The State of the US

[11B4V]

A profound malaise has gripped America since at least the Bonus Army debacle.

At 4:45 p.m., commanded by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the 12th Infantry Regiment, Fort Howard, Maryland, and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, supported by six battle tanks commanded by Maj. George S. Patton, formed in Pennsylvania Avenue while thousands of civil service employees left work to line the street and watch. The Bonus Marchers, believing the troops were marching in their honor, cheered the troops until Patton ordered[citation needed] the cavalry to charge them—an action which prompted the spectators to yell, "Shame! Shame!"

Good point; the decline in the US began when people started quoting those shitty Wikipedia articles on the internet like they were credible.

Then my chioce of #1 was correct. 

[Sheilbh]

I think things are broadly fine. They could be better and there's still big problems.

Europe, on the other hand, is fucked.

[Valmy]

The US political system is designed to work.
It is not designed to look pretty in the process.

Well I look forward to it starting to work again sometime soon then.

I am not sure how it is supposed to work when they can keep most everything secret and we just have to hope for somebody to mess up or leak something to trigger a political scandal though.  I mean doesn't it working sort of depend on the people being informed?  Doesn't it working sort of depend on the Bill of Rights not being tossed aside by things like the Patriot Act on what looks to be a permanent basis?  If the things that make it work, and that it depends on, are not functioning how exactly is it's design intact so it can work?  Now these things may trigger a reaction that get it back to its normal ugly looking place but surely that is not inevitable no?

[Valmy]

I think things are broadly fine. They could be better and there's still big problems.

THere are big problems but we will survive them.  We are just too big and strong and have a strong basic ideology.  'Fine' is a bit of a strong statement though.

Europe, on the other hand, is fucked.

Confederations rarely work, particularly as they get bigger.  This is just another example of that.

[Sheilbh]

'Fine' is a bit of a strong statement though.

I don't think so. You're out of or winding down two long wars. The US economy has done better, after the crisis, than any other part of the developed world. For all of the hyperventilating about deficits and debt, your debt's about 71% and now projected to reach 76% in 2018 - that's hardly a crisis.

All of that and some relatively significant domestic reforms despite a poisonous political atmosphere.

There are worries, no doubt, but I think you'll be okay. If you compare the US with some Platonic form of how your government should work, or rose-tinted nostalgia of how it once did, then you'll come up short. If you compare it with, say, other OECD nations it doesn't look that bad.

[Valmy]

There are worries, no doubt, but I think you'll be okay. If you compare the US with some Platonic form of how your government should work, or rose-tinted nostalgia of how it once did, then you'll come up short. If you compare it with, say, other OECD nations it doesn't look that bad.

Believe me I have thought about that.  That maybe this is just the way of the future and I should not put too much stock in all these things that seem so counter to the basics our government is supposed to be based on.  I fully admit I am not brilliant enough that I might not be dead wrong. 

With our system, if we are going to compare ourselves to other countries have tried to emulate it, it is sort of a miracle we have managed to stop the office of the President from becoming a quasi-dictator as it is.  Instead we seem to be reaching a point where the Executive Branch itself is so big and unchecked and sort of has a mind of its own, it really runs the country in alot of ways. 

But, on the other hand, with so many things modern governments have to do and the tools they have at their disposal perhaps this is a natural evolution and our political ideology and traditions at least keep it from being less so than other places.  But if we just throw up our hands and say 'well everything I was taught to believe in and value in our way of government is not real and it is just rose tinted and platonic' then we lose that basic strength that holds it together.

And our economy is always going to be strong, it is hard to sit on this much land, recources, and population and not be strong. 

I have no doubt that ultimately we will be ok but I think we are entering a difficult period.  For some reason people seem to think it can only either be perfectly fine or DOOOOMED, I do not think it is either of those things.

You're out of or winding down two long wars

Heh well we are always at war somewhere.

[Phillip V]

The Health Toll of Immigration

'A growing body of mortality research on immigrants has shown that the longer they live in this country, the worse their rates of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. And while their American-born children may have more money, they tend to live shorter lives than the parents.
...
Why does life in the United States — despite its sophisticated health care system and high per capita wages — lead to worse health? New research is showing that the immigrant advantage wears off with the adoption of American behaviors — smoking, drinking, high-calorie diets and sedentary lifestyles.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/health/the-health-toll-of-immigration.html

[garbon]

Why would you put a fat kid in a singlet?

[Jacob]

The Health Toll of Immigration...

Some years back a Bosnian colleague and I bonded over how we immediately could tell girls who grew up back in the old country from those born in Canada, even though they were ethnically the same. We too concluded that diet was the cause.

[Kleves]

We're lazy, fat, and stupid. So, you know, SNAFU.

[Ideologue]

I'm not fat.

[Razgovory]

I'm not fat.

Two outta three ain't bad!

[Razgovory]

I think things are broadly fine. They could be better and there's still big problems.

Europe, on the other hand, is fucked.

You know, I was telling you guys this wouldn't work out way back in 2003.

[Ideologue]

I'm not fat.

Two outta three ain't bad!

Meat Loaf is fat.

[Tamas]

#1

the negroes are uppity and the gay are rampaging through the streets, ha?