Slashdot Mirror

You said, "Not only this, but according to common indictors, the US has the worst wealth distribution in the world, and its getting worse every year."

That's not true as stated. It's true that the wealth distribution has been getting worse, but USA's is not the worst in the world. It is the worst of the developed contries, however. Here's a chart, from a nice trustworthy, unbiased source, the CIA. ;)
http://www.photius.com/rankings/economy/distributi on_of_family_income_gini_index_2004_0.html

"My friend just got back from a 10 day business trip in China, and he had one piece of advice: Learn to speak chinese, because these people are going to take over the world!"

That's what was said about Japan, 20 years ago. Most mfg is done in China, yet they're still ~4 trillion behind us in GDP http://www.photius.com/rankings/economy/gdp_2004_0 .html

I wouldn't bet on the US being toppled anytime soon.

Probably going to be an invisible AC but here goes...

In short, I think the country's gotten too large for most average citizens to be held accountable for the screwups attributed to our country and its leaders. Yes, holding us accountable as individuals is a great sound byte but it's just not that simple. While I have no idea where "Whiney Mac Fanboy" is actually from, I notice alot of the anti-US sentiment comes from European/Australian posters. Consider this, though: http://www.photius.com/wfb1999/rankings/population _0.html

The US, at over 270 million people (plus, what is it now, 11 million illegal invaders that are pandered to despite lack of voting rights), is the 4th most populous nation in the world. From the region of the world I mentioned above, our nearest comparisons are the Russians at 146 million, the Germans at 82 million, the british at 59 million and the French at 58 million. We outnumber the Russians nearly 2:1 and the other 3 combined by 70 million.

To take this a little further, the average asshat in the House is supposed to represent of 504000 Americans and the average troll in the Senate pretends to listen to almost 3 million. How exactly do you "take a stand" getting either of these people to do what you want them to do, even if there were no idiotic "free speech zones" or other such deliberate obstacles?

Look at it another way: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004986.html

Supposing you were, say, a Pennsylvanian and you were sick of the trolls in Harrisburg looting your treasury. In simplest terms, a majority of only 6 million people could organize to overthrow them. Even through our current incredibly corrupt system (with a dismal ~15% attendance to boot), we managed to do just that last week, kicking over 2 dozen of them out in the south central part of the state and several were too afraid to even run for re-election at all (sorry, can't find an online source).

This is the basis for the states' rights arguement, that by having decisions locally, rather than hundreds or thousands of miles away in DC, those officials would be grounded in something closer to reality instead of the fantasy untouchable world they inhabit today. It's like the Internet jackass formular really; people drop all pretense of civility when they don't have to answer to anyone.

The best thing the US can do is to yank as much away from the federal government as possible, if not split into 50 individual nations. You will see alot of problems gets solved in a hurry, that's for sure. The only real (as in, not manufactured) concern I can come up with is national defense. Then again, if we bring home the National Guard...

Prior to the invasion, Kuwait had minimal military (20K troops and fourty tanks). For some odd reason, After the invasion, they have been working to have a decent military.

Yes, I am aware of our excesses. Of course, that makes us on par with Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Russia, USSR, Japan, China, Iraq, Iran, Cuba, etc.

Iraq got nuclear training from Pakistan's AQ Khan during the 1980s, while the US beefed up Hussein's rudimentary WMD program. And Pakistan got its krytrons from the US at that time, too.

Uh, you *do* realize that the "greying" you speak of mostly will occur in the U.S. and Europe (due to the baby boom created shortly after World War II), not in the rest of the world, right?

Besides, India has over 1 billion people. IIRC, only some fraction of 1% of them are actually employed in IT (for now). China has 1.2 billion people, and is in a similar situation.

In 1991, only 285 million of their then about 0.9 billion people were actually "economically active". Assuming the rate has remained approximately the same with India's growth, then about 316 million people now are "economically active" there. That only leaves, oh, about 700 million people as unproductive labor, waiting to be educated and put to work in IT (or engineering, or other fields)...

China has about 740 million of their 1.2 billion employed (assuming China isn't lying about these statistics). So there's another 500 million then in China who could be tapped for IT work, given the training and education (and that's ignoring the people they already employ in IT).

And then there's Russia, Belgium, the former Soviet-bloc eastern European nations, South Korea, etc. etc., which I haven't touched-upon... Believe me, there are *PLENTY* of people in other nations to fill whatever labor demands American businesses may have.

In short, for practical purposes, there is no "greying" you speak of, once you include the labor supplies of the world economy, not just the U.S. economy. Think globally, not locally.

Why do you hate America?

Because you only constitute 4.5% of the world's population but you consume 25% of its resources.

No one hates America, not even terrorists, despite what you're being told. We feel sorry for you. You're a wonderful, friendly, open and honest people who also seem to be hideously naive. You're being exploited by a corrupt government and you're losing a priceless constitution that other populations in the world would sacrifice their lives for (as did your forefathers, remember?). We just wish you'd be a tiny bit more open minded - take a few more holidays abroad and see how others live. Consume a little less relentlessly, campaign to stop the hegemony and ideally, kick that warmongering lunatic out of the White House.

Yes, and and how many square miles is Sweden compared to the United States. Population density is an issue when it comes to broadband deployment. Taiwan, Japan, and other very densely populated countries have a huge advantage over more sparsely populated nations like the U.S.

Actually, USA (~29 inhabitants/square kilometer) has a higher population density than Sweden (~20 inhabitants/square kilometer) does.

http://www.fact-index.com/l/li/list_of_countries_b y_population_density.html
http://www.photius.com/wfb1999/rankings/population _density_2.html

Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam in the 80s
http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2002/US/09/30/sproject.irq.re gime.change/rumsfeld.80s.jpg

America's WMD: Air Force tests "mother of all bombs"
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/2020/iraq_moab03 0311.html

"In a flashy debut for its biggest non-nuclear bomb, the Air Force today dropped a 21,000-pound behemoth onto a test range in Florida"

"Anthrax sent to U.S. senate matches Army strain"
http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/12/18/an thrax.investigation/

CNN: Army confirms anthrax production in Utah
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/12/12/army.anthrax/

BUSH SPURNS BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS BAN
http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,494257 ,00.html

"a 1972 treaty banning biological weapons has been added to the list of international protocols Bush has decided to ignore"

U.S. accused of trying to derail anti-torture pact
http://www.photius.com/rogue_nations/torture.html

"The United States on Tuesday was accused of trying to derail a new draft international treaty against torture that has taken a decade to negotiate."

"The treaty, which is to be debated in the U.N. Economic and Social Council beginning on Wednesday, would set up an international system of inspections for all sites where prisoners were held, to insure that torture was not taking place. "

and this:

Document details American plan to bug phones and emails of key U.N. Security Council members
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239, 905936,00.html

I don't think Moore's film is the cause of "controversy". I think the hawkish Bush administration and previous republican ones are the cause of controversy. Don't shoot the messenger.

X years from now, what do you think are the odds a top economic ranking is will give you comfort on your death-bed?

How about the fact that we have twice the infant mortality rate than Sweden ? Or that we have twice the obesity rate of Sweden?

Anecdote: My friend has a step-mother who never will have to work another day in her life -- she gets $100K/year just from sitting around and collecting real-estate income. The woman is neurotic beyond belief (hypochondria being the most prominent proble), is unahappily devorced, has spotty relations with her children.

We try to stay #1 economically. Consider that may not be the best end goal.

IC is the integrated circuit.

I'm not belittling the rest of the world. But rightfully I am claiming that the US has done more to bring the world forward in terms of discovery, development, and freedom that any other. period. I am sick and tired of of the rest of the world getting on America's case. When they start pulling their own weight then I'll be more ready to listen.

As far as the EU, I believe that Japan has a bigger economy than Europe. Even after the EU adds members to make 25 the US economy will still be larger. Growth by acquisition may temporarily give the EU higher numbers in total growth when that occurs. But in the long run that will only hurt the EU's long term growth potential as these new member states are generally very under developed in terms of infrastructure, education, and economic development as well as other less tangible but very important assets like a sense of democratization and entrepreneurship.

In the list of country GDP notice that the US produces more than 20% of world GDP and that the first european country shows up is Germany which is behind China, Japan, and India. The top four european countries Germany, France, UK and Italy combined produce about %60 of the US GDP. Then notice the really long gap in the list before anymore european countries are listed.

Here are some sites that paint the economic picture which portrays American might.

World Economies ranked by 2003 GDP
Top Ten US Cities ranks by closest contry in GDP

Well, at least someone is. Also incase anyone hasnt noticed :) China will be the most, without a doubt the most wealthy nation by far. Im not going to speculate when this happens, but im sure they're already only second to the all mighty USA. So looks like they'll have enough money to keep it going into the future.

Overall, yes, they are second behind the US. But per capita GDP, they're down around 129th. Just below Albania and Ukraine, and just above Paraguay. I think they still have some work to do.

Just think of it.. the most spoken languages in the world are Chinese, then Spanish. English only comes after those two.. and then comes arabic and Bengali.

According to this more people in the world speak languges OTHER than english

Saudi Arabia gives a greater percentage of its gross national product to foreign aid that any other nation in the world. Well, it would be nice to say its all relative to the GNP, but thats not the point. The USA still spends more on foreign aid. If other countries can't give more because they are still living under a monarchy...thats their fault.

You're just wrong. Even if you take into account our per-capita GDP to make everything equal, you still come out with Luxembourg beating us by a hundred miles.

...and we're the ones paying for the development of new drugs. You don't think that R&D is free, do you?

I'm always amazed at the ignorance of Europeans. They think that there is some kind of health-epedemic over here.

We have healthcare issues. So does Canada. So do European countries.

North Korea: 120,540 sq km
South Korea: 98,480 sq km

New Jersey: 11,936 sq km

Will you people, who don't know what you are talking about, kindly shut the hell up.

North Korea: 120,540 sq km
South Korea: 98,480 sq km

New Jersey: 11,936 sq km

Will you people, who don't know what you are talking about, kindly shut the hell up.

Of course, English is not the most widely spoken language in the world ...1. Chinese 2. Spanish...see the top ten here

Latin still lives on in medicine & biology, and the Roman Catholic Church, among other places.

"Saddam wasn't too concerned about artifacts...when he invaded Kuwait in 1990 and his soldiers ransacked the museums"

So should each country be responsible for the acts committed by its soldiers?

This is interesting because Texas, unlike Tokyo, may be more or less self-sufficient. Texas has a lot of land to produce food, energy, consumer and commercial goods, not to mention golf courses every twenty miles that cost no where near the hundreds of dollars typical in Japan

The world population density appears to be 14 people per square kilometer. This is about 1/2 the density of Texas, but that does not mean that world population can double without negative effect. Not all land area is equal in its carrying capacity. Certainly, if you tired to put everyone in the world into Texas, the most likely result would be that we just shoot each other until we are back down to 30 people per square kilometer

We have so much land it's significantly more expensive to cover the USA than an island that is only 374,744 sq km compared to the USA which is 9,158,960 sq km

Hell Europe is barely bigger than the USA at and has significanlty more people at 731,716,000 compared to 287,412,865 in the USA.

BTW we're kicking the worlds ass when it comes to wealth. Which in my opinion is a hell of a lot better than sending a Instant Message(tm) over a cell phone.

This is what I get for not Clicking through the links. Anyway, subsitute Guatemala and everybody should get a good size comparision.

This is what I get for not Clicking through the links. Anyway, subsitute Guatemala and everybody should get a good size comparision.

We might be nice and borrow Pakistan's airspace just long enough to send over B-52s to drop leaflets warning civilians near targets to get out of the way, but that's it.

Except that more than 66% of the population can't read!!! (three references, I got bored finding more good ones...) Less than 16% of the women can read, they can't have an education, they can't hold a job. Propaganda won't work unless it's by word of mouth.

All of these statistics were gathered before the Taliban (who executes anyone that tries to teach women) was firmly in place. It has become even worse since...

• In 1999, 12 million children lived in households that did not have enough food and 2.7 million of these children lived in households that experienced hunger (3.8% of all children). (source: USDA)
• Despite the booming economy, 31 million Americans continue to live in households without enough to eat and a third of these households contain adults or children who went hungry at some point in 1999. (source: USDA)

Moreover, this "simputer" is not the be-all end-all; it is a first step in a journey towards making computers accessible to all. Maybe after looking at this simputer some scientist in Brazil will come up with a better/cheaper version; maybe after a few such iterations, in a couple of years, we will have el-cheapo sub-$100 'puter which will spread this "digital wealth" around to the rest of the world.

And finally: $200 is not an unearthly sum for many Indians. India is ranked 5th in the world GDP Purchasing Power Parity.
Look at it this way: India's pre-capita income in 1999 was $1800. This "simputer" is 1/9 of that, about 1.5 months of salary. This is within the reach of, say, 50% of the Indian families. That means, within reach of 500 million people!