Is America "Still" The Greatest Country In The World?

[Osakagreg]

Is America "Still" The Greatest Country In The World? Has it ever been?

I think it certainly has been the greatest country in the world. But Trumps idea of "Great" seems to contradict world opinion as well as my own.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. what does that even mean, and why is it important?

Rabid nationalism only leads to misplaced narcissism...and trouble.

If people try to do no harm and be kind, things take care of themselves. But that will - could - never happen....too many individual agenda for too many reasons.

[uppityperson]

4. ++++++ gmta

[NRaleighLiberal]

5. .

[Angry Dragon]

2. Not since January 20, 2017 at 11:59 EST

[uppityperson]

3. Define"great" and I don't understand why it would be a competition.

[Iggo]

6. Not playing.

Bye!

[spanone]

7. not to hear trump talk...we're a third world nation

[Doreen]

8. On January 20th the USA ceased to exist. We are living in the Corperation Of Trump now.

[treestar]

9. I don't know why we are obsessed about it

Maybe people in any reasonable stable, happy country say that. If I were French, France would obviously be the "greatest country in the world."

[loyalsister]

10. Most powerful maybe

For example, our "greatest healthcare system" is very strong in the arena of technology, but the delivery is not designed to produce outcomes that maximize good health and quality of life. If profit for investors and executives makes the US great, that system is ideal because it produces profits in technology and minimizes insurance payouts.

The idea of the "American dream" is afallacy. It takes a lot of luck to achieve it, and you can easily handicap who have the better chances of getting there by circumstances of residency, family education levels, wealth, gender, skin color, and other dimensions which put people at a disadvantage.

So I think powerful, but not necessarily "great" in the ways most often advertised.

[MFM008]

11. everything has change about our status

except the weaponry.
Soon we will be just another vacation destination for wealthies....
brought to you by the maggot.

[LanternWaste]

12. The US had merely 35 years of unilateral world dominance.

The US had merely 35 years of unilateral world dominance (what I think most people refer to "when we were great!&quot . Compared to the rise and fall of many other great nation-states, our greatness wasn't really even that great when we realize unilateral dominance held by other nations for hundreds of years is the standard.

Yet during those 35 years, our "greatness" was critically predicated on exploitation of third world nations, preventing the expansion of second world nations, the ever-present mist of Jim Crow denying basic rights to a quarter of the nation, and a military far in excess of what was actually and practically needed.

So, no. Not really Great. Merely dominant. For only a tiny dot in history relative to many other dominant powers throughout history. Like Prussia or the Hanseatic League, the US will eventually be a simple footnote to the average, the under-educated and the complacent (as are most of us in the here and now) in its rise and dominance.

[TrekLuver]

13. America is among the greatest countries in the world.

[DavidDvorkin]

14. What's the metric?