How Does America Fare to You?

[Mr Fatherland]

I'm English, and I've got to say I'm not a massive fan of America. I know we have a "special relationship" but I do believe we'd be better off embracing Germany or France. We'd be at least 400 soldiers up. 5/10.

 

[Jacob Haggarty]

As a gentleman from good ol' england, im going to have to go a ahead and give you 1 5-6 out of ten, mainly based on your medical care.

Yes, you may have excellently trained doctors, and some impressive tech, but all that counts for shit if you can't afford the deluxe package. It just seems very unfair, making it so that only the richest can afford the best care.

Not saying ours is any better, or worse, but i'd much rather have at least an average health-care available to all, than some fantastic healthcare available to some. Hell, even if you are rich in england, you can still splash out on some better care, such as Bupa, which i think is a private service, unlike NHS.

So yeah, that and red-necks. Also, this is pretty petty, but im sick to the back teeth of playing as/watching americans in damn-near EVERYTHING.

 

[Teddy Roosevelt]

*snip*

False. The US enjoys conventional military superiority beyond anyone's wildest dreams, and against unconventional foes, we still kick ass. Yes, we are suffering prolonged warfare against guerrilla forces. Are we actually having trouble? Not really, no. See, they aren't actually that effective against us.

You're looking at this the wrong way.

Yes the USA has the best military, but that doesn't make it the most powerful because it is constrained. It's like a pacifist wielding the world's biggest sword- the sword is useless. Except, of course, the US isn't a pacifist, but you get the point.

Let me analogize with political systems. The Prime Minister of the UK has more power than the President of the USA. This doesn't make sense on the face of it, but when you analyse how the two executive positions are checked and balanced (our PM has significantly fewer checks on his power, and lots of them are simply convention rather than law), you'll see that the PM has far greater powers over his people than the president does.

In the same way, the US military is indeed ridiculously good at what it does, but it is also incredibly heavily constrained by politics and economics and such, unlike some other armies.

Put it this way: Europe has nothing to fear from the US army, because I highly doubt that the individual soldiers would even follow orders along the lines of 'invade Europe' because we're just such good pals it wouldn't happen. It doesn't matter that it could probably beat us, because the political constraints are so large it's effectively useless. Could you have won Vietnam? Probably, were you not so constrained by the people at home.

Y'see what I mean?

Wel, Europe is part of the US Military (NATO). All joking aside, I see what you mean, though that doesn't mean the US military isn't superior. Where it needs to go, you can bet it kicks major ass, even against Europe if need be (if being the key).

We certainly could have won Vietnam, as you said, but it was the political backlash, yes, mainly from the American inability to handle casualties, as I said. I won't get into such a discussion now unless you want to, but I would say the United States did not lose in Vietnam. It certainly didn't win, but it never suffered a defeat.

 

[devotedsniper]

Being British i shall give you a 5, 2 for giving me some half decent tv to watch when nothing else is on, 2 more for helping us win WW2, and 1 more for Obama seeming to be somewhat decent when you compare him to Bush, theres some other things but there just off the top of my head.

I'm sorry i can't give you any higher but from my experience alot of america is full of idiots (from my experience of talking to them), some of you aren't (some of you are my friends too) but you lot can annoy me (quite a few who i've talked to/played with seem to think their better than anyone else). I also don't like the fact that whenever America decide there going to invade somewhere (e.g. Iraq) our government feel the need to follow you as though we owe you.

I also don't like the fact if someone doesn't have money your hospitals and such wont treat them unless it's a real emergency (from what i understand) and even then you bill them thousand of dollars worth of medical bills knowing full well they'll never be able to pay it, i don't know that just feels wrong denying someone help due to their financial status.

Gun laws too, no one but the military really has a need for guns, i'm sorry but thats just how i feel, police 50/50 there are better ways to deal with people than just pointing a gun at them (yes Swat should still have them but thats about it, for times when someone does manage to get ahold of one), you should use a taser and pepper spray at most (a taser can bring down the strongest man if you taser him enough). As for civilians no just no, the only civilian which needs a gun would be farmers and i believe you call them park rangers? The ones which go into the woods where bears and other dangerous animals might be.

And finally in my paranoid mind (i know you used to come from england but still you could at least be abit more creative with some stuff) you always seem to copy us, change/add something then call it your own, a few examples would be your language, you change words such as colour to color, your citys we have birmingham so do you, we have york you have new york (you also have new england, come on you could be abit more creative here), what the rest of the world recognise as football you call soccer, and the closest thing to your football is rugby, see where my paranoid brain is going with this?

Either way i would i say it's 50/50 i don't mind you but i'd rather live either in the UK/Rest of Europe, or somewhere like Australia.

 

[Dirzzit]

Being British i shall give you a 5, 2 for giving me some half decent tv to watch when nothing else is on, 2 more for helping us win WW2, and 1 more for Obama seeming to be somewhat decent when you compare him to Bush, theres some other things but there just off the top of my head.

I'm sorry i can't give you any higher but from my experience alot of america is full of idiots (from my experience of talking to them), some of you aren't (some of you are my friends too) but you lot can annoy me (quite a few who i've talked to/played with seem to think their better than anyone else). I also don't like the fact that whenever America decide there going to invade somewhere (e.g. Iraq) our government feel the need to follow you as though we owe you.

I also don't like the fact if someone doesn't have money your hospitals and such wont treat them unless it's a real emergency (from what i understand) and even then you bill them thousand of dollars worth of medical bills knowing full well they'll never be able to pay it, i don't know that just feels wrong denying someone help due to their financial status.

Gun laws too, no one but the military really has a need for guns, i'm sorry but thats just how i feel, police 50/50 there are better ways to deal with people than just pointing a gun at them (yes Swat should still have them but thats about it, for times when someone does manage to get ahold of one), you should use a taser and pepper spray at most (a taser can bring down the strongest man if you taser him enough). As for civilians no just no, the only civilian which needs a gun would be farmers and i believe you call them park rangers? The ones which go into the woods where bears and other dangerous animals might be.

And finally in my paranoid mind (i know you used to come from england but still you could at least be abit more creative with some stuff) you always seem to copy us, change/add something then call it your own, a few examples would be your language, you change words such as colour to color, your citys we have birmingham so do you, we have york you have new york (you also have new england, come on you could be abit more creative here), what the rest of the world recognise as football you call soccer, and the closest thing to your football is rugby, see where my paranoid brain is going with this?

Either way i would i say it's 50/50 i don't mind you but i'd rather live either in the UK/Rest of Europe, or somewhere like Australia.

I hope those people you talked too weren't on the internet, cause you know how this goes...

I really like New York, go there every summer. It's really nice, everyones friendly and it's cleaner then what I previously thought.

 

[Dys]

America has had the reputation for being a beacon of hope for almost the entire world for more than 100 years.

I see US citizens as delusional about how the world view them and quite arrogant. The fact that the U.S.A inhabitants refer to themselves as 'Americans' but not canadians, mexicans, columbians, brazilians, chileans etc as otherwise comes across as extremely arrogant- America is far bigger than just the US.

America does not really have the reputation of 'beacon of hope' more than any other western country, and they certainly weren't a superpower or the biggest player in international economics until after ww2.

My experience of American people is that they are decent folk, but the insane sense of nationalism and conviction that America is the best country in the world is completely arrogant and painful to listen too.

 

[faceless chick]

On a scale of one to ten, I vote ampersand.

this. thread was won by the first poster.

also less rednecks in my interwebs please.

 

[Ramzal]

How does the country I live in fare with me? Crappy. The government support systems (Foodstamps, cash support and health support) seem to only help those who DON'T need it. (People with jobs.) But for someone who are students in college and need help, they must have excess money from loans, have student housing, and a partime job. Why would you help someone who needs zero help, but for someone who needs aid and is jobless the government building will tell you to bug off?

The police suck 50/50. Some of the laws make no sense (I was once threatened with being fined for wearing flip-flops after 10pm when I lived in NYC.) After serving as a Navy S.E.A.L I was denied my veteran's benefits after being discharged. And the school systems need a lot of rehauling. But it is FAR from the worst place to live. I would not enjoy living in south africa or Sri Lanka in the 1980's-2000.