Politicians and other Americans say this all the time but there is no evidence to support it. In fact, all evidence actually refutes it. I get it that the US is great compared to developing nations but if you go to any developed nation, people actually mock americans for believing this notion.

http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/HDI
#8 in human development

http://www.businessinsider.com/top-countries-on-oecd-better-life-index-2013-5?op=1
#6 in better life index

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mef45ejmi/10-united-states/
#10 in happiness

http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/human-freedom-index-files/human-freedom-index-2015.pdf
#20 in freedom

http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking
#12 in economic freedom

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/04/03/24-7-wall-st-healthiest-countries/70859728/
#34 in health

http://www.neit.edu/blog/index.php/2015/01/most-educated-countries-in-the-world/
#4 in education

http://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp
#76 in crime

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/sites/default/files/Global%20Peace%20Index%20Report%202015_0.pdf
#94 in safety

http://worldjusticeproject.org/sites/default/files/roli_2015_0.pdf
#19 in rule of law (justice)

The US is pretty good when you compare it to poor countries but Its obvious the US is nowhere near being the best place to live but I don't even know a single thing that its the best at.

What is exceptional about the US besides your 1st grade teacher putting that in your head?

1/17/2016 8:38:18 PM

Seems like these metrics have issues with quality measurement (and what that means). At minimum you are going to have an apples to oranges comparison when talking about a large population and landmnass vs something like...I dunno, Ireland.

1/17/2016 8:48:04 PM

There's also a subtle difference of what I think they generally really mean vs the direct syntax, and that is "America is the greatest country on Earth, and you live in it." Those are not exactly the same statements.


Also, I'd say that America is the best country to live in on Earth if you're winning at things here.

1/17/2016 8:55:00 PM

So you used a bunch of individual metrics where no country got the majority of them to dispute a single metric?

Yeah, I guess we don't live in the best country in the world producing logic scholars like you.

1/17/2016 9:03:32 PM

Yeah, there's that, too. Taken to the logical end, any country that ranked 2nd at every single individual metric would be the undisputed #1 overall by an enormous margin.

1/17/2016 9:14:24 PM

we are not a shining light on the hill, american exceptionalism is dangerous and should be squashed

1/17/2016 9:20:39 PM

Quote :

"Seems like these metrics have issues with quality measurement (and what that means).t minimum you are going to have an apples to oranges comparison when talking about a large population and landmnass vs something like...I dunno, Ireland. "

so several organizations of experts got it wrong and didn't see the problems you saw. you somehow are the only one who figured it out?

Quote :

" Also, I'd say that America is the best country to live in on Earth if you're winning at things here."

Why? You are just saying its the best in that regard with no support

Quote :

"So you used a bunch of individual metrics where no country got the majority of them to dispute a single metric? Yeah, I guess we don't live in the best country in the world producing logic scholars like you."

No, and now its clear that you didn't look into the links I posted. The first two are ways of measuring overall well being and quality of life between countries. They each take several metrics into account.

Quote :

"Published on 4 November 2010 (and updated on 10 June 2011), the 2010 Human Development Report(HDI) combines three dimensions:[5][6] A long and healthy life: Life expectancy at birth Education index: Mean years of schooling and Expected years of schooling A decent standard of living: GNI per capita (PPP US$)"

Quote :

", it includes 11 "dimensions" of well-being:[3] Housing: housing conditions and spendings (e.g. real estate pricing) Income: household income and financial wealth Jobs: earnings, job security and unemployment Community: quality of social support network Education: education and what you get out of it Environment: quality of environment (e.g. environmental health) Governance: involvement in democracy Health Life Satisfaction: level of happiness Safety: murder and assault rates Work-life balance"

Most people accept that America is not the best in these ways, but respond with a "but america is better for X" with X being one of the other 8 metrics I posted. Not even those arguments can be made.

Not only is America not #1 in any of those, but you don't have to look far to find a country that is above us in everything I posted. (except 1 metric where we are 1 spot ahead with an index of .915 to their .913

1/17/2016 10:12:56 PM

I honestly didn't click any of those links, but I would suspect that many of your upper tier countries are from Eastern and Northern Europe? Some of those countries have populations not far off from that of North Carolina. Population has got to play a large role in those figures. When your entire country has to only provide for 9 million people, you bet that you can focus more on education, infrastructure, public safety, and many of the other attributes that are listed in the OP.

Below are the 10 most populated countries in the world:

1. China 1,367,485,388
2. India 1,251,695,584
3. United States 321,368,864
4. Indonesia 255,993,674
5. Brazil 204,259,812
6. Pakistan 199,085,847
7. Nigeria 181,562,056
8. Bangladesh 168,957,745
9. Russia 142,423,773
10. Japan 126,919,659

Being the 3rd largest, I don't think we're doing too shabby.

1/18/2016 8:51:13 AM

wouldn't the metric need to be an aggregate/average score among all metrics?

1/18/2016 10:22:55 AM

this scene from the Newsroom states it perfectly

https://youtu.be/q49NOyJ8fNA

skip to 3:45

[Edited on January 18, 2016 at 10:32 AM. Reason : .]

1/18/2016 10:31:23 AM

Quote :

"I honestly didn't click any of those links, but I would suspect that many of your upper tier countries are from Eastern and Northern Europe? Some of those countries have populations not far off from that of North Carolina. Population has got to play a large role in those figures. When your entire country has to only provide for 9 million people, you bet that you can focus more on education, infrastructure, public safety, and many of the other attributes that are listed in the OP."

Now you are talking about WHY the US isn't the best place to live which is a different conversation valid or not (off topic). That argument doesn't hold up one bit when you consider population density, GDP per capita and economies of scale. Also, states have governments responsible for all of the things you mentioned. The NC government should be able to focus on education just as much as a country with comparable population and if the state governments can't do that then thats just another reason why the US is not "the best country to live in" isn't it?

Countries are better off because they invest more on the well being of their people. Nothing about the size of the US forces it to be an oligarchy. Those other highly populated countries are developing nations and are poor as shit. The us is not.

Quote :

"Being the 3rd largest, I don't think we're doing too shabby."

We aren't doing to shabby but thats also off topic. I think the US is a good place to live but its clearly not "the best". Its not even the best in North America.

[Edited on January 18, 2016 at 10:48 AM. Reason : k]

1/18/2016 10:47:18 AM

It's an asinine question to begin with: "What's the best country to live in?" Kinda depends on you, doesn't it? Denmark tends to rank near the top of all these rankings, but if you're a devout Muslim who wants the Prophet to be respected first and foremost, then it ranks behind Yemen on the basis of cartoons alone.

What is exceptional about the US is that, to a very large and real extent, we are propping up those countries that you think "beat" us. Turns out it's a lot easier to spend money on education and healthcare when somebody else is handling the lion's share of your defense. That's Exceptional Thing #1. Exceptional thing #2 is the extent to which it is possible to truly become American. I don't mean our shit-ass immigration policy. I mean the fact that the President has a Kenyan parent, two Presidental contenders have Cuban parents, the governors of two states have Indian parents, etc., etc. The only country up there with us here is Canada. It's hard to really, truly "become" one of the Old World peoples because they are still tied more tightly to ethnicity and geography. One day there will probably be a Prime Minister of the UK who is part Nigerian, or of Sweden who is part Turkish, or so on. But it's going to be a while.

In the meantime, yeah, it's great to live in Denmark if you happen to be born Danish. Norway rules if you're Norwegian. Since it's too late for us to be born, America is about as good as it gets.

And, going back to the original point, it depends on what you want. For certain careers, America is by far the best -- and of course it is usually careers that draw people here from other developed countries. For some climates, we're unbeatable. If you've got a hankering to live in the desert -- and apparently people do -- well, there ain't a lot of developed liberal democracies that have significant desert regions. Or if you want to live in a large city (and again, many do), Copenhagen's half million doesn't really compare to New York. Or if you just like variety -- sheer size and location give the US a broader range of options than any place you'd like to live.

Maybe your job is no issue and you don't care about the climate. Maybe you're deeply religious -- doesn't matter what religion -- and Europe's tendency towards secularism is a problem. Maybe you're tired of a dying but still extant class system -- a reason I've heard several folks give for moving here from the UK.

For a lot of people, the US is the best place to live. For a lot of other people it isn't. But I tell you this, when I talked to people in West Africa, I never heard anybody said "One day, I really hope I am able to go to Sweden."

1/18/2016 3:53:45 PM

The whole point of posting data is because so many Americans are brainwashed into thinking the USA is the best at things that it simply isn't. Then, here you come with a post full of unsubstantiated claims. A lot of this we were taught in school, some of it has been pushed by politicians, and some of it is what people from every developed nation believe about their home nation. Propaganda is a form of mind control because if we're the best, then you don't have to worry about improving anything.

Quote :

"I mean the fact that the President has a Kenyan parent, two Presidental contenders have Cuban parents, the governors of two states have Indian parents, etc., etc."

You're talking about one person. Using a few examples of people doesn't represent the whole population. Those are outliers. Cruz and Rubio have been arguing about who wants to kick latinos out of the country more. Their presence does not mean its a great place for minorities. Pointing out a few anecdotes here and there and avoiding the big picture of overwhelming evidence doesn't make America the best.

Quote :

"The only country up there with us here is Canada. It's hard to really, truly "become" one of the Old World peoples because they are still tied more tightly to ethnicity and geography. One day there will probably be a Prime Minister of the UK who is part Nigerian, or of Sweden who is part Turkish, or so on. But it's going to be a while."

Simply not true and Canada is not just "up there with us" but far ahead of us in this regard. We used to be the country you are thinking of but that is long gone. Also, we rank 6th in refugee resettlement.

Quote :

"For certain careers, America is by far the best -- and of course it is usually careers that draw people here from other developed countries."

What careers? I know there are some but this is another vague claim of America being the best without anything to support it. We are 15th in employment and 23rd in work life balance by the way.

1/18/2016 4:56:49 PM

Look, you're just wrong. OK?

1/18/2016 7:40:48 PM

You're not even accusing me of being wrong. You're accusing several organizations of being wrong. Organizations like the OECD who consist of 40,000 researchers assembled by 34 countries to figure these types of things out.

Somehow you've figured out something that they simply missed.

1/18/2016 7:57:56 PM

Quote :

" but I would suspect that many of your upper tier countries are from Eastern and Northern Europe?"

You mean Western Europe, right? Surely you didn't mean countries such as Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland, Macedonia, did you?

1/18/2016 9:44:09 PM

I like hhhow grumpy ends his long post by saying for some its the best, for others it isn't and you attack him for spouting out supposed brainwashed nonsense. Likewise you criticize me and others for pointing out some VERY specific single studies may not be able to tell the whole story (cuz studies are never wrong or show only correlation).

We are answering your question why someone might think americca is best. No one in here is screaming Murka and shooting off fireworks. It doesn't seem like you are interested in an actual discussion.

[Edited on January 18, 2016 at 10:05 PM. Reason : I wonder how we'd do state by state...I'm not voting for Mississippi]

1/18/2016 10:04:29 PM

Quote :

"You're talking about one person."

Well, no, I was talking about at least five people. But in any event the point would still stand. I never said that every immigrant to this country would become wildly successful. I said that this country permits immigrants to become not only successful, it permits them to become full-fledged Americans in a social and cultural way that other countries do not.

And I suppose if you want something with statistics, there's number of immigrants. We're #1 in that category by a LOT. There are around 46,000,000 people in America who weren't born there, about a fifth of all the immigrants in the world at four times as many as the nearest competitor. Apparently a lot of people outside of America think it's a pretty sweet place to live, too, and they voted for our country with their feet.

Quote :

"Simply not true and Canada is not just "up there with us" but far ahead of us in this regard."

Based on what? Taking more refugees? I wish we took more, but that hardly seems like a "best place to live" qualifier.

Quote :

"What careers? I know there are some but this is another vague claim of America being the best without anything to support it. We are 15th in employment and 23rd in work life balance by the way."

1) Again, I suppose it depends on what you want. But if you want to do medical research and make a lot of money at it, the US is where you want to go. Our entertainment industry is still dominant, and if you want to work on projects that will achieve international notice -- in film, television, music, what have you -- this is the best country to do it in. Our aerospace industry is unrivaled by any other single country. There are other nations doing exciting things with space, but we're the real birthplace of the private space industry, and that's where things are heading. And then there's academics. The United States publishes far more papers than the nearest competitor, and any freshman at NCSU has already noticed that a lot of the professors seem to be foreign.

2) As with any other aspect of the country, to say that one is "best" for a certain career ignores the host of other factors that might make it bad for any number of people practicing that career. By a lot of metrics, American universities are the world leaders, but I don't think that every professor (or most professors) abroad dream of moving to the US.

3) Employment statistics have pretty limited value. You could employ half the country digging a hole and the other half filling the hole back in, and you'd have full employment but a shitty country. (This being essentially what the Soviet Union did.)

4) How does one rank "work/life balance" in an objective way?

Quote :

"You're not even accusing me of being wrong. You're accusing several organizations of being wrong. Organizations like the OECD who consist of 40,000 researchers assembled by 34 countries to figure these types of things out."

For all I know the research is fine, but the conclusions you have attempted to draw from them are ludicrous. I doubt any of the 40,000 researchers would say that their study proved that one country was or wasn't the "best."

1/19/2016 2:20:56 AM

Quote :

" it permits them to become full-fledged Americans in a social and cultural way that other countries do not. "

The first part is true but the part about other countries not doing that is false.

Quote :

"And I suppose if you want something with statistics, there's number of immigrants. We're #1 in that category by a LOT. There are around 46,000,000 people in America who weren't born there, about a fifth of all the immigrants in the world at four times as many as the nearest competitor."

I don't know if you're being intentionally misleading or just don't understand that these sort of comparisons are made on a per capita basis...
Heres an article on the idea
http://www.npr.org/2014/10/29/359963625/dozens-of-countries-take-in-more-immigrants-per-capita-than-the-u-s
and heres a quote since I know you don't like clicking links and reading documents

Quote :

"If you think the United States is every immigrant's dream, reconsider. Sure, in absolute numbers, the U.S. is home to the most foreign-born people — 45.7 million in 2013. But relatively, it's upper-midpack as an immigrant nation. It ranks 65th worldwide in terms of percentage of population that is foreign-born, according to the U.N. report "Trends in International Migrant Stock.""

Quote :

" far more papers than the nearest competitor"

You're basing all of this on totals which doesn't tell you much other than the us is the largest developed country. You also have provided no supporting evidence for any of your arguments.

Quote :

"3) Employment statistics have pretty limited value. You could employ half the country digging a hole and the other half filling the hole back in, and you'd have full employment but a shitty country. (This being essentially what the Soviet Union did.) "

We are not talking about the soviet union so are you implying the nations with higher employment simply have created jobs less useful than those in the US? If so, you would need some supporting evidence.

Quote :

"4) How does one rank "work/life balance" in an objective way?"

If only I had previously linked you to a report on this topic. This is what I mean by disregarding research because it does not fit your prescribed world view.
http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/work-life-balance/
I'm not just saying US doesn't have the best work-life balance. That would be weak. I'm not saying anything really. I'm just sharing information. I've provided well-researched empirical data supporting the idea that the US isn't the best at this as well as several other things that affect life as well as two metrics that measure human well being and quality of life overall; both suggesting the US is not the best. I posted all of the other things because those are individual things a lot of people think they "know" the USA is the best at.

Quote :

"For all I know the research is fine, but the conclusions you have attempted to draw from them are ludicrous. I doubt any of the 40,000 researchers would say that their study proved that one country was or wasn't the "best.""

Prove is a strong word. Go back and read the OP. All I've said is that with all of the evidence considered, there is no way you could claim the USA is the best country to live since NONE of that evidence even comes close to suggesting such a wild claim.

That doesn't mean I'm saying "X country is the best country to live" or "the US is not a great place to live".

[Edited on January 19, 2016 at 1:45 PM. Reason : not much editorial here]

1/19/2016 1:41:27 PM

Well we are #1! #1 in categories like

#1 in fat people and obesity
#1 in per capita pollution
#1 in gun violence
#1 in blowing shit up and defense spending that is greater then the sum of #2 + #3 +#4 + #5 + #6 + #7 + #8
#1 in per capita incarceration rates (so much for land of the free!)

[Edited on January 19, 2016 at 3:27 PM. Reason : d]

1/19/2016 3:24:05 PM

America blows my mind every single day.

1/19/2016 3:26:28 PM

I wonder if we are #1 in Christian Evangelical crazy moonbats in the developed world.

1/19/2016 3:28:16 PM

Quote :

"I don't know if you're being intentionally misleading or just don't understand that these sort of comparisons are made on a per capita basis..."

Why is it important that this comparison be per-capita? Explain that to me. I can't think of a single good reason. By this logic, if I were to move to the Principality of Sealand with my girlfriend and our respective families of four, then Sealand would be "beating" the US at immigration. Looking at immigration on a per-capita basis does not make a lot of sense. The question of "Where do people want to go?" is not answered by "What percentage of people in a place just got there compared to anywhere else?" It's answered by "How many people fucking went there?"

If I'm an Indian guy looking to leave India, I don't say, "Well, America's nice, but Australia has a higher percentage of non-Australians, so it must be better there." No. It turns out that mostly they say, "America. Yep. I'll take that one." And there we have proof. Australia has around 400,000 Indian immigrants. That looks big per capita, because nobody fucking lives in Australia because it's a desert filled with animals that will kill you. The United States has around nine times that many Indians. (I select that example because your NPR article made such a big deal of it, and because the distances separating India from Australia and the US are comparable so it's not like they picked one out of proximity)

And I know you think I don't look at any facts before posting, or that I don't read everything posted. But I'd already considered the possibility that per capita immigration would come up, and dismissed it because so many of the countries "beating" the USA at that don't have immigrants so much as they have indentured servants (see: the Gulf states)

Quote :

"You're basing all of this on totals which doesn't tell you much other than the us is the largest developed country. You also have provided no supporting evidence for any of your arguments. "

Size doesn't decide academic power. Japan and Germany are our nearest competitors in papers published. Together those countries have about 2/3 our population, and publish 1/2 as many papers. (And if citations-per-paper are anything to go by, ours are better researched.

http://archive.sciencewatch.com/dr/cou/2009/09decALL/

Granted I'm aware that more papers doesn't necessarily equate to better academia, but given the central role of publishing there it doesn't hurt.

Quote :

"We are not talking about the soviet union so are you implying the nations with higher employment simply have created jobs less useful than those in the US?"

I'm not implying anything, I outright said that "employment statistics have pretty limited value."

1/20/2016 2:36:51 AM

Quote :

"The US is pretty good when you compare it to poor countries but Its obvious the US is nowhere near being the best place to live but I don't even know a single thing that its the best at."

Kicking ass
Taking names
Winning the olympics (the real olylmics, not the snow olympics)
Sports leagues with decent parity

1/20/2016 8:36:38 PM

EPL ain't bad on parity

1/20/2016 8:54:35 PM

Quote :

"Winning the olympics (the real olylmics, not the snow olympics)"

http://www.medalspercapita.com/#golds-per-capita:2012
#27 (North Korea is #26 LOL!)

1/21/2016 4:01:30 PM

Why would I care about per capita? This isn't money, I can celebrate every single American gold medal just as much as someone in Iceland.

1/21/2016 6:17:55 PM

Quote :

"this scene from the Newsroom states it perfectly"

When I saw the thread title I thought this was going to be the first post.

I love Newsroom so much, but I'm pretty tired of people posting this clip on social media as part of some anti-establishment rant. The people who do missed the point of the whole scene (or, they only saw the edited down version and never bothered watching it in context).

1/21/2016 6:58:11 PM

What I hate most about that scene is it concludes with a complaint about millennials and some misty eyed reminiscence about the good ol' days, when it was his terrible generation of baby boomers that screwed everything up.

1/21/2016 7:35:19 PM

http://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/overall-full-list?src=usn_fb
#4

1/22/2016 12:53:24 AM

bump to stand with Kap

8/30/2016 7:04:54 PM

you're not a special flower. nobody cared about this the first time you tried it

8/31/2016 10:22:17 AM

I like it here. I could get behind it being the best to live in. It's certainly been a hell of an experiment.

8/31/2016 10:45:03 AM

It's kind of like when you see that local Lasik Eye commercial, and they have a bunch of "testimonies" of patients who say things like "it's the best place to get lasik surgery" and "i wouldn't recommend going anywhere else"....

and I wonder "how would you know? it's the only place you went, unless you've gotten multiple Lasik surgeries"




I flipped on a Daniel Tosh stand-up routine last night, and he was something like "do you ever think the terrorists hate us so much because of the whole "we're #1" thing? Maybe if we just said "we're definitely in the top10", the terrorists would be like "...top10? ok, that seems fair.".

8/31/2016 10:49:04 AM

For all our bullshit, I wouldn't want to be a minority anywhere else in the world. Except maybe Canada......but fuck Canada. Just look at France, they are handling their recent string of terrorist attacks almost as poorly as we handled 9/11.

[Edited on August 31, 2016 at 11:10 AM. Reason : .]

8/31/2016 11:09:50 AM

^^I've been to other "lasik centers" / countries. Still recommend the U.S.

Also, disdain of someone else's arrogance is not a good reason to hate / murder someone. What is this...kindergarten?

8/31/2016 11:25:04 AM

^ha, i wasn't speaking directly to you. it just seems that some of the people that scream "we're #1!!!" the loudest have never even left their state.

Quote :

"Also, disdain of someone else's arrogance is not a good reason to hate / murder someone."

Of course it's not a good reason.... but that doesn't mean it's not a reason for some people.

8/31/2016 11:33:29 AM

Kap is proof that America is the best country to live in.

8/31/2016 11:42:07 AM

Oh America, why do you mistreat your own people so?

https://www.facebook.com/vicenews/videos/905450249614926

Terrible, just terrible.

11/5/2017 1:49:16 AM

But yet, here you are.

11/5/2017 1:52:42 AM

The political-military-industrial complex in the best country in the world fucking over its people by selling them drugs for $150-200 but also sending the same US-MADE drugs to Canada which are then sold there for $25.

https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/videos/10156730400237908/

These comments are gold:

Quote :

"Roger Gienapp All anyone has to do is to go online to a web site like Canadian Oharmacy and order your meds. There is a very slight chance it could be intercepted by the Postal authorities but I've been ordering meds for years and it hasn't happened yet. Of course, now that I've outed myself it probably will. Ha! Trust me, it's worth the effort."

In reply:

Quote :

"Barbara Scarfe Sad to tell you that you are buying Canadian drugs which the Canadian taxpayer is paying for. So in in essence I am paying for you to get lower cost drugs - which U.S. taxpayers are not paying for. Get your own government to deal with this problem. It's not up to Canada to solve your inefficient and incoherent health policy."

An even more fitting and truth-bringing reply:

Quote :

"Bonnie Hoyer Barbara Scarfe Absolutely right, Barbara. If you guys insist on calling your country 'the best country in the world' then you definitely should NOT be forced to pay extremely high prices for your pharmaceutical drugs. Why should there be such a vast difference in price between our neighbouring countries? What is the explanation for the difference? Lobbyists have way too much power in the US. We don't need to pay taxes for our drugs because YOUR country puts companies FIRST and the welfare of its citizens last."

2/5/2018 6:04:53 AM

But yet, here you are.

2/5/2018 8:40:03 AM

It's definitely a subjective argument, particularly considering the fact that we have a lot of fucked up shit going on here.

2/5/2018 11:54:27 AM

Perhaps fabricating flagrant lies will make it so, for these Propaganda Prostitutes?

https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/videos/10156756071552908

2/13/2018 9:40:09 PM

Why are so many mainstream systems and organizations so heartless and cruel to ordinary Americans, even to children?

I really don't get this. Destroy children's psyche, personality, and self-confidence at a young age.... WTF???

https://www.facebook.com/attn/videos/1366258073409648

Someone explain this to me.

3/14/2018 5:31:08 PM

^This is why you don't take ANY news from social media.

https://www.today.com/food/school-stamped-kids-lunch-money-when-account-was-low-t110073

Quote :

"His mother Tara Chavez said she was surprised about the stamp, as she usually gets a paper slip in his folder when his account runs low. He did receive lunch, and he even still had 75 cents left on his account, she told the website."

For starters, the stamp is literally to remind a parent that their account is low on funds. It's not to shame poor people who can't afford lunch.

Quote :

"A spokesperson for the Paradise Valley Unified School District told TODAY in an email the "lunch money" stamp had previously been used at the school, but was discontinued long ago. "Unfortunately, the new administrator was unaware that the practice had been discontinued, and decided to give students a choice between a letter and a reminder stamp," the spokesperson said."

The school policy for this was discontinued so this wasn't the school enforcing absurdity, it was one person who had no clue.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/tamerragriffin/lunch-money-stamp?utm_term=.yky14y0NN#.fq9dQZA33

Quote :

""[The staff member in the cafeteria] doesn't want the students to be embarrassed either so she is supposed to ask them if they want a stamp or a reminder slip," the principal wrote."

The stamp was dumb as hell to begin with but this isn't some crazy evil thing that happened.

[Edited on March 14, 2018 at 6:25 PM. Reason : a]

3/14/2018 6:24:22 PM

Even the most rational American exceptionalists hang their hats on economic freedom but the little guy has no economic freedom in this country.

I want to buy ICO but the government restricts what I can do with my own money. USA is usually the only country listed whose normal citizens don't have access to invest.

I have land in a high demand, high traffic community but cannot develop it because local government will only approve developments that are heavy tax generators or have major firms backing them to pay off the town council. The only way my land can be developed is if I sell it to a big firm and they develop it or build a mansion.

3/15/2018 2:32:25 AM

^That sounds like something the OP would say.

3/15/2018 2:57:54 PM

How is he wrong?

3/15/2018 4:02:11 PM

As ICOs have gotten more popular, complaints have have also increased. Scams are rampant, prosecutions will be few until some rules of the road are established. If you support an ICO Wild West, I’m guessing you also support the CFPB repealing all of its payday lending rules too? They’re the same side of the economic regulation coin IMO.

The 3rd paragraph, are you complaining about zoning? You need to be more explicit. Zoning is a total grey area with many success stories as well as failures. If your local government is corrupt, isn’t that local voters or local media’s fault? It’s total laziness to blame a system/or people 500 miles away for the structural/personal failures of your local government.

3/15/2018 8:00:40 PM