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"Only Saudi Arabia and Russia export more oil than Norway. - But with a population of only 4.5 million, Norway is the largest per-capita producer of oil by far."

A portion of the oil goes into plastics, and a small amount is used for lubricating, but over 95% is burned for fuel. Does Norway take no responsibility for this?"

But under Kyoto, Norway is responsible only for what they personally burn - they are not responsible, even though they are the ones who take transfer the oil from its location below ground to a location where it is made available for burning.

This seems about as ethical as a vegetarian who raises livestock to sell to a slaughterhouse.

But, the money's good!

Wrong.

The Mongols gained fame in the 13th century when under Chinggis KHAN they conquered a huge Eurasian empire.

And if you look closer at the file you linked to, you might notice the filename "mongol_dominions.jpg" :)

China doesn't have as much control over us economically as you might think. The US has a nearly 12 trillion gross domestic product according to the cia world factbook, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/, so while the trend of deficits is a bad thing and could one day lead to China having that kind of leverage over us they are by no means there yet.

9,200,000 viewers

You mean the part of the US population that will die of old age in 5-10 years?

Just kidding... But strangly enough the figured for 2005 for 65 and older were 65 years and over: 12.4% (male 15,298,676/female 21,397,228) (2005 est.) From ye old CIA Factbook

Yeah, the English version of Wikipedia is going to be extremely useful in Botswana. Last time I checked, Setswanese wasn't in Wikipedia's list of supported languages.

I do not dispute that Mexican some towns and cities or even regions may individually be having economic problems when a large percentage of their population decides to pull up roots and move (usually) to the US where they can earn higher wages. However, this is not necessarily the case for Mexico as a whole—comparing the figure given for total remittances sent back to Mexico by Mexican immigrants to the US in 2004 here, and the figure for Mexico's estimated GDP in 2004 given here, you can see that more than 1% of Mexico's GDP comes directly from remittances sent from Mexican immigrants living in the US. This is not an insignificant figure, and I would be surprised if the Mexican (national) government did not at least ignore illegal immigration to the US, if not encourage it (though discreetly, so they don't anger their greatest economic partner), because of this. Evidence of this last statement includes the brochure I linked to in my previous post.

I thought our government was gathering more useful statistics, but I guess not.

http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/compu ter.html

I really like reading the census data. Sometimes the numbers do not at all meet perception, so I try to calibrate my perception from time to time.

Also, another excellent data site for raw data is http://www.nationmaster.com/ and another is http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index .html.

Its like saying that in 1905 only 7% of people used cars and now in 2005 99% of people use them, so cars play a big role in people's lives.

Yes, I agree. I would assume that almost 100% of the US white collar population use the internet almost daily at home and at work. I would also assume that the deviants from that don't use a computer at home because they use it at work and want to escape from them. Its surprising the number of lower income blue collar people that have home computers and pretty much know how to use them. Its basically a TV alternative for those types.

You are so off base. (I guess we just keep misinterpreting each other)

For the record, I'm *not* scandinavian, I live in a european country that hardly has any mining resources whatsoever. With 16 million people on a tiny piece of land we have enough problems already, which off course doesn't acquit us of our responsibilities in a global economy/ecology. (Yes, we send shipwrecks to asia, yes we have troops in Iraq, yes, we produce bio-fuels from soya grown on burned rain forrest - that doen't mean I approve.)

No, I'm not Swedish and I don't propagate a political agenda of a company or government. I get my information from visiting other countries and I read newspapers. I was under the impression we were debating the pros & cons of glas vs. PET and iron vs. aluminium, rather than flaming on another USA vs. rest of the world issue. Environmental issues arise on a global scale and are difficult enough without political agendas. And I didn't even know there was a connection between the (world-wide) popularity of aluminium and the US having a finger in it. (Though yes, like almost anyone I agree that throtling down US industries' pollution would be a great contribution to ecology, if only to give a good example to China.;-)

That said, on the glass/PET issue: I've seen some pretty convincing statistics that argue
1. In favour of recycling bottles, rather than the material they are made of
2. (Contrary to what I thought) the complete cycle (production, transportation, cleaning, reuse of materials, loss) favours plastic over glass (close to a factor of two).
Similar statistics for aluminium & iron cans. At some point alumium had a weight advantage which made it slightly more attractive for airlines. Than they found they were able to produce thinner iron cans leading to a net lower weight, and again fully recyclable from normal houshold garbage.

OK. I'm using the same argumens, so I'll stop. Evidentally, we've based our conclusions on different statistics, propaganda, hearsay or other sources. Actually, the thing that surprises me most is that there's a controversy *at all* on these subjects. For the last ten years I haven't heard any trustworthy argument pro aluminium on this side of the ocean, while the plastic/glass thing is something I personally discovered not too long ago - but I double-checked those numbers and found them pretty solid as well. I guess news travels slow or just doesn't travel everywhere ;-)

That's like saying that the .tv TLD shouldn't have been made because all tv shows would have to be moved to it.

FYI the .tv domain has existed as long as the country codes have. It's the country code for Tuvalu, not a new TLD for television-related websites. It's a small country with a very sluggish economy so they decided to sell domain names using their country code. Pretty clever really.

Aren't all CIA employees somewhat undercover?

Well, according to the CIA, the US imports far more than it exports, giving it one of the highest trade deficits in the industrialized world. Thus, whatever goods and services you say you sell to MY country, I'm almost certain that you buy more from us.

This is a misconception. Japan has a gigantic military: cost $45.841 billion (2004). They also have fairly advanced military technologies established so if a war broke out, Japan could easily rapidly develop a massive, powerful military force. Also mind you those expenses are pretty much at total peacetime, without any of the war costs the US has been eating over the past however many decades. So yes, Japan's "defense force" is nothing to ignore. Source: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ ja.html

This is a misconception. Japan has a gigantic military: cost $45.841 billion (2004). They also have fairly advanced military technologies established so if a war broke out, Japan could easily rapidly develop a massive, powerful military force. Also mind you those expenses are pretty much at total peacetime, without any of the war costs the US has been eating over the past however many decades. So yes, Japan's "defense force" is nothing to ignore. Source: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ ja.html

It's not really news at all - I mean the European Space Agency has understood the value of Russian engineering done decades ago and simply decided that it was the better choice over spending vast sums of money on try-and-fail schemes. Even more interesting is: "In 2007 a Soyuz launcher will take off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana (South America). This will be an historic event as it will be the first time that a Soyuz launcher lifts off from a spaceport other than Baikonur or Plesetsk. It will also be a milestone in the strategic cooperation between Europe and Russia in the launcher's sector."

they wouldn't have the knowledge and resources to perpetrate the scams (e.g. speaking English and having enough money for Internet access)

Considering that English is Nigeria's official language, I don't think English speaking skills is necessarily a good metric with which to judge the education of Nigerians.

You may have a valid point about Internet access, though.

Oh, one more comment, someone can probably verify this for me, don't Japanese children usually spend about 12 hours of their day in school 6 days a week? Sure, they're well educated, but at what cost in lost childhood?

It's interesting how all the discussion of the report fails to take any note of a supposed 5% rate of severe mental illness.

The USA has 295,000,000 people.
Of those, 20,000,000 have prescriptions for medical treatment of mental illness.

That's a 6.7% rate, and that's only counting people recieving pharmaceutical treatment.

So, are you asking why the programmers have a 1.7% lower rate of mental illness than the public at large?

PS. If you're a programmer with difficulty concentrating, faking mental illness to get a Adderall prescription can really boost your productivity!

It's interesting how all the discussion of the report fails to take any note of a supposed 5% rate of severe mental illness.

The USA has 295,000,000 people.
Of those, 20,000,000 have prescriptions for medical treatment of mental illness.

That's a 6.7% rate, and that's only counting people recieving pharmaceutical treatment.

So, are you asking why the programmers have a 1.7% lower rate of mental illness than the public at large?

PS. If you're a programmer with difficulty concentrating, faking mental illness to get a Adderall prescription can really boost your productivity!

You really should have linked directly to the world factbook, instead of wikipedia. That's where the page supposedly gets its numbers, and furthermore, it isn't subject to sudden changes by some malicious user.

In fact, if you do cite wikipedia, you should really cite the specific version of the page you read, as it could be changed before someone else follows up on your source. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citing_Wikipedia.

Besides, didn't your teachers tell you never to use an encyclopedia as a primary source?

(That said, your numbers seem correct)

By the way, where do all those numbers and percentages come from?

I agree, 80 percent seems a bit high. According to this site: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ en.html the Russian language amounts to 29.7%. This is still quite big. The argument was basically that a large enough population speaking a second language should be a reason to make it official. Some might agree with that, and some may disagree. Simply calling someone Putin's propaganda lackey won't change that fact or convince anyone.

Now, I wouldn't jump to the conclusions about racism or a large economical impact. For me, this is a matter of being a part of the society. In my opinion, people who've lived in a country for a certain amount of time should be able to communicate with the officials even though they don't understand the language. Children should also be given education and healthcare using their native language (with the support of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child).

Today, a EU citizen moving to another EU country should be able to communicate with the country's officials in order to keep the labour market unrestricted. The Russian minority don't seem to have this right even though they appear to have it in the neighboring Finland. I myself live in Sweden where we don't even have an official language. When a foreign language becomes popular enough, the officials simply translate various Swedish forms into the new language and hire a new translator. When somebody have lived long enough in the country (a few years), he or she is entitled to participate in local elections -- which I think is rather important. In spite of that, the small Swedish language is very much alive and the streets have not been taken over by 150 million of Russians / Turks / Jews / whatever. Well, maybe except for the Old City in Stockholm :)

Basically, any place that is serviced by Shaw or Rogers will have Broadband service through cable.

If you check the CIA Factbook on Canada, it is larger than the US and has telecommunications infrastructure which provides excellent service through modern technology.

Basically, any place that is serviced by Shaw or Rogers will have Broadband service through cable.

If you check the CIA Factbook on Canada, it is larger than the US and has telecommunications infrastructure which provides excellent service through modern technology.

country broadband/per-capitaGDP = per-capita relative cost of broadband
The US: $600 / $40100 = 1.50%
France: $38 x 12 = $456 / $28700 = 1.59%
S.Korea: $360 / $19200 = 1.875%

So, we see that the US really isn't that far off in terms of cost of broadband when you scale it to average income Yes, these numbers might change if you use median income versus GDP per capita, but my point is that you have to actually compare relative costs of things, not nominal dollars. There's also things like exchange rates that muddy the water.

Additionally, in the US the companies will charge what the market bears; the excuse that "there is no alternative" is false since, despite what many people believe, the Internet is not a core utility as it has too many competitors in the "transfer of information" industry (for that is all the Internet is). Note that it's not even in the shipping industry, because that's transfer of material goods.

So, in the US, the problem isn't the price, it's the relative importance the people using the service put on it. Apparently other things in the US factor in to where the current equilibrium between broadband adoption and price is at its current point.

Comparing speeds of connections is also a bit odd, because it's the speed of the connection, but what is used with that speed. For instance, having more bandwidth used by games or video doesn't fundamentally mean the network with the higher capactiy is performing a more valuable function; it just means it has that capability.

You probably have better odds of picking a pretty girl by knowing German.

You mean soome reason other than the presidential decree banning political assainations?

GDP: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2001rank.html. Ok, It's about 1/5th.

Population: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2119rank.html Ok. It's about 1/22nd.

per capita: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2004rank.html We're highest with $40,100 per capita among countries with more than 50 million population, 1/3 higher than the next >50M pop. country, the UK, which has $29,600.

The US is second in GDP/capita only to Luxembourg, which has a population of 468,571. That's less than the San Fernando Valley (at 1.1 million). You tell me.

GDP: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2001rank.html. Ok, It's about 1/5th.

Population: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2119rank.html Ok. It's about 1/22nd.

per capita: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2004rank.html We're highest with $40,100 per capita among countries with more than 50 million population, 1/3 higher than the next >50M pop. country, the UK, which has $29,600.

The US is second in GDP/capita only to Luxembourg, which has a population of 468,571. That's less than the San Fernando Valley (at 1.1 million). You tell me.

GDP: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2001rank.html. Ok, It's about 1/5th.

Population: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2119rank.html Ok. It's about 1/22nd.

per capita: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2004rank.html We're highest with $40,100 per capita among countries with more than 50 million population, 1/3 higher than the next >50M pop. country, the UK, which has $29,600.

The US is second in GDP/capita only to Luxembourg, which has a population of 468,571. That's less than the San Fernando Valley (at 1.1 million). You tell me.

Well, there's a LOT of oil there and those oil company's need their email.

"There's a cat-and-mouse game going on between states that seek to control the information environment and citizens who seek to speak freely online," said John Palfrey, the director of Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a researcher with the OpenNet Initiative. "Filtering technologies, and the way that they are implemented, are becoming more sophisticated."
Not surprisingly, repressive governments have been eager buyers of those technologies.

From the CIA 'Factbook' on Myanmar (Burma):
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ bm.html#Govt

Economy - overview:
Burma is a resource-rich country that suffers from government controls, inefficient economic policies, and abject rural poverty. The junta took steps in the early 1990s to liberalize the economy after decades of failure under the "Burmese Way to Socialism", but those efforts have since stalled and some of the liberalization measures have been rescinded. Burma has been unable to achieve monetary or fiscal stability, resulting in an economy that suffers from serious macroeconomic imbalances - including inflation and multiple official exchange rates that overvalue the Burmese kyat. In addition, most overseas development assistance ceased after the junta began to suppress the democracy movement in 1988 and subsequently ignored the results of the 1990 legislative elections. Economic sanctions against Burma by the United States - including a ban on imports of Burmese products and a ban on provision of financial services by US persons in response to the government of Burma's attack in May 2003 on AUNG SAN SUU KYI and her convoy - further slowed the inflow of foreign exchange. Official statistics are inaccurate. Published statistics on foreign trade are greatly understated because of the size of the black market and unofficial border trade - often estimated to be one to two times the size of the official economy. Though the Burmese government has good economic relations with its neighbors, a better investment climate and an improved political situation are needed to promote foreign investment, exports, and tourism. In February 2003, a major banking crisis hit the country's 20 private banks, shutting them down and disrupting the economy. As of January 2004, the largest private banks remained moribund, leaving the private sector with little formal access to credit.

I wonder what the executives at companies like Microsoft, Yahoo and Cisco feel about using their technology to aid oppressive regimes? The whole idea of information sharing and transferral is thrown out the window when you can no longer criticize your goverment or those in power. You then have a dumbed-down version of the software, with no reason to trust or believe anything you read through them since they are easily monitored, and easily censored.


Do the executives at these companies have any morals? How far must it go before they will object to censorship? Is their complacency indicative of their need for more sales or that they just don't care?

a "WMD" that is incapable of causing mass destruction is not a WMD, by definition. So yes, you'd be wrong if you answered that in the affirmative.

By definition of WMD detailed in the numerous UN resolutions from 1991 to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the small amount of chemical WMD weapons found in post-war Iraq were indeed classified as illegal WMD. Your elementary and simplistic attempt at sweeping under the carpet the fact that WMD was found is truly pathetic and characteristic of knee-jerk liberals such as yourself.

Additionally, the gas you're talking about was discovered *after* the invasion, as a roadside bomb, and the question was asking about evidence of pre-invasion WMD stocks.

Wrong, tenth wit. The flawed, deceptive, and biased poll stated the following:

"22 percent thought troops found weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq"

Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD
http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/Comp_ Report_Key_Findings.pdf

The report you sited only carries weight if the supposed misconceptions presented are really misconceptions. Many would say that these are not misconceptions, misinformation, or misunderstandings, but instead fact. Unfortunately, as with many liberal polls, the content of the poll is biased and based on false pretenses and is worded in a way that is only meant to deceive.

Also, let's keep in mind that this poll is based on three supposed misconceptions. I'm sure all would agree that all political sides have true misconceptions, but the poll does nothing to address which political party has the most. Instead, they have done their best to craft a poll that would smear those that watch Fox or that might be politically right-leaning. That's why Alternet and Inter Press Service aren't known for being "Fair and Balanced" like the Fox News Channel is.

True or False?

-US troops found evidence of close pre-war links between Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist group

True. The poll's circumstantial assertion that it wasn't US troops that found the Iraq-Al Qaeda link goes to show how insidiously deceptive this poll really is. Regardless if US troops found evidence of this (and I'm pretty sure they did), the link between Iraq and Al Qaeda has been proven in a court of law.

Saddam Hussein's Philanthropy of Terror
http://www.husseinandterror.com/

Court Rules: Al Qaida, Iraq Linked
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/05/08/uttm/mai n552868.shtml

-Troops found weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq

True. A small amount of illegal chemical WMD weapons was found in post-war Iraq. It is believed that any other WMD that Iraq may have had were either destroyed or moved out of the country once war was obviously imminent.

Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's WMD
http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/Comp_ Report_Key_Findings.pdf

-World public opinion favored Washington's going to war with Iraq

Likely false.

While world public opinion may have been against the US's pre-war position on the Iraq invasion, the US public opinion was in favor. Again, the poll attempts to deceive by slightly changing true facts to fool those taking the poll into believing another question was asked.

THE SECOND UN RESOLUTION: A BATTLE FOR PUBLIC OPINION
https://www.brookings.edu/comm/events/20030226.pdf

Conclusion:

You liberals are truly pathetic low life scumbag losers of the world that can't be satisfied with the facts as they are, but instead have to try to shape the facts to fit your perverted and deeply flawed mentality.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ ca.html
  a constitutional monarchy that is also a parliamentary democracy and a federation

Hardly sounds like a candidate for largest faux democracy republic.

Also, it's up for grabs which is bigger:

United States:
land: 9,161,923 sq km

Canada:
land: 9,093,507 sq km

It's a federation according to the world fact book.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ rs.html

So I assume it doesn't count when considering republics with democratic leanings.

No, india is only about a third the size of the united states.

India:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ in.html
total: 3,287,590 sq km
land: 2,973,190 sq km
water: 314,400 sq km

United States
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ us.html
total: 9,631,418 sq km
land: 9,161,923 sq km
water: 469,495 sq km
note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia

Though technically, neither is a democracy. Both are republics.

Is a phone booth with 14 people in it larger than a phonebooth with 1?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3162 715.stm

No, india is only about a third the size of the united states.

India:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ in.html
total: 3,287,590 sq km
land: 2,973,190 sq km
water: 314,400 sq km

United States
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ us.html
total: 9,631,418 sq km
land: 9,161,923 sq km
water: 469,495 sq km
note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia

Though technically, neither is a democracy. Both are republics.

Is a phone booth with 14 people in it larger than a phonebooth with 1?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3162 715.stm

Boy it sounds unbelievably bad - We are spending 10x what Japan spends and a shocking 24x what Russia spends! Well, I'm not saying it's not bad, but it certainly isn't THAT BAD. At least not when you think for a few seconds and realize the only way to sensibly approach this is to look at military expenditures as a % of GDP. (for source material check http://www.sipri.org/contents/milap/milex/mex_data base1.html and http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/.

From that perspective things make a lot more sense - in 2004 the US spent between 3.2 and 3.9% of GDP (based on whose expediture estimates you use), while the UK and France spent about 2.6%. Germany, Japan, and Italy spent between 1.1 -1.7% of GDP - and Russia was about the same. To gain some perspective, South Korea spent about 1.7% while their unfriendly and incredibly poor neighbors to the North were able to scrape together a shocking 13% of their resources for military expenditures. Saudi Arabia came in at 6% while Israel came in at 7%. Iran is estimated as 3.3% by the CIA but I couldn't find any source material to back up that claim.

So Andy, it appears that other Countries ARE spending "the kind of money" the US is spending on military expenditures - some are spending relatively even more.

For more perspective I tried to find out how much of the US GDP is spent on IT - but all I could find was an estimate of 2.8% which appears to be for 1996. http://www.strassmann.com/pubs/datamation0297/.

It's decades of poor European policy to blame here, not US. The Sunni / Shi'a situation on the ground in Iraq falls squarely on British colonization after the end of World War I. Drawing lines on a map does not a country make. The rest of the Middle East has the same story to tell - http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index .html.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ tw.html
They refer to it simply as Taiwan.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ tw.html

I read an article in Time about one of the top people in Google (was there back in '99) and it said that whenever she came across an issue similar to this she usually just referenced the CIA world fact book and went with whatever they had to avoid these kind of issues.

Second country from the bottom, aftwer Zimbabwe and before European Union. http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ tw.html

So yes, they are in the CIA world factbook.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ tw.html#Govt conventional long form: none conventional short form: Taiwan

I read somewhere that Brunei has a substantial ex-pat population. English is one of the three major languages spoken there, too.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ ml.html

Apparently a landlocked west african country with a democratic government and a sadly low life expectancy.

Why one would want a box there, I have no idea.

Interesting point, but are they scaled?

Let's look at some Population rankings

USA
    - Population: 295,734,134
Japan
    - Population: 127,417,244
Switzerland
    - Population: 7,489,370
Canada
    - Population: 32,805,041

Good lord, Japan really *is* packed to the brim.

It is difficult however to compare that system, which works for a nation of 4 million people[CIA world fact book], whose largest city tops out at just over a 1.2 million, to the system that would be needed for a nation of 300 million.

Do you stil (sic) think the US is 'the richest nation on earth'? Look at unemployment, illiteracy, innumeracy, infant mortality (43rd, after Cuba!) and poverty figures for the last decades. Compare to any other country and then do the same for the added figures for the whole EU.

The United States IS "The Richest Nation on Earth." The value of our assets dwarfs the values of the assets of most nations, with only a couple coming anywhere close (Japan, China, Germany).

Look at the value of our prime assets and liabilities: our owned equity, money, real property, inventories, capital goods, net our net debt. I don't have hard numbers, and I challenge someone to find them. I'd imagine the wealth US owned (by citizens, government, and share of corporations) to be about $100 trillion. I'd estimate that this is 30% of global wealth. Probably only Japan comes even close, with maybe $30 trillion, or 10% of global wealth.

Unemployment: United States labor markets are so efficient, that unlike the socialized economies of Western Europe, if you don't have a job, you can get one. Only in Japan is unemployment better managed (at the cost of growth). Some people might be into something called 'facts' - here you go.
August 2005 - US: 4.9%. Germany: 11.6%. France: 9.9% . China: 23%, +/-20% (pick a number, any number). India: 9%. Indonesia: 9%. Japan: 4.4%.

Illiteracy: Literacy rates of countries with population of more than 150 million - US: 97% China: 91% India: 59% Indonesia: 88% Brazil: 86% Pakistan: 46%. While I'd assume EU Literacy rate is 99% (quite commendable), 3% of our population being miseducated is not a condemnation of our wealth - just our education system. Imagine what our unemployment would look like if everyone could read... (Source: CIA World Book)

The main wealth Americans have, however, is institutional. We have the ability to choose from a variety of goods and services, more enforceable rights than almost anywhere else, and impressively low corruption. When the Chinese can buy any American goods, have the right to due process and continuous ownership, responsive government, and don't have to pay off the police on a daily basis, maybe then they could build wealth.

Do you stil (sic) think the US is 'the richest nation on earth'? Look at unemployment, illiteracy, innumeracy, infant mortality (43rd, after Cuba!) and poverty figures for the last decades. Compare to any other country and then do the same for the added figures for the whole EU.

The United States IS "The Richest Nation on Earth." The value of our assets dwarfs the values of the assets of most nations, with only a couple coming anywhere close (Japan, China, Germany).

Look at the value of our prime assets and liabilities: our owned equity, money, real property, inventories, capital goods, net our net debt. I don't have hard numbers, and I challenge someone to find them. I'd imagine the wealth US owned (by citizens, government, and share of corporations) to be about $100 trillion. I'd estimate that this is 30% of global wealth. Probably only Japan comes even close, with maybe $30 trillion, or 10% of global wealth.

Unemployment: United States labor markets are so efficient, that unlike the socialized economies of Western Europe, if you don't have a job, you can get one. Only in Japan is unemployment better managed (at the cost of growth). Some people might be into something called 'facts' - here you go.
August 2005 - US: 4.9%. Germany: 11.6%. France: 9.9% . China: 23%, +/-20% (pick a number, any number). India: 9%. Indonesia: 9%. Japan: 4.4%.

Illiteracy: Literacy rates of countries with population of more than 150 million - US: 97% China: 91% India: 59% Indonesia: 88% Brazil: 86% Pakistan: 46%. While I'd assume EU Literacy rate is 99% (quite commendable), 3% of our population being miseducated is not a condemnation of our wealth - just our education system. Imagine what our unemployment would look like if everyone could read... (Source: CIA World Book)

The main wealth Americans have, however, is institutional. We have the ability to choose from a variety of goods and services, more enforceable rights than almost anywhere else, and impressively low corruption. When the Chinese can buy any American goods, have the right to due process and continuous ownership, responsive government, and don't have to pay off the police on a daily basis, maybe then they could build wealth.

OK moderators, whoever modded me flamebait, you're an idiot. Exerpt from CIA World Factbook - Peru:

Illicit drugs:
        Definition Field Listing
[Peru] until 1996 the world's largest coca leaf producer; emerging opium producer; cultivation of coca in Peru fell 15 percent to 31,150 hectares between 2002 and the end of 2003; much of the cocaine base is shipped to neighboring Colombia for processing into cocaine, while finished cocaine is shipped out from Pacific ports to the international drug market; increasing amounts of base and finished cocaine, however, are being moved to Brazil and Bolivia for use in the Southern Cone or transshipped to Europe and Africa

Thank you for your time.

What are you talking about?

Reference on unemployment.

We may not be the best, but were pretty well off. And of those impoverished people in New Orleans, how many of them didn't have a cell phone? How many didn't have a TV? I will agree that they may not have had the financial resources to flee the area, but that doesn't mean they lived in a box. We are not discussing the same thing. Get off the scemantics. Illiteracy and innumeracy are problems, but lots of people who are afflicted with those issues still have freaking cell phones. It's a matter of priorities.

Yeah...Sheehan found that out today.

No permit, asked to move 3 times. Publicity stunt. Notice the within reason part? Across the street would have been completely acceptable.

No...to many of you believe FOX and your president.

You're an idiot, you just disagreed with someone who agrees with you. Quit with the knee jerk reaction and think. We are too busy stuffing our faces. Check it out.