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Is the United States a benefit to the World?

Is the US a benefit to the World?

  • Yes, absolutely. The world will kill itself without us.

    Votes: 8 16.7%

  • Yes, I believe so. I think we do more good than harm.

    Votes: 26 54.2%

  • Not sure.

    Votes: 6 12.5%

  • No, I don’t believe so. I think we do more harm than good.

    Votes: 7 14.6%

  • No, absolutely not. The world will kill us if we don’t get out of its way.

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • Total voters
    48
  • Poll closed .
specklebang said:
I suppose your example was humorous.
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Not one bit.

specklebang said:
However, it is a good example. How does this link form. Do you run an ad saying I have 1000 bananas and I'd like to trade for wine?

Every transaction requires a frame of reference. The bananas and the wine may yet be the result but without a reliable currency, the whole world would be operating like a flea market.
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There is some truth to that in the sense that we need money as a unit of measure. But Columbia and Argentina borrowing money from America to facilitate their trading bananas for wine - that's nonsense!
 
Smeagol said:
A big difference between your and my perception of Obama is I don't consider him or hIs policies to be socialist. Liberal for sure but IMHO the 'socialst' label is not how he describes himself or how respected economists describe him but the vilification tag he's been given by right-wing media pundits some of whom are expert propagandists whonave been caught on video rubbing vicks vapor rub into their eyes to make themselves look like they're crying uncontrollably over America because of the Obama administration in order to emotionally manipulate their gullible and trusting followers.

Hope I'm not coming across as condescending but I was once active ona board based in Europe to learn of and study other people and also try to influence other parts of the world when anti-Americansm was at a high point. Several members were self-described socialists. One called himself a communist. I once started a thread asking if they thought Obama was a socialist they unanimously said that was the biggest crock they'd ever heard about him.

Think about it. What is it about Obama that makes him a 'socialist'? If you're honest and i'm guessing correctly on what you think makes him a socialist, I bet you'd have to give Richard Nixon, FDR, LBJ, Rick Perry, Bill and Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney the same designation. Or at least some from that list.
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How he describes himself is immarterial since he is a politician and a lyer. His actions and policies that he supports are clearly those of a socialist. Socialism, in any form, may differ from Marx but have common elements, mainly that the early steps of transition from Capitalism to Socialism require a government to seize control of industry and resources so that they may be equitably redistributed without regards to actual production of the individual. His policies, actions and economics clearly fall within that discription, thus is is undoubtedly socialist.

What makes him socialist. Hmm, lets see, proclaiming that we should pursue "bottom up economics", using the government to take over corporations, advocating laws that give the government control over corporations, using government monies for social programs to the detriment of average productive citizens, appointing an Industry Czar and actually expecting companies to abide by his policies, using tax laws to attempt to redistribute wealth from those who have actually done something and earned it to social cancers, such as welfare, calling the socialist revolution that overthrew a democratic government in China something to celebrate, they fact that so many of his policies are centered around "empowering" the poor at the expense of others, the fact that his level of control, while methodically different from Marx has the same economic affect, his constant demonizing of the Free Market, Capatilist markets and the results of profit based business, his claiming that the creators and investors "didn't build that" because a lot of unskilled labor was used, never mind that without the investments and creators nothing would of occured but if the unskilled laborers used weren't available, there are plenty others that would of been, his attempts to exerpt direct government control of the healthcare systems and other industries . Come to think of it, has he actually done anything or supported any policy that did not have a socialistic element? Oh, wait, I guess he did support patent reform to give the patent to the first to apply for it, well, I guess nobody, given enough time could do everything wrong.

Furthur, you seem to think I am directly refering to just Obama. Come on, when has any of my posts actually focused on only a single moment in history? We have been trending towards socialism since the 1960s, not just under Obama. You previously mentioned the human costs during different eras of US history, tell me, what has been the human costs since we started trending towards socialistic policies? How many jobs have left America as a result of government policies, taxes and agencies like OSHA and EPA? How bad has our education systems become since then? How many people are killed, raped, and assaulted as a result of living under socialistic programs like welfare? How many people have had their lives suppressed and ruined by adherence to socialistic programs? Tell, me, how many under welfare actually ever escape it or even attempt to escape it without reforms being made to the system and them being forced to? What is the crime rates, participation in gang violence, etc in these welfare areas controlled by socialistic programs? You point out that from the end of the civil war to the assination of Martin Luther King, Jr being double the numbers from 9/11, well guess what, murders generated by welfare and other socialist programs have an annual death rate of near that or greater. The human costs in this country since the introduction of socialist sytems here is far greater than in the entire previous history of the US, including slave era, prohibition and the civil war.
 
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We have only begun to benefit this world the past 3 glorious years as Obama and Biden educate us with their genius foreign policy that is much appreciated across this globe of people that can touch and taste hope and change for the first time in history...
 
Awesome! said:
We have only begun to benefit this world the past 3 glorious years as Obama and Biden educate us with their genius foreign policy that is much appreciated across this globe of people that can touch and taste hope and change for the first time in history...
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I can't tell whether you're being serious or sarcastic.

Either way, it's important to understand that the U.S., as a whole, is always greater & more important than its president & his sidekick.
 
Surtr said:
The hell does that have to do with what he wrote?
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It's not a personal question. What's the big deal. It's like asking if someone is dem or repub. Though I do think it's hysterical that he claims deism as a religion, don't you? Like he doesn't care which deity created everything, or which afterlife is promised or what holy book bears significance. All he knows is that God walked away. That is a pointless argument without some definition of said deity. Are Jews, Christians and Muslims somehow the same thing if we presume that God is no longer messin' with stuff?


And you?
 
OK, I understand what you are trying to say. However, these dollars (reference units) are not something that was "given" to these other countries. As long as I can remember, at least 50 years worth (I'm 69), we have always had a negative Balance of Payments. We always bought more than we sold (internationally). So, every day (literally) we pumped dollars into all other countries economies. Of course, we loaned and gifted many dollars as well.

Despite the constant debasement of the dollars value, it has generally been at a moderate pace. There was a period in the 70s where the dollar debased faster than usual and we are in a period l;ike that right now. Still, a dollar is a dependable value representation and without it, the world would have trouble functioning.

Is this a bad thing? I don't think so. It gives us great powers which are used and misused sometimes. Right now, if China didn't have the dollars to lend us, we would be forced to print even more of them without backing and we would be subject to runaway inflation.

So, I think the dollars was a great contribution by the US. Our current crop of politicians are over-confident and are trying to harm the dollar. But the dollar is still as powerful as ever.


Canell said:
Not one bit.



There is some truth to that in the sense that we need money as a unit of measure. But Columbia and Argentina borrowing money from America to facilitate their trading bananas for wine - that's nonsense!
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ecofarm said:
It's not a personal question. What's the big deal. It's like asking if someone is dem or repub. Though I do think it's hysterical that he claims deism as a religion, don't you? Like he doesn't care which deity created everything, or which afterlife is promised or what holy book bears significance. All he knows is that God walked away. That is a pointless argument without some definition of said deity. Are Jews, Christians and Muslims somehow the same thing if we presume that God is no longer messin' with stuff?


And you?
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What's the big deal? It's irrelevant.
 
Surtr said:
The topic of discussion is whether the United States is a benefit to the world, not individual persons religions.
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It's not about an individual person, it's about perspective. People will throw out a Christian's opinion on abortion becuse of 'invisible sky wizard', or a hack's opinion on most things because their vision is tinted. My question is no more than asking someone's political lean in any discussion. If someone completely fumbles a question, rendering themself uncredible, that's not my fault. Report me or stfu.
 
ecofarm said:
It's not about an individual person, it's about perspective. People will throw out a Christian's opinion on abortion becuse of 'invisible sky wizard', or a hack's opinion on most things because their vision is tinted. My question is no more than asking someone's political lean in any discussion. If someone completely fumbles a question, rendering themself uncredible, that's not my fault. Report me or stfu.
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Why you mad? I'm just asking questions to get a better perspective.
 
Surtr said:
Why you mad? I'm just asking questions to get a better perspective.
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Accusing me of presenting irrelevant crap is not 'asking questions', it's protecting something. Good day.
 
lunchbox said:
I've been hearing a lot of interesting rhetoric on this subject, for a while now, so I figured I'd throw this question out there and see what you all think.
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I think the US did and do clearly more good for the world than harm.

Of course not everything is going well all the time, some US actions are questionable. But when I consider how other empires would behave if they were in the position of the US, I can't imagine any candidate for empire would do better.

A while back, I read a book by political scientist Herfried Münkler about the concept of empires. He believes a model of order based on the power of an leading nation is more stable than multipolar models of world order. I'm not sure I agree with all of his ideas, but I believe the US are certainly a relatively admirable and well-meaning hegemon.

Oh, and of course I love American pop culture. Be it jazz or rock music, American movies or tv series -- I just love many aspects of American culture.
 
German guy said:
I think the US did and do clearly more good for the world than harm.

Of course not everything is going well all the time, some US actions are questionable. But when I consider how other empires would behave if they were in the position of the US, I can't imagine any candidate for empire would do better.

A while back, I read a book by political scientist Herfried Münkler about the concept of empires. He believes a model of order based on the power of an leading nation is more stable than multipolar models of world order. I'm not sure I agree with all of his ideas, but I believe the US are certainly a relatively admirable and well-meaning hegemon.

Oh, and of course I love American pop culture. Be it jazz or rock music, American movies or tv series -- I just love many aspects of American culture.
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german guys love david hasselhoff :thumbs:
 
OscarB63 said:
german guys love david hasselhoff :thumbs:
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Well, I guess I am an exception when it comes to him.

But maybe that's just because my parents' tv set didn't get the channel Knight Rider was on back in the days. ;)
 
ecofarm said:
Accusing me of presenting irrelevant crap is not 'asking questions', it's protecting something. Good day.
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I asked how your inquiry of his religion was relevant, and you got mad. That tells me you know that the question was irrelevant to the topic at hand, and that you weren't really looking for "perspective" but a way to fit Jet57 into a category you could easily dismiss.
 
Surtr said:
I asked how your inquiry of his religion was relevant, and you got mad.
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No, you declared it irrelevant and I said Good Day.
 
muciti said:
to answer the OP (without reading so sorry if i repeat anything) I believe historically the US has been good for the world. However currently we are not.
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Have you ever been outside the US?
 
OscarB63 said:
ask the europeans who would all be speaking german now if it were not for the US ;)
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and Russia and Britain and Australia and Canada and the soldiers of the British empire etc etc etc

To hear some people, you wonder whether anyone else was involved in either world war. I'm guessing that Japan and Germany also played minor roles somewhere along the line but really it was all down to the US - start to finish.
 
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