisingly, Norway surpasses the US in many measures of quality of life.
6
The rest of much of the world laughs when you say āeveryone wants to move hereā.
2
@Robert Peterson - Millennials are projected to exceed Baby Boomers as America's largest generation, not because of domestic births, but because of immigration:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/01/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers/
Of course I was speaking colloquially when I said "everyone" wants to move here. But you and I both know there is exceptional demand. Or are you saying we are not an attractive destination for immigrants?
1
At the risk of asking a dumb question, why a Basset Hound? I had one growing up as a kid, and she was a sweet and loving dog--except for when the mailman came. So is it a symbol of super patriotism now? Or our faded glory? Or the dog every politician wants a photo-op with? Just curious.
Makes you wonder if there is such a thing as "an all-American dog"?
3
The success of democracy depends on an intelligent populace. The US is destined to fail based on that. We were once perceived by the world as being a hope for the world because we were the country that had a government formed around the idea of individual rights, not because we were actually great at anything. In my opinion the EU is the last great hope for democracy and individual freedoms. We have sold out to corporations who are installing various forms of fake democracy that are actually just fascism lite.
The American people as a whole don't care about freedom and they don't care about justice. They care about possessions and making their corporate masters happy.
The answer to our current predicament is to punish corporations. They control our government and courts and they only understand money. The people of the US are too weak and selfish to do that, so our democracy will die.
America is also the only Western country with the death penalty and is now, in many States, trying to ban abortion.
By the way, if Mr Trump's slogan is "make America great again," that implies that it's not great right now.
5
Stop telling me America isnāt great.
My mother is also great.
But you wouldnāt know about that.
2
America isn't the greatest country on Earth, but this propaganda had become orthodoxy and questioning it will raise the ire of many.
A recent survey in Europe rated America as the biggest threat to world peace. Let that sink in. Our own allies think we're the biggest threat to world peace.
We built a system where we were the world's policeman. Then we became angry because we felt people didn't appreciate us enough. Now we're demanding they pay protection money.
The problem is that America measures its greatness in terms of power, in terms of wealth, in terms of size. But power without wisdom simply makes you a bully. The accumulation of wealth doesn't make you great, sharing it does. And size is irrelevant.
New Zealand is one of the smallest countries, but one of the greatest because of they act morally and they look after their people.
3
Two words why America is the greatest: the internet.
2
@Milton Goldman what that thing created by Tim Berners Lee whilst at CERN? LOL.
1
Rise and fall of an Empire.
Rome was the greatest country in the worl, until it went for sale and came under the "guidance" of such as Nero or Caligula.
Ring any bells?
If it does not or your history class memories are long gone, check with Google...
3
Unfortunately, no rational argument to expose the truth is going to change the minds of people... They have been taught a knee jerk reflex since their tender age and they do not go abroad to check their theories, why would you leave the greatest country on earth?
1
BIG REQUEST TO THE TIMES!
Please provide a transcript!
Many of us are readers, not watchers!
We also prefer absorbing ideas and data at our own rate, not at the pace being imposed upon us by a video!
6
zip code is destiny more than we want to admit
2
Planet Earth is the Greatest Planet in the Solar System. Happy?
Now, go and spread this good news to any starving homeless man, women or child in ANY country in the world, America included.
2
@Sameer maybe we should do something to see that it stays healthy...
1
Without wishing to pick holes in anyoneās arguments in support of the US being āthe best country in the worldā and whilst wishing you well in your perhaps misguided faith in the direction of your country, it would help to check your facts. The top two universities in the world are actually Oxford and Cambridge ...not bad for such a small country Iād say. And the US more durable? Youāre a relative newcomer compared with many other countries but you sure know how to throw your weight around I agree. Perhaps you should try asking the rest of the world what they think of the US. I think youād be surprised. But carry believing the refrain... anything repeated enough times eventually convinces the less critical thinkers amongst us.
3
My plea to democrats...
Please be very savvy and on alert. You have to capture the minds that were successfully brainwashed for several decades, face it!
People are to busy just surviving, also orchestrated by design to dumb & numb
masses of population that are overworked and exhausted.
They have no time or maybe knowledge to differentiate state propaganda assault and real facts.
And be prepare for all the low blows that GOP will throw on you. Socialism, and the rest of their usual garbage.
As much as I love progressive candidates I would try at this particular moment in time not to go too far left, will have time for that, right now we're are not there.
Democrats, please come out to the public view more, so your supporters won't feel abandon.
2
I don't know how this happened but I have never been a patriotic flag waver. As far as I was concerned my quality of life would be the determining factor and that's never been pretty or carefree. All the hype about "the greatest country on earth" should be borne out by the least among us. We are a nation of people who are mostly at the bottom. And I have never believed the hype.
2
I've been saying for years that the US is moving backwards and turning into a developing country with a shrinking middle class. Developing countries like Colombia where my parents live enjoy a very vibrant middle class. I've never seen so many Colombians traveling abroad and other signs of prosperity. Our children had the best education available and are successful but very few parents in this country have access to good schools health etc
2
I think America is a great country. Greatest? I don't know what that means. I like living here. It's too crowded and we use far to much of the worlds resources, but I like nature and open spaces and wildlife, and we still have a some freedoms, so I like living here. If you like other things you might like some place else more. It's individual. It's like the greatest album or movie. There is no such thing. What I worry about is that we get smug and don't want to try to improve things here, or change how we think, because we're sure we are already "the greatest". Being a little humble goes a long ways towards open to introspection and improving oneself or ones country.
1
It is very interesting that many readers are denying the plainly seen and direct and correct facts that are presented here. Certainly at one time we were the leader of the pack, but our electronics industry is woefully behind. Universal Healthcare is a fully functional and plainly accepted fact in all developed countries EXCEPT the USA (and the world is astounded that we are fighting to keep our 2nd rate system). People now LEAVE the US to get healthcare elsewhere! We are no longer the leader in cars, trains, highways, sewer systems, drinking water, poverty levels, education of our people, and the middle class is clearly better off in most all of Europe even though it was in ruins just 70 years ago.
What is everyone thinking?
5
I'm sorry. You're wrong. Not one European country has birthright citizenship. Most European countries depend on ancestry AND residence for citizenship. Not so long ago there were German residents who weren't citizens even though their GRANDparents had immigrated from Turkey. This country was founded on ideas and principles, not ancestry. Those ideas and principles have been an inspiration to others for over 200 years. The fact that we don't always live up to the founder's ideals is a reason for humility and something for all Americans to aspire to. Despite our current president.
5
@THR. Every other western democracy with the exception of Canada, has dropped birthright citizenship. It's not because they are racists, it's because it is an absolute magnet for illegal immigration and birth tourism. In other words it's the easiest way to game the immigration system. In LA county hospitals the most common birth is now an illegal who gets across the border and walks into the ER for free care and a citizen kid. It was never intended for this and it needs to change.
2
Although I appreciate the rhetoric in comparing countries to the US and understand the comparisons , statistical relationships of Denmark,Sweden and Norway to the US are truly inaccurate. Comparing countries of similar size would be more relevant. Do the authors realize those countries have much higher suicidal rates than the US? What about their immigration rates ? What makes the US great I have been led to believe is the immense variety of cultures. Is Sweden diverse? Does that mean to be more like them we need less immigration? I love food so maybe the country with the best restaurants makes a country great. Please give me that ranking.
6
The USA is a terrific place to be an American. But there are two Americas. What we have is the legacy of slavery and some very bad zip codes. If you live in the better zip codes things are quite good.
To live in England, France or Germany there is a lot adapting to do. There are many things you will have to give up. Very hard to start a business in Germany, many regulations to deal with in France. They require that you live like a Frenchman. Life in Europe is tightly circumscribed by social structures that don't exist here. America really is the land of the free.
4
@Jonathan: The rate of new business formation is actually higher where public health care is established.
3
@Steve Bolger. It's not even close. America has much higher business formation rates than Western Europe. Our social mobility rankings are also higher than that of Germany.
2
I go to NYC occasionally for business. On the drive from LGA to midtown Manhattan, (Queens, Brooklyn, 2nd ave.) I like to point out to my colleagues just how bad the rest of the world must be that people from all over actually want to immigrate and live here.
7
I came to this country in 1966 and became a citizen over time. Yes, I probably make more money than I would have made in the country I came from. I was impressed by the preamble to the constitution that said "all men are created equal". As I got to know the country better and tried to make sense of the gap between what was being said about the country and its actions, I became confused:
First the media, I had come to respect, had no problem talking about the Vietnamese in a derogatory language during the Vietnam war.
Then the civil right history and found that it took America some time to end the lunch counter segregation. May be all countries take time to fix its problem.
Well there was slaveryā¦ some time back.. old history.. and it took civil war only some hundred year back to address that question. But then it took only few years to invent Jim Crow laws to reverse the path. Back to inequality and segregation.
I then said that our supreme court can address the problem. But supreme court still can-not find much in constitution to address the inequality or segregation or stop the new Jim Crow laws.
May be, the constitution is the answer. But the constitution has no protection for minority.
We may want to choose to recognize that a great country looks in the mirror, learn from mistakes and improve. That is what makes a country more civilized and may be then we can claim the title we seek.
A nation of immigrants can not separate mothers from children in our name.
5
Alll men are created equal is not in the preamble to the Constitution or for that matter in the Constitution at all. The fact that you think there is no protection for minorities in the Constitution suggests that you haven't read it.
5
This slap is a stretch. ...and we have been in decline regarding many things for decades, including health, health care, public higher edu, and income and wealth distribution, etc. etc. etc.
By a couple of shocking measures of our middle-class standard of living, it began a trajectory decline in the early seventies and we see where that class is today.
3
Good points. We can always improve. I think a lot of the people giving negative feedback didn't watch the video. Still, I would rather live here than anywhere else.
4
@David
But is that true for most people in the country ā if they knew how much better things are elsewhere?!
1
I remember as a kid looking on the bottom of potential toys and only buying them if they said āMade in Americaā, because I thought they were better - and they were. Not anymore. Its been a long time since Made in America mattered.
4
@jim Not true. Made in America is still better and thatās what I look for.
1
The opening of Episode 1 Season 1 of the show Newsroom on HBO with Jeff Daniels as a college professor, basically says exactly what this video does and it was an iconic scene, so this isnāt a new refrain at all. Every country is āthe greatestā at something. It just depends on what youāre measuring. When I travel to Europe or South American on vacation, I tell everyone I encounter that Iām from Montreal. Iām too embarrassed to be associated with the plutocracy - leaning toward kleptocracy - we like to call a democracy.
11
Exceptionalist superlatives about nations such as the one that the authors decry are the political equivalent sporting fans' war cries. There are many different Americas and we have witnessed quite a few of them from America's part in the global victory against tyranny in 1945 to the recent Charlottesville torchlit march to the Third World living conditions in the major cities and from Civil Rights to cop shootings as well as My Lai and Abu Ghraib. On the other hand there are the cultural and technological advances that have justifiably made many Americans and non-Americans alike regard America as 'great'. The political situation at the moment however is far from great with a laughing stock of a president in the Oval Office who seems to want to wreck the Constitution, which itself is a great document. Lots of greats and lots of non-greats don't make a universally 'Great!'
1
I am an American living in Europe for 25 years. America is a great country -- but saying you're the "greatest" really grates on people everywhere outside the USA. Imagine saying boldly to other married couples that yours is "the greatest" marriage, that your kids are "the greatest kids". It is arrogant and it lacks objectivity. Research institutions outside the USA need to be deeming it "the greatest country" to make this be a valid claim. In some ways, the USA excels (university education, technological innovation, entrepreneurial energy) but it is floundering on a number of key metrics (affordable healthcare provision for all, violence, gun crime and more). I cringe when I hear Americans bragging about how great they think we are . . . go on vacation to a place like Norway or Switzerland and you will be forced to face some uncomfortable truths. Their entire populations enjoy extraordinarily high levels of well-being across all key metrics. Poverty does not exist. The USA simply does not achieve this for all of its citizens.
17
@DRutherford When people say they have the greatest: marriage, kids, house, job...etc., I take it in stride because Iām happy with my life and what I have. And, no, Iām not part of the 1 percent or the 20 percent. Just middle class.
1
@Olivia I hope you take losing health care in stride, because it happens to many here.
Open your eyes.
1
Great: of ability, quality, or eminence considerably above the normal or average.
The USA qualifies. Who protects Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the rest of Europe? Canada?
5
After WWII one of the stabilizers of the Liberal Order (liberal in its true meaning āfreeā and also free individuals) was the US military support of Western Europe. This allowed those countries to allocate much needed funds into their economies (rather than to their militaries) to rebuild after the warās devastation. The direct benefit to the US was a stable and well-off Europe ie a market for our goods.
The US has benefited greatly from the investment we made, through our military backstop, into Europeās recovery and prosperity. It does not mean that contributions to NATO and their own defenses cannot be adjusted over time and as circumstances change, but to think that the US provided military support and guarantees for anything other than our own ultimate financial benefit is just wrong.
5
@Edgar I laughed out loud at your comment.
My father, 6 of my uncles and 3 aunts on both sides of my family served in Canada's armed forces during WW2. All but one were in uniform and on active duty long before the invasion of Pearl Harbour. Two of my uncles joined up in September, 1939, 2 years and 3 months before the US bothered to declare war. Most of my family served in the Canadian Navy during the Battle of the Atlantic. Another uncle served as ground crew at an airfield in London during the Battle of Britain.
Most of them served for the duration of the war. One was a commando who landed on the beach at Normandy during the D-Day invasion. He and another of my uncles served with the forces who fought in the Battle of the Scheldt and the liberation of the Netherlands, then in a state of famine, in which Canadian forces took the lead. Canadians suffered more than 10,000 casualties in these operations, including 6,400 dead. The Dutch annually celebrate May 5th, the day Canada liberated them from the Nazis.
Who protects Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the rest of Europe today, you ask? NATO does. Canada is a member of NATO. So is the United States, though your president has spoken of quitting it or breaking it up. If you think any of these countries believe the US maintains the same commitment to defend Europe as in the past, you're sadly mistaken.
1
Iām certain the Dutch are grateful and happy to know Canada has their back.
Without comprehensive campaign finance reform and public elections, this country is irrevocably lost. Each battle over guns, abortion, LGBTQ, war, oil, or whatever distraction befalls us, only promotes the status quo, with no restoration of representative democracy. The Founding Fathers would be disgusted how far we've let things deteriorate.
The best thing Americans could do right now is a full-fledged abandonment of attending religious services on Sunday morning. Instead, all Americans should attend Civic Services every Sunday morning until things are fixed.
Otherwise we're toast.
9
I am grateful to be a US citizen.
I also think that patriotism means working to make the country better, not blindly waving the flag.
16
It is indeed paradoxical that many of those who profess that America (the United States) is the greatest are intolerant of any criticism of their country, when it is this freedom and allowance of self criticism and progress which is what makes us great and looked up to by many around the world. Hopefully we don't completely close our minds and our borders in the future.
7
I don't doubt that America could have been considered, at one point, to be the greatest country in the world.
However, that most likely had absolutely nothing to do with some innate American exceptionalism and everything to do with the fact that the world at that time was mostly destroyed by a global war.
Saying such a thing is like claiming you are the greatest football player in the world when most of the other football players are injured. You're probably not a bad football player, just hold off on the comparisons until everyone else is healthy.
The fact that ostensibly intelligent conservatives overlook this blatant truth befuddles me because it literally comes up repeatedly. From Robert J Gordon's The Rise and Fall of American Growth to Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century: WWII decimated every economy on the planet save for the US where it had the opposite effect: it supercharged productivity and generated prosperity the likes of which we are likely never to see again.
7
The only ways in which the United States is truly exceptional these days:
1. We spend way way more than anybody else on a giant military.
2. We throw far more people into jail than anybody else. Yes, including totalitarian states like China and North Korea.
The greatest country in the world, based on the happiness of its citizens, positive impact on the lives of citizens in other nations, educational achievements, and a lot of other measures, is Norway, with its main competitors being its neighbors Finland and Sweden. The USA should have the humility to learn lessons from the successes of those nations.
17
@Dave Perhaps Finland and Sweden could pay to defend themselves along with the rest of NATO so that the USA could fix some roads and bridges.
1
@Edgar If the USA stopped funding NATO your govt wouldn't spend the money on roads and bridges...they would simply eliminate all taxes on the top 1%
1
@Edgar Perhaps we could have a lower cost and more effective health care system to do the same. By the way, Finland and Sweden are NOT IN NATO!!
1
A significant characteristic of the Americans I have met is that their self belief is generally light years ahead of their self ability. The belief that America is Great (even your current president acknowledges this is not the case so uses MAGA as his catchcry) is totally misguided. When it comes to self belief your current president is in a totally different solar system to that in which his self ability lives.
11
As someone who has traveled to northern Europe twice a year for the last five years, on extended stays, I have to say, with great sadness, my country, America, is inferior to so many European countries -- Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany. Our political system, our environmental concern, our basic infrastructure, our education system, our health care, our museums, the arts are all decidedly second or third rate. Of course, we do have the world's most expensive, and best, military, which may explain why we do not approach northern Europe in terms of our standard of living. Those countries spend money on public needs, not the military. You drive from your European hotel on your last day on fine roads; your arrive at your American city with its crumbling infrastructure; you know you are not a citizen in the greatest country on earth. The people you meet in Europe are far happier than the people you call your fellow citizens. Sad.
22
@David Govan
And you can get a delicious sandwich and a coffee both served on a real plate at the highway service area!
Trying to have even something that is tasty, let alone healthy while traveling in the US is quite a trick.
These quality of life points add up and we're deficient.
8
The bittersweet irony of this is that we could have had better infrastructure, better public education, better healthcare than we do now (we once did). Over the past 35 years there has been a focused and unrelenting assault on both our democracy and our capitalistic economic system by the wealthy and primarily the Republican Party - to leave no crumbs ungrabbed.
One of the most painful parts is - investing in people (education, social safety net, healthcare, retirement, living wages) and our country (infrastructure, alternative energy sources, environment) would have actually made the wealthy more wealthy (lots of healthy people with secure future retirements buying lots of products).
Towers built on solid foundations rise higher and have less risk of collapse than do towers built by pulling out the foundation piece by piece and just putting those pieces on the top (Jenga).
Now we are all falling victim to the inevitable collapse - slow for decades - now fast.
7
Finally! Someone talks about the elephant in the room. Smoke and mirrors benefit no one, except the wizard behind the curtain. And we all know how that ends.
6
The video makes excellent points.
America has been resting on its laurels, earned in World War II and the '50s and '60s, far too long.
Winners in the original Olympics in ancient Greece were awarded laurel wreaths for a reason: They lasted for a day, then withered.
A great person never stops looking for ways to improve, to grow, to answer difficult questions. The same is true of countries.
This video is a list of difficult issues we need to work on. If we focus on these, we may regain our former greatness. We may even become a good country, which is far more important.
8
We need to remember is that the world is not static. Others have changed for the better, sometimes dramatically, often following our lead. Now it seems many in the United States resent the progress made by others with our help.
America is no longer great, largely due in the last 2+ years to President Trump who has untold damage to our credibility as a world leader as opposed to a totalitarian bully constrained by neither the truth nor the advice of others, nor consistency.
To say we are great is a lie or at best a fantasy.
4
The USA greatest in the world in the inability to distinguish fact from fiction. At the bottom of the list on math and science, highest in movie going and tv watching, only country whose government refuses to recognize climate science, only developed country with INCREASING white middle class mortality. As George Carlin used to say āthey call it the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.
13
I have served my country for 20 years with the military and as a professional in the healthcare community for 22 years. I love my country. However, I believe you must be vigilant and aware of what is going on within it. I do not trust my government.
7
you can take statistics about individual aspects of the US and there is no doubt that other countries are doing better. but in totality the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. our society is one undergoing a great transition. and with that comes dislocations, inequities and a host of other problems, and it is true that progress has been on hiatus for the last 2.5 years. but that hopefully will end in another year and a half and we can get back on track. the rest of the world may be a nice place to visit, but it is always good to be able to return to the good old USA.
2
A bit sophomoric if you ask me.
1. Comparing America to a bunch of much, much smaller countries isn't intellectually honest. Denmark (mentioned in the video) has 5 million people, America has 330 million people. The top 10 countries by population are China, India, US, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, Mexico. I don't know about you, but I think we are way better off than any of these countries.
2. America is much more diverse than many of these other racially homogeneous countries.
3. Many of these countries would not exist as is, with the freedoms they have if America did not set the precedent.
4. America has shown itself to be much more durable than other countries. We have existed with our current form of government for much, much longer than any of these other countries.
5. We do much more for preserving a stable world order than any of these other countries. If not for the US, China and Russia would likely be the dominant forces in the world.
6. We spend a lot of money protecting the world. Europe, for example, would be much less safe without us.
7. Measuring the greatness of the US by wealth is like measuring the greatness of people by wealth.
8. Minor point, but one which is revelatory of dishonesty in video. People don't have private firefighters. Insurance pays to protect assets. They save money this way.
9. We have the best universities in the world.
10. We are the top of the world in the arts and pop-culture.
16
@EL
Those Scandinavian countries are more populated than about 32 of our states. But I donāt see those states high in the rankings of equality, health care, quality of life, satisfaction, education, benefits, rights, etc.
Many of those states are as homogenous or more than the social democracies, too.
Nice try, but no cigar! š
4
@Stephanie Wood
Canada's population is 10% of ours.
Sure, Oxford and Cambridge are great--the Sorbonne less so.
We have Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, Columbia, MIT, Stanford, Cal Tech, Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan and more. All of these are top flight research institutions.
4
@Marsha Pembroke
That's part of the point. Denmark doesn't have anything like an Alabama or an Idaho. If Denmark had the land and population of the US, it wouldn't be Denmark, for the same reason the whole US can't be Manhattan or Massachusetts.
3
From our founding, Americans have been justifiably proud of their democracy, the first in the modern world. Blessed with great expanses of undeveloped land and vast untapped natural resources, the country had seemingly unlimited potential to grow. Its population and economy expanded rapidly, and the combination of political and economic freedom allowed science, the arts, and industry to flourish. Immigrants from countries with less freedom and greater poverty found boundless opportunity here. America, indeed, seemed the greatest nation on earth.
But times have changed. The more we grew to accept unquestioningly our belief in our greatness, the more we became blind both to our own failings and to the growing strengths of others. We became passive. We rested on our laurels. We allowed our own democracy to decline and other, newer and more innovative democracies to surpass our own. What once seemed boundless economic opportunity now began to find its limits as our population grew and other countries' economies advanced.
Today, American "greatness" often just means "bigness." We have a big military and a big economy. But in many measures we are, as the video says, just okay. Other countries offer more.
Just a few days ago, I received an email from the Government of Canada that began:
"Thank you for your interest in Canadian citizenship. We are pleased to inform you that you have reached the next stage of your application for Canadian citizenship."
I couldn't be happier.
9
Today is Canada Day, my country's national holiday. Personally, I think Canada is the greatest country in the world, or certainly one of them. Much of the rest of the world seems to agree, as Canada consistently ranks among the most prosperous, stable, safe, diverse, welcoming, democratic, and least corrupt countries. We are up there with the Nordic nations of Europe, Switzerland, New Zealand, Germany and France.
Canadians don't generally assert their greatness as Americans constantly do. Few of us go around calling ourselves "patriots", though our patriotism has quietly grown stronger and more confident during my lifetime. We know we are flawed and we consider the fact that we live in our wonderful country to be mostly a matter of luck - rather than something ordained by God.
When I compare Canada to the USA, I am quietly thankful that my vote counts, that our political system has not been corrupted by limitless campaign money, that we are not plagued with a persistent racial schism which has its origins in slavery, that our military does not claim a vast share of our national wealth, that we are less tolerant of demagoguery and extreme partisanship, that our judicial system remains non-partisan and independent, and that we have followed the path of common sense, compassion and cost efficiency with regard to health care.
30
If you don't like it here... Then leave.
There is still not a country that you have the chance to climb the latter and do something special with your life. You have to be willing to take a chance and the rewards are limitless.
I have traveled the world. There is nowhere I have been you feel safer than in the good ol US of A!
7
@Daniel
Twenty years ago, I would have actually agreed with you (while realizing that there were other places to prosper in the world).
Today? Not so much.
11
@Daniel
Oh, gosh, that old, shopworn, outdated ridiculous saw!
Love it or leave it!
People can like living here while also recognizing that the U.S. is absolutely NOT the *greatest* country on Earth.
Indeed, many of us who are comfortable here are appalled by the lie about its greatness and the blind patriotism and belief in American exceptionalism. But we want to make it better, to have it live up to its ideals. Donāt you?!
Plus, moving to another country requires money, time, uprooting, visas, getting a job, etc. Itās not so easy, even if someone truly disliked it here.
Or, are you someone who thinks that any criticism means the person should just leave and not work to make things better? Jesus Christ, Mohammed, the leading rabbis, and other major religious and non-religious leaders, thinkers, and patriots would disagree with you!
Indeed, by your reasoning the Founding Fathers should have just shut up and gone elsewhere if they didnāt like what the British King and government were doing! Instead, they launched a revolution! Time to rethink your argument and blithe dismissalā and read more about U.S. deficiencies that have worsened under Trump and the Republicans.
6
@Daniel
I think many people are leaving, especially for Canada. Besides it's absurd to say that if you have grievances with your country you should leave.
2
My heart want me to think America is the greatest country on earth, but my head tells me this is not so. If our country had a population with a high-to-average intelligence level, Donald Trump would never have been elected president, and it's been a fast downward spiral into Banana Republic Land ever since.
15
There is no equal protection of the law under this relic system of state-optional slavery that has the additional gall to pronounce itself an immutable divine creation.
4
Brilliant. And yet, the comments sound like someone insulted Mom.
Everything said was factual and pertinent. If you don't like it, that's because you lack the critical thinking skills necessary to come up with the assessment on your own.
We have a lot to fix. And the Democrats' plans to relieve the richest Americans of a few percent of their wealth will go a long way toward restoring the equities of being Americans.
10
It is about time the truth is spread more widely. Populist racist parties have indeed been popping up in Europe - most with less than 20% of the vote. The US has one anti-democratic popullist racist party that gets just less than a majority of the votes, wins the electoral college (an 18th century holdover) and holds the presidency with a criminal, racist, populist international joke.
It isn't even the richest. Per capita, Norway, Canada, Australia are richer and they are far far more egalitarian - Gini coefficient from the World Bank puts Norway at 26.8, Canada at 34.0, Australia at 34.7 and the US at 41.5 right next to the Ivory Coast. And Gini is logarithmic.
2
A nation's greatness is not reflected in how well schoolchildren and high school students perform on standardized PISA tests or a bunch of statistics attesting to national standards of health and longevity.
America is far more populous and heterogeneous than nations that rank near the top in these measures. It is easier to achieve a healthier and higher performing citizenry if the population is five or ten million (Norway, Sweden) than 330 million. East and Southeast nations are far more homogeneous that the US.
But what nation can compare to the US in terms of intellectual contributions to human civilization in the last two centuries?
Ask any American, whether their ancestors hailed from Europe, Asia, Africa, or South America, if they would rather live in the US or return to their native lands.
How do you think they would respond? We all know the answer.
5
@JD
"East and Southeast Asian nations are far more homogeneous that the US."
@Stephanie Wood
I think JD was talking about relocating to live and work--permanently. Not a fantasy vacation. How easy do you think it would be for an American to find decent employment in those nations?
You do know about the suicide rates and migrant issues in Sweden?
Brexit anyone?
You would have a better chance of finding work in Japan, but they are not particularly friendly to gaijin.
Let us not be whimsical.
1
@Stephanie Wood: if you are a Swedish nationalā¦.what on earth stops you?
Or do you mean "once I took a vacation to Sweden"?
Because you hate high taxes, but seek to immigrate to THE most heavily taxed nation on earth!
One only needs to spend time in almost any European country to see how much better they have it. America could be great if you spent more on yourselves and less on your endless wars.
12
@Berlin Exilec Europe has seen more than its fair share of wars, my Friend.
2
America is the worst country except for all the others in the world.
7
I stopped loving/respecting this country in 2016. I just live hear now, I have no desire to be a part of the society of trump. You idiots elected him, you made me lose all faith in America.
7
People vote with their feet.
Millions are literally crashing the gates to get in.
This clearly means
either America actually is the greatest
or America is greater than all the others
except those which have no tolerance for gatecrashers.
Message to Jensen and Razza.
Since you believe it is a myth that America is great,
go preach that message to Latin America, Africa and Asia.
You will be doing everyone a favor --
both for the migrant wannabes
-- since, according to you, they are deluded by the myth --
and for us -- since we will do perfectly fine without them.
6
Second to North Korea, the USA is the most brainwashed country on the planet. No, don't include Mao's children in the comparison: today they can actually see what's going on, but when it comes to idolizing materialism & consumerism, the Chinese are well on their way to outdoing us.
7
"America is the greatest country on earth. Itās a phrase, a slogan, a dogma for patriots."
Really -??
I'm a committed leftist liberal -- My mother attended Communist Party meetings - here, in New York City - back in the fifties - when to do so was at one's own peril -
I'm a liberal - I'm a Democrat - and I vote --
I also love my country and am an American Patriot --
I absolutely refuse to to surrender the term "Patriot" to the conservative, right-wing, self-appointed keepers of the flame --
And shame on the New York Times for falling in to that identity trap --
I suppose it's also impossible for right-wing conservatives who support one of their causes to be considered to be "Activists" -- because that term is reserved only for liberals --
Amazing...
5
from Let America be America Again
by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamedā
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")....
7
So, who didnt know all of this.
It's a terrible place - as are Europe and Australia. All Western civilizations are to be distained. So. Why are our borders besieged by people trying to get in? What Americans are storming the borders to live in South America? Africa? Asia? India?
My children have lived in Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai, Paris, Amsterdam and, although excited to go there, couldn't wait to come back. The grass is always greener until you look closely and see the weeds.
I would suggest, at the risk of being radical, that Taige Jensen and Nayeema Raza take a sabbatical of at least a year and live elsewhere and then report back to the Times. Ought to be interesting.
The Times is dead wrong to support this sort of self hatred.
11
I know that this will be imposible, but please, get your facts right.
America is not a country but a Continent .
Is it The United States of America or
The America of the United States ?
3
The Times continues to pave the path to Trump's reelection.
15
Yeah itās depressing being a Democrat. You canāt even say you love your country, despite all itās flaws.
2
Apparently the authors have spent too much time putting cute videos together to have traveled anywhere outside these United States. While certainly not perfect, we enjoy more, and have more, than anywhere else I've been. Poverty here? Try Mexico, just to name a place close by. It is interesting that they mention education; having put three children through school and college, I would agree these are way out of kilter with real education, but then they've been democratic strongholds forever and would now be classified as the Education Industry, propped up and supported by government and the teachers union, with no accountrability to anyone, not even taxpayers. And the poor in the cities, the same cities controlled by democrats almost exclusively, with entrenched bureaucracies interested only in their own well-being. There's been no improvement, why. no regimen change? The left blames the right while having created our new society of racial and sexual discrimination, what else would you call "affirmative action", or classifying the current roster of politicians by their race or sexual preferences. One happened to the goal of equality for all? We're never going to get there on our current projectile.
8
Today is Canada day... and guess what... Canada is the greatest country on earth... and that my friends is as valid a claim as yours.
13
@Dan: Having lived for many years in both countries, I (gasp) prefer Canada and think it is a great country. Happy Canada Day, ā. . .the true North strong and free!ā
1
'staring down the barrel of another election.' Please....
2
No country that is still even remotely great would have a carnival clown like Trump as President. Call me self-hating, call me anything you want. I am a realist and I don't lie to myself. We are circling the drain.
8
Then go elsewhere. There is no such thing as perfection in life.
If you don't like it here then contact me and I'll help you with one way tickets out of here.
Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
7
I have real bad dreams of waking up in America. Work til you drop and pray you don't get sick doing it. A nation where every nut case can own a gun. The only nation were the people elect judges to carry out the will of the people. Millions on food stamps. The distribution of wealth is insane. Americans love to compare the USA to third world nations. Try looking at nations where you don't go broke from health care and quality of life the nation gives you.
11
Oh for heavens sake, all this self hating. Please, go live in another country for a few years and you'll be licking your chops to get back to the United States. I've lived and traveled the world over and can only tell you, this country, as flawed as it may be, is still the best there is anywhere. Sorry you feel otherwise but it's the truth.
11
@JR
Nonsense. Happy ex-pat here. I feel safer, saner, healthier, and far more welcome in Spain than I ever did growing up in America.
2
@JR If you've traveled the world over, you're probably more well off than most. Which is a point made in the video.
@JR: I have several friends who live overseas in First World and have even taken out citizenship in their adopted countries.
None of them want to come back here except to visit relatives.
If you want to see how great America really is go overseas and see what the rest of the world thinks of us. The USA is the leading terrorist country on the planet. Bombs away!
8
Seriously, just leave this terrible nation, go somewhere better.
8
Tagie and Nayrma don't think America is great. Anybody else see the immense humor there? Hahahha
8
Canāt everyone see this?!!
1
The fact that this article can exist in a news company based in the country it is criticising makes America better than ~90% of countries. I find it funny how many people say America isn't great because other countries do better in specific metrics. Yet, most countries with extensive social programs are only able to do so because their government funds use investments in US captialism do finance their plans. It's also easier to spend money on social programs for your citizens when you have the US spending more on UN programs than every other country COMBINED.
I absolutely agree that America isn't number one in every metric, but you're a moron if you believe any of those countries would be the same as they are if the US decided to spend it's citizens money on their citizens and not on the countries you claim are better....
8
This is an embarrassing overstatement of all that's supposedly "wrong" with America. No mention of course of how Americans fought and died by the hundreds-of-thousands in WWI and WWII and then picked up the monumental tab to build and uphold a post-WWII (liberal!) order that, yes, benefited the U.S., but also the world. To hit this point home do a simple mind experiment -- as yourself what would the world look like if the Nazis had won WWII? Or what would the world look like if China was today the unrivaled global hegemon instead of the U.S.? Obviously the U.S. has its own issues, and it is far from perfect (though constantly striving in that direction), but before you mock it's "greatness" take a breath and think about history and reality.
6
Somewhere and sometime, soon, this nonsense at looking anything and everything in utter negativity has to stop. The sooner the better, and this NYT must lead the way, ASAP!
9
Some have suggested this is old news. That is very similar to saying, āYeah, Global Warming is old news.ā
What the...? (Of course, Trump calls it āFake Newsā.) But, gee golly, if we donāt accept the truth and consequences of olā Global Warming then life as we know it, well, gee whiz Howdy, it just wonāt be. Likewise, if we donāt accept the truth and consequences of the appalling facts in this video then any possibility of the USA moving up the Nationās Rating Charts is, you know, like dude, nil or zero even.
ššš
If youāre so unhappy here why not try someplace else?
5
Thanks to Trump, we are no longer in America. He has no respect for the Constitution, no respect for the press, no respect for Congress, even though he has a lap-dog Senate (which we need to take from him in 2020), no respect for law, no empathy for the people he has denigrated and/or thrown away when he doesn't think they are loyal, etc.
He has no couth. He is a true example of someone who would have every person in this country under his thumb and very afraid of what he might do at the drop of a hat. I believe he truly has a soft spot in his heart for Hitler. The only place he should be after the next election (and after he is forcebly removed from the White House) is jail.
3
Trump reminds me of Tony the Tiger who used to claim Kelloggs Sugar-rosted Flakes we grrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!
These days, Tony the Tiger waddles when he walks, is balding, and has lost all his teeth.
Just like Donald Trump.
4
I guess the word of how terrible America has become isn't getting across to the millions of illegal aliens?
7
@Bummero
The aliens who are close to Western Europe flock to Western Europe; the ones that are close to the US flock to the US. The aliens who are close to Europe don't flock to the US.
1
@Susan: And those who are from China flock to Japan.
As my father, a first generation American used to say, Love it or Leave it. This sorrry excuse of an article bashing our great country, yes, great is now often welcome by the politically biased NYT.
Our country is not perfect, but we keep working on it.
I donāt expect my comment to be published, but I write it anyway.
Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans who love our country.
8
I was able to watch about 30 seconds of this before I had enough.
Lots of bright colors.
2
Speaking as an expatriate American (and no guys, the definition of expatriate is not "ex" patriot, it's a citizen that lives abroad), I'm willing to bet that the most of your NYT Picks commentators who say something along the lines of "hey, sure we have faults, but we shouldn't criticise because we have all these virtues that others don't have and we are still the Greatest!!" have never actually experienced life anywhere else. I'm also betting that they have enough income that they are not in that group that can't afford to live a decent life in the 'richest/poorest' country in the world.
It is not unpatriotic to compare outcomes that can be measured (like infant mortality and reading levels) with other countries and discover that the USA rates badly. What is unpatriotic is to know these things are true and hide behind jingoistic rhetoric about American virtues, rather than doing the work needed to fix these things. If you really care about your country and its people, stop hiding behind slogans and banners, put your money where your mouth is and get cracking on making America great again in ways that enhance the lives of all people, not just the segment that can afford private fire fighters.
And being first in mass gun deaths should not be a point of pride for any modern nation.
7
There is, indeed, a 'greatest country'. It is Bhutan. People should look it up.
2
Back in the Berlin Wall days, I visited a relative who ended up on the wrong side....she was 90 years old. Every week, a doctor came by to check on her. A doctor. To her apartment.
My Canada relatives, and my West German relatives, have all had a better experience as weak, useless old folks than we give them here. Even East Germany, not a place I'd want to live, did a much better job.
Why do we have money to pay Trump's hotels for Secret Service Golf Cart rentals but not for this ?
7
Whenever I go to Walmart on a Saturday morning and see the amazing human tapestry of races, nationalities and ethnicities that have chosen to make this country their home, I think America still has the potential to be great.
5
The greatest nation? One nation under Republicans, divisible, with oppression and injustice for all - except for the wealthy Republican rulers - they can get away with murder on Fifth Ave and treason from within the Oval Office itself on Russian TV.
Irony that the tiny Kingdom of Denmark is the happiest kingdom on earth, and frequently top five happiest democracies on earth with an 80 percent voter participation rate. Why is that? Could it be socialized medicine, healthcare, education, social security with a rewarding capitalistic economy? You know - the best of both worlds - socialism & market capitalism!
Iām tired of watching the pharma ads claiming to be the greatest in America. And that to remain so we need to bankrupt ourselves to keep them innovating - as they they innovate by profiting and freeloading off of all the free government tax payer paid for research, nonprofit research, academic research while spending billions to advertise and corrupt doctors into pushing expensive drugs on an unsuspecting public. Interesting how some of the largest pharma companies in the world are from Denmark too, investing heavily in R&D while not gouging Danish patients to bankruptcy. Go figure!
America is great because of the new blood each generation of immigrants brings with it. Look at where all the greatest innovations and the hardest workers in America come from - all aspiring to become American.
America, truly the nation with the greatest potential to be the greatest.
3
"Make America Great again" is an admission that currently we aren't.
7
Of course the US is not a democracy. Not even close.
Until the Electoral College is abolished, we'll keep getting Republicans in the White House who did not get a majority of the popular vote. (And it's always Republicans who benefit!) The US Senate is majority Republican for similar reasons. Wyoming with a population of 0.5 Million gets 2 US Senators. California with a population of 40 Million gets 2 US Senators. Does anyone see anything resembling democracy here?! This arrangement of the anti-democratic Electoral College coupled with the anti-democratic US Senate constitutes a nearly-insurmountable barrier against Dems. Thus, for this reason, and several other reasons (campaign "contributions" that are really legalized bribery, extreme gerrymandering, etc.) , the US is absolutely not a democracy! The federal government is implementing policies all the time that do not reflect what the overwhelming majority of Americans want! The federal government is controlled by extreme, right-wing conservatives. The Freedom Caucus and Mitch McConnell have blocked the entire Congress for decades! If we ever want the federal government to be responsive to the will of the majority, the entire political system of the US MUST be changed to make it democratic.
Anybody who claims the US is a democracy has no idea what they are talking about and is simply repeating the pro-US propaganda that they start feeding us all in kindergarten. It's pure propaganda!
7
It never was a pure Democracy. Itās a Federal system that has a balance of powers between the states and federal government.
2
Years ago, I saw a Canadian TV show in which the main character discovered that someone he knew was spying for the Soviet Union.
āHow could you do that?ā He cried. āThis *one of the greatest countries* in the world!ā
An American TV character would have said, āThis is *the* greatest country in the world.ā
In traveling, I have found that people around the world love their countries, but they express their patriotism in ways that donāt involve bragging like a drunk or conflating patriotism with militarism and domination or refusing to learn about the rest of the world.
Iād be astonished if Justin Trudeau or the prime minister or president of any industrialized Western country celebrated their countryās national day with military hardware.
3
anything in america is announced the greatest in the world. When I did a tour or nyc, the tour guides , etc say brooklyn bridge is the greatest in the world. If you have been around the world, you know that it isnt true. A football player here is the greatest in the world, when in reality, which other country plays american football? Nobody heard about this football player. America maybe be great for americans, but stop saying its the greatest in the world. Other countries dont brag about being the greatest in the world, they are only proud of their own heritage.
3
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
We are coming more and more to resemble pre-revolutionary France. And we know how that situation was resolved.
6
The America haters are free to move to another country. There are millions waiting in line to come in.
Once you look at your meager post-tax salary in Europe and the sky-high average cost of housing in Europe, you will think twice about moving out there. For all the talk about how great Western Europe is, the net migration is vastly towards the US and not the other way around.
5
Do you know what those taxes are spent on? Education, healthcare, infrastructure. In most parts of Europe, you don't have to make six figures to guarantee a high standard of living.
It's possible to get a quality higher education without indebting yourself beyond measure.
The roads don't look like they've been imported from war zones, and public transportation (especially in inner cities) generally operates with high efficiency.
As an added bonus, you don't really have to worry about getting shot at school, at work, at the mall, etc.
Western/Northern European social democracies are far from perfect. But not as far as the US.
5
@Jonathan
That migration is not coming from Western Europe.
2
Reading the commentary, two things strike me: 1) Many of the naysayers clearly didnāt bother to view the clip, nonetheless bother to pay attention to the quality of life statistics, and 2) the arrogance of many Americans reminds me of my years in Texas, observing the culture from the viewpoint of a Yankee square peg. The state fosters an intense pride in the face of gross dysfunction on countless levels. In both cases, it seems easier to crow out your pride loudly, in the hopes of drowning out and denying the ugliness.
5
No such thing as the greatest country on earth and there never will be.
Let's just focus on honesty, kindness, fairness and leave it at that.
5
This article is a litmus test for how honest, introspective, and fact-based you are.
If you look at America's constant penchant for invading, occupying, sanctioning and otherwise wreaking havoc on small foreign countries that never attacked us and never would have, you see America has constantly waged illegal wars of aggression worldwide.
We've also done covert ops that overthrew democratically-elected leaders, while supporting right-wing dictators, and other covert chicanery.
We're one of few countries who aren't signatories to international climate change treaties, The World Court in the Hague, landmine treaties, etc.
We act as lawless bullies worldwide, and have military bases in 80% of countries.
Our country spent most of the 1800s committing genocide against Native Americans, while enslaving tens of thousands of Africans.
We're the worldwide leader in excessive consumption of fossil fuels and destruction of the biosphere, in obesity, in gun violence, and other negative social indicators.
Of course there are good things about America, but anyone who thinks we're primarily an ethical force for good in this world is terribly deluded.
8
Great nations have a big population, a big economy and a big military. They see off their competitors, as the US has done with the British Empire, Germany, Japan (1940s), USSR, Japan(1980s) and soon, I predict, China, which will be brought to its knees by the orange genius's tariffs.
As for the dotty notion that a nation is great if it treats the poor humanely: Really?? Would Rome have been somehow greater if they had been nicer to slaves and gladiators? Ludicrous. This is a rich man's (and woman's) world. Also, btw, USA is also no. 1 in billionaires. Greatest country ever.
5
It is a mistake to say, or shout, "we are the greatest!" When you start from the wrong position, guess what? You end up wrong.
This isn't, in most cases, a comparative battle. The countries greatness can be found in less sparkly, shinning things.
America's greatness is not against other countries but against the long slog of history.
We are the first country based on a creed, a set of values. Of course, other nations have values and in some cases they are superior to ours, but this country was founded on ideals and we have struggled ever since to be worthy.
Here, no one is subject to the state, the state is subject to the people. (The one exception being felony convicted prisoners but there are reform efforts to restore the vote.) The idea that we are not subjects of the state is a very big deal. The idea that we own the state, that leaders must answer to us, likewise.
Another big deal: habeas corpus, the fact that you can't just be arrested and held "on suspicion". In France, one of the birthplaces of popular revolt against the powers of kings, you can be held for up to one year without specific charges while the prosecutors gather evidence and wait for you to crack.
Another big point of greatness: innovation. America is the innovation capital of the world. People from India, from Russia, from everywhere want to come here and catch the wave.
It is good to admit that we are failures in some respects. But we should never forget the touchstones that make us different.
3
So Habeas Corpus is an American Idea? Easy to be greatest in the world when most of us would fail to pass a history class
2
@Al
No, I didn't say it was an American idea. What I intended to convey, in the short space available, is the abundance of rights of the accused in our country compared to much of the rest of the world. In many nations, one is considered guilty until proven otherwise. The term Habeas Corpus was intended to imply the rights accorded to citizens in this country, not to say that it was an American idea or uniquely American. By the way, I was a history major in college and consider myself a lifelong student of history. What I have been looking at in recent years in comparative laws and rights, for which there is little in the way of general interest publications available.
One of the greatest ideas of America was the Bill of Rights. Yes, there are comparative elements in other nations but many of the battles of the last 60 years or so have revolved around trying to make those rights observed throughout our life and culture.
What differs here, as I noted, is the fact that Habeas Corpus and the right not to be forced to incriminate oneself is applied widely and swiftly. Can you cite any examples where the rights of the accused are better, more fulsome than here?
2
Of course āweāve got more in common with the developing world than weās care to admit.ā Weāre importing the developing world wholesale. And if any of the Democratic Party candidates get their way, what we see now on the southern border will be just the beginning.
The math of it is inescapable. The metrics reflect that.
2
There are a number of travel websites that can help the authors buy one-way tickets to their personal favorite greatest nation.
1
This piece is as close as it got to canceling my subscription. America is great precisely because you have the freedom to own a gun, eat what you want (without the government telling you what to) and you can become a billionaire even if you are not a math genius. Medical care is expensive (too expensive perhaps) but it drives innovation in medicine around the world. And on the upcoming 4th I will celebrate America, which is not just an "ok-country", but the greatest country in the milky way.
5
I agree. America is not so great. That why illegal migrants must go elsewhere. How about a great country like Germany, France or Bosnia? The extra resources we won't have to spend on illegals' healthcare and housing can be used to improve our health, poverty and restore our greatness. And while we are at it, lets stop the endless foreign wars and entanglements and curtail international aid. Sounds like a win-win to me.
8
America is great- not perfect but great nevertheless. It is being tested and attacked from many angles. So instead of complaining about 'the service at this hotel' why not help to improve it. Before the founding of this country there was little if any freedom in the world -tyrants kings and queens sultans dictators caliphs emperors etc. Once the US was established the pothers all opened up. That is why the torch here-even with its imperfections must keep its flame going. I think that in order to enslave the world one must bring the US to its knees-hence the current pattern, It is up to us to see that it doesn't happen.
It's political platitude. It's self-reinforcing jingoistic propaganda. Politicians keep saying it in part because Americans have become addicted to it. It is a narcotic that allows us to forget and ignore dire problems affecting the country's present and future, and how poorly we are adapting to changing times. We revel in past glories so we can ignore present failures. The level of anger and vitriol this article has aroused is evidence of how addicted we are to this drug, despite the fact the article points to actual indicators showing that we are slipping backwards.
2
Doesnāt every country feel that they are the greatest,ā bestestā in the world? People live and die for the awesomeness of the āfatherlandā, the āmotherlandā the land of the free!
Country transcends race, religion, gender. It unifies all. When this is not possible, you have a country like Iraq, which was created by Europeans forcing three disparate provinces from the Ottoman Empire which 1) didnāt want to unite 2) had no shared history or values. Ultimately, it needed a strong man to hold it from disintegrating; it did, when the strong man was taken down.
Right now in the US, we have a divided country as the result of income inequality which has to be fixed or we could end up in a second civil war.
2
Confirmed. Escaped that place for Europe seven years ago. No intention of returning.
3
I struggle to put words to the emotional turmoil I have experienced, not from the article itself, but from reading comments from my fellow U.S citizens. There is a level of intellectual elitism, outright self loathing, holier than thou rationalism, and historical misinterpretation that is, quite frankly, agonizing because I know that they most likely come from a caring, rational, and, most frightening, voting cadre of individuals. For all the Euro lovers out there who wish to use the United States history to bash themselves, have we forgotten the Age of Imperialism? For those raising the Netherlands and Holland up as some sort of socialist beacon of goodness, cheer, and harmony, do we disregard their subjugation's of territories and peoples from Africa to the Pacific? Do we disregard the brutal slaughter of Parisians by their own government in 1872? The fact that serfdom existed in Russia until the 1880's? That every major European country traded in slaves into the 19th century? Do we disregard the fact that the United States of America stepped in to honor the sacrifices of British, French, and Russian soldiers not once but twice and gave the western world the edge they needed in WWII to defeat a resurgent Germany in one of the darkest phases in this human experience? Do we disregard the Opium wars of the British Empire? The invasion of Mexico by the French? The slave trade of the Portuguese? The annihilation of possibly 80% of Native Americans by the Spanish?
5
I have to say that America is a great country to live IF you have money.
Otherwise any average Joe just live his life hoping to NEVER end in an emergency room, to be white and not black, to have enough to eat even after 40 years of hard HONEST work and to never be in need of medications.
A sad reality, after all.
2
In spite of the worst administration our country has ever had, we were, we are and will always be the greatest country in the world. Of course when we get a president who respects the Constitution and observes the laws of the land, we will be greater than ever. Also, it will be refreshing when the taxpayers won't have to pay for the tag-along children of the leader of the USA. Also, when some of the White House workers stop taking advantage of their so called position; those people are no better than low class crooks.
1
It's about time! We're finally acknowledging, and in the Paper of Record by God, the we have some very serious problems. And waving the bible and wrapping ourselves in the flag just ain't going to do it.
3
America is #1 at claiming to be #1. And since we clearly are not, that makes us also #1 at hypocrisy.
3
An opinion piece on the "greatness" of "America" (leaving out the rest of the Americas, of course, as if they don't exist), which begins with a disingenuous advert from Bog Oil?
Was the irony part of the piece? Or is this something from the Onion or a Mad Magazine parody? Sorry, hard to tell for the first 30 secs.... So much for the "greatness" of our media...
If only we could make America great again!
At least saying America is great is not so much of an hyperbole as talking about America exceptionalism....
now that really is going too far .....
Much has to do with the influence of the Republican Party on America; economic race to the bottom led by corporate plutocracy, and a full-throated embrace of all things fascist, racist, and illiberal. Trump is the fruition, the very embodiment and culmination of movement conservatism.
2
Does, āweāre number oneā, really matter all that much? I like living here but that doesnāt mean that āhereā is that much better than than other places that arenāt here. Early in the 20th century, there was Deutschland Uber alles, and the sun never sets on the British empire, and viva la France and that didnāt turn out so well. Look up the words to Finlandia, the National song of Finland. Much better than āweāre number oneā.
I'm sure the 2 young journalists whose bylines appear in the piece are well-intentioned, and seek a global perspective through their statistical research..... but in the last 3 years I've worked in Ireland, France, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Oman, Dubai, Turkey, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, The Philippines and mainland China.....and the point they're missing, a hugely profound one, is that America is the most DIVERSE country on earth...by orders of magnitude.....we are the Great Human Experiment, and anyone who thinks that is easy to pull off is, well,....under 40.......
3
In Louisiana, the state motto is, "Third world and proud of it." Maybe we should adopt this nationally.
1
This has been years in the making. We fought wars, engaged in regime change, let the inner cities fall apart, ignored our health, turned schools into failed factories, became obese, gave opiates to almost everyone, ridiculed intelligence and abolished history, shortchanged compassion, ignored reason, valued money, and generally fell apart. Geez, what a surprise! And then, we elect Trump so we can confirm we liked this trajectory! Trump can't read, write, or speak. Barely function. Under any other circumstances Trump would be seeking help of the psychological kind. Get him out of office.
2
Just read the U.N. report on the U.S. and it is obvious we are like a mutant 3rd world country but with nuclear weapons as compared to other advanced countries and then came Trump! Where to start, education, health care, women's rights, infrastructure, food safety, policies dealing with Climate Change, occupation safety, safe drinking water, ask Flint, and then the insanity of gun massacres, even little children as in Sandy Hook with military type weapons!
3
It's not all about numbers.
55
@David
True, but you have to admit the numbers aren't good!
13
@David:
Could you provide a little more than just a blanket statement?
Numbers do a better job of disseminating reality, and they're used in various, if not all, policy recommendations and analyses.
Would you want policy to be based upon "feelings", for example? Some people "feel" that the US is in good shape; others "feel" that it is not. Both would benefit from an accurate representation, one that you may neither accept nor even be aware of, considering your post.
As long as people "feel" good about their lives, because of either ignorance or apathy, those who control government through political donations will continue in their attempt to guide the flow of dollar bills to the top.
If the "little guy" is somewhat pleased, the destruction of democracy will continue under the current administration.
21
@JC While I agree that the there are many things that need to be improved in the US, and that we need to face harsh realities in order to make those improvements, there are certain things that can't be defined by statistics or feelings. Speaking personally, as someone of Jewish-Romani descent, I am very glad that my ancestors decided to leave Europe. (That isn't a reference to WWII either, but rather the centuries leading up to it, as well as the present day).
4
One can do quite well here and from that fact springs much of the myth. We are also still easily the greatest military power and have flexed that power around the world to both good and not so great ends at the expense of our general welfare at home. Now if we could just return to our fighting weight of, say, 160 million ...
1
"Why don't we acknowledge the truly great things about the United States...."
Because the truly great stuff needs no improvement--progress is impossible--such as saving the world in WWII.
But there NEVER was a time when the US wasn't so great about something--needed no improvement about one thing or another: from slavery to women's suffrage to Ponzi schemes to gay bashing to property tax and labor law--allowing the top 10%, to health care and educational opportunities.
2
The United States is the only Great Power whose citizens forced it to withdraw from the invasion of another country, specifically Vietnam.
But that was then.
2
Why must this conversation, the article itself as well as most of the comments, be framed in terms of competition? America ranked among other countries, America struggling to be #1, America falling behind.
What would America look like if we thought in terms of cooperation, collaboration, and team effort? Would an emphasis on compromise destroy the American dream of superiority? Must be we superior? Clearly, if that's the metric by which we judge ourselves we are failing miserably.
Socialism, that very frightening word in the US election this year, is the recognition that individuals cannot thrive unless society is also healthy.
This is the reason I prefer to live in Spain.
4
While there is nothing wrong (and a lot right) about self-analysis and criticism, this piece is far more wrong than right.
First, it continually mixes apples and oranges. As a general rule, poorer countries around the world have thoroughly destroyed their natural environments, a simple baseline standards being purity of water, general sanitation standards, and abundance and health of natural vegetation. Saying that the U.S. is second worst behind China simply reflects phenomenal ignorance. Just off the top of my head, let's look at India, Pakistan, most Asian countries, most African countries, and most Latin American countries. The authors' glaring ignorance on this matter is breathtaking.
Second, let's look at the purchase power of a day's work at a basic minimum wage. That is a pretty fair standard of general wealth. A day's minimum wages in the U.S. has far more real purchasing power in the U.S. than any other country I can think of. Can someone offer an example to the contrary?
Third, the presence of freedoms does not require their active use. Quoting Australian voting percentages is effectively lying, because voting is mandatory in that country.
So this simply leaves us with a pretty awful 'documentary' that is based on its own poorly analyzed 'myths'.
6
America is a great country and we should not confuse politics with what makes this country great. First we have a country with two large coastlines with deep natural harbors for importing and exporting goods.. We have large river transportation system such as the Mississippi, Missouri and Hudson rivers We have an abundance of natural resources such as coal, petroleum, natural gas plus other valuable miniers. We have a great roadway system that interconnects all the contiguous states.
We have a common currency and language. We have the greatest farm system in the world and have the ability to not only feed this countries population by a great deal of the rest of the world. We have an abundance of drinkable water.
The problem is that we are not respecting what we have and are letting politics ruin what God gave this country.
This country is great because of what it is, not because of any political party.
3
@VMG -- to dispute your points (in order):
1. Sea levels at our 2 coastlines are rising dangerously
2. Many of our rivers are being hurt by excessive levees
3. Overdeveloping natural resources is defacing the land
4. Our roads (and bridges) are falling apart
5. Over-spraying farmlands is killing bees and monarchs
6. Ask those in Flint, MI what they think of their water
3
Being humble, observant and willing to learn from others are fine qualities in both an individual and a country.
4
America has been blessed by natural resources and lots of land per capita.
Without a doubt the past 70 years have seen great prosperity and social progress in our country. In the current circumstance, we do have the greatest country on Earth.
The question we should focus on is how we keep it there - in terms of economics, social progress and coping with global challenges. In the next century we have two big challenges - climate change and resource supply limits (or population explosion). And great opportunities - technology driven and space exploration opening up new and exciting vistas.
I hope we don't cripple ourselves so badly with war that we forego these opportunities for future generations.
2
There is a place and time for thoughtful discourse about self evaluation. The current election is, unfortunately, not it.
I think it's a huge mistake to tie the two things together as this article seems to try to do.
The failure of the American Experiment is not due to whether we have capacity or ideas or freedoms that are the seeds and components of greatness, or that we encouraged immigration in the past two centuries to strengthen our nation rather than to divide it and weaken it, or that we were a country striving toward hopefulness and world leadership as an example of a shining city on a hill or the great engine of democracy. No, it's because we failed to teach civics and civic responsibility to our children, and taught them to cling to socio-religio-classist-economic and racial groupings instead of reaching out across the chasm of divisiveness to seek compromise solutions that work for America as a whole instead of one or another group above another.
While other nations have this problem too, they had looked to us for a solution, because we were the melting pot. Now that the pot has cooled and divisions have hardened, they don't look to us anymore. Because we have failed not just ourselves, but the rest of the world too.
4
As a European immigrant I've gotten so tired of hearing that claim (America is the greatest) repeated ad nauseam. The fact is that many Western countries have a better social net, better health care, better schools, less poverty, and less prisoners... and they take better care of their environment and their fellow citizens. Americans should all get out of this country more and look around at the reality.
32
I just returned from a month in northern Europe: Germany, Denmark, and Norway. To an outsider passing through (and staying in the homes of locals), those places seem to have achieved some semblance of utopia. It's ironic considering how badly the people there behaved in the 1940s, but they have their act together now. America would do well to observe and learn from them.
18
@Howard. You went to the richest countries in Europe and probably stayed with upper middle class residents. That's like visiting upper middle class suburbs in the coastal US and going wow they live in Utopia too!
2
@Howard I could not agree more!
Reading these opening lines is refreshing, and its premises the foundation of what made the United States a leader and an inspiration among nations. Honest self assessment was the quality that propelled this country to the forefront,while most other nations have tried to ignore the metamorphosis of our world into a global village where all news get instantly disseminated and discussed.
Acknowledging the problem is half the solution. Americans have been a pragmatic nation of experimenters.Returning to this clear honest self questioning will go a long way in restauring confidence and a constructive collective path towards the future.
Thank you Thank you for saying whatās true and articulating what Iāve thought many times.
6
If you don't like something or someone, you can ALWAYS find faults.
I spent time watching the video. There's nothing new that most of us haven't heard about America.
My conclusion: The authors just simply do not like America.
My advice: When you find more negatives than positives in something or someone (based on your own values), just leave or let it go. There's always someone else that may be dying to take your place.
7
Trump was elected on telling us that America was not great, that it should be great "again". So this is old news with no shock value. Health car is often good, but not as good as it should be in terms of affordability. Hate seems to be a commodity which Trump hawks as being his stock in trade, and it is mimicked all to often. No, things are not great, and we are reminded of that every time we look at the news and see admiration of thug leaders with our president swooning at their sight and abandoning all that has made this country great over a couple of centuries. I for one, will not watch the D.C. taxpayer showtime of Trump Inc.
5
I accepted what I had been taught about the greatness of America until I lived in Europe for four years while in my 20s in the 1990s. I lost all my patriotism at that point, because I saw what it was to have an accessible health care system, a representative government, allocation of social spending towards people and infrastructure rather than the military, and a society that valued something other than the acquisition of money. The countries I lived in (The Netherlands and Belgium) were very, very far from perfect, and there were certainly things they could learn from the US, but they also did not claim they were the greatest countries ever. I hate the shallowness of American political campaigns, and I hate the playing of the National Anthem or God Bless America before everything. Americans need to face up to the reality that we are reliving the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, and for many of the same reasons.
36
@Elizabeth You do realize that it is the US taxpayer funding Europe's strategic defense that allows Europeans to spend money on welfare, right?
1
America is not, nor ever was, great because of our governmental systems. America is great because of our people. Sadly, far too many of our people have stopped asking "what can I do for my country" and are now demanding "what can my country do for me".
Unless there is a great change of heart, and a willingness to sacrifice for the future, the USA will continue to decline.
5
Thanks for this. I stopped blindly accepting that America is the greatest nation in the world when I was 10 and opened an encyclopedia and came across an article on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
If we are going to address this Climate Crisis with the urgency it demands, we're going to need to stop thinking in terms of countries anyway and start thinking holistically about the health of the entire world. The United Nations says we have a little over a decade to address the crisis with any significance. All hands on deck.
18
Funny, my great-grandmother who was dragged out of her home in rural Hungary and gassed in Auschwitz would have preferred Manzenar. Easy to rewrite history without any hindsight.
3
@Bob I'm sorry for your great grandmother's brutal death and your family's anguish.
And I stand by my statement that the internment of Japanese Americans was just plain wrong. My 10-year-old self recognized that. And my 50-year-old self recognizes it too.
1
I stopped believing that in the wake of the Nixon resignation and evacuation from Vietnam.
Great nations, like great individuals, recognize each other.
5
There is no shared definition of what it means to be an American. As far as I know, we are the only people that argue with one another on who is a "real" or "better" American, or "more deserving" to reap the blessings of being an American citizen. Sorry, nativists: a naturalized American born in any other country is as much an American as someone who can trace their ancestors to the Mayflower. A difference of political opinion does not mean that your opponent is out to destroy the country. Our politics rewards zero-sum actions. Instead of doing what is best for the country, our "leaders" try for "wins" rather than compromise.
5
Nations that become drunk with myths of its own greatness will face certain decline. Whether it's the Byzantine Empire or the British Empire, history has important lessons about how countries should face hard facts about changing times if they want to survive and prosper. America is at a crossroads, and blind obsession with our "greatness" is going to be obstacle to adapting to the future.
15
Don't forget we have Round-up in our Cheerios but that's okay too.
8
I feel most patriotic when I'm on a city bus with every shade of human speaking a stunning range of languages and sharing a laugh about something. The way we live closely and largely in harmony with such diversity is so refreshing to return to when you visit a place where this isn't true. This is my American dream. The rest of it is increasingly a mess, and I am sickened by the sight of He Who Shall Not Be Named literally wrapping himself in the flag. It's obscene. We can all do so much better, and it takes some humility to know that.
16
Why is America great? Because this article could never be published in China, the second largest economy in the world.
You can't compare the US to postage stamp sized countries in Northern Europe with oil revenues and the population of New Hampshire.
11
So you're saying the US is the greatest country on earth when compared with big 3rd World countries like China and India? That's some achievement!
Do u even own a passport (and have used it)? What do you know about Europe? So because of the size of the US it's to be expected that we die on average 5 years earlier than people of many smaller rich countries? That our education is worse than that of many developing countries? That our cities have worse infrastructure than comparable size cities of poorer countries?
Keep your eyes closed and dream on.
4
@Beyond Repair. We are a diverse country with millions of barely literate immigrants. You are not comparing oranges to oranges. Find me another country with a population greater than 200 million that isn't an absolute basket case.
1
While I can agree that the chest-thumping is misguided, I don't think Americans are incapable of self-criticism; on the contrary, I don't think I've ever seen a people criticize their culture as much as Americans do. What frustrates me about these conversations is that so often people try to separate the domestic from the international. One of the main reasons why other countries can afford better welfare is because they devote fewer resources to defense. Seventy years into the postwar era, it has become clear that the USA cannot monumentally improve the lives of its people and act as the world's police at the same time. Relying on tax raises isn't going to cut it.
Journalists - and judging by this past week's debates, most politicians - skate around this as much as possible, and I can't help but wonder if it's out of fear of being seen as "too sympathetic" to Trump. The debate surrounding foreign intervention will still be here long after Trump is gone, however. The longer we forestall it, the more damage we'll have to wade through later.
8
Many of us know this. Itās partly why we choose to live elsewhere. I think the Americans who donāt know it are the ones who donāt get out much or have a massive conflict of interest in defending the status quo.
6
Saying our country is the greatest has always seemed strange to me. It's like hearing a person say they're the best, it's unbecoming and annoying. While I believe those of us that were born here are lucky to be citizens of this country, our job is to help do what is needed to make our country the best. Our country, just like a person, is never going to be the best for all time though as perfection is an ideal you shoot for...it's a never-ending pursuit. Yes, the US is a good country, but it's by no means the best. Maybe we've fallen behind in many areas because we grew comfortable and were too busy tooting our horns about how great we were that we forgot about the work needed to keep things that way.
7
America is great for certain segments, the socialist segments. Wall Street is to big to fail, farm aid, foreign aid, free healthcare and a monthly check for coal miners, massive rich and wall street tax cuts, etc.
3
I have matured enough to know that America is not a perfect place. In our democracy, though we should be trying to improve on the problems we have. Many people inside of government and outside as well, don't care anymore. During this Trump presidency we aren't even trying
9
There's absolutely nothing wrong with being proud of your country, your culture, and working to form "a more perfect union" for all.
But I was raised to believe that bragging about your own strengths trivializes them, and you. It's a sign of weakness, insecurity, and bad form. Praise has to be earned and can only come from others. A compliment you pay to yourself is meaningless, an empty boast that only draws attention to your shortcomings by trying so desperately and transparently to draw attention away from them.
The attitude behind today's version of "MAGA" (or "KAG") is deeply un- and anti-American, an impotent boast that denies all people are created equal and turns politics into sports fandom. The only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner, a delusional gloater.
19
The down hill spiral began with a clueless Republican President allowing himself to be bullied into invading Iraq by his Vice President and the right wing of his party. I thought we were on our way back up with Barack Obama and then - we fell back into the downward spiral with once again an embarrassment of a Republican President- but this time a demagogue couched in racism, ignorance and misogyny.
15
This slow and steady slide down the OECD scale did not happen exclusively during Republican or Democratic administration. This has been going on for several decades as our leaders in Washington focused their attention on quick fixes to keep them in power. True leadership sometimes demands short term sacrifice for the long term greater good. We know such leadership will not come from the current administration and I just hope among the crowded field of presidential wannabes that someone can emerge who has the vision and integrity to tell the truth.
1
Evidence or Bald assertion?
One what do you base your opinion?
As I sit here enjoying the delights of the Lynn peninsula in Northwest Wales I am not really looking forward to returning home to SoCal but am at least grateful I am not returning to one of the red states. What can I say about America? Lousy healthcare system, murder rate about almost 400% higher than the UK and most fundamentally a poor system of government. While I think that the US Constitution set up a good framework for the rights of individuals, it set up a miserable system of government and the founders made a huge mistake when they abandoned the parliamentary system for a monstrosity of checks and balances and fixed election terms so nothing really gets done other than for rich folk. But we do at least have Donald Trump so we are number one in stupidest leader.
14
@Edward Strelow. Pot calling the kettle black. Poor system of government? How is that Brexit going, 3 years since your national referendum?
2
America is, and has been for generations, the greatest country on the face of the earth.
Hands down.
Do we have issues? Sure. There is no perfect universe.
But leave it to the NYT to degrade the country in which they have grown and prospered for generations as a
This opinion piece is nothing but an attempt to get people to believe our country is no the greatest country in the world as a not-so-veiled attack on our President and an effort to help the Dems in the 2020 election.
It won't work. Our President will be reelected in 2020.
8
Facts may be degrading but they are still facts.
4
Your enthusiasm is great. But this opinion piece offers real facts to support its point of view. Just curious whether you have a superior set of facts / data to support your contention that indeed, America is the greatest nation āhands downā?
2
@DB I will be voting for him.
1