macmanmike6100

Actually, I thought I'd get a big "You're an ass" response (not necessarily from you), so thanks, I tried :-)

I don't see why you should think that a diversity of governmental institutions inherently results in a lack of freedom. Although I feel that the US government is not just too bureaucratic but bloated and mismanaged, I don't think that large government necessarily translates into lost freedoms. Indeed, despite the diversity of US governmental institutions, I honestly only feel that a few of them have actually (tangibly or intangibly) invaded the freedoms our country was built upon. The obvious ones come to mind - CIA, NSA - but I'm sure there are a handful more that do so. Despite that, the majority are just bloated, not purposely infringing on American freedoms.

For a good overview, http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/dat...y.cfm?HHID=206

Of course, by far they were in the extremely broad but globally pronounced and influential areas of science and technology...
http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/ima/
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10726.html

...and business...
http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/...ons/start.html

..and leadership...
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=4053&t=innovation

...and music...
http://www.americansymphony.org/dial...ncert/leon.cfm
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/dat...cfm?titleID=67

...and the mundane...
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20021001/24702.html

Unfortunately, the US <b>is</b> some sort of world-police. Not only in the militaristic sense but, far more importantly, on the global economic sense.

I apologize, truly, because I didn't mean unstoppable in the authoritative sense. Possibly as a reflection of how I was brought up as a suburban-NY American, 'unstoppable' refers to the ability to push forward regardless of supposed bounds, esp. in reference to ideas. "We can't do it," for example, isn't in my vocabulary, although "We can't do it affordably" is.

Most unfortunately (for American tax-payers, especially), our government and many Americans (now and for many administrations past) have the idea that the US should be the world-police. Obviously I disagree with this practice. I personally feel that any action should be done so respectfully...being unstoppable is one thing, but being unstoppable while trampling on other countries'/people's right to be themselves is entirely another.

This can only prompt me to wonder why is it that just because many Americans are ignorant about some things, and some Americans are generally stupid, that all Americans have to be grouped into this? I think we need to accept that the world population as a whole follows a bell curve...I know, I know, cliched...but just realizing that most people are average should be enlightening.

You bring up our film industry, but remember that the film industry thrives not only because of the American market. The global legal market for even $50-mil US opening weekend films often matches or exceeds that of the US market. The world devours our supposed crap...so who's "stupider"? The guys who sell it or the guys who buy it? I'm sure there are plenty of bad movies in every country's film industry. Ours is a bigger industry and thus creates more crap (and we continue to do it more efficiently because the world wants it, too).

Again on the film industry, why should we ignore the true gems that we've produced? The James Bond films, Turner Movie Classics (almost all of them...priceless), and even recently, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic, two personal favorites of mine. Garden State was a moving (albeit, just a couple of times, contrived) generational piece.

High school education in the US is poor. Education for the poor is poor. (Sorry, should use our 'underprivileged' euphemism.) But university education is stellar, even at relatively-crappy state schools (disclaimer: I guess I can only really say this with confidence about NY and CA). Education is, sadly, being privitized, but that doesn't mean it's not reversible. We're getting the hint that equal education for all has been vital to our success in the past and is vital for our success in the future.

As for the 60% tax-rate, well yeah we like to throw that number around. Although it's not exactly accurate, it's used as an indicator of the fact that Europeans generally pay more tax. Can you tell me (without Googling) what the average American pays? In any case, at least I can cite this: http://www.oecdobserver.org/news/fullstory.php?aid=77

I didn't say that it was an American invention, but we've developed and promulgated our version better than any before us.

Can't disagree with the first part. And I did laugh a little with the Britain line...c'mon, that was three hundred years ago...they should get over the "what-if's" :-) But please, how can you say that the US is <b>not</b> as "good" as Canada? This is subjective, in any case, but please tell me why you think Canada is, as a whole, better than America?

I've traveled Europe and am now traveling East Asia. The one thing I can say, conclusively, is that America remains great in that we already have so much...this is not to say that we have "more" whatever than other countries, just that we objectively have so much as a whole. BUT, and this is a huge interjection for me, I still rate the United States as the <b>worst</b> country in the world not for what we have but for what we *could* have and don't. Wasted potential: it pains me to see it anywhere, but pains me to see it at home.