<p>Great response false false false false … I like it when people make my point. It seems like a blind standard response, exactly why this country needs fresh blood, a different perspective. </p>
<p>This forum is a nice contribution to exchange different opinions, also a great source for sociological research ideas. A big thank you to the founders.</p>
<p>was talking about his feelings that America is greedy and lacking ethics, and the statistics prove that most Americans feel that way too.</p>
<hr>
<p>If “most” Americans feel that way, then why are we still greedy and lacking ethics? If each person who feels that way were to take personal responsibility for being less greedy and becoming more ethical … then MOST of America would no longer be greedy or lacking ethics. Correct???</p>
<p>kels, to be fair, I think it’s that everyone thinks that “everyone else” is unethical. Another example of this is Congress ratings. Congress’ ratings are TERRIBLE and yet every year we see the same faces. Everyone ELSE’S congresspeople are bad, but not ours. Just like WE live in a good place but other Americans are unethical. The statistics actually backed him up regarding Americans’ perceptions of each other.</p>
<p>Fwiw, those numbers don’t surprise me at all. Nor is the immediate attack when America is questioned.</p>
<p>Pancake…you’re right…</p>
<p>" I am just disappointed because I thought this country would be great. </p>
<p>. I didn’t mean to offend people, "</p>
<p>Oh gag…</p>
<p>Right…that’s not insulting. Good heavens, weren’t you taught any manners? You move here, you’re disappointed, so leave. No need to insult the country that took you in (and probably has given you aid.)</p>
<p>Believe me…Switzerland wouldn’t be generous to my kids if they just moved there. lol</p>
<p>And…why does Switzerland have those bank accts where people can stash money to avoid taxes and stuff???</p>
<p>And…be grateful that the US won WWII…Switzerland wouldn’t have been able to keep it’s neutral state forever. It would have been absorbed and become non-existant. </p>
<p>The US is great. It’s the best country on this planet. People crawl on their hands and knees to get here. Canada is largely a homogenous nation which does allow it to escape some problems. Maybe we should ship some of our illegals there…and see how Canada deals with that issue. </p>
<p>lol</p>
<p>“The US is great. It’s the best country on this planet. People crawl on their hands and knees to get here. Canada is largely a homogenous nation which does allow it to escape some problems. Maybe we should ship some of our illegals there…and see how Canada deals with that issue”</p>
<p>Hahahahahaha that’s the dumbest statement I have heard in a while. The fact that you even say that the US is the best country on this planet just shows how arrogant you are. </p>
<p>Who crawls on their hands to get here??? Mexicans? Obviously the standards of living are better then in Mexico, so they come here. Makes sense. Foreign students come here to study at brilliant universities (some of them are in fact great) but then many of them return to their country. </p>
<p>You can say negative things about Switzerland, I don’t take it personally. Although I would not be as pretentious as to say that the US saved us lol. My country is not perfect and I would never say it’s the best country in the world, because that’s arrogant (an attitude you and many Americans have). If I had to pick which countries are among the best according to my knowledge, I would pick Sweden and Denmark. </p>
<p>If people in the US stopped thinking their country is the best in the world, maybe they would question some of what is going on here and actually do something about it to improve what doesn’t work. But no, the US doesn’t look at other countries that are doing MUCH better because they think they are the best and rule the world. It’s just a terrible attitude.</p>
<p>I certainly think we have some soul-searching to do in the U.S., and we should constantly strive to become a better country. I don’t think we’re all that bad, though, and neither do the MANY immigrants I met while working at a very, very diverse college.</p>
<p>gai, stop. You had some great points (that many would agree with) and now you’re ruining them, and your arguments, by your immature behavior. Be the bigger person.</p>
<p>kels, I agree with that. I think part of the reason that many Americans are unhappy is because we’ve never known anything else. We can be much, much better than we are but immigrants know how much worse things COULD be. Immigrants focus on the positives, Americans tend to focus on the negatives.</p>
<p>Lol I guess people REALLY cannot take any criticism. Unbelievable.</p>
<p>How is my behavior immature??? Is expressing my opinion immature? Is the fact that I criticize your country immature? I thought this was a nice debate, and I have not been bothered by anyone who posted, except mom2collegekids, because I truly can’t stand the arrogance. Oh well, I still appreciate everyone’s contribution.</p>
<p>I love dramatic people. Haven’t had that much fun reading for a while. ‘Good heavens, where are your manners’ is great. Almost as good as ‘People crawl on their hands and knees to get there’. </p>
<p>If you are critical you MUST have no-manners (nice play with words).</p>
<p>If you move somewhere and are disappointed you should stay and make it better. That is the decent thing to do. Wait, I said this already. That’s fine. It is obviously a necessary reminder.</p>
<p>Uhh. The country took you in. Like all the other immigrant that make it great. Without immigrants, the US would probably still have slavery. It’s true, the continuous immigration flow with fresh, common sense people brought finally enlightenment into this country. Thank you immigrants. Maybe one day the country can pay us back by doing something good to other countries besides warfare. </p>
<p>Switzerland has no need to repair worldwide exploitation like the US. Only by coming here and fixing US inconsideration to other cultures because of its ethnocentrism, will the world improve. </p>
<p>Take a look at US corporations, Monsanto a prime example --patenting life (ridiculous). Exploding foreign resources, destroying other economies along the way (who, by the way stash their money in Switzerland, Bahamas, etc.), and expect peaceful enjoyment of other nation’s resources is just evil. </p>
<p>Having to immigrate here just to get a small portion back, is a response that was imposed by US economic exploitation. Without the need to retrieve some of the stolen economy, no person with sense from a collective culture would voluntarily expose himself or herselve to the overly competitive social class system in the US</p>
<p>By the way, I doubt that any country could take over Switzerland. It has mountains like Afghanistan but modern weapons pointing down and up from Mountains in every valley. Why do you think Hitler never even tried it? And this guy was insane. Not even the US could accomplish this. It still does not control Afghan mountains with people that have very limited weaponry. </p>
<p>It is true that the US is not homogeneous which makes some thing difficult but it is also the one big thing that makes it worth living here, the diversity of cultures. I am glad to contribute to that with my fellow immigrants.</p>
<p>Rudysh…</p>
<p>AMEN to what you posted, that’s brilliant and more articulate than I could have put it.</p>
<p>I have to say that one of the reasons I come to CC so often is to exchange ideas and discuss ways that certain things might be improved. Plus, I just like a good philosophical debate. Many of the posters here do just that, but the ones who have their head stuck in the sand really irk me (about any issue, not just this one). Kels and Roman in #82 and #83 are a perfect example of cordial and reasoned point/counterpoint types of responses. A very few of the other posts: not so much. </p>
<p>If people would try to be objective and rational they would see that some of what Gaiou said is true.</p>
<p>Now, to open up a different can of worms: his point about a 2 party system is one that I have made for years. If you look back at our history there have always been more than 2 legitimate alternatives until the last half century or so. Political parties also come and go every few generations as society changes. That hasn’t happened lately and I personally think the polarization of our politics is part of what is hurting us right now. </p>
<p>I was talking with two middle aged friends last night (and one’s college age son) and we were discussing how Ron Paul certainly won’t win the election, but he may be setting the stage for a viable third party in the future with his appeal to the younger generation.</p>
<p>If you take the fact that OP states that he is from out of the country out of this conversation, I think it will look very familiar. There are many posts on CC from others that mimic OP’s. It is hard to hear someone from another country put the US down. But much of what OP is saying is true, especially from her perspective coming from Switzerland. They have a great universal healthcare system, their educational program is great, including coverage for college and graduate if you have the grades and hard work to back it up. BUT, they pay for these opportunities in a very high tax rate. They are considered a very happy/content people, healthy, less stressed, work fewer hours, have much better vacation and time off benefits (like many European countries do), and nice. And they do believe in"taking care of their own". As for health care, they are responsible for some of the cutting edge research and development out there. As for Canada, we have bus loads of senior citizens that head to canada to buy meds and medical care because they cannot vet it here.
Switzerland is also a smaller country, and implementing some of these practices is more manageable.
The US has amazing health care, unfortunately, it is inaccessible to too many people. The fact that we have kids that die because the parents can not afford dental care is a crime. And we all know that our educational system needs work from K- post-grad.
My point is that OP is not completely wrong, despite the hurt feelings here. The OP is not saying that the US is the worst country, but we definitely have work to do to live up to the hype. I think that we might all agree on that. </p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>^^^^ AMEN!!! One of my favorite posts in a while</p>
<p>Great posts in formulation and fairness. TV4 and vlin make it easy to see advantages in the US. Extremist formulations like mom2 make it hard to like the US. I have to admit that the political system is not the problem but that corporations seem to gain more and more control over it, especially through mass media. Informed people is probably the only way to fix that in future. Thank you guys.</p>
<p>I don’t want to get into a big discussion about health care or the Canadian vs American way of doing things, but I will throw this little example out there. I have a Canadian Aunt who was recently hospitalized. One of the ways they save money is by putting patients of the opposite sex in the same room if there is not a room for them with their own sex. My own mother was appalled and said she would never agree to that for our system. I asked her to think about it logically and tell me what the difference is whether there is a thin wall between the beds, or a curtain. </p>
<p>The curtain stays drawn the entire time which means you have no idea if it’s a man, woman, or alien in the bed next to you- and you shouldn’t care (IMO). </p>
<p>I’m guessing that if you proposed that for the US as a cost saving measure that it would be met with a huge backlash. In my opinion it shouldn’t be. BTW- my mother did end up sort of agreeing with me. :)</p>
<p>OK, enough of my philosophical posts for one night.</p>
<p>TV4Caster and Vlines:</p>
<p>Thank you for your input, I really appreciate that you understand where I’m coming from. I know I don’t always come off in the best way and I am working on that. However, what bothers me is that many times people don’t even try to hear me out, they just shut me down and tell me to suck it and go back to Switzerland if it’s so much better. Saying that really doesn’t bring anything to the discussion, even though it may be a human reaction to someone who criticize their country. However, it really limits the opportunity for constructive debates when people have that attitude. No matter what I said, if I even dare to criticize the US, people get so offended because apparently they think it’s the best country in the world. I just don’t understand how people can identify with their country so much. I LOVE Switzerland, but it doesn’t define who I am (at least not completely) and I am more than happy to hear people’s criticisms and have a discussion. I could never say that my country is the best country in the world because I would just feel arrogant. I don’t pretend to be right on everything, but at least I have lived in both countries (Switzerland and US) and I just like to discuss the differences.</p>
<p>TV4Caster…</p>
<p>Very interesting example. I think that putting patients of the opposite sex in the same room if there is not a room for them with their own sex is a great idea.</p>
<p>Alright have a good rest of the day everyone, I have to go study now :)</p>
<p>Lol gai there is plenty of pride in our country, it is one of the most endearing things about US citizens. We have made an art out of being patriotic! I can see how that may seem unusual to someone that grew up in a country that does not have the same level of patriotism (I am not saying that Switzerland LACKS patriotism).</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID RAZR using CC</p>
<p>Yeah that’s true. And I don’t think it’s bad to be proud of your country at all, I just see it taken to the extremes sometimes, which can be annoying. </p>
<p>Switzerland doesn’t necessarily lacks patriotism, they just don’t express it as much. But again, that really depends on the person. I actually became more patriotic after I moved here, weird huh?</p>