The apparent front runners in the United State Presidential Election Primaries over the last few days have been arguing over whether America is a ‘Great Country.’
Trump has said he will make America great again.
Clinton has said, America has never stopped being great.
Made me think.
I wonder what both Trump and Clinton are using as yard sticks for a country’s greatness?
Now let me start out stating that I genuinely love America. I have been there many times. (16 actually but who is counting?) I have studied there, holidayed there, preached there: there is much of America I love. I am thankful America is an ally of Australia. I have enjoyed its best and I have seen its worst:- having spent time on Skid Row in LA. (And seen the incredibly sad side of the homeless issue in San Francisco).
But is America a great country?
I would suggest yes. There are some great things about America.
But then I start to wonder.
I wonder if in a great country, 610,000 people experience homelessness on any given night?
I wonder would a great country incarcerate more of its population than any other country in the world?
I wonder would a great country have more school shootings that any other country?
I wonder would a great country be the only advanced economy in the world that doesn’t require companies to give workers paid vacations?
I wonder would a great country export more weapons than any other country and often ending up in the hands of despots and terrorists?
Would a great country not guarantee workers paid sick pay?
Would a great country have 89 guns per 100 people? That’s the equivalent to 89% of the population being armed.
Would a great country kill 57.7 million unborn babies over the last 50 years?
Would a great country have more babies dying on their birthday than any industrialized nation?
Would a great country have medical bills so huge that 62% of all personal bankruptcies are caused by these medical bills?
Would a great country have the 4th largest wealth gap in the world?
Would a great country have their police force kill 2,500 of its citizens in the last five years: and just for the record this compares to 35 in UK and 5 per year in Germany: In fact the German police force used 85 bullets in that entire time: which incidentally is a little more than the bullets used to kill one mentally ill homeless person in Michigan.
Would a great country have more 17 year old black people in jail than in college?
Would a great country have the 3rd worst poverty rate among the developed world?
Surely a great country wouldn’t waste 31% of the food it produces. For the record that is 60 billion kilos…. Now think of those images you see on TV of starving kids. Sorry I meant to say 60 thousand million kilos of food thrown away?
Would a great country put an 81 year old women in prison for feeding the birds?
Would a great country have a population where 70% of them are on at least one prescription drug and astoundingly 20% of them are on at least 5 prescription drugs.
Actually I wonder if a great country would have the highest rate of illegal use of drug use on the entire planet?
Would a great country have 56% of its population having a subprime credit….if you don’t understand this…go and see The Big Short?
Would a great country have one in 6 people on food stamps and just for comparison in 1970 it was one in 50?
I wonder if a great country would have the highest divorce rate in the world by a significant margin. I also wonder why this actually is?
Related to the above: one third of children in America grows up in a house without a dad.
I wonder if a great country would have 25% of teens having an STD.
Would a great country be the biggest producer of pornography in the world with a significant amount of this being child porn.
Would a great country be the second most obese in the world, second only to Mexico.
Would a great country have white police who shoot unarmed black men.
Now this blog is not about America bashing. It’s just my frustration at the inane and unhelpful subject material that passes as robust political debate in the world’s biggest democracy. Maybe Clinton and Trump need to stop arguing for the patriotic vote and start to debate how to fix some of America’s biggest issues.
Just for some entertainment, I thought this clip out of the TV show The Newsroom has some good stats, although I will confess I have not checked if they are accurate.
Ps Peter Pilt
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Sources:
http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-america-the-best-country-in-the-world
http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/no-america-is-not-a-great-nation/
http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-25-more-signs-that-america-is-not-1-2012-6
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/02/us/american-exceptionalism-other-countries-lessons/
Categories: Current Affairs
peterpilt 
Hi Peter,
Interesting questions. I think that Trump is onto something when recognises that USA hasn’t been great in years, probably decades, to the point where Reagan might have been in power at the time…
So many of the issues you raise are incredibly complex and I doubt that any politician can resolve them. I would go so far as to say that without a significant move of God, (possibly triggered by WW3 or something equally significant), this proud nation is in serious ever-worsening trouble. I reckon that politicians stopped talking about these issues years ago because although they recognise them as serious they also recognise that they have no viable answers.
Have a blessed day!
Sean McMartin Sent from my iPhone
>
What made America great was ‘The Great Awakening’, led by men of God such as George Whitefield. As America decreases in Christian values and accepts through ‘tolerance’, the equivalence of other gods, then its’ decline will continue unabated and be reflected in the statistics you mention.
Only returning to the God of their forefathers, will make America great again.
“Only returning to the God of their forefathers, will make America great again”
Which requires people becoming aware of what the “God of their forefathers” is like and what this actually means.
Totally agree Alan
Difficult question Peter, probably starts with one’s worldview and what they actually mean by “great”.
I wonder if in a great country, 610,000 people experience homelessness on any given night?
— Jesus had nowhere to lay His head. Different reasons though.
I wonder would a great country incarcerate more of its population than any other country in the world?
— Says something about the character of the people if they’re so evil that they’re locked up; not that this form of punishment is Biblical.
I wonder would a great country have more school shootings that any other country?
— Says something about the character of the people
I wonder would a great country be the only advanced economy in the world that doesn’t require companies to give workers paid vacations?
— Has benefits yes, but has the negative of resolving people of their responsibility to save for their break. In Israel when all the men went up for the celebration before the lord (couldn’t find name with quick search) they went with the tithe they’d saved over 3 years and got to spend some (all?) of it to ceelbrate with. The Levites though the people paid.
I wonder would a great country export more weapons than any other country and often ending up in the hands of despots and terrorists?
— Sounds v bad, though it’s interesting to see who people like Solomon sold weapons to.
Would a great country not guarantee workers paid sick pay?
— Again has benefits yes, but has the negative of resolving people of their responsibility to save and allow for these things.
Would a great country have 89 guns per 100 people? That’s the equivalent to 89% of the population being armed.
— Yes it is “equivalent to” but as hunters and target shooters often own different guns for different purposes the figure is about half that in the 40% range.
Would a great country kill 57.7 million unborn babies over the last 50 years?
— It wouldn’t even kill one.
Would a great country have more babies dying on their birthday than any industrialized nation?
— Definitely not.
Would a great country have medical bills so huge that 62% of all personal bankruptcies are caused by these medical bills?
— If that’s the cost then that’s the cost. The answer here is to forcefully take money from one person to pay the bills of another; is that what a great country does?
Would a great country have the 4th largest wealth gap in the world?
— How does it compare with the gap between Solomon and one of the 153,600 aliens he “appointed” to carry loads and to quarry stones in the mountains to build God’s temple.
Would a great country have their police force kill 2,500 of its citizens in the last five years: and just for the record this compares to 35 in UK and 5 per year in Germany: In fact the German police force used 85 bullets in that entire time: which incidentally is a little more than the bullets used to kill one mentally ill homeless person in Michigan.
— Do they “have their police force kill … citizens” or do they allow their police to protect themselves from violent criminals?
Would a great country have more 17 year old black people in jail than in college?
— 1) people don’t need to go to college 2) cuturally a lot of african americans seem to reject education in the first place so have no chance of getting to college 3) if you’re a criminal you get punished. That a large proportion of black Americans are turning to crime is a problem but from what I’ve read it’s a created problem.
Would a great country have the 3rd worst poverty rate among the developed world?
— A Godly one wouldn’t.
Surely a great country wouldn’t waste 31% of the food it produces. For the record that is 60 billion kilos…. Now think of those images you see on TV of starving kids. Sorry I meant to say 60 thousand million kilos of food thrown away?
— I cut the fat off my meat. To those that eat it this is a waste but even so I acknowledge I’ve wasted a bit of meat. Health laws also mean that prepared food has to be thrown away “just in case”. It would be nice to fix this but one can’t just take the half sausage one decided not to eat and give it to some starving kid.
Would a great country put an 81 year old women in prison for feeding the birds?
— This seems to have happened a lot, sounds crazy but in one case the woman involved was demented and it was for her safety. One has to know the “why” behind these things.
Would a great country have a population where 70% of them are on at least one prescription drug and astoundingly 20% of them are on at least 5 prescription drugs.
— I’m glad my country can allow me to access blood pressure tabs on prescription. It may allow me to live longer.
Actually I wonder if a great country would have the highest rate of illegal use of drug use on the entire planet?
— Nope. And they wouldn’t have people offering to test your illegal drugs before you take them to check if they’re safe.
Would a great country have 56% of its population having a subprime credit….if you don’t understand this…go and see The Big Short?
— Would a great country allow ANYONE to have credit?
Would a great country have one in 6 people on food stamps and just for comparison in 1970 it was one in 50?
— Doesn’t sound like a great economy.
I wonder if a great country would have the highest divorce rate in the world by a significant margin. I also wonder why this actually is?
— Nope it would be practically zero. And Why? Well if the church allows it then surely the ungodly are going to go at it like rabbits.
Related to the above: one third of children in America grows up in a house without a dad.
— Sad, but again do Americans understand that this is wrong?
I wonder if a great country would have 25% of teens having an STD.
— A great country would have Churches openly teaching teens on sin and right and wrong would it not?
Would a great country be the biggest producer of pornography in the world with a significant amount of this being child porn.
— Nope, but in a country where no boundaries are taught …
Would a great country be the second most obese in the world, second only to Mexico.
— Probably not.
Would a great country have white police who shoot unarmed black men.
— Nope but neither would it have a press that misreports these things pretending that the policeman was not in any way in danger and that the known criminal was totally innocent; and the press in a great country would accurately report blacks being murdered by blacks and whites being murdered by blacks with the same intensity.
Now this blog is not about America bashing. It’s just my frustration at the inane and unhelpful subject material that passes as robust political debate in the world’s biggest democracy. Maybe Clinton and Trump need to stop arguing for the patriotic vote and start to debate how to fix some of America’s biggest issues.
— I know Clinton doesn’t want to fix the problems. While they keep black americans dependant on welfare they’ll vote democrat and keep Hilary and her like in power. Fixing the problem would do her and her mates out of a job and they don’t want that.
Just for some entertainment, I thought this clip out of the TV show The Newsroom has some good stats, although I will confess I have not checked if they are accurate.
Talking to myself now, but I have a bad habit of being a devil’s advocate sometimes 😦
In common parlance, a devil’s advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position they do not necessarily agree with (or simply an alternative position from the accepted norm), for the sake of debate or to explore the thought further.
Just a comment about a country (ie Australia) taking money forcefully to help/pay/provide for others…. On the surface it sounds unfair, but, a great society would take care of its weak and helpless. And while I know you will say some people won’t help themselves, I know that. But that makes them the “weak” and Jesus said we would always have the poor with us. In the end, I would rather be cheated by some than be found guilty of not giving to the poor, whether they deserved it or not. We deserve nothing that God did for us.
Yes Margaret it is better to be cheated than to not help the poor.
My comments come from the idea (and I think it’s Biblical) that looking after the poor is primarily an individual’s responsibility. Yes it can be done by groups and organisations but when it gets to government level there’s the possibility that people will see the govt as the supplier of their needs which is a God role and the govt will see itself as the saviour of the people, again a God role.
Great article Peter. Thanks for that. I have a very very keen interest I America these days because as you probably know Matt is living there with his family. America is certainly not great anymore. Very scary.
Spot on again ” Wilbur” you never cease to amaze me with how you get all this Right Info, AMAZING