USA has done more stuff for people than anybody ever

[CgDs]

[skyhook77sfg]

cold war was real struggle between two opposing systems....

it was won by the system with the bigger line of credit.

Phyrrus said it best though.

[Caskhades]

[CgDs]

[Colonel Sun]

[Colonel Sun]

I lived in the US during the Reagan admin and, while many of my US colleagues had a very negative view of him, I didn't know enough to form an opinion either way.

However, I do recall his stated goals of reducing the US deficit, reducing the size of the US fed govt, and reducing the labyrinth of govt regulations.

Based on the available data [graphs posted previously], he did not meet any of these goals - rather the opposite, so that's the basis of my opinion.

On the other hand, he did inspire a lot of Americans with his rhetoric and style - the Great Communicator. Intangibles that contributed to his then and current popularity.

[CgDs]

[Fontinau]

In response to the half-serious statement with which Mr. Perfect began this thread: It's true that the United States has done more for the freedom, liberty, and well being of the human race than any other country, at least. (Though not any other "force"; at least not if your definition of "force" includes literacy, science, capitalism, industrialism, or democracy, none of which, with the arguably exception of democracy, began in America.)

But lest we congratulate ourselves too much, that's only partly the result of doing the morally right thing, and partly the result of opportunity. We were, overwhelmingly, the most industrially and militarily powerful country in the world, in the century when it became possible to instantly communicate with anybody anywhere on the planet, and to travel around the planet in a day.

If we judge countries morally based on what they did with the opportunities they had, then I'd argue France deserves as much credit as America, more or less. (Worked out the theoretical basis for human rights; freed America from Britain and Italy from Austria; administered the coupe de grace to feudalism in western Europe; did more to educate the people it colonized than Britain.) (Yes, there was an element of self-interest in all those things - just as there's been an element of self-interest in everything America has ever done - but there was also an element of altruism - just as there's been an element of altruism in many of the things America has done.) And England deserves at least almost as much credit.

And if we judge countries by achievements that have, in practice, benefited all of humanity - even if they were done entirely (or as close as possible to entirely) for self-interested reasons - then Germany might deserve even more credit than America, for the discoveries of its scientists, and for being the point of origin of mass literacy.

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[Fontinau]

[Torchwood]

[Ibrahim]

[Tinker]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Ibrahim]

[Mr. Perfect]

[Colonel Sun]

[Tinker]