[onlooker]

When this country was founded it held such promise for Americans and indeed the world
Sorry to say the ideals and values of the USA have been eroding and decaying from its inception. The lofty words that founded this country "All Men are created equal" ushered in a brief moment in time whereby humanity could aspire to this inspirational goal to be embodied in this new country. An ideal that sadly was rare in our history. Alas it was not to be for America became the land that would exemplify our most base and primitive urges and instincts. Our country dedicated to hedonism. greed, violence, narcissism and selfishness. Rooted in an Economic philosophy that is anything but egalitarian
Martin Luther described all this quite well in his "I have a Dream speech"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I47Y6VHc3Ms

[Plantagenet]

When this country was founded it held such promise for Americans and indeed the world
Sorry to say the ideals and values of the USA have been eroding and decaying from its inception. The lofty words that founded this country "All Men are created equal" ushered in a brief moment in time whereby humanity could aspire to this inspirational goal to be embodied in this new country. An ideal that sadly was rare in our history. Alas it was not to be for America became the land that would exemplify our most base and primitive urges and instincts. Our country dedicated to hedonism. greed, violence, narcissism and selfishness. Rooted in an Economic philosophy that is anything but egalitarian
Martin Luther described all this quite well in his "I have a Dream speech"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I47Y6VHc3Ms

Yes, America is a terrible place and about as bad as it can get---except for all the other places.

Cheers!

[onlooker]

Plant, NOT a terrible place just very unequal and unfair. The problem is people just think about economic well being and compared to many people around the world most Americans do live better.But that should not obscure the unsavory psychological makeup of some Americans nor the dastardly deeds done around the world by our Govt in the pursuit of wealth and power nor the chronic underclasses like the Blacks, Spanish and Illegals that comprise our country

[onlooker]

Oh and a good percentage of our population, I venture to say is deeply unhappy in pursuing a materialistic lifestyle which is inculcated from birth as the means to happiness and turns out to be hollow and unsatisfying.
And because of the constant cues for pleasurable stimulation, Americans have developed all sorts of unhealthy addictions

[Cog]

Are you a terrorist?

[Cog]

Bernie is a socialist and would have been a disaster for America. Even had a third of his policies been enacted, which they surely would not have been.

My best recommendation is to move where you think things are better and stay there.

[Cog]

I'm happy for them. Keep them there and the USA will chart its own path without your policies.

[Plantagenet]

Cog:

Look at the socialist backwaters like Australia and Canada.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/austral ... per-capita

One is nearly as rich as the U.S.A. and the other one is richer per capita.

The only difference really is that both Australia and Canada don't get the massive subsidy of the petro-dollar, so you could argue that their economies are stronger because of the 'evil socialism' that is 'destroying' them.

Why do you keep saying Australia and Canada are "socialist"?

Both countries actually have capitalist economies.

Cheers!

[onlooker]

Plant: Because they have the 'evils' of universal healthcare and high minimum wage. Two key policy positions that Bernie was going to inflict on the U.S. of A. In other respects they are quite similar.

Really can you tell me why Americans are so obstinate? You're literally the only western country to have such ridiculous health care costs and lack of universal availability.

Squil, because we are thy hyper Capitalist country

[sparky]

.
Australia is a fine country ,
We have a universal public health system with individual private insurance on top
the gap between the rich and the poor is less and the population is much better educated .
for a long time the idea of waving the flag in public would have been bizarre ,
( Muslim migrants did change this somehow )
we don't believe a word of our politicians and tend to hold a grudge if they welsh their campaign promises .
the thinking is if some bitter medicine has to be swallowed ,we like to have the news before the election.

[Cog]

Can you drop a 28,000 pound bomb on some terrorists in Afghanistan or land on the moon?

Get back to me when you can.

Here is an instructional video that explains why Americans are Americans and not something else.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNzXze5Yza8

[Plantagenet]

Plant: Because they have the 'evils' of universal healthcare and high minimum wage. Two key policy positions that Bernie was going to inflict on the U.S. of A. In other respects they are quite similar.

I have to disagree with you that universal healthcare is "evil." It can work pretty well if its adequately funded but nothing is perfect---universal healthcare does have an evil tendency to ration healthcare to save money.

In any event, universal healthcare doesn't make either Canada or Australia "socialist." Socialism refers to a specific kind of economic system where the government owns most or all of what is in the private sector in capitalist countries. Both Canada and Australia have a private healthcare system operating right along side the "universal" system, so not even their total healthcare systems are socialist, much less the rest of the economy. By the way, the US also already has partly gone to government healthcare through various programs like Medicare, Medicaid, the VA system, etc. but admittedly the private sector remains much larger in the US then in Canada or Australia.

As far as universal healthcare goes, I'm with Bernie on that one. But even if Bernie had won the presidency ----as he probably would've done if the DNC hadn't cheated to throw the election to Hillary----, he probably wouldn't have been able to enact universal healthcare. The Rs would've opposed it and the vast majority of Ds oppose it as well, including the main D leaders like Obama and Hillary.

Cheers!

[onlooker]

We can't get close too anything resembling universal because of our venerated Capitalism would not rake in the profits

[Plantagenet]

We can't get close too anything resembling universal because of our venerated Capitalism would not rake in the profits

Yup.

Look at how Obamacare is designed to guarantee profits to the giant insurance companies. The whole reason it is failing is not because people aren't getting their medical problems treated, but because Aetna and other giant insurance companies are losing money on their obamacare biz so they are dropping their existing obamacare patients and no longer offering ACA policies.

Cheers!

[onlooker]

We can't get close too anything resembling universal because of our venerated Capitalism would not rake in the profits

Yup.

Look at how Obamacare is designed to guarantee profits to the giant insurance companies. The whole reason it is failing is not because people aren't getting their medical problems treated, but because Aetna and other giant insurance companies are losing money on their obamacare biz so they are dropping their existing obamacare patients and no longer offering ACA policies.
You are agreeing, I am pretty surprised

Cheers!

[Outcast_Searcher]

When this country was founded it held such promise for Americans and indeed the world
Sorry to say the ideals and values of the USA have been eroding and decaying from its inception. The lofty words that founded this country "All Men are created equal" ushered in a brief moment in time whereby humanity could aspire to this inspirational goal to be embodied in this new country. An ideal that sadly was rare in our history. Alas it was not to be for America became the land that would exemplify our most base and primitive urges and instincts. Our country dedicated to hedonism. greed, violence, narcissism and selfishness. Rooted in an Economic philosophy that is anything but egalitarian
Martin Luther described all this quite well in his "I have a Dream speech"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I47Y6VHc3Ms

So try life in Venezuela, and gain some perspective.

[yellowcanoe]

Why do you keep saying Australia and Canada are "socialist"?

Both countries actually have capitalist economies.

Cheers!

It's only in the US that socialism is considered to be close to or equivalent in meaning to communism. European countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are both capitalist and socialist in nature according to the more common definition of socialism. Denmark, which has a pretty high level of social services (and a high tax level to support it) is actually reputed to be one of the easiest countries to setup a business in. http://www.heritage.org/index/country/denmark Of course you can find other examples of socialist countries that burden business with excessive regulation.