Anti Wall st Protests

Are you now?

How does N.Korea think then?

Who is N.Korea for that matter?

No nation in the world meets the ideal standards, and which is the "best" will vary based on one's stand on politics and religion. So I don't think there is an answer to that.

I know that, after LIVING in 3 different European Countries, VISITING for lengthy periods another 4 European Countries, and living in 4 different States in America and visiting another 20 more, there are good and bad in every one (just like in people!).

But I must say that the greatest number of people live well and have some sense of stability and security in Belgium. A very small country, with LOTS of political issues (including no government for over 18 months), but they manage to maintain a life quality (note: I didn't say life standing!) that is second to none in all the countries I've lived in.

Obviously, I am biased, having been born and raised there!

Alias asked what nation in the worlkd is best. I am bias but would have to say my country Australia. We did not have a recession, unemployment is low about 5% and house prices are still high. Part of this has been because we sold our minerals to China.
Yet there is still opposition to our Government. It is likely to lose at the next election. The right to protest has been limited. No country is perfect but at least we are number one on the economic scale. The richest woman in the world is an Australian mining investor. Ye even she wants power and has bought up a fair part of our left wing media.

I am glad you like CUB beer. However this company is in danger of being taken over by a foreign company.

Yes Australia is the best

It's a bit like the US in that it committed genocide on the indigenous population and has huge social problems especially relating to racism.

But unlike the US it doesn't go around the world making up stories to justify bombing the living shit out of innocent people

Nor are huge numbers of the people obese

I might be a little biased ..The USA..because the philosophy behind America is that free people will continuously strive to better themselves, entrepreneurially driving prosperity and strength while unfettered by a totalitarian government. That philosophy is what has made America "exceptional" - a willingness to limit the government and take personal responsibility for society's betterment. And it's that exceptional underpinning, embodied by our Founders in the U.S. Constitution, that has made America (and the world she leads) more strong and prosperous than any people have been in the history of the human race.

I admire your faith and your pride in your country.
I find it a little overly idealistic. . .I really do not believe that social democracies have hindered Germany, or even France, Belgium and many other countries. In fact, at this time, they are (as individual countries) more stable than we are!
I do not believe the founders met for the growth in wellbeing and in wealth to be so skewed towards 1% of the population.
And. . .may I remind you that, for the time, the Roman Empire was AT LEAST as successful as the US has ever been!

Now, if you want to limit to the history of the last 250 years, I would probably agree with you. . even though it might still be a biased statement.

I agree that Australia is a great country. . .I'm not sure about THE best (I'm not sure such a country exists!), but it is very balanced, very fair, and very beautiful. I am a little biased AGAINST it, not because there is anything wrong with the country itself (it is really a great country), but because it took away my son and my grandson from me!

Well, it's kind of an exageration, of course, but my son is married to an Aussie girl (from Mckay, in Queensland), and after living in the US for 7 years, and giving me a wonderful grandson whom I adore, they decided to go back to Australia! They now live near Brisbane, and I only see my (two now) grandsons and my son about once every two years! At least, I'm glad they do live in a great country!

I guess you think they are doing just fine..But with-out us, what they are today wouldn't exist..

Well, just look at it this way. . .without THEM, we wouldn't exist either!

After all. . .there are VERY FEW native Americans. . .most of us came from "abroad," and not necessarely on the Mayflower!

And we started with nothing..That is why I said..Our philosophy is what has made America "exceptional" - a willingness to limit the government and take personal responsibility for society's betterment. And it's that exceptional underpinning, embodied by our Founders in the U.S. Constitution, that has made America (and the world she leads) more strong and prosperous than any people have been in the history of the human race." WE take personal responsibility for society's betterment"

And what do you think other countries have done? Inherited their freedom? inherited their wealth? inherited the right to work? inherited the right to speak?

This is what sounds so very arrogant and why Americans are not always accepted as very realistic outside of America. It is that arrogance that is so linked to that "self-annointed exceptionalism!"
Believe me, EVERYONE who has lived and in a country that is not abusive of their rights has that same feeling of pride and "exceptionalism" in their heritage. Do you think the French are not proud of France? That they are not proud of getting their freedom from under the oppression of their abusive king? Or maybe you think that it is easier to fight a revolution after centuries, milleniums even of oppression by rulers than it is to find oneself in a country that is basically a blank slate (after you got rid of the natives, of course), and fight a ruler whose main force is thousand of miles away?

The fact is that most Americans living in this country today are only second or third generation Americans, and it is their guts and their determination to be free and to make money that they brought WITH THEM from those other countries that you seem to judge as so inferior!

How much travelling have you done? And how much living in different foreign countries have you done? How many languages do you speak?

America is great. . .it doesn't need to be over-inflated by arrogance and "urban legends" to be great. But so are many other countries. . . .and unfortunately, America has fallen behind over the last 30 years. . .and if a tea party puppet is elected President, it will fall further behind.

Yep. . .that's probably why you don't see many European immigrants anymore. . .unless they come temporarely for a job, or they marry a US Citizen.

Same reason why you dont' see the Canadian beat the borders down, or sneak in to live in the US!

As always, you are comparing the hardest and poorest countries to America. . .
Guess what, those countries are ALSO immigrating in Europe. . .in huge numbers!
And immigration to Australia is only slowed by their policies and the fact that, due to their geography, it is pretty tough to enter Australia by "jumping" the border!

The daughter of an (AMERICAN) friend of mine is married to an Egyptien man. . .although they have lived for several year in Egypt with no problem, they want now to leave Egypt because of the instability, and because their son is ready to enter high school.
She is a natural born American, but in spite of that, in spite of the fact that it would be easier to obtain a green card for her husban in the US, they have decided to apply to Australia for immigration and they are waiting for their final documents.

Obviously America is still a wonderful country, and obviously people still want to immigrate here. ..especially from very repressive or unstable countries. But aren't you tired of wearing those rose color lenses and refusing to see that we are only "exceptional" in our own eyes?

If they felt they could be just as free and make just as money remaining in their Euro-Socialist Utopia, why did they leave?