Is America really the greatest country in the world?

Well, you're certainly in the wrong thread, but as long as you're here:

There is no "greatest country in the world." Every country has something wonderful to offer; the world would be impoverished with the absence of any.

In addition, the US consistently ranks lower than other industrialized nations in many areas:
---- the health of its citizens;
---- the high cost of healthcare per capita (because WE are the only Western nation without a national health service -- we're held hostage by greedy insurance companies);
---- educational accomplishment;
---- a huge and dangerous gap between rich and poor (it threatens social stability);
---- we're still applying the death penalty;
---- our high infant-mortality rate;
---- our significant pollution; and
---- our disproportionate use of natural resources,
to name just a few major problems with the overly proud and underly self-aware US. Much about this country is good and some is great, but much of it is bad -- and pride/hubris is preventing citizens from electing a Congress that will actually ADDRESS these problems.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

Well I certainly would not want to live anywhere else. And I would NOT live anywhere else.

And if my neighbor to the N/W/E or S was being attacked by another country, I would fight with my neighbor to ward off the danger.

Secret to "happiness": learning how to cope

Just watched Ep. 1 of season 5 of The Good Wife - yeah - you're really the greatest country

It has its strengths and weaknesses. As an Australian I'm happy they are our allies. You have a lot of issues with things like gun control and health care. And your current election is scary. Greatest country? No. Awesome country? Yes.

Oh please, it's not even close.

With their appalling statistics on gun crime and sexual assault? With the disgraceful amount of poverty that's everywhere, side by side with utterly OBSCENE amounts of wealth held by so few?

When I saw Snowden last week, I had to laugh when that was one of the questions he kept being asked on his polygraph tests. Apparently Americans have been so brainwashed that BELIEVING they're the greatest is seen as some sort of test of "truthfulness". Hardly.

The inner cities in most big U.S. cities are extremely dangerous, especially at night. While CIVILIZED countries look after their citizens with free health care for all, in the U.S. you could lose your entire life savings if you ever get sick or in an accident. Unarmed black men are being shot by the police every week or so. Race relations there are among the worst in the world, and many of the Founding Fathers owned slaves.

Contrary to what Americans like to think, very few people elsewhere would ever want to live there. And don't tell me about immigration. There are line-ups of desperate refugees waiting to get into EVERY well-off country -- not just the U.S.

But speaking of "well-off", according to Standard & Poor’s, the U.S. has a credit rating of AA+, which makes the U.S. RANK SEVENTEENTH in the world in that category. Sixteen economies rank higher, at AAA. In alphabetical order, they are: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom, ALL of whom are above the U.S.

Americans like to imagine that they invented "freedom" and still hold the patent on it -- but if you look closely at their mythical "four freedoms", the myth quickly falls apart.

Here's a grim reality check for you. Read them and weep:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/b/66ff1a10-5945-4cf0-8b86-9d470fd03745

http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-25-more-signs-that-america-is-not-1-2012-6

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/03/opinion/were-not-no-1-were-not-no-1.html?_r=0

AND here's a list of 40 things that the U.S. IS number one in -- but it's not a list to be proud of at all:

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/usa-1-40-embarrassing-things-that-america-is-the-best-in-the-world-at

And speaking of their "scary election" if you read the international press, opinions of Donald Trump are ranging from outright ridicule to a growing alarm that such an ignorant and egotistical nutcase who doesn't pay his taxes actually has a very good chance to become the U.S. President.  It's time to worry.