But it is #1 in military might. So, its the greatest
It's a shame they had to funnel the apostrophe budget to the military, though.
America Is Not the Greatest Country on Earth. It’s No. 28
41–50 of 71 posts
Re: America Is Not the Greatest Country on Earth. It’s No. 28
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doctors stand by as babies perish because they're concerned about their nation's WHO rankings? Citation needed.
I'd say its is more of an institutional bias again costs and perception that drive policies that prevent intervention when babies are born too young or too underweight. That's how the you get the horror stories of "my baby was born X days too early/Y pounds too underweight and they refused to do anything."
Data, or it didn't happen.
Re: America Is Not the Greatest Country on Earth. It’s No. 28
#43Reminds me of a Michael Parenti speech on "Superpatriotism" from 1988. There's no existing transcript I can find so I may be the first to do this: "The superpatriots love of country seems predicated on the country being 'up there', stronger and superior to other countries. What happens if it's gonna slip? What about people from ... lesser lands? What about somebody from...Luxembourg. I mean now, Luxembourg is #122, j…
Why people only rip on Americans for being patriotic? Nobody rips on the French when they say they have the best {food, fashion, history, literature, country, *}. Everybody seems fine with European snobbery in all its variants: French, Italian, and even English snobbery is accepted, but not quite as much as the others it seems.
> Everybody seems fine with European snobbery
That's simply not true. The French, for example, are often seen as arrogant by other Europeans. Also, sometimes their view of being "la grande nation" is ridiculed. Generally, the more snobbish someone behaves, the easier it is to make fun of that.
Re: America Is Not the Greatest Country on Earth. It’s No. 28
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Good performer: War (fatalities per 100k population): Germany 100 What does that mean?
Those graphs are very misleading. They rank countries from the first (left) to the last (right) for each indicator. Some indicators are such that left is better (hygiene), other are left is worse (war fatalities). That 100 means that Germany is the 100th on war fatalities. But not! To add confusion to confusion, the number is the position of the USA on the scale. So it's the USA to be at position 100. Germany appears…
I am afraid they misled you too.
There is no ranking. 0 is "unsafe level" while 100 is "safe level".
Re: America Is Not the Greatest Country on Earth. It’s No. 28
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Good performer: War (fatalities per 100k population): Germany 100 What does that mean?
Those graphs are very misleading. They rank countries from the first (left) to the last (right) for each indicator. Some indicators are such that left is better (hygiene), other are left is worse (war fatalities). That 100 means that Germany is the 100th on war fatalities. But not! To add confusion to confusion, the number is the position of the USA on the scale. So it's the USA to be at position 100. Germany appears…
Germany is 100. The US is 100. France weirdly is listed as 22.
That's target 16.1.2, listed as War, shown here: http://www.thelancet.com/cms/attachment/2065481409/206635003...
Re: America Is Not the Greatest Country on Earth. It’s No. 28
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doctors stand by as babies perish because they're concerned about their nation's WHO rankings? Citation needed.
I'd say its is more of an institutional bias again costs and perception that drive policies that prevent intervention when babies are born too young or too underweight. That's how the you get the horror stories of "my baby was born X days too early/Y pounds too underweight and they refused to do anything."
I've literally never heard any such story. Online or in my circles.
Again, [citation needed].
Re: America Is Not the Greatest Country on Earth. It’s No. 28
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some indicators could be subjective but how can infant mortality and life expectancy be defined differently in different countries?
Who is "born" is defined different depending on which country. E.g., most European countries will not count premature babies if they don't make certain weight or other metrics and no attempt to intervene, so this sets up some really perverse incentives. These can make up more than 3 out of every 4 premature births so it can significantly tilt the stats: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/276952/infant-mortalit...…
> ... most European countries will not count premature babies if they don't make certain weight
Factually incorrect, as shown by your own link which lists 6 countries that have weight/gestation thresholds. Or maybe there are less than 12 countries in Europe, who the hell cares, right?
Re: America Is Not the Greatest Country on Earth. It’s No. 28
#48Fun fact: America is not a country
Agreed. However this is something that most of the world (aside from Mexico, Central, and South America) collude in. I try to say "the US" in conversations with my European friends, but they will always just say "America" in response. And of course, there is no English equivalent to Estadounidense.
The French language has "États-Unien" [0] but it is almost never used.
Re: America Is Not the Greatest Country on Earth. It’s No. 28
#49Reminds me of a Michael Parenti speech on "Superpatriotism" from 1988. There's no existing transcript I can find so I may be the first to do this: "The superpatriots love of country seems predicated on the country being 'up there', stronger and superior to other countries. What happens if it's gonna slip? What about people from ... lesser lands? What about somebody from...Luxembourg. I mean now, Luxembourg is #122, j…
Why people only rip on Americans for being patriotic? Nobody rips on the French when they say they have the best {food, fashion, history, literature, country, *}. Everybody seems fine with European snobbery in all its variants: French, Italian, and even English snobbery is accepted, but not quite as much as the others it seems.
I suppose you are American living in America, because, you would be from another country and living abroad (I am French and used to live in the US, Denmark and for the past 10+ years in Germany), you would definitely see that being a bit patriotic is fine and was always fine.
The problem is being patriotic to the point you cannot see outside of your bubble. If you start to be snob, in Europe at least, your friends and colleagues will quickly be sarcastic with you. And this is fine, because we do not have a safe spaces mentality.
Re: America Is Not the Greatest Country on Earth. It’s No. 28
#50When traveling in the US, I'm always amused at the reactions of disbelief, horror, aggression, and utter incredulity when I propose that their country isn't the greatest in the world. After all, they likely hear or are told every day that they are not only "free" (unlike everywhere else?) but the "greatest".
Really? What kind of people are you talking to? Note that Bloomberg, the source of the above news, is American. Note that the reaction you get might not only stem from the message itself, but also from the way you deliver it. How do you react when a foreigner critizes your country out of the blue? Imagine someone saying to you: "Your people regularily mistreat immigrants, did you know that?" How do you react?