Spoiler
Censorship. Freedom of speech gets weaker by the day, with government spying on journalists on a general crackdown on any government officials who talk to the press. Telling the people what the government is doing – even if what the government is doing is highly dangerous and illegal – can lead to decades in prison, or worse. Peaceful protesters are beaten, falsely imprisoned, and tortured, which is why America is now 47th in the world for press freedom – behind many African nations. We’re racing toward a day when posts like these will personally endanger the author.
Closed Borders. America is no longer the melting pot of the world. Legal immigration is very expensive and takes decades. Meanwhile, 4% of the American population is illegal and 400,000 people are deported every year.
Civil Asset Forfeiture. If a cop gets a funny feeling about anything you own, he can take it. He doesn’t have to explain why and there’s no way for you to get it back. Everything you own is by permission from the police.
Eminent Domain. It’s not just police anymore. In several states, the government can seize entire neighborhoods because it wants to take the land development in a different direction.
High Taxation. Nearly a third of what Americans earn is taxed away by federal, state, and local governments. To put that another way, if you work 9-5 Monday-Friday, the hours you put in until lunch on Tuesday are slave labor for the government. Very little of that money will ever come back to make your life better.
No Due Process. If the nebulous word “terrorist” is thrown your way, you lose all your rights as a citizen, whether or not there is any evidence or even a formal charge thrown your way. There is no longer any legal barrier keeping the US court system from functioning like the Spanish Inquisition. Arrests like that have already begun.
No Work Ethic. Americans build their entire lives around luxury and pain avoidance. Fully grown adults are living with their parents. Tens of millions of Americans use food stamps. Anyone who does build something great and becomes what he wants to become is eviscerated by the people who didn’t. Christopher Hertz describes the country as a land “where nothing is produced except for excuses.”
TV Lifestyle. The US is tied with the UK for most hours of TV watched per week: an average of 28 hours per person. That’s enough time to earn a kung fu black belt before the next presidential election.
Environmental Devastation. The US is having an impact on nature that can be described as nothing less than terraforming. Nearly half of the country’s lakes are too polluted to sustain fish. The US is 2nd in the world in C02 emissions, exceeding all nations of the European Union combined.
Air Pollution. Air pollution is linked to the deaths of 100,000 people per year. Most Americans are now breathing air that is dangerous for their health. In places where, a few decades ago, you could stand in a city and see mountain ranges in the distance, now you can see only the orange gleam of the smoggy night sky.
Cult of Personality. Americans are completely obsessed with celebrities. The most obscure, personal details of actresses or musicians are splayed across front pages. There is now a whole class of people who make a living as professional celebrities. Now, even political campaigns are harnessing the unmitigated adoration that Americans have for their fancy people.
Unwanted Pregnancy. Regardless of your stance on abortion, we can probably all be upset that by age 45, half of American women have had an unintended pregnancy and a third of them have chosen to terminate it.
Divorce. While figures on divorce have been overblown, the fact remains that the US has the highest divorce rate in the world. Divorce is associated with health and financial issues and is devastating for children.
Drug Abuse. Americans lead the world in the use of illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin, and in toxic legal ones like tobacco. Alcohol is the only exception. After spending a trillion dollars and imprisoning millions of people in the War on Drugs, the US government has failed to have any noticeable impact on the skyrocketing popularity of drugs.
Racism. Large portions of America were built on the backs of African slaves (or over the bodies of Native Americans). A century after they had been set free, black US citizens still lived in fear of suddenly being beaten, imprisoned, or even lynched. Today, most Americans still harbor explicitly racist sentiments toward blacks and Hispanics.
Discrimination. The US is shockingly unequal. The average white American household earns 64% more than its black counterpart. The government has robbed the church of its moral authority, leading to intrusive and inconsistent laws about marriage contracts. Though things are improving for female professionals, they still earn only 81% of what they would if they were male.
Body Shame. Hannah Lobel writes: “Short of burning obese people in effigy, it’s hard to imagine how we could stigmatize fat more in this culture.” Most commercially-produced images of humans in America are heavily edited, creating a standard of beauty that is physically impossible to attain. The psychological damage of constant exposure to this standard is catastrophic.
Rape. The objectification of human beings is fueling a rape epidemic. The US has the highest number of reported rapes in the world. A recent study suggests that nearly 1 in 5 American women are sexually assaulted. College and grade school are particularly dangerous.
Crime. America has the highest reported crime rate in the world. The annual murder rate is 4.7 per 100,000 – a figure that is unthinkable in other developed countries.
Military State. The US spends nearly $700 billion per year on defense – more than the next 10 countries combined. It has military installations on every continent to make sure strategic resources don’t fall into hands that are hostile to American business. The entire flow of human geopolitics is dictated by the overwhelming dominance of the US.
Civilian Bloodbath. US military operations from the last 10 years alone have caused the deaths of more than a million civilians – dwarfing the bloodshed of Benito Mussolini, Saddam Hussein, and Bashar Assad. The current drone campaign has a 98% civilian casualty rate – frequently killing children and in one case hitting a wedding procession.
Police State. The US has the largest police force in the world: one million strong. US police now launch a new SWAT raid every 11 minutes. Most raid targets are completely nonviolent. SWAT teams are used by dozens of government agencies including the EPA. Camps are underway that re-educate malcontents about the wonders of American policy.
Harsh Justice. One in four prisoners in the world are American. The US produces more criminals, passes more jail sentences, and keeps people in jail longer than any other country. It has executed hundreds of people, including Edgar Tamayo last Wednesday.
National Debt. US national debt exceeds its gross domestic product – which means that if we spent an entire year giving everything we produced to our creditors, we’d still be more than a trillion dollars in the red. If you pay taxes, you personally own $150,000 in debt.
Other Debt. Americans have racked up personal debt that is almost as bad as the national debt and also exceeds our GDP by around $350 billion. America’s total debt is comparable to the gross annual product of the entire human race. This includes a record-breaking trillion dollars in student loan debt.
Trade Deficit. The US imported more than it exported every year since 1975, draining the country of liquid assets.
Slow Growth Rate. US GDP growth is a paltry 2.8%, putting it behind war-torn Uganda and earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
Poverty. About 46 million Americans are living in poverty. The numbers get worse as you get younger: 1 in 4 infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are facing poverty in the US.
Expensive Healthcare. The US spends 18% of its GDP on healthcare – the most in the world – including an average of nearly a thousand dollars a year on prescription drugs. Most Americans are forced to give a significant part of their paycheck for the treatment of total strangers.
Bad Healthcare. Despite staggering expenditure and suffocating regulations, American life expectancy is way behind that of other developed countries that spend substantially less. The US also has one of the worst infant mortality rates in the developed world.
Obesity. More than two-thirds of American adults are overweight. The US has the highest obesity rate of any industrialized nation. Heart disease and cancer – conditions associated with unhealthy diets and lifestyles – are the leading causes of death in America.
Inflation. Over the last hundred years, the US dollar has shriveled to 4% of its original value. The Federal Reserve – an institution with the power to cripple the world economy overnight – now prints tens of billions of dollars a month, permanently damaging the integrity of the dollar and making long-term financial investments more difficult.
Corporate Corruption. If US companies can’t deliver value to consumers or manage themselves efficiently, they don’t have to go bankrupt. They can just call up the politicians whose elections they purchased, who in turn offer up hundreds of billions of dollars. Sometimes these are loans that get paid back. Often, they aren’t. If you pay taxes, you’ve paid for a Chrysler car whether you own one or not. Tallied together, government bailouts of failed companies are costing Americans trillions.
Broken Tax System. US tax codes and regulations total more than 50,000 pages and are so complex that there are now more than a million professional tax return preparers. Americans spend more time complying with taxes than making automobiles by a factor of six to one. Elaborate tax loopholes allow the wiley to legally evade taxation. For example, General Electric’s 24,000 page tax return allows the company to pay nothing on its $10 billion income.
Broken Legal System. US law code is so complex that the average American – though expected to comply with it – cannot possibly hope to understand it. Lawyers train for years and specialize in particular areas of law. In the US, you can make a great living offering legal advice in areas as specific as railroads, aviation, or financial services regulation.
Broken Government System. The government system is corrupt to the core. Out of the dozens of differing political views in America, two – the Republic and Democratic parties – have taken over and created massive barriers to keep everyone else out. Hyperpartisanship and political total war are the currency of power, because compromising even a little means being torn apart by campaign backers. The hatred of other viewpoints has reached levels that would have caused war in other settings.
Academic Catastrophe. Americans are lagging further and further behind in test scores, college graduation rates, and workplace skills. Every year, the figures get more dismal.
No Privacy. It is now a well-documented fact that the US government is waging a global war on privacy, including warrant-free eavesdropping on electronic communications of citizens. It is almost impossible to describe how vast and thorough these programs are.
Gerrymandering. Congressional districts are drawn in elaborate shapes to protect incumbent officials. This process is so effective that the US House of Representatives usually has a re-election rate above 90%. Since they’re not accountable to voters, politicians can be openly corrupt or refuse to compromise without fear or reprisal. It’s not uncommon to see fearless congressional leaders openly purchasing votes by offering millions of taxpayer dollars in entitlements to other leaders.
Uninformed Voters. Just about however you test it, the average voter is shockingly uninformed about the issues about which he holds such strong opinions. Many voters vote for people whose names they don’t even recognize simply because they are affiliated with the correct (incredibly diverse) party. They don’t really understand the issues or even the role of the person they are voting for.
American Exceptionalism. In spite of its many flaws, about half of Americans believe that the US is superior to other countries. Questioning the unmitigated greatness of America is political suicide. Articles like these are proof of unpatriotism – because questioning America is unthinkable.
So the question is: what part of America is worth exporting to the rest of the world? Freedom? Democracy? Justice? Our way of life? Maybe the country needs to collectively take a deep breath and focus on fixing its own problems, while giving the rest of the world room to breathe
I didn't write this but I think it's a nice summary to some of the arguments against "America is the best country in the world". Take it with a grain of salt and I know y'all are just memeing but worth a read if you want to get serious
