Why do Americans say that America is the greatest country in the world?

ccppp wrote:

The question is not if the USA is actually the greatest country in the world (data can be used to prove or disprove that point). The question is why do Americans feel compelled to repeat this mantra over and over and over again.

Been here 41 years and i honestly don't hear people saying that very often. But I guess since you mentioned it.. it is the greatest country.

Face it, we bail everyone out. Name a country, aside from maybe Russia, who wouldn't dial the White House when they are in distress? Others love to hate us, but in economic, health or military crisis.. they call us first. And really, anyone who doesn't, does so at their own peril.

I'm coming into this late, but I'm from the U.S. and have spent time in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, and Croatia.

If I was crazy rich I'd love to have a house in Switzerland, but as a regular person Switzerland is far too expensive and the income from the type of job I would have wouldn't make it worth living there. I looked into jobs in Germany, I wouldn't make nearly as much as I do in the U.S., and this is before I even look into tax rates, which are much higher in all of Europe. Same situation for France and Austria, I wouldn't make nearly as much as I make in the U.S. and the tax rates here are much lower. In Croatia, their economy is not very great, I'd likely have to have a remote job if I wanted to live there. In Spain I could find a job pretty easily, but again, the taxes and income for that job aren't as high as America.

Now we talk about what your money buys there. I've found that the quality of apartments and houses are not as great as in America. In the United States things are just newer and have more comforts, a typical apartment or house in every European country I listed is very old and not very nice for the amount the rent is. To get the equivalent apartment I live in in Europe I have to pay way way way more.

I love the culture in many European countries, and seriously thought about living there, but the quality of life I could have there isn't as good as in the United States. So I choose to live in one of my favorite parts of the United States (we have great places here as well) and I will just visit Europe every now and then. I do still believe the United States is the best country, we just have a lot of idiots that live here. It starts young, and once they're adults there's no changing them. I think schools need to be more strict and demanding in the United States, too much time is wasted screwing around in my personal experiences and there's not much focus on school work.

X-Runner wrote:

Biggest economy.

Greatest cultural influence on the rest of the world in the entertainment industry.

Great variety of people, cultures and parts to visit.

If every person in the world had to vote on the greatest country and people couldn’t vote for their own country, who would win?

CORRECT!

I'll go so far as to say if the whole world got to vote for the greatest country on Earth, EVEN IF they could vote for their own country, the US would still win (assuming that they really could vote their opinion in secret and not fear punishment from the regime they live under). And the US would win easily.

There are of course problems in the US just like there are in other countries, but this is a country where you can do and be anything you want. You can live at the beach or in the mountains or in the woods or on a prairie. You can live in big cities or small towns or in an isolated place off the grid with no one around. Warm weather, cold weather.

In countries that people would claim might be better, it might be too cold there, or the economy sucks and is never really ever that good, or you have to serve in the military for 2 years. No other country in the world comes anywhere close to the cultural variety that we have in the United States.

There is no country that is better. Trump is doing his best to try to make that not a truthful statement, but our nation will outlast him.

Best at putting out mindless entertainer for sure. But the country is too big with too many competing interest and too many ignorant fools.

Entertainment*

Sorry: Been distracted. In any case, a rough answer to your statement:

7th, 8th & 9th or 19th ... wrote:

U.S. g.d.p. growth will be in (2.0 to 2.25)% growth range for 2019. List full PhD. economists who state U.S. g.d.p. growth is actually 3% annually or greater.

Year_____Prez + Yr_____GDP_____% Chg___$Chg____Multi___ChgRate

2019_____Trump 3____~19,221_____3.1%_____583_____1.9x

2018_____Trump 2_____18,638_____2.9%_____530_____1.7x______10%

2017_____Trump 1_____18,108_____2.4%_____419_____1.4x______26%

2016_____0bama 8_____17,689_____1.6%_____285_____0.9x______47%

2015_____0bama 7_____17,404_____2.9%_____492_____1.6x_____-42%

2014_____0bama 6_____16,912_____2.5%_____417_____1.4x______18%

2013_____0bama 5_____16,495_____1.8%_____298_____1.0x______40%

2012_____0bama 4_____16,197_____2.2%_____356_____1.2x_____-16%

2011_____0bama 3_____15,841_____1.6%_____242_____0.8x______47%

2010_____0bama 2_____15,599_____2.6%_____398_____1.3x______-39%

2009_____0bama 1_____15,201_____-2.6%____-400____-1.3x_____-200%

2008_____Bush 8______15,601_____-0.2%_____-25____-0.1x

__________________Avg Chg =302

Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States of America from 1990 to 2018 in billion chained (2012) U.S. dollars. (Extending Q3 economic data from BoLS and the Fed yields an estimated FY2019 U.S. GDP of 3.1%)

Data from: Statista GmbH*

Multi = Multiple of Avg $Chg/Yr in GDP (=302)

Chg Rate = Rough Rate of Chg, giving an idea of the magnitude of economic acceleration or deceleration per year.

*Based in Hamburg, Germany, Statista consolidates statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources and makes it available on four platforms: German, English, French and Spanish.

ccppp wrote:

The question is why do Americans feel the need to keep telling everyone it is the greatest country in the world? It would be like Kipchoge always reminding everyone he was the greatest runner in the world every chance he got.

Who are they trying to convince?

That's a good question.

Here's the answer:

Some Americans do this to feel superior even if if they have had nothing to do with America's success.

It's like the annoying Patriots fan who acts like they had a part in all of their Super Bowl wins.

China and India have vastly superior GDP growth. Europe has better social services and benefits, health care, arts and culture. Primary and secondary education is superior in Scandinavia. The Japanese are healthier, wealthier and live much longer. South Korea has more Pokemon per capita.

You can go on and on about all the different pluses and minuses about the US. I know a bunch of French ex pats. They love having a big house and low taxes. But they are generally horrified at the amount of gun violence, the cost of education for their kids and the gun violence. Most try to get back to France to put their kids through high school and college.

I think the real reason the US has an arguable claim to be the best country in the world is that we are better than any other country at integrating immigrants into our society. For example, in France, there are lots of North Africans, many of whom have families that can be traced back to living in France to the Third Republic. But no one in France really considers North Africans to really be French. And it just gets much worse the more recent of an immigrant you are.

In the US, despite the recent anti-immigrant/white nationalism, anyone from around the world can come to this country and become an American. My wife just completed grad school and the graduating class of her program was about half first generation US citizens of immigrant parents. Everyone went right out into the workforce and on to comfortable middle class lives. In many European countries, immigrants really struggle to assimilate and spend generations in close knit immigrant communities that have little interaction with the broader community.

Here is the real deal:

America is the reason why you have all these "better" countries (Denmark, France, Sweden, Canada, whatever) NOT speaking Russian or Chinese and living under a totalitarian system. We're far from perfect, but never in human history has there been nation with a combination of might and right like the USA. We're got the nastiest armed forces backed by the most effective economic engine in terms of innovation and consistent results since the 1800's - full stop. Everything else which makes a country beyond that quickly becomes moot when the fight's on. If you are a hard worker and reasonably competent at almost ANYTHING there can be a nice life for you here. You can say some crazy stuff and not go to jail or have your family executed for it. Think for a second about the last time you drank clean water from the tap or turned the lights on and it worked. Show some f*cking gratitude for even having the bandwidth to cry about how Denmark pays for college or that you don't make as much $ as Jeff or Mark. We are the light of the world and there is a reason why everyone still comes here whenever the chance is offered.

We are the champions wrote:

1) World Champions in basketball

2) World Champions in baseball

3) World Champions in football

4) World Champions in hockey

5) World War Champions

6) World's 2nd largest ball of twine in Cawker City, KS

Isn't the World's largest baked potato in Idaho?

geographer wrote:

Convexity wrote:

I moved here from another country.

On balance, America is the best country in the world.

Why?

Healthcare? Higher education? The debt incurred from either?

Opioid and drug epidemics?

Homelessness? Poverty?

Availability of guns? Violence? School shootings?

Racism? Bigotry?

Religious beliefs? Number of churches on every main street?

Defense spending? National debt?

Number of people in prison?

Current immigration policies?

The president?

The problem with this list, and one reason America is great, is none of this effects most people.

Healthcare: doesn't matter when you have a job (i.e. it's always paid for on the cheap when you have group insurance).

Higher education: Most of the country does not have a higher education, or they got it when it was cheap.

Opioid and drug epidemics: 90% of the country has no idea this is going on because it is not as bad as the media makes it seem.

Homelessness and poverty: Again, most people are not homeless or living in poverty.

Guns: Again, 98% of Americans never have any experience with a gun much less involved in a school shooting.

Racism/bigotry: Most Americans are accepting of some form of racism (they call it judging a book by it's cover) or they are not racist at all.

Religious beliefs: Countries outside of the US are more religious. All the tourist sites in Europe and Asia are essentially cathedrals or Buddhist/Hindu temples. So, if you claim religion is bad then that's a knock on the world.

Defense/national debt: Most Americans don't care about these. If you don't like defense spending, you would rather the government spend the money elsewhere.

Prisons: Almost all Americans have the view of don't do the crime if you don't want to do the time.

Immigration policies: The voters chose the immigration policies and the President. based on that the majority wants those policies.

I'm not defending all these. I'm just point out it's a nice list, but Americans don't care. They live in bubbles.

Healthcare: you're spot on. Plus European countries spend more on healthcare because they are NOT spending as much on defense and protecting their country.

Higher education: accessible to ALL Americans. In most countries where secondary education is free, majority of people don't go because they don't have the grades to get in. Admission standards are way higher in European countries. Plus all the best schools are in the us (harvard, mit, stanford, etc.)

Opioid and drug epidemic: prevalent in all countries. Media around the world just likes to call the us out. Seriously walk anywhere in the world as a white American. Everyone is trying to sell you coke or pot. America is the only country this doesn't happen.

Homelessness and poverty: homelessness is everywhere around the world. So is poverty. Average American makes more than the average person of nearly every country.

Racism/bigotry: this exists everywhere and America is one of the least racist countries in the world behind maybe Canada. Mexicans and Asians are super racist, so are Australians and brits. People in Europe (this has been said by another poster) resist immigrants and do not assimilate with them. The media just talks about America more. Hell Mexico would build a wall on their southern border to keep the Guatemalans out if they could afford it. China already did it to the Mongolians and now we celebrate it as a wonder of the world.

Religious beliefs: America is the most religiously diverse country. PERIOD.

Defense/national debt: we spend more and protect more. Thanks to us defense spending other countries can afford to spend money on other things.

Prisons: other countries have prisons too. Yes we prosecuted more people for petty crimes. We're not perfect.

Immigration policies: America is one of the friendliest countries in the world to immigrants. We accept tons every year and right away they have access to everything with upward mobility. America is a land of immigrants.

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics has not finished compiling data and has not released 2019 U.S. g.d.p. growth for 2019. You are merely looking at an overly optimistic forecast for 2019. The 4th quarter data for U.S. has not been released. No 3% plus U.S.g.d.p. growth.

Conditioning, insecurity and lack of traveling.

Because we freed Europe from the Nazis. Southeast Asia from the Japanese Empire, etc.

Americans live to work. You don't have time to enjoy life.

I hear that ‘Americans are workaholics’ often but rarely have seen it. The few people who did exhibit a work addiction were nationally recognized experts in their field and could not get enough of it. Otherwise I see lots of 40-45 hr weeks insanely generous, benefits and comfortable lifestyle if you’re willing to put in a bit of work to have north of a 6 figure household income. You can’t be a useless layabout and have it fall into your lap like a useless piece of euro trash though.

Military power isn't the measure of greatness, as in the era of MAD the Soviet Union was able to present itself as an equal against the US, and nor is it economic wealth, as the one-party state of China will in due course surpass the US this century. America's greatness was in the ideas it once represented; in the era of Trump it is determined to lose them and become regarded worldwide with the same combination of dismay, alarm and risibility that he has.

O beautiful for spacious skies

For amber waves of grain

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!