So I was just going through some political videos on Youtube and stumbled upon a video of a Obama being criticized for not "subscribing to American exceptionalism"...
First off? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS!?!?
American Exceptionalism? In what, exactly are you guys exceptional?
Quality Of Life?
- In the last "Economist Intelligence Unit's quality-of-life index" You're country ranked an Exceptional [b]13th.[/b]
- In the Quality Of Life Index for 2009 done by Internationalliving.com you guys ranked 3rd. Exceptionally behind France and Switzerland.
But in important categories like "Cost of living", "Environment" and "Health" you guys don't even rank in the Top 20! In "Economy" you're not top 5, and "Leisure and Culture" your not top 3? In fact your "Exceptional" country doesn't rank #1 in any category. You guys do however make up a lot of ground on potential #1 countries like Canada, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden in the crucial "Climate" category...
- In Mercer's 2009 Quality of Living Survey, the exceptional United States didn't place a single city in the top 5... or top 10... or top 20... or top 25!!! In fact, the first American city on the rankings is Honolulu at 29. All the Top 5 cities in the "Americas" category came from Canada. That's just really exceptional.
Economy?
- Yes, the United States does have the highest GDP in the world according to the three major outlets on the subject (International Monetary Fund, World Bank, CIA World Factbook), however in GDP per capita (per person) you guys drop to an exceptional 6th, 4th and 8th place.
- You guys do rank #1 in External Debt! Yay! 95% of your "worlds highest" GDP is spoken for which isn't actually all that bad, most countires owe significantly more then there GDP, however countries like China (5%), Canada (59%), Italy (58%) Spain (79%) and dozens more owe ALOT less. Not really exceptional of you know is it...?
- You each individually owe a total of [b]$42,343[/b]! Puts you at #14 worldwide behind several developed nations.
Seriously, outside of Military where you guys are #1, America is hardly "exceptional" in anyway. To be so arrogant is ridiculous. You guys wonder why almost everyone on the planet despises you?? I know a lot of americans are smarter then to think this but for someone to have the sheer cockyness to blast your leader for maybe not feeling the same way and perhaps even recognizing your country (like every country) has flaws that he could try to fix is just jaw droppingly stupid. Obviously its not just a small minority that feel this way as there were many videos on this subject.
Some reference links: (lost a few but most of this is pretty easy to find)
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_de b_ext_percap-economy-debt-external-per-c apita
http://www.mercer.com/qualityofliving
http://www.il-ireland.com/il/qofl2009/?f ield=final