What actually makes America great?

[ixcuincle]

freedem

 

in other countries such as South Korea and China there are rampant internet firewalls. South Korea recently lifted a curfew which prevented anyone under 18 from playing video games. China recently enacted a new ban on video games for anyone under 18 (actually you are only allowed to game for 2 hours on the weekends)

 

Meanwhile as rampant as Warzone is in the US there has been no talk of a game ban and any game ban would be met with anger.

Edited November 7, 2021 by ixcuincle

[Riggo-toni]

Free porn.

[Corcaigh]

Capital gains tax exemption on qualified small business stock.

[Springfield]

32 minutes ago, Riggo-toni said:

Free porn.

Im glad somebody posted the most proper answer. Jesus you all are a bunch of rubes. Plus, the variety and scope of the aforementioned. You can literally get whatever your heart desires.

[Simmsy]

9 hours ago, Springfield said:

Im glad somebody posted the most proper answer. Jesus you all are a bunch of rubes. Plus, the variety and scope of the aforementioned. You can literally get whatever your heart desires.

I'm gonna go...exercise my freedom...

[TheGreatBuzz]

 

 

[Jumbo]

On 11/5/2021 at 4:24 PM, tshile said:

 

we just need to find a way to give the bottom portion better access to our greatness. 

  

 

[Burgold]

We are intentionally losing so much of what made us great. In my opinion what made us great was the ability to rally together in an emergency, the penchant to strive to fix our mistakes in order to better nation, and our entrepeunerial spirit. You still see flashes of the above, but these days, when a crises hits unlike Pearl Harbor or even 9/11, half of America wants to complain, deny, and obstruct... or root for it to get worse. It's hard to look at that and see greatness.

 

Now, we may still be a "free" nation, but it's getting hard to say that with a straight face with the imprisonment problem we have or the voting shannigans looming. I mean corporations are free and have rights... Do women? Do minorities? There are days where I think we're closer to  Freeish and that a cohort is happily chopping away our freedoms. Look at Texas, hell look at what's being done and cheered on in pretty much every "red" state in the Union.

 

I suspect this was meant to be a rah rah thread and so I apologize for this post, but the last four years have brought me down on the character of America and our will to be a good nation. I mean if we institute concentration camps and family separation policies and people are okay with that, if school mass shootings have become normalized and we do nothing, if half the country is fine with open racism, if we can't rally to each others' support by doing something that isn't even hard or painful like wearing a mask, then Americans are not a good people. If we're not a good people we can't be a great nation. 

[gbear]

I think there should be a distinction made between America the ideal and America the country. 

 

In America the idea is an idea where Puritan work ethic is rewarded by the next generation being able to live "better" than the one before it.  Hard work is rewarded and the American dream is achievable for all.

 

In America the idea, everyone has a vote, and the best ideas will be implemented.  Our freedoms only end at their impact on other people.

 

In America the idea, we have freedom of religion and freedom from religion.

 

In America the country we have

 

"Go west young man."

We have historically and currently have an extremely mobile workforce.  This has allowed us to move around our workforce to more profitable or needed industries.  We have been able to maintain this because the costs of moving in this country are lower than many countries due to low interest rates and a capitalist market which moves around the pieces of our economy relatively efficiently (everything is relative).

 

We have a history of a large middle class which aspires to upper class status.  This has created a large purchasing market allowing much of what we make to be sold without exporting. 

 

In America the country we have a currency which has been remarkably stabile in terms of purchasing power.    As a result, our currency has become a sort of global reserve currency.  This allows the Fed to pump money into our economy without destroying its purchasing power (rapid inflation many countries would face if they did as we do).  This greatly has smoothed out recent recessions.  Other countries investing so much in our currency because it maintains its value has been a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts.

 

America the country has enjoyed many military advantages.  At first it was because there was an ocean between us and those who would harm us.  In recent decades it has been because we spend so much on our military and are even able to sell some of our systems to allies (how much better when another country pays some of the costs to us for goals we agree upon?). 

[88Comrade2000]

7 hours ago, Burgold said:

We are intentionally losing so much of what made us great. In my opinion what made us great was the ability to rally together in an emergency, the penchant to strive to fix our mistakes in order to better nation, and our entrepeunerial spirit. You still see flashes of the above, but these days, when a crises hits unlike Pearl Harbor or even 9/11, half of America wants to complain, deny, and obstruct... or root for it to get worse. It's hard to look at that and see greatness.

 

Now, we may still be a "free" nation, but it's getting hard to say that with a straight face with the imprisonment problem we have or the voting shannigans looming. I mean corporations are free and have rights... Do women? Do minorities? There are days where I think we're closer to  Freeish and that a cohort is happily chopping away our freedoms. Look at Texas, hell look at what's being done and cheered on in pretty much every "red" state in the Union.

 

I suspect this was meant to be a rah rah thread and so I apologize for this post, but the last four years have brought me down on the character of America and our will to be a good nation. I mean if we institute concentration camps and family separation policies and people are okay with that, if school mass shootings have become normalized and we do nothing, if half the country is fine with open racism, if we can't rally to each others' support by doing something that isn't even hard or painful like wearing a mask, then Americans are not a good people. If we're not a good people we can't be a great nation. 

Or the simple answer , nothing. Just ribbing. I think we are still great; though that could be gone before we turn 250 in 2026.