Quote:
Originally Posted by Webby
Last I looked my computer parts are made in China and Asia generally. Last I looked, the cable company did not belong to the US. Thanks to Jupiter, GFY is hosted on a US server - so, to that degree, I must be using "US technologies".
In reality - the US has nothing to offer - apart from arms and where the US is the main arms trader on the planet. I have little use for arms - but thanks 
Surprising that people think the US has something awesome to offer - it doesn't. The US needs more resources from others than it could ever make and borrows to stupid levels in a hope of sustaining the unsustainable.
Economically, one of the major failings is that US manufacturing is a lump of mental on a scrap heap. Doubt it will ever happen, but there is one very serious need for a solid manufacturing base instead of living off the cheap labor of several other nations - who are, ironically, in a better financial situation than the US is.
Don't ever think all other nations rely on the US for much - they don't, but have their own manufacturing base and trade with the world while managing their own fiscal affairs. (Part of the reason for the weak currency exchange on the dollar.) |
If you do live in Costa Rica, let's do a little comparison.
US inflation rate - 2.97% (give or take)
Costa Rica inflation rate - 13.8% (give or take)
US unemployment rate - 5.1%
Costa Rica unemployment rate - 6.6%
US GDP 12.41 trillion
Costa Rica GDP 40.44 billion
US per capita income - 41,000 (average)
Costa Rica per capita income - 10,100 (average)
US exports - 927.5 billion
Costa Rica exports - 7.005 billion
US imports - 1.727 trillion
Costa Rica imports - 9.69 billion (is that is deficit? oh the horror.)
Now here is the interesting one ( at least to me)
If you take the total deficit for each country and divide it by the number of people in the country here is what you come up with. This number represents the amount of the deficit each person in the country is responsible for.
US - $2,665
Costa Rica $658
Now that seems like a big difference, but when you factor that number in with the average per capita income they are exactly the same. The average US citizen will pay 6.5% of their income towards the deficit and the average Costa Rican will also pay 6.5% of their income towards their deficit.
So yes, the US has a deficit, but so do most countries and yes ours is bigger, but so is our average income and spending power so in the end it equals out.
As for the US not contributing anything to the world.
Last I checked we had a little company called Microsoft in this country. I'm sure they've done nothing to help the world. That Henry Ford guy didn't do jack shit for helping to revolutionize cars. Kind of like those lame ass Wright brothers and their stupid flying machines. I'm pretty sure that Boeing aircraft I flew in on my last vacation came from. . . well. . . Boeing which is a US company. Here is a nice little list of inventions by people in the US
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...tes_inventions There are a lot of useless things on there like Personal Computer and the defibrillator, the space shuttle and the polio vaccine.
Are we a perfect country? No. do we make mistakes? Hell yeah! Do I agree with everything this country does or stands for? No. I would imagine that most anyone could say the same about their country.
Are we a great country that actually contributes a great deal to the world. Without a doubt.
If we are such a terrible country then why do people still flock to come here? Here's a nice little statistic from the UN. These are the top three destination countries for immigrants the number is the amount of people that moved there in 2004: 946,100 for the U.S., 266,500 for the UK, and 156,400 for Italy. I don't see people flocking to your utopian paradise.
Anyway. I would ask you to post exactly what your country has done or does to contribute to the world as a whole and explain to me why it is so much better than mine?