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World’s happiest countries: Here’s why U.S. slipped in new report

TU Curmudgeon said:
PPS - Did you know that 60% of the top 10 countries are monarchies?
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It does not surprise me.

I have long felt that every country should have a figurehead for head of state.

One reason there is such "unpleasantness" in our country is that the president (whoever s/he is) is both head of state AND government.

If Mr. Trump were our prime minister, many people who "disliked" him would probably like or admire or be indifferent to a figurehead president who simply greeted foreign guests, visited people, opened new infrastructure projects, etc. This would lessen to some degree the feeling of anger that they would have for "Prime Minister Trump."


I think that currently, the only person in the federal government who commands wide admiration or at least indifference is the First Lady. I hope that she continues to say only uplifting words, wear beautiful clothes, and smile.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
Your argument is completely stupid because any of it could be implemented at the state level like 50 little countries. Just admit you don't want affordable health care, paternity leave or more vacation. Admitting you want that would be admitting you don't have it now because America has serious room for improvement in some areas.
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Then try it in your liberal states and watch it totally fail. Bernie's state of Vermont realized that single payer couldn't be done and California's very liberal governor Jerry Brown even nixed single payer healthcare as being too expensive. Your very own people said it couldn't even work in their small scales.
 
Moderate Right said:
Then try it in your liberal states and watch it totally fail. Bernie's state of Vermont realized that single payer couldn't be done and California's very liberal governor Jerry Brown even nixed single payer healthcare as being too expensive. Your very own people said it couldn't even work in their small scales.
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So you just believe that Americans are fundamentally incompetent and that we could never do what literally dozens of other countries have successfully done. Why do you think so little of Americans and America? People like you actively don't want affordable healthcare. You convince yourself that your exorbitantly high medical bills make it better.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
No, I think there really is just a loud enough group of ignorant Americans that literally do not want these things. An example:



I think it's hilarioius that no matter what the topic, the go-to right wing response to anything successful in other countries is "We're America, we can't do that", as if the laws of economics, physics and nature of the world just work differently there. You should read more and try harder to come up with coherent arguments.
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The right wing response is always idiotic, void of any facts, logic, or reasoning. That's what happens when people don't have any facts on their side.

The size of the country shouldn't matter. We are larger, but also have a lot more money. More contributors, so for say healthcare, size wouldn't matter. also, China has 3-4X more people than us, they have healthcare
 
So why is the USA not even in the Top Ten and falling?
 
Sampson Simpson said:
The right wing response is always idiotic, void of any facts, logic, or reasoning. That's what happens when people don't have any facts on their side.

The size of the country shouldn't matter. We are larger, but also have a lot more money. More contributors, so for say healthcare, size wouldn't matter. also, China has 3-4X more people than us, they have healthcare
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Hmmm, I think you're missing something. Obviously if a country is smaller, it is much easier to have healthcare. And equally obviously, if a country is bigger, like China, it is also much easier to have healthcare.

But if you're exactly the size of the USA, it is impossible to have Universal Healthcare, even thinking about it only serves to demonstrate how you're a weak minded leftist. This has been scientifically proven time and time again, just let me find those studies by Dunning-Kruger...
 
Moderate Right said:
Then try it in your liberal states and watch it totally fail. Bernie's state of Vermont realized that single payer couldn't be done and California's very liberal governor Jerry Brown even nixed single payer healthcare as being too expensive. Your very own people said it couldn't even work in their small scales.
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Every industrialized country in the world other than the US has universal healthcare, proof it works
 
Sampson Simpson said:
Every industrialized country in the world other than the US has universal healthcare, proof it works
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The healthcare lobby along with the help of our elected officials have pulled a Vulcan mind trick and convinced a chunk of the American population that it's good that quality and complete healthcare is insanely expensive and also unobtainable for some. It's quite bizarre really.
 
The only unhappy people in America are liberals, and nothing makes them happy.
 
OlNate said:
Universal health care is kinda nice too....as is a year off when you have a baby, decent wages, social programs, better education, less of the citizenry in jail, etc...yay socialism. ;) :lol:
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Finland is all white, too.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
So you just believe that Americans are fundamentally incompetent and that we could never do what literally dozens of other countries have successfully done. Why do you think so little of Americans and America? People like you actively don't want affordable healthcare. You convince yourself that your exorbitantly high medical bills make it better.
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Bernie's home state of Vermont and liberal California have already determined we can't do what these small European countries do for healthcare. Don't take my word for it, take theirs. You can't compare a small country of 5 million to a country that has over 300 million people.
 
Sampson Simpson said:
Every industrialized country in the world other than the US has universal healthcare, proof it works
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Not proof at all. You can't compare a country of 5 million to a country of over 300 million.
 
Moderate Right said:
Bernie's home state of Vermont and liberal California have already determined we can't do what these small European countries do for healthcare. Don't take my word for it, take theirs. You can't compare a small country of 5 million to a country that has over 300 million people.
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And you also can't compare a state of 5 million to a country of 5 million? The amount of mental gymnastics you'll do to convince yourself you're not being ****ed is amazing.
 
Saladin4 said:
But they aren't intolerant right wing bigots...Like angry trump supporters are
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But, it's an all white country and I don't see any of them hoopin-n-hollerin to import a few million Mexicans.
 
OlNate said:
Universal health care is kinda nice too....as is a year off when you have a baby, decent wages, social programs, better education, less of the citizenry in jail, etc...yay socialism. ;) :lol:
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9nth on the list is damned great- Note in the link Canada is ranked 3rd overall for countries to live in.

No idea why the link is named access denied??
Access Denied
 
RabidAlpaca said:
Your argument is completely stupid because any of it could be implemented at the state level like 50 little countries. Just admit you don't want affordable health care, paternity leave or more vacation. Admitting you want that would be admitting you don't have it now because America has serious room for improvement in some areas.
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You mean like Vermonts single payer health plan.
How long did that last for again.
 
OlNate said:
Universal health care is kinda nice too....as is a year off when you have a baby, decent wages, social programs, better education, less of the citizenry in jail, etc...yay socialism. ;) :lol:
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i agree. goodness knows that the earth will fall off of its axis if we actually educate people without making them broke, give them some time off, and not take their life savings if they get sick while working for the wrong employer. these quality of life index studies are generally pretty similar from year to year. however, i will also agree that one could do a lot worse than nineteenth place.
 
RabidAlpaca said:
Seems you're in the "Americans are too stupid and incompetent to do what everyone else seems to have figured out already" camp.
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So you claim it can be done at the state level and I point out thr one real example of your idea we have which was a giant failure and this is your reply. Perhaps you shouldn't be calling other Americans stupid.

And to further prove you have no idea what you are talking about I fully support a nation wide UHC.
 
Verax said:
Why would all citizens having their healthcare covered 100% and living a comfortable life make them happier though?
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Because they don't have to listen to endless parades of advertisements telling them that they will take the country down the road to a ruinous socialist dictatorship that will outlaw every religion except Islam, make same-sex inter-racial marriage compulsory, and force all the Cheerleaders to wear Burke Hats while being vaccinated with fluoridated water if they let the Democrats set up Death Panels so that they can kill every pre-born child and everyone over 60 in preparation for Satan taking over the world is they even think about a system of **S*E*C*I*A*L*I*Z*E*D** **M*E*D*I*C*I*N*E**?
 
RabidAlpaca said:
I get 6.5 weeks of paid vacation a year, about a dozen paid holidays, up to 14 months of paid paternity leave when we have a baby, my bachelors and masters cost less than 1000 euro total, and I pay about 300 euro (~340 USD) a month for full health and dental coverage for my entire family. I'm happy, my tax burden is reasonable and I don't know why so many Americans don't want these things.
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Because only foreigners have them and America didn't do it first?
 
Moderate Right said:
Most, if not all, of these countries are rather small, population wise. The larger a country's population the more problems there are bound to be. And, the US has built ourselves up to be the largest superpower in the world. It helps regarding keeping us free and it also helps in keeping others free around the world. I mean NATO wasn't really formed to keep America safe from Russia. It was formed to keep European and other countries over there free. I mean, the US does not need NATO to keep us free. But, Finland needs NATO to keep them free. If Finland is attacked the US military will be a huge help to them. If the US is attacked, how much help is Finland's military going to be to us?

And, the same goes for our economy. Our economy can do lasting damage to others in the world through sanctions. Can Finland use it's economic might to influence anyone? Some of these small population European countries are able to do much more for their people safety net wise because they sponge dollars off the US for their protection so they can use their dollars for their liberal policies. Look what would really happen if Trump cut our military and foreign aid budgets down to zero and used the money for liberal safety net programs here in the US. Our country would be happier and Finland would be annexed by Russia. Would Finland be happy then if that happened?
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Did you know that not all countries want to be known as "The World's Biggest Bully"?
 
RabidAlpaca said:
I get 6.5 weeks of paid vacation a year, about a dozen paid holidays, up to 14 months of paid paternity leave when we have a baby, my bachelors and masters cost less than 1000 euro total, and I pay about 300 euro (~340 USD) a month for full health and dental coverage for my entire family. I'm happy, my tax burden is reasonable and I don't know why so many Americans don't want these things.
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Me neither.
 
Sampson Simpson said:
So they pay more in taxes, they get a hell of a lot in return and are happy for it.
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Actually, when you add in the amount that Americans spend on healthcare (usually lumped into "taxes" in other countries), that "more" isn't necessarily a positive number that is bigger than 1%.
 
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