American Exceptionalism

[ysabetwordsmith]

 ... isn't fooling many people anymore.  They aren't impressed with how the government behaves.   They're not happy it's wrecking the Earth.  They have noticed that some other countries are better, with perks like accessible health care and parental leave.

Comments

[thewayne]

American exceptionalism is idiotic. The things we rate highest in are not things to be proud of: percentage of minorities incarcerated, percentage of population incarcerated, gun ownership, drug use, wealth inequity, etc.

I would be happy to live in a country "less free" in exchange for better health care.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I wouldn't. Those who sacrifice freedom for security wind up with neither.

China has security. If you annoy the government, they may disappear you and cut out your organs while you're still alive.

I want both freedom and security, because neither is stable without the other.

Re: Well ...

[(Anonymous)]

I prefer your argument to the usual 'communism is bad' response I get.

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Communism is not necessarily bad. Some of its ideas are quite sensible. The problem is that, as a large-scale government, it seems to succumb faster than average to "we have yet to invent any form of government that does not begin to suck once you add humans to it." The same is true of socialism.

I find it deeply ironic that all the bad things capitalism predicted about communism came true, and all the bad things communism predicted about capitalism came true, but few people actually looked at that and tried to take the best parts of each. Only a handful of countries have developed something like democratic socialism, which seems to produce better results.

I like the idea of socialized needs, privatized wants: everyone is guaranteed their basic needs, and if you crave something more, you can work harder for it.

But then, I'm not attached to a particular politic or society the way most people are. I look at all of them and ask how well they work, what they do best at, what they do poorly.