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Originally Posted by sapiens
At least in the case of loquitor's post earlier, he's not using economic prosperity of a particular class as an argument for the American system. Is he?
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Originally Posted by loquitur
If you step back and look at the main indicators of material well-being, which to my mind include things like life expectancy and nutrition, we are better off now than we ever have been. Not to beat a dead horse here, but we have the richest poor people in history - our poor people are obese rather than starving. The standard of living of a middle class person in the US at the turn of the 20th century was lower than the standard of a poor person at the turn of the 21st.
This does NOT mean we live in Utopia, nor does it mean we have no economic problems, nor does it mean things can't be improved. But this notion that there is impending economic doom is simply not supported. I suspect some of it is due to the obsessive focus on income inequality and the insistence that unless everyone has the same amount of stuff, that means the people who have a bit less than others are ipso facto deemed to be miserable - which is manifestly not true, unless you think envy is a good thing.
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How do you measure the ideological characteristics of a regime? |
The US is distinguished by how remarkably unaccomplished, in areas that it's government and society should be committed to improving, actually are:
Here's Denmark's stats:
The problem is that loquitur's argument vs. the facts, is unimpressive, as is what has been accomplished in the USA, even with all of the wealth, in key areas, the US performs below a third world neighbor lacking in medical facilities equipped with state of the art technology and medicines:
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https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...cu.html#People
<h3>........... Cuba ..................... United States</h3>
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$4,500 (2007 est.) ......................$46,000 (2007 est.)
Median age:
total: 36.3 years ...................... 36.6 years
male: 35.7 years ....................... 35.3 years
female: 37 years (2007 est.) ........... 37.9 years (2007 est)
Death rate:
7.14 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.) 8.26 deaths (2007 est)
Infant mortality rate:
total: 6.04 deaths/1,000 live births ............. 6.37 deaths
male: 6.76 deaths/1,000 live births ............. 7.02 deaths
female: 5.26 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.). 5.68 deaths (2007 est)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 77.08 years ............... 78 years
male: 74.85 years ........................... 75.15 years
female: 79.43 years (2007 est.) ............. 80.97 years (2007 est)
Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 99.8% ..................... 99%
male: 99.8% ................................. 99%
female: 99.8% (2002 census) ................. 99% (2003 est.)
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