The definition of the American dream is as follows: “The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, as well as an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers.” I believe this definition exemplifies why we are so lucky to live in America and why it is the greatest country in the world. First, we as Americans have freedoms like no other country outlined and protected by our Constitution, including the right to free speech, a free press, free practice of religion, freedom to bear arms, freedom of assembly, freedom to petition the government, and more. America, in terms of freedom, ranks higher than any other country because of our Constitution securing us with natural rights, as well as because we are a Constitutional Republic (a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.). There are many countries such as North Korea, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Cuba, Iraq, etc. where their citizens are not awarded with the same rights and liberties as we have, especially for women and/or blacks, because they have corrupt government systems in place such as communism, socialism, dictatorships, or mob rule. Additionally, in terms of pay, we in America are very privileged. According to a study done by Just Facts, the poorest 20 percent of Americans are richer on overage than most European nations and receive more goods and services than most other countries. A perfect example of how great our country is Colin Kapernick, as he is able to make hundreds of millions of dollars talking about how terrible our country is. Where else could you do that? Nowhere except America. Additionally, America has an incredible economy, a great stock market, generates millions of jobs, and has well-known major businesses that generate lots of revenue and create tons of jobs for everyday people, such as Amazon, Apple, or Starbucks. There is great social mobility in America and almost anyone can succeed through working hard, getting an education, and making good choices, regardless of where you come from. You are almost guaranteed to not live in poverty in America if you do these three things: graduate high school, get a job, and get married before you have kids. Moreover, America is highly dominant economically, but also politically. Our power is feared amongst other big nations mainly due to our strong military. America has the best military in the world with strong units that specialize in different fields. The armed forces of the United States include The Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. If an American citizen or soldier got kidnapped, best you believe that we are sending in the best of the best to go in and save one of our own including the famed SEAL Team 6 (Devgru), Delta Force, Green Berets, Army Rangers, Paracuemen, Marines, and the best pilots in the world, etc. We have the second most nuclear weapons globally where we are slightly ranked behind Russia, but far ahead from many other countries like China or North Korea. We also have lots of sea power, mainly due to our incredible submarines, aircraft carriers, and Navy, which is argued in the book The Influence of Sea Power upon History that controlling the ocean is essential to a strong and lasting country (everyone in APUSH will know what I’m talking about relating to Teddy Roosevelt after he read this book). Finally, the U.S is the only country that fought foreign wars for other countries in order to preserve democracy worldwide and protect others from cruel governments. Ultimately, although the U.S is not perfect and has many undeniable flaws, it is for sure the best country that has ever existed in the history of the world. We as American citizens are able to live our lives freely, succeed, take advantage of amazing opportunities and resources provided to us, have great standards of living compared to many other nations, and have a well-run democracy where the government does not control our lives and rather awards freedom to the people. Does anyone disagree with me that America is not the greatest country ever and if so why?
https://www.heritage.org/defense/heritage-explains/how-strong-the-united-states-military
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/united-states
Hey Ethan, I completely agree with this blog post. America is the greatest country there ever was. We are so privileged to live in such a beautiful nation. Economically, socially, and politically America leads the way. I think it is very important to have pride in our country and gratitude for living here.
ReplyDeleteHi Ethan, I really admire how patriotic you are. I always try to have an optimistic view on our country but I usually just find myself picking out all of the bad things. I do feel very lucky to live in America though. I just wanted to point out that in the link you cited for usnews.com it says that America is the seventh best country in the world. I am confused.
ReplyDeleteHey Eden,
ReplyDeleteThat's actually really funny I didn't even realize that. That website though was just one website that I used for some statistics and facts to make my argument. I disagree with that website's ranking, but I'll keep it just so people reading can find where I got some of my examples from. If you disagree with me please tell me why you disagree and not just because a website I linked ranks America number 7. Thanks for the comment and I would love to hear your side.
Hi Ethan,
ReplyDeleteI am extremely grateful for living in the US, but I don’t agree. I can't find any reputable sources that do either. You said America “in terms of freedom, ranks higher than any other country.” Where did you get that because I looked up “most free country” and America was not ranked first.(https://www.axios.com/world-most-least-free-countries-freedom-house-ee2ab826-ed69-4e35-be31-ffd666a22283.html ) Additionally, some things you stated aren’t true. For your demographic, you could argue that America is the best country, but it is imperative to consider all demographics. One false claim was about social mobility and how anyone can be successful if they “graduate high school, get a job, and get married before you have kids.” Unfortunately, it’s not that easy for all Americans. Here is a youtube video that explains systemic racism. Of course there are exceptions, but this is fact and is one of America’s biggest flaws. Please watch it- it’s short. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrHIQIO_bdQ&ab_channel=act.tv
Hi Romy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. First, America is the freest country in the world regardless of what a simple “google search” would tell you. You probably saw in your search the HFI which ranks the countries based on its formula of freedom taking into account certain laws that arguably aren’t actually a representation of freedom. For example, according to the index, it says that New Zealand is the freest country in the world, although they limit free speech and have laws against hate speech (Human Rights Act 1993 under sections 61 and 131). Regarding speech, America is the only country with no ban on hate speech and allows everyone the right to all speech except speech that incites violence. Second, the demographic about social mobility is actually true (see studies in the book Creating an Opportunity Society by Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill). If you graduate high school, get a job, and get married before you have kids, you are almost guaranteed to not live in poverty in the U.S. Asian Americans do this at the highest rate out of any race in America and that is one key reason why they are the richest per capita group in America (also Indian Americans). In contrast, African Americans statistically do all three things at lower rates than whites and Asians, resulting in the disparity discussed in the video you provided. They have a lower percentage of graduating high school and much lower performance in education than White Americans and Asian Americans. Additionally, they have the highest single motherhood rates (having kids before they get married), higher unemployment rates, and have a higher chance of ending up in prison in comparison to Whites or Asians. The flaw of the video depicts that all inequality between African Americans and White Americans is due to “systemic racism” and has nothing to do with life choices and/or other problems African Americans face such as fatherlessness rates. Since you disagree, what country do you think is better than the U.S and why? I would love to hear your side. Also, please see this link that breaks down the video you provided into different parts and debunks it.-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBDfMQ27Asw
Links:
Free speech- https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/education/worksheets/ushistory/usgovt/speech
Book- https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Opportunity-Society-Ron-Haskins/dp/0815703228?ots=1&slotNum=3&imprToken=dcbbc216-13b2-54ae-022&ascsubtag=[]vx[p]8791236[t]w[r]google.com[d]D
Income stats- Census Bureau-
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2020/acs/acsbr20-03.pdf
I wrote the comment. I don't know why it says unknown
ReplyDelete-(Ethan)
ReplyDeleteHi Ethan. I agree with you that America is by far the greatest country for any person to live in. These are just some reasons that you didn’t talk about, but are still important. First, the United States contributes largely to defense funds of countries all over the world, and without this, some countries wouldn’t be able to afford to protect themselves, and every country under the US’s partial protection would have to allocate more money towards defense spending and less towards whatever else they spend their money on. Additionally, America is known as the land of opportunity for a reason. It is a place that allows anyone to succeed regardless of race or gender as we can see with having a black president and woman Vice President. This is why you see people coming to America in order to succeed and why you don’t see Americans going to Norway or New Zealand (I’m not saying the latter doesn’t happen but it is much more rare). If you want to make it in the film industry, you come to America. If you want to make it in the song industry, you come to America. If you want to make it in sports, you come to America. I am not just making this up. If you look up the top rated songs and films of all time, the vast majority of items that populate the list are produced in America. If you look up the greatest athletes of all time, the vast majority played in American sports. And, by the way, these are people of all races and religions on these lists.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused as to why you recommended a video trying to debunk systemic racism, but I watched the video anyway, even though I knew it was going to be biased. This video made me extremely uncomfortable. He took the video and twisted it into saying something else.
ReplyDeleteExamples:
- My video didn't say that all inequality comes from systemic racism.
- My video didn’t say that wealth is inherited, it just showed the history of their families and how that affected their current situation.
- Shapiro said that rejecting a black sounding name means that the employer is discriminating based on class- that is still racist because the employer is associating a black sounding name with being poor(said at time (10:50).
What bothered me most is when he spoke about incarceration. Ben Shapiro sarcastically said "the simple assumption is that if more black people percentage wise are arrested than white people, that must be due to systemic racism, not due to the amount of crimes committed by individuals." Mass incarceration of black people is literally because of systemic racism- watch the documentary 13th.
What made me most upset was at the end of the video. He said that “playing into the narrative of systemic racism does nothing.”(14:40) The purpose of my video is to educate, and education "does everything". Being aware and educated on how systems negatively impact a group is necessary in order to be an ally and advocate.
I really did try to watch this video and understand where you are coming from, but I am seeing through it because I know how biased it is.
About what country I think is the best, i'm not sure, but research and studies have chosen Switzerland for the past few years because of happiness rating, safety, quality of life, political system, military, entrepreneurship, and more. You can do your own research on that because it would be way to long to type out. I've never been there, so I feel like making a judgement of my own isn't necessary.
I just wanted to make a tenth comment so the number is even. It was bothering me. :|
ReplyDeletehi coby
ReplyDeletehey buddy thanks for ruining it
Deleteu ruin everything
Delete:(
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