and they have much less crime.

:)

I respect our "Diversity" and have always believed it was a competitive advantage because it was the strong from other countries who sought out our shores, but as the world has gotten smaller that is too often no longer the case....Excessive Immigration, particulary when it's illegal, dilutes us to the point where even we find ourselves difficult to understand. Americans have "Big Hearts" and we love to help others....but we need to help them where they are because we can no longer afford to help them here. Sounds a tad "Cold" I suppose, but that's only because so many other countries create conditions that cause their people want leave.

On the subject of Life Expectancy....I caution you against using Life Expectancy alone key in measuring a Country's Healthcare System. I'm very familiar with this subject and can tell you it can vary considerably within a given County's own borders...In the USA it can Even vary considerably within the Counties of our States and there are many variables that must be considered, including "Race."

The Japanese have the longest Life Expectancy in the World if your measurement is based upon a country having an acceptable population size to measure it....On the surface it would appear that their "System" is superior to ours, but if that were true then the large number of Japanese who immigrate to America, while still having meaning years of life left, would tend to shorten their Life Expectancies living here. Not so...They live considerably longer here than in Japan, especially women.

This is True for many other cultures as well...The most obvious being the Mexicans. It's not surprising Mexicans would live longer in America than Mexico, but it is "Very Surprising" how rapidly the evidence is growing that once here they are even outliving "Us."

Don't get me wrong my friend...We have plenty of problems here and it appears they'll get worse before they get better. It also appears we may "Pull In Our Horns" a bit, especially on the outsourcing of Jobs front....That would be good for us, but my guess is not so good for you. If you want to understand "Real Americans," the ones who grew up here not just "Showed Up," attempting to understand those dynamics would be a good place to start...And you're on the right track when you mention Education.

I do business all over the World....I'm not an expert on other cultures, but the fact that I employ many people who live outside the USA at least gives me some perspective on how they're educated. You are correct when you say our Educational System falls short of others in many ways....I normally think of our deficencies in terms of "Technical Knowledge," but I respect and agree with your point about reading a Map. We also fail miserably with literature and the Arts....All of which puts us at a disadvantage when it comes to "Academic Competition." But a strange thing happens within the mind of an "Educated American" after he leaves "School," suddenly he is Very, Very Smart compared to his contemporaries in other parts of the World....Even Technically!

For what it's worth here's the difference in my View....Living in America is itself an Educational experience because we have so many choices to make from the day we can "Walk and Talk" and those "Choices" are undiminished by the "Wealth of our Parents. Frankly many of our "Best and Brightest" don't come from wealthy families...which often "Fuels" the American Spirit" because so many of those choices go unfulfilled we tend to try harder. Before you begin thinking I'm equating even Education to the acquistion of material "Things" consider this....The Choices that confront us early in Life turn into the "Decisions" we make later and I can tell you it is this ability to contemplate and judge the "Hypothesis" that flows through our Education Model that sets us apart...American creativity and Ingenuity is built in.

Now for the important "Stuff"....I love the Global Economy and I adore the people in it. I wouldn't trade several my foreign contemporaries and employees for 10 Americans....and here is a really "Scary" thought. I haven't even met 2 of my Armenian Web Developers, we met online, and I trust them more than anyone else in my organization. I respect them more too and one of the things I respect most about them is how much they love their Country. They love Armenia so much...I have fallen in love with it too and I've never been there!

So....I hope to travel more in the years to come and I'm hopeful the countries I visit remain as "Distinctive" as they are in my "Minds Eye." All countries make a contribution to the World we live in and while we need to cooperate more and increase our understanding of each other...it is the differences between us that provide the "Stimulation" we need to want to know more.

Here's One Final thought for your incredibly fertile "Foreign Mind"....A mind that in many ways is far superior to my own!

There are 2 Basic ways to "Think"....The first is Convergent Thinking which is the process you go thru when you are seeking "The Answer" to the challenges you face...It is the kind of Thinking one often does in school or when taking a Test.

The other basic way to Think is "Divergent Thinking"....When you think Divergently you are seeking "Multiple Answers" to the problem. Remember those "Choices" I mentioned earlier, it is thru Divergent Thinking that they can be found. It is thru Divergent Thinking that you gain access to your Creativity...Which is the highest form of Intellect in my humble opinion. But it is even more valuable when you consider how it enhances your ability to address the many mistakes we all make....Having more than one way to resolve difficult issues improves your ability to learn from your mistakes. And when you learn that you'll understand why "Questions are more important than Answers"...which will assist you in understanding Americans, not all of us by any means, but the ones you'd probably like to meet!

Sorry I rambled on...but I enjoyed it and I wish you well!

TL (Unedited)

Take it down to a hard-working, tradition-loving ordinary man and I have seen displays of solidarity and care that you can hardly find in Europe. The traditional American family relies on really solid, morale and humane values which is something the rest of the world can look up to. And it is a very beautiful country and a gifted nation, nation that sent humans to the Moon and spaceships out of our Solar system.

I respond:
It is not clear at all, that increases in socialism in a country may not severely damage such value sets. You criticise the US for not operating the 14% of its economy which is health care via the national government, but without clear understanding of consequences.

I am also a very "regular" American, from Berkeley, California. I ride my bike to work, don't eat meat, and am married to a wonderful man. I have also lived in Europe, where -- in my personal experience -- the government health care was unbelievably superior to any private health care treatment I've received in the US. I think most Americans would jump at government-managed care if only the information could be presented well.

Your anecdote about Universal Health care in your location in Europe was sad and sounds frustrating, but I wonder how representative it is. Are you really saying Europeans should abolish their health care system and have corporations take it over, charging them any price they like, and offering any service the like? In America, would you do away with Social Security, as Bush and his cronies have attempted? (European readers, 'Social Security' is the American government's universal health care for old people -- works great, except that big pharmaceuticals charge the system too much for drugs). It works amazingly well, and has done for 70 years.... It is much more effective than any private insurance, and the cost is ridiculously low in comparison. You, I, all of us, we will benefit from this government health care when we turn 64.

Michael Moore is a great documentarian -- skilled, funny, experienced --, but not a great spokesman for health care, because his objectivity has been tarnished.

But there are a lot of other sources of information on government healthcare besides Michael Moore, fortunately.

One thing I do agree with you on, Lori -- love the US, love living here, wouldn't live anywhere else! I don't think we have it as good as elsewhere, but I still love it.

I could disagree on the view of universal health service. In my opinion it is better to have something controlled by government then by corporations. I've heard cases of governments being overthrown, never heard one such for a corporation doing bad job. And this does not have to apply for health service, it is my view in general.

I have yet to see a good example of fierce independence in America, especially independence from government. The only thing America seems to be achieving nowadays in independence from the rest of the world.

Coming from Flint, Michigan you surely have few good stories about what is it like to grow up in America midwest. I'd really like to hear them.

Also I am very interested in you view on Micheal Moore.

I am an American living in Europe for the second time in my life. I hate politics. I have simply tried to live my life, and be a help to others. I would echo all of what Beau had to say except for the 'bombing' comments. I am not well enough informed to make any comments.

As a "regular" American, brought up in the Midwest (by the way I am ashamed to say that Michael Moore is from my hometown), I can only say that for all of her flaws (and I do admit there are many) I would choose The US as a place to live over anywhere else in the world. Healthcare, and Politics included. War and greed are not exclusive to America. Unfortunately this is a universal problem, and has been since the dawn of time. It is bad no matter where it comes from.

Americans are fiercely independent, and so resist governmentally controlled programs, such as universal healthcare. I don't like that we have been conditioned our entire lives to depend on the government's Social Security system for our retirement. I am not wealthy, and have not come from a wealthy family. I am one of those people who wasn't able to afford a college education. I do not fault my government for this.

Here is a recent experience we know about in the European socialized medical system: Our landlord is very ill. He is 84 years old. He not only has the health care system to depend on, he has been paying for additional private insurance for many years. So now he is ill, and has been taken to the hospital (he has been there recently as well with no diagnosis of the problem). He is in terrible pain, and is in a room with 5 other people ( I assume men) with no television, no phone, no access to a comfortable place for his wife. She is beside herself and is very unhappy with the (country ommitted) health care system.

I don't say this to defend or disparage any one country. We live in a broken world. The biggest thing that needs to change is the hearts of men. And that, my friend, is a very large task indeed.

I am happy, though, that you are honestly trying to understand our country and its problems as well as other parts of the world. It is so easy to be in our own little bubble of experience and never realize that there is an entire world out there.

If Americans are guilty of anything on a person by person basis, I think that we largely don't know how really good we have it, and don't even see past ourselves to other cultures and nations, who suffer. My suggestion is to live somewhere else for a few years, and then go back to the US. Never have I appreciated my country so much as when I have been living somewhere else.

This is the poster's fault, not yours, but the US Constitution has a built-in mechanism for change known as Constitutional Amendments.

On top of the 10 excellent Constitutional Amendments created at the inception of the Constitution in 1791, 17 others have been added, may of them excellent and inspiration for people's worldwide: abolition of slavery (1865), right for women to vote (1920), presidential term limits (1951), etc. Despite 400 years of semi-irrational European anti-Americanism, don't underestimate the massive impact of many of these landmark amendments on the governments and daily lives of Europe and Europeans.

Of course there was one extremely stupid amendment (abolition of alcohol) but that was corrected 11 years later by another amendment :)

Beau: Everything what you say makes sense, instead of one thing. We haven't been bombed in order to prevent far worse. What if 9/11 happened in order to prevent something far worse? Would you think differently about it?

I'd wish I have the chance to spend more time in America.

Healthy food can also be acquired in many parts of the nation. And the lifestyle actually is psychologically healthy for most Americans.

Having lived in Europe, I think the only markedly unhealthy element of American culture, in comparison, is the economic disparity -- I think that's what causes the pyschological, food, and environmental lack of general health.

But it's a really big country -- it's different from state to state.