The United States is NOT a Developed Country by Western Standards

[Aerows]

Because we lack universal health care, tuition caps so that students aren't strapped until they 35 or 40 for daring to get an education, care for veterans, and a sound safety net.

By those standards, it really shouldn't surprise you. We aren't a "Developed Country."

That has occurred to me over the last couple of days.

We have decaying infrastructure, are focused purely on military spending above all else, and have an intrusive and militarized police force.

We have a lot of supposed "social trimmings". But a piece of candy isn't the same as being part of a society that takes care of each other. Takes care of our elderly, our children, values education, and takes care of our veterans instead of making new ones.

Explain to me why we are not a "Developed Country", because in all of those respects, we are most certainly not. We need to ask ourselves why we are not, before we can move towards how we can become a developed country again.

[Squinch]

1. In lots of other ways too. Everybody is better than us at keeping newborns and new mothers alive.

[Kilgore]

2. Don't agree with your premise

Having spent considerable time in Haiti, I consider the US very developed in every way. Perfect, no. The leader, no. But damn good compared with much of the world.

I shudder at some of the things I have seen there. It's hard not to kiss the ground when returning to Miami.

[elias49]

5. Haiti might not be a reasonable comparison. nt

[Aerows]

8. Hyperbole (Haiti) is the best defense

against a good point.

[Kilgore]

11. Actually I agree with the point you are making, but

Those of us which spent spent lots of time in third and fourth world countries, don't immediately jump to your train of logic.

[Aerows]

17. Kilgore

Hmm. It took you long enough to arrive.

[zentrum]

24. Not the way to look at it, Kilgore

You have to compare us to other actually developed countries, not 3rd and 4th world countries.

Also—I suggest you go to the really poor sections of our cities and you'll see tent cities. For the people living here—we're 3rd world.

Additionally—we have tremendous childhood poverty and food insecurity. We have a high (undercounted) homeless rate—including homeless children—how can this exist in a country that is developed?

We're a new phenomenon on the face of the earth—a once developed country that threw it away for ideological reasons.

[MsLeopard]

31. This^^^

Well said, and I couldn't agree more.

[Straw Man]

55. Let me quibble ...

We're a new phenomenon on the face of the earth—a once developed country that threw it away for ideological reasons.

We threw it away for economic reasons. Somewhere along the line, it was determined that the rich didn't have enough money.

[FiveGoodMen]

67. "it was determined that the rich didn't have enough money."

That's ideological.

[Straw Man]

68. Hmm ...

"it was determined that the rich didn't have enough money."

That's ideological.

Is greed an ideology?

[FiveGoodMen]

69. Greed is an ideology when people claim

that's it's the god-approved way to run an economy and that the rich should never be expected to give anything back (e.g. progressive taxation).

[Straw Man]

71. I think it masquerades as an ideology ...

... as a way of selling it to the masses who don't benefit from it, but the primary impulse is pure naked greed and self-interest above all else.

Should we call that an ideology? It's an honest question: I'm not entirely convinced, but I suppose we could.

[FiveGoodMen]

73. "Free-market" capitalism and the invisible hand

are ideological beliefs.

They claim that letting the greediest among us have their way in all cases -- and keep all the money (thus power) in the end -- will result in the best world for all of us.

No other religion can top that for being an ideology.

[Straw Man]

76. Fair enough.

Last edited Wed Dec 9, 2015, 01:19 AM - Edit history (1)

Although I firmly believe that this particular ideology is a lie that is not even believed by its promoters.

[FiveGoodMen]

77. I'd say that lots of ideologies are lies (maybe all?)

and that lots are not believe by their promoters.

But if the followers believe it, it should count.

[hifiguy]

82. Indeed, yet they are presented by Milton Friedman and the rest of

the neo-liberals, including the last two "Democratic" presidents, as if they are iron laws of nature. Which they are assuredly not.

John Kenneth Galbraith summed it up in one pithy quote: "The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for base selfishness."

[zentrum]

101. The ideology of

…….unregulated, monopolistic capitalism rationalizes greed. Normalizes it.

I think there's a reason not everyone wants 10000x's more than their neighbor. Greed does not have to be universal. There's a well known story about a German millionaire who spoke about how glad he was to have to pay high taxes and felt he should pay more. Why? Because, he said, he "didn't want to be a rich man in a poor country."

It's become the opposite of that in this country—because of relentless propaganda since the at least the 50's.

[smirkymonkey]

60. Your last sentence is a thread winner.

[Kilgore]

65. Have you actually been to a third or fourth world country?

what we have in our cities is nothing in comparison.

Food insecurity? Go deal with kids that are so malnourished that their organs are shutting down.

Try dealing with folks dying from diseases which are easily avoidable if their river was not flowing with sewage.

Yes we have problems, but we are a developed country with the processes to change what don't like. Let me tell you about a man I know in Haiti. He was politically active in his youth with the ideals of open and fair elections. After a few years of being vocal, the local "authorities" showed up at his home and dragged him out. In front of his neighbors and family, the took off his right arm at the elbow with a machete.

A blanket statement that the US is not a developed country sends me into orbit.

[zalinda]

75. But the Clinton Foundation went down there to help

build a multi-million dollar luxury hotel to help the citizens of Haiti? Yes, I read it some where that the Foundation was helping Haiti after the storm. I'm sure I even saw news footage of those very same talking points.

Z

[carla]

74. Thank you.

Sometimes arguing here is like talking to people who consider apples to be oranges. Not developed when compared to The Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Spain...I guess I could go on. I guess when you suck, you have to compare yourself to the worst just to be able to keep looking in the mirror.

[hifiguy]

81. Ayup.

[xocet]

96. Loss of down? n/t

[hifiguy]

97. Yes. It's an intentional foul.

[homegirl]

98. Thank you

for telling it like it is. Do you think Kilgore really believed he could sell that off the wall comparison on this site?

[zentrum]

102. I wondered that myself.

[hunter]

39. We are the English speaking version of Mexico. A perpetually "developing country."

The difference is we've got nukes. Submarines, aircraft carriers, bombs, and many other very expensive weapons systems.

We are also number one in propaganda, subtle and overt, every flavor of it.

We are the top banana of all the banana republics.

God Bless America!

[forest444]

54. There may be indeed be a Latin American parallel to what's being done to the U.S.: Argentina.

Being 10,000 miles away as it is, it's probably one of the most unfamiliar of the Western Hemisphere countries. Yet we share a number of similarities:

*Both countries were founded by Free Masons (Argentina, 40 years later). Many of both countries' presidents have been Masons as well.
*Argentina had no official slavery and few black people; but like the U.S. South, Argentina's balmy North had over a million Amerindians in slave-like conditions as recently as the 1940s harvesting cotton, tobacco, peanuts, citrus, lumber (many of the same crops as Dixie).
*Both initially grew along their eastern seaboards, expanding westward in the late 19th century by way of railroads and running roughshod over native peoples.
*Both were then reshaped socially and economically by a massive wave of European immigration from 1880 to 1930 (Argentina's immigrants were primarily from Italy and Spain, whereas U.S. immigrants at the time were from all over Europe).

But unlike the U.S., the Argentine economic elite were at first mainly large landowners who earned most of their income from selling cereals and other farm products. Some later diversified into commerce, banking, and industry, and some of the immigrants became prosperous in these areas as well; but Argentina never really developed a powerful class of industrialists and financiers like the U.S. did.

This left much of the power in the hands of 2,000 or so landowning families, most of whom had little interest in - and even resented - the development of Argentina as a industrialized consumer society. Why let others crowd in and potentially overshadow us, the rationale went.

Fast forward to 1975. Argentina had the largest percentage of middle class households and the best-paid, most unionized working class in Latin America. The country was nearly self-sufficient industrially and in energy, and was well on its way toward development.

A severe political crisis had struck, however, as well as spiraling violence from extremist elements. The conservative elite, who had only grudgingly accepted the changing Argentina, decided not to let this crisis go to waste and arranged a military coup the following March to reshape the economy to their liking (the appointed dictator confirmed this many years later).

Over the next 7 years, real wages were halved, unions were crushed, the tax burden was shifted away from the wealthy, finance was deregulated, "free trade" decimated local industry, and credit and homeownership were made all but inaccessible to all but the top 10% or so. Antiterrorism laws were used to deal not only with the violent; but with those who noticed these trends and objected.

The rest was predictable: what the U.S. went through in '08, Argentina went through in 1981. Fortunes were made overnight by the connected and quickly stashed away in tax havens, leaving everyone else with the mountain of bad debts and a weakened economy with few available good jobs or opportunities. Of course, unlike the U.S. Argentina couldn't "print" trillions of dollars to paper over the losses and bad debts - plus they had less to fall back on to begin with. And thanks largely to years of IMF-supported austerity-and-privatization policies, things then went from bad to worse.

Did Argentina recover? Eventually - and only after many of the pro-labor, pro-industry, pro-regulation policies advocated by Bernie Sanders were adopted from 2003 onward by the late Néstor Kirchner and his colorful wife Cristina Kirchner. They revived unions and collective bargaining, jobs returned, real wages almost doubled, pensions and the public health insurance option were recovered, access to mortgage and consumer credit was restored, and industry and small/medium business was encouraged.

They managed all this over the objections of the "business press" as well as the vitriolic objection of the Argentine elite themselves (who made more money than ever anyway!) and their own proxies in the media.

The Wall Street caste in the U.S. have become what the landed elite were in Argentina: people whose sense of entitlement had utterly gone to their heads, whose wealth had become largely independent of whether the country as a whole prospered, and who learned by way of high finance how to make all their money from money itself. The U.S. elites can still turn back though.

Will they? Or will they dig in their heels and, like Argentina's elites, continue pushing America into inequality and underdevelopment?

[Recursion]

59. Brazil may be a better comparison, but yes

We're a large, young, diverse post-colonial country, with all the advantages and disadvantages that come with all of those.

[Aerows]

6. This is exactly what I am talking about.

You compare our country with Haiti.

[Kilgore]

9. Then you need to be a bit more specific in your premise

The US is developed when compared to Haiti, but perhaps not others.

[Aerows]

13. It helps to be educated

when engaging in conversations about geopolitics.

[Kilgore]

15. See post #11

[Aerows]

18. Indeed - you agree. n/t

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

26. Comparing apples to oranges

We attempt to save many more babies who are born very early. Those births are often considered miscarriages in other countries.

Now, you may question the wisdom of attempting to save them, but it is what it is.

[Matariki]

34. Haiti might be a good example

of where we could head if Republicans get their way regarding privatization, deregulation, and slashing programs like social security and medicare.

Kisa wap fè nan Ayiti?

[w0nderer]

42. i'm comparing to a 4th world country! nt

[Horse with no Name]

3. I can summarize it nicely.

We have the best damned propaganda in the world....and unfortunately a military budget to enforce it.

[Aerows]

10. Which is exactly reminiscent of which regime, exactly,

in the '15's?

[Fast Walker 52]

22. hah, indeed

sucks

[99th_Monkey]

47. Not to mention a militarized police force at every local level n/t

[951-Riverside]

4. The amount of guns available and homeless people on the streets should clue you in

America is a violent 3rd world shithole with pockets of "safe zones" for upper to middle class folks mixed in then you've got the rural racist extremists in remote areas.

[Aerows]

7. It appears we have some serious interior cleaning up to do

to be a proper developed nation.

[hifiguy]

83. The problem is that the people who run things -

those with the $$$ - think the masses are leading a life that is far too secure and cushy as it is. They only want their "fair share" - EVERY LAST DIME, and have been in the unobstructed process of taking it for the last 35 years. Two "Democratic" presidents have done nothing to halt and much to advance the project of the oligarchs.

The Haiti comparison may well be apt another 50 years down this road. A Russia comparison will probably be spot on in less than ten.

[LittleBlue]

12. Those are dangerous questions. We're somewhere between a developed nation and a banana republic

Not to make your thread about Hillary and Jeb, but we're starting to see political ideologies attached to political dynasties. Like the Peronists in Argentina. Unfortunately our modern political dynasties see politics as a way to enrich themselves. The days of the Kennedys are gone.

Our military feels omnipresent. Celebrated at every sports game, venerated even. Funded before everything else.

And behind it all are corporations that see countries as inconsequential. They move, their tendrils invading every facet of life, and they have no loyalty except to maximize profits.

Your questions have answers that nobody likes to think about because it creates despair. It's hard to acknowledge that despite being a democracy, we're fairly powerless.

[Aerows]

14. On the fucking contrary!

There is no dangerous question, and we had best start asking them.

We are as powerless as we allow ourselves to be.

The day I quit attempting to make life better for both myself, the creatures around me, and my fellow man, is the day I am no more.

Today is not that day.

[LittleBlue]

19. Very true

I should have said that these questions seem dangerous to anyone with a political career. Those who go down this path of thinking seems to miss out on the military-industrial gravy train, which practically precludes them from power. Implementing a solution is going to take the 99% uniting behind one another, and we know how that goes.

[elias49]

50. Ooof!

The game is close to over.

[AZ Progressive]

16. The United States is a developed (but rough in some edges) nation if you compare it to other nations

and human development in history.

For example, much of the world don't even have access to flush toilets:

A new study in Environmental Science & Technology estimates six out of 10 people on planet Earth don’t have access to flush toilets or adequate water-related sanitation. In other words, 4.2 billion human beings desperately need a technology you use every day and couldn’t give less of a shit about

- http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/02/22/_60_percent_of_the_world_population_still_without_toilets.html

And of the places that do, not all of them are sit down toilets. Much of the world actually has this as a toilet:



A squat toilet, where you actually have to squat to do your business. Sitting is a luxury.


In Latin American third world countries, imagine buying meat from the street filled with fly eggs. I've personally witnessed this.


How about India?

Imagine traveling like this:



Even if your on the inside (which should also be pretty crowded), it'd be pretty uncomfortable for western standards. Not to mention how slow the train is due to all the weight.

[onehandle]

21. Squatting to use the toilet is actually a healthier and more natural position.

On the other hand, having total access to guns is not natural, nor is it healthy.

But I digress... as you did.

The OP was clearly not about the third world.

[Fast Walker 52]

23. I was going to point that out about the toilet too

And you're right about guns too.

[drmeow]

30. Japan has squat toilets eom

[AZ Progressive]

44. Owning a car is also basically a luxury in Japan

Anyway, Japan's way too crowded for people to all be able to have a car.

[drmeow]

49. But it doesn't mean

lack of sitting toilets equals undeveloped as I'm pretty sure Japan qualifies as a developed country.

[haikugal]

79. Japan has mass transit we have very little. You almost have to have a car in the US. n/t

[AZ Progressive]

89. You'd appreciate having to use a car if you had to ride in crowded subway trains all the time...

not to mention during flu season...

[haikugal]

91. I have and I do appreciate the time saved as well, however....we need mass transit.

[greatauntoftriplets]

80. Squat toilets are extremely common throughout Asia.

First one I ever saw was in Florence, Italy, and since then I've seen (and used) plenty more in Europe. When I was in Asia, my hotel rooms also had regular toilets, but most in public places were the squat version.

[Aerows]

20. Perhaps I should have stated "By Western Standards"

Hopefully that makes it simpler.

[RoccoR5955]

25. The first time I went to the Netherlands last year

I felt like I came home to a second world country.
Not just because of healthcare, but the roads are in great shape, all the power, water, and utility lines are underground (with the exception of high voltage power lines). Windmills are everywhere, producing power. People are happy. They have a great public transportation system. Organic foods don't cost as much as they do here in the US.
I swear, when I came back, and landed at JFK, and it took 6 hours to travel the same distance that it took me two hours to go by public transportation, I knew that I was not in a first world country.
I went back there this October (my girlfriend lives in Wageningen) and saw so much art, and history, so much modern architecture, so much dedication to public spaces, so much of a better attitude among people that I think I want to retire there!

[TryLogic]

37. As someone said, we have the best propaganda.

We have the most guns and lots of religion. We have the sickest political party in the developed or semi-developed world -- I am referring to the non-democratic party, of course. We have some of the dumbest, most irresponsible citizens who repeatedly fall for the propaganda and the fictitious, bullsh* news. We have politicians like Trump and Cruz, and too many idiot congress critters to name.

On the other hand, my midsized little town in Colorado now has 60 volunteers working for Bernie with more joining every day, and this is not known as a blue community.

[KittyWampus]

90. Holland also has a levee system that prevents tragedies like Katrina/NOLA.

[Snobblevitch]

27. The U.S. does not have universal health care,

but the health care we have can be pretty good. If not, the Saudis would not be showing up in Rochester, Minnesota and renting out entire hotel floors.

[hunter]

66. That's simply not true. We have the best medicine sales people.

Outcomes of medical interventions in the U.S.A. for people with unlimited funds or very excellent health insurance tend to be rather mediocre.

Seriously, many wealthier people would get better care showing up anonymously at some Médecins Sans Frontières clinic, and then (maybe too hopefully) repay the debt with a large anonymous donation to that organization. (Well, maybe, best on days the U.S.A. isn't bombing medical clinics.)

Wealthy Saudis come to the U.S.A. for a variety of reasons. Wealthy people in Saudi Arabia generally don't trust their peers or their staff, and among the upper classes it's a culture of paying others to do the dirty work. People of the wealthier connected classes tend to be unwilling to do the hard and messy work it requires to become a good doctor.

In the U.S.A., Michael Jackson, Joan Rivers, Rush Limbaugh, for example, are frequently sold inappropriate and deadly medical care in their doctor shopping.

There are great doctors in the U.S.A., some of the best in the world, but those doctors don't tend to be in the profession for the money or the celebrity.

There are also lazy doctors who quit studying the day they graduate from residency, and then depend for the remainder of their careers upon the medical "education" provided by flirty pharmaceutical reps, and continuing medical education courses set in vacation destinations.

[Phlem]

28. Nope, it's victorian era England only with

bedazzled shiny colors, sequin and lights!!!

New wardrobe same ole shit.

[hifiguy]

86. Indeed.

[Cleita]

29. Decaying is the operative word here.

Thanks for the insight. I once lived in a "developing" nation at a time that this nation was the richest and supposedly best in the world. It seems to have peaked and is now "decaying." It's sad.

[Fozzledick]

32. What we have become is a second world nation.

People sometimes say that we've become a third world nation, but that's a gross exaggeration. Although we've fallen below the standard of living of the industrialized first world democracies, we're still well above the crushing poverty of the undeveloped agrarian third world.

Where we are now is more like Russia and China: our economy is industrialized, but we no longer enjoy the economic advantages of democracy because our government is controlled by a corrupt, self-serving elite that sucks all the real wealth and economic growth out of the country for itself.

[AZ Progressive]

36. +1

Probably not as bad as Russia and China, but definitely not to the level of Europe and Japan.

[smirkymonkey]

61. ^This^

[AZ Progressive]

33. The Europeans haven't had to deal with racism that makes public support of welfare go down

Americans have stopped caring about poor people ever since Reagan started promoting the idea of the "welfare queen" which had to be black obviously to get the people riled up. The crusade on welfare in America has largely been fueled by racism.

[niyad]

35. don't forget to mention the treatment of women--we rank 76th in the world in terms of women

in the political arena. no equal pay, and a rape culture whose existence is denied.

[F4lconF16]

40. +1

It's always forgotten.

Edit: also, see racial caste system, page 76.

[AZ Progressive]

38. You also have to remember that Western Europe focused on making a welfare state

during the postwar period whereas America spent a lot of money on the Cold War and the defense budget ever since. So Europeans spent their tax money largely on helping their citizens while America spent much of it on arming itself and fighting wars (and less toward helping citizens.)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

46. Germany and Japan lost World War II.

Japan had been forbade by the Allies as terms of surrender to rebuild their armies. Probably Germany too as part of their surrender, I don't know. My dad was in the Air Force in Europe (Army Air Corps before it was a separate branch) and he said they had instructions never to bomb Fiat car plants. Fiat has been the largest car maker in the world at one time. I don't know what rank it has now.

So instead of building money on defense, they made excellent cars and rebuilt their industrial machine.

And in the 1970s Americans started buying German and Japanese cars that were far better made than the crap that Detroit had foisted on us for decades. And Detroit was blindsided by cars made with safety features, better technology and higher quality. Detroit fought seat belts and air bags ferociously. They didn't understand that safety could be a selling point. So the Germans and Japanese and South Koreans have a large share of the car and motorcycle markets in the U.S.

Now Japan and Germany consider the US to be a third-world country in terms of labor costs, and VW and Toyota have car assembly plants in the Southern non-union states. Germany makes twice as many cars per year as the U.S. does, and pays their workers twice as much, on average, in Germany as the average American auto worker is paid, and still manage to make a good profit, social safety net and all. And the workers and management work together to solve problems, instead of having the adversarial relationship of unions and management.

What a concept!

[The2ndWheel]

52. And everyone has been cool with that setup for the most part

The US military is the de facto developed world's military, but only the U.S. taxpayer pays for it, so nobody can tell the U.S. Government no on the world stage. Europe doesn't have to really pay for a military, so they have that extra money to spend on social stuff.

[SmittynMo]

41. Let's see here.

Universal Health Care? Tuition free education? Veteran assistance? Repairing the infrastructure? Fixing a broken police force and prison system?

Funny you bring these up. ONLY ONE PERSON running for president is talking about all of these, with resolution. It seems pretty obvious to me as to what to do.

I mean, it's about as obvious as calling Jordan Smith the winner of The Voice. Right? (For those that watch). They should just give him the win now.

Vote for Bernie. It's sooooo obvious what to do.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

43. We have a decaying infrastructure so people believe times are tough....

That way we won't expect a raise.

Meanwhile:

[AZ Progressive]

45. But they WORKED HARD to steal our money!

And Americans always praise hard work!!!

[ileus]

48. What dump we live in....Hard to believe folks want to live here.

Seems like since America is such a shitty place everyone would be walking to Mexico and Canada to live.

[erronis]

94. It is a conundrum. But we still have a lot of positives that haven't been destroyed

by the real takers (the ones that are holding the money bags, in case you don't understand.)

We have been oversold for centuries as the land of the free, the land of honey, the land of opportunity.

Fortunately with almost instant information transfer most of the world can see that we are another country, just like most. Promises but no realization.

We still have a lot more land per person than most other habitable countries. Of course, a lot of that land is guarded by fierce "patriots" that don't want to see anyone else other than their inbred spawn occupying a patch.

We do have a ton of wealth compared to most countries. Unfortunately that wealth is well tied-up in bamboozlements to keep it out of helping society. And as much as possible, it doesn't even reside here - except in the excessive mansions (and pictured yacht.)

We are well known for our fine universities. For quite a while they were actually good in all fields. Now the only ones that excel are the ones that profit from the MIPC (MI-Political-C). The rest have become money-grubbing diploma mills.

Yes, there is a flow of people that need better lives than what they can get in their native lands. That's why most of us whitey's are here (with ensuing destruction of other inhabitants.)

However, I don't think we've even begun to see the influx of desperate humans that need some dry ground, some sustenance, some hope for life. This will be the next generation's problem since WE are so poor at looking at our planet as a Whole Thing.

[Dustlawyer]

51. Its because we have allowed corporations to take over our government and control the mass media.

Because we have been too stupid to understand that when you allow, no, practically require, your politicians to take legal bribes in order to stay in office, you get what you deserve!

[The2ndWheel]

53. Compare the U.S. population to others around it

Third highest population on the world. Most of the top 10 are developing nations. So we sort of have a developing world population in terms of numbers, plus all of the immigration. Mixed in with what is a developed world's economy.

There's not really another country that has the same variables to account for. We also have our own unique social and political history, for good or bad. Also a fairly large land area nation. Everything in Europe is compact, because those are older cities. In the US, the further west you go, the less compact it is.

If it was all easy, things would've been taken care of by now.

[Quantess]

56. The USA is undoubtably in decline for the majority of Americans, I agree.

The inequality is extreme! But still, life in the US is comparatively okay. It's great if you're rich.

The US is not the greatest country in the world anymore, but it's still okay.

[prouddemfromaustin44]

57. As long as the US has no universal healthcare, it will never be considered a developed nation

I just hope the American people will come to their senses, so that it may become a fully developed country. But I'm not holding my breath.

[Recursion]

58. In lots of other ways, too. Brazil is a pretty good comparison.

I don't know why so many people have such a hard time accepting that. Exceptionalism, I guess.

[1939]

63. If Brazil = same as US

Why is South Florida so full of Brazilians? Why don't they like it in Brazil?

[Recursion]

64. It's not the same

We're two countries that face similar challenges, that most of OECD don't.

[BeyondGeography]

78. It's much safer here, especially for women

http://www.americasquarterly.org/content/sexual-harassment-brazil-starts-age-nine-heres-what-one-group-doing-about-it

Apart from death-by-gun, of course.

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Brazil/United-States/Crime

[EX500rider]

93. "Apart from death-by-gun, of course."

The Brazilian homicide rate is over 6 times worse then the US.

US rate: 3.8 per 100,000
Brazil: 25.2 per 100,000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

[BeyondGeography]

99. Oops; I was looking at ownership...my bad

Our gun ownership rate is 11X higher; people collect them like they're beanie baby dolls. Obviously, a lot of them just sit on the shelf.

So, to the original point, they're here because it's safer.

[AZ Progressive]

92. Brazil's cities are much more dangerous than American cities

Brazil's murder rate is very high.

Also, their health standards are not up to our level. Example:

Rio De Janeiro's waters are full of sewage that its becoming a problem for next year's Olympics:

The July water samples revealed a shocking level of viruses and bacteria from human feces — in some cases, up to 1.7 million times what would be considered hazardous on a California beach, according to the AP.

- http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/even-far-shore-rio-olympic-water-dangerously-polluted-ap-finds-n472961

[Recursion]

100. Right, about as much more dangerous than our cities as our are than Canada's (nt)

[Scuba]

62. If we can't afford to educate our children, to heal our sick or care for our elderly ...

... just what is it the defense budget is defending?

[hifiguy]

85. The people and corporations with all the money

and their interests, absolutely nothing else.

[Scuba]

87. You mean like the Navy protecting international trade?

Or the Army protecting oil wells?

Special Forces quelling "rebels" harassing Central American plantations? (Read: killing worker rights leaders.)




But we can't afford education, healthcare or elder care while all corporations pay historically low tax rates, many are paying zero and some very profitable ones are being subsidized.

But we can't afford education, healthcare or elder care.

[hifiguy]

88. Bingo. The highest priority of this nation is

protecting these people's assets:

[FairWinds]

70. I know a public health nurse that visited Cuba . .

and concluded that the average Cuban lives better than
the average person in Athens County, Ohio

[GreatGazoo]

84. Last country on Earth not using the metric system

We talk about STEM but make no move to abandon an unscientific archaic measurement system.

[MerryBlooms]

95. rec & kick

Add: voter suppression, shady elections, buying elections, and illegal redistricting... we're definitely also sucking hind tit in the 'Developed Country', elections status.