Is Canada or Mexico a better comparison to the US?
This came up in a couple of threads on guns but it seems to apply to a lot of things so I thought I would break out an OP for this (and hopefully we don't have to bring guns into this).
My contention is that the US is more like the revolutionary democracies to our south than the social democracies to our north and in Europe. My arguments:
Like Mexico, Brazil, and pretty much the rest of Latin America, the US has a Federal government organized along Montesquieu's lines with a strong executive independent of the legislature; the head of state is also the chief of government. Canada and the European countries basically all have a parliamentary system with a weak executive tied to the legislature, and a figurehead head of state (a monarch in some cases; a ceremonial president in others). Elections in the US and Latin America are at scheduled times and there are frequently irregularities in the casting and counting of votes. Elections in Canada and Western Europe (and I'm going to stop adding "in general" and other qualifiers like that from this point on; let this be a blanket acknowledgement of some exceptions) are not scheduled and are generally free from serious irregularities.
Life expectancy at birth is in the low 80s in Canada and Europe; it's in the high 70s in the US and Latin America.
The Gini coefficient (a common measure of income and wealth inequality) of Canada and Europe is in the 20s and 30s; it's in the 40s and 50s in the US and Latin America. (Lower is better, or at least more equal.)
Homicide rates (what started this whole question) are not quite so easy to categorize.
For Canada and Europe, they're around 1.2 per 100K. For Latin America, they're in the teens. We're at about 5 per 100k, or basically right in between them.
Our per capita GDP is also a weird one; it's off the charts high, higher than Latin America or Europe (Canada's is too). The US and Canada are up there with places like Brunei and the UAE (and it's no coincidence that the US and Canada have a ton of natural resources, too.)
Now, for the less chart-able stuff:
The US and Latin America are revolutionary democracies with histories of slavery and a still-present underclass along racial lines (for most of central America it's indigenous peoples rather than persons of African descent.) Canada and Europe are not; they have racial minorities descended from people who came there willingly.
Canada and Europe have strong, functional safety nets and are, in short, full social democracies. The US and Latin America are not (for one thing, the system of government I mentioned above makes it structurally difficult to effectively become a social democracy -- parliaments can in general pass laws more easily than federal republic systems).
Another interesting point is that though I have placed us with Latin America, on everything but Gini we're in between Latin America and Canada/Europe. I suppose you could see us as the most European of the Latin American countries or the most Latin American of the European countries. And I suppose that's also the question.
Anyways like I said this came up in a series of threads on guns. Not to drag that flamebait in, but the reason it was an issue was because we were comparing our homicide rate to various countries. For instance, we have a much higher homicide rate than Canada, but a much lower one than Venezuela. (And much weaker gun laws than both.) Which one is the apt comparison?
I just don't see us as a social democracy. I'd like for us to be one, but I'm not sure our cultural and constitutional makeup really make it entirely possible, so I'm stuck doing what I can to clean stuff up around the edges (eg PPACA rather than a real public health care system). Any thoughts? (And, yes, I mentioned guns but that was just the starting point and I'd really rather not have this devolve into that discussion if possible.)
= new reply since forum marked as read
Let's look at population density: Mexico is #1 among the three, with my country in last place, even though we're #1 in geographic area. People with less personal space must adjust accordingly, and that includes mindset as well as societal structure.
My country is vast, and vastly underpopulated. That sets off a different socioeconomic paradigm from the get-go.
Your country. America. Well.
I am very honest in saying I admire you people. I am equally honest in saying the reason I admire you people is that you are totally FUCKING insane! What industrialized country on Earth is still debating evolution? What other country allows the open display of flags which commemorate the most shameful part of its past? (Hey, try hoisting a swastika in Germany. You WILL be arrested.) What other country believes it normal to have people walking around in public, going into schools, going into malls, going into churches with loaded handguns on them???
But, insanity is a two-way street. I mean, seriously, in the late 18th century, what would make a group of farmers with no former military organization think they could rise up and expel the British Empire---the most powerful since Rome itself---from their little collection of Ruritanias? Ridiculous!
And why the Hell would two brothers from a hick town in Ohio think they could do what people had dreamed of from the time before civilization, building a machine that could fly like the birds do? Preposterous!
And what fucking LUNATIC came up with the idea---ladies and gentlemen, suppress your guffaws!---that men could, one day, walk on the Moon??? Oh Stop It! You're killing me! 
Your weaknesses and your strengths are not opposed, my American friends: They are fused into the alloy of your national character. Thus, despite all the justified praise and the equally-justified condemnation, it is you, the United States of America, which best represents all off humankind: The bad, the good, and everything in between.
What shall ye choose? (Just to take the pressure off, I wanna remind you that the fate of all humanity rests upon your decision. Happy Friday.)
