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What makes US great? (1 Viewer)

What makes this country (USA) great?

  • System of Government (Democracy)

    Votes: 2 7.1%
  • Military Strength

    Votes: 1 3.6%
  • Educational System

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Technology

    Votes: 2 7.1%
  • The US Constitution (Law of the Land)

    Votes: 9 32.1%
  • Willingness to be world's policemen in concert with UN

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Disaster Relief Aid to Third World country's

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Principles of our Founding Fathers

    Votes: 6 21.4%
  • Character of its Citizens

    Votes: 4 14.3%
  • Other (please specify)

    Votes: 4 14.3%

  • Total voters
    28

Billo_Really

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We always say were the best country on earth. I was thinking the other day just what makes us a great country. Is it our military strength? Our educational system? Our technology? The character of our citizens? Our Constitution? Our willingness to bear the burden as the worlds policeman in concert with the UN? Our willingness to aid country's that have suffered natural (or man-made) disasters? What do you think makes us a great nation?
 
Billo_Really said:
We always say were the best country on earth. I was thinking the other day just what makes us a great country. Is it our military strength? Our educational system? Our technology? The character of our citizens? Our Constitution? Our willingness to bear the burden as the worlds policeman in concert with the UN? Our willingness to aid country's that have suffered natural (or man-made) disasters? What do you think makes us a great nation?

Maybe not the character of our citizens (many of them anyway) or our educational system (besides our colleges and universities.) Other than that, I'd say our diversity (both ethnically and because of states' rights), our geographical blessings, our productivity and our long lasting commitment to freedom.
 
Billo_Really said:
We always say were the best country on earth. I was thinking the other day just what makes us a great country. Is it our military strength? Our educational system? Our technology? The character of our citizens? Our Constitution? Our willingness to bear the burden as the worlds policeman in concert with the UN? Our willingness to aid country's that have suffered natural (or man-made) disasters? What do you think makes us a great nation?

I put the character of our citizens, because our diversity, our country's productive economy and our ideals come from the character of the citizens.
 
Certianly from my point of view I would have to say that the system of government is a huge part of it...mainly because its a system that even democracies that have been around longer then the US has been a country (*cough*) still havn't come up with something nearly as awsome. The whole idea of checks and balances, seperation of powers, hell, the whole idea of a bill of rights in an actual physical constitution, all ideas that were created by the USA way ahead of its time.
 
Plain old me said:
Certianly from my point of view I would have to say that the system of government is a huge part of it...mainly because its a system that even democracies that have been around longer then the US has been a country (*cough*) still havn't come up with something nearly as awsome. The whole idea of checks and balances, seperation of powers, hell, the whole idea of a bill of rights in an actual physical constitution, all ideas that were created by the USA way ahead of its time.

Damn, you bursted my bubble. And all this time I thought America was the oldest democracy. I know you are referring to the UK or Greece.
 
Greatness has been attained, now it must be maintained. We need to work at it a little more. We cannot continue to live on the fumes that have been left to us by the previous generations.
 
TimmyBoy said:
Damn, you bursted my bubble. And all this time I thought America was the oldest democracy. I know you are referring to the UK or Greece.

Yeah, the UK, hence the cough. Quite a few people make out how we have this long-standing tradition of democracy, but, IHMO, even nowadays it pales in comparison to that of the USA, thats has been around much unchanged since its creation...

...it's a subject I could rant about for hours...but I think I can just restrain myself...:mrgreen:
 
Character of its citizens. We are America. If the country is great, it is because of my fellow Americans living the dream. And as an aside, America is also great because of our natural treasures and national parks and forests. Every one of us in this country has somewhere relatively nearby that we can go and enjoy time alone with nature. Most don't bother, which is bad for them, great for me :smile:
 
The ideals upon which this country was found ... a government by the people, for the people, based upon the rule of law, that no man is above the law, that the law applies equally to all, and laws which protect the rights of the individual. These are the things that were uniquely American when our country was founded, and which inspired so many others, and made America the shining light on the hill, IMO.
 
Billo_Really said:
We always say were the best country on earth. I was thinking the other day just what makes us a great country. Is it our military strength? Our educational system? Our technology? The character of our citizens? Our Constitution? Our willingness to bear the burden as the worlds policeman in concert with the UN? Our willingness to aid country's that have suffered natural (or man-made) disasters? What do you think makes us a great nation?

I think it is our exceptional freedoms and of course, the technology we posess at our fingertips. France thinks that they are the beakon of freedom, but they be wrong. Actually, its the US that is the country of freedom. French national propaganda, propagated by the media, succeded in convincing the French population that their freedom is a matter of national pride, or part of their heritage. They are so proud of the idea they have of themselves, they fail to realize, freedom itself has almost eroded.:lol:
 
Originally Posted by kal-el:
I think it is our exceptional freedoms and of course, the technology we posess at our fingertips. France thinks that they are the beakon of freedom, but they be wrong. Actually, its the US that is the country of freedom. French national propaganda, propagated by the media, succeded in convincing the French population that their freedom is a matter of national pride, or part of their heritage. They are so proud of the idea they have of themselves, they fail to realize, freedom itself has almost eroded
I was just thinking about this today and just thought I would throw this out there. Have you heard of the expression, "Land of Opportunity?" Maybe that's what makes this country great. People come her from all over the world to start a new life for themselves. We have so many ways a person can make a living. Notice anyone that moves here tells us, "you don't know how good you got it here". Then I think about all the people that are homeless in this country or living life as a bum, I wonder if Sam Kinnison was right. In his last recorded appearence before he died, he said, "You could eat out of the garbage bins behind our restaurants better than you could in a third of the worlds' countries. If you can't make it here, where did you expect to go to make a life for yourself? If you can't do it here, where you have more opportunity than anywhere else, you're f_cked!"

So maybe the reason we are a great nation is the opportunity we offer for a person wanting a better life.

Just a thought.
 
Billo_Really said:
I was just thinking about this today and just thought I would throw this out there. Have you heard of the expression, "Land of Opportunity?" Maybe that's what makes this country great. People come her from all over the world to start a new life for themselves. We have so many ways a person can make a living. Notice anyone that moves here tells us, "you don't know how good you got it here". Then I think about all the people that are homeless in this country or living life as a bum, I wonder if Sam Kinnison was right. In his last recorded appearence before he died, he said, "You could eat out of the garbage bins behind our restaurants better than you could in a third of the worlds' countries. If you can't make it here, where did you expect to go to make a life for yourself? If you can't do it here, where you have more opportunity than anywhere else, you're f_cked!"

So maybe the reason we are a great nation is the opportunity we offer for a person wanting a better life.

Just a thought.

Hey Billo, what's the deal with lying bogot? Anyway, you're right, as usual. When someone suggests a country of freedom to someone that's jealous, or less fortunate, they will quickly recite the downsides of America: it might be "too free", not safe enough, and that the US still empolys the death penalty, so does poverty, and other oversimplified things.:2razz:

But the problem with freedom is, its all or nothing.
 
Billo_Really said:
We always say were the best country on earth. I was thinking the other day just what makes us a great country. Is it our military strength? Our educational system? Our technology? The character of our citizens? Our Constitution? Our willingness to bear the burden as the worlds policeman in concert with the UN? Our willingness to aid country's that have suffered natural (or man-made) disasters? What do you think makes us a great nation?

Its a conglomerate of all those.
 
Originally Posted by kal-el:
Hey Billo, what's the deal with lying bogot? Anyway, you're right, as usual. When someone suggests a country of freedom to someone that's jealous, or less fortunate, they will quickly recite the downsides of America: it might be "too free", not safe enough, and that the US still empolys the death penalty, so does poverty, and other oversimplified things.

But the problem with freedom is, its all or nothing.
You can thank SKILMATIC for that one. He called me that on another thread that is now closed. I don't have a clue as to what it means. Probably just another mis-spelled word. Even so, I've become enamored with it. It is the kind of something where people read it and go, "...huh?"
 
Billo_Really said:
You can thank SKILMATIC for that one. He called me that on another thread that is now closed. I don't have a clue as to what it means. Probably just another mis-spelled word. Even so, I've become enamored with it. It is the kind of something where people read it and go, "...huh?"

O c'mon billo you and I both know we were both joking around. I think you are more mad that it got closed from the sarcasm than me actually calling you that name. :lol:

Btw, I think the name suits you for some odd reason. :rofl
 
"My dad can beat the sh¡t out of your dad."
 
Originally Posted by SKILMATIC:
O c'mon billo you and I both know we were both joking around. I think you are more mad that it got closed from the sarcasm than me actually calling you that name.
Don't know what your talking about here. I didn't use it because I was angry.

Originally Posted by SKILMATIC:
Btw, I think the name suits you for some odd reason.
I don't know about that. But I do like it for some odd reason. What that reason is, I'm still trying to figure that one out. Ain't no big thing.
 
Inuyasha said:
Think about it.

"My dad can beat the **** out of your dad"

What is that supposed to mean our military can despose of any other one? We are the world's superpower.
 
kal-el said:
"My dad can beat the **** out of your dad"

What is that supposed to mean our military can despose of any other one? We are the world's superpower.


Wrong! Keep at it.
 
Greatness is in the eye of the beholder.
I certainly think the degree to which America is self centred is unsurpassed. We all know Bush went to Iraq to keep the arms manufacturers that sponsor him happy & for oil. Time & time again The UAS exploits countries for it's own ends with it's economic pseudo colonialism.
Is this the policy of a great nation...
http://home.iprimus.com.au/korob/fdtcards/Cards_Index.html

A nation that is the biggest producer of polutants per capita & who's multi national corps keep down the populations of the countries where they employ slaves.
http://www.doublestandards.org/multi.html

America a great country = BS

America a controlling powerful one is all you can say.
However the American empire is diminishing as Bush borrows & spends trillions to keep his sponsors happy...

"Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats, called attention to President Bush’s borrowing practices during a press conference this week. "The seriousness of this rapid and increasing financial vulnerability of our country can hardly be overstated," said Representative John Tanner, a leader of Blue Dog. He supported his claim with evidence provided by the Treasury Department: the first 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined 1.01 trillion dollars from foreign governments and financial institutions. But, in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed 40 billion dollars more than that, for a grand total of 1.05 trillion dollars. “No American political leadership has ever willfully and deliberately mortgaged our country to foreign interests in the manner we have witnessed over the past four years," said Tanner.
Earlier this year, the Blue Dog Coalition revealed its 12-step plan to end the United States’ "addiction to deficit spending." It requires all federal agencies to submit to and pass audits, to balance their budgets, and to create emergency funds specifically for use during natural disasters. John Tanner ended with a warning for his audience, "If this recklessness is not stopped, I truly believe our economic freedom as American citizens is in great jeopardy."
 

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