An excellent article back in June reviewed the many ways psychologists mostly get data from a very unrepresentative sample of humanity, what they call the WEIRD: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. In the process, they review ways the US is exceptional:
Nobody is trying to be a prick, but there doesn't seem to be a well known, acceptable alternative. I know plenty of US citizens who don't like it either, but what do you suggest any given individual should do about it?
Great document, but it does in fact suggest that US workers are among the most productive. The USA ranks 4th in highest GDP per hour worked, which is a standard measure of productivity. However, Luxembourg, Norway, and Ireland all rank ahead of the US.
Colombia originally referred to the whole new world, but the Colombians cleverly appropriated the word for themselves, and Americans grabbed "American".
If you don't like it, maybe your country should have declared independence sooner and grabbed that name first. :3
prick? You, my friend, ARE THE PRICK. I didn't particularly like saying "I'm from America" in the first place. But my travels to 3 countries has taught me at least 1/6th+ of the world's population doesn't understand "I'm from the US" and just look at me like WTF. Finally when they do figure it out they insist "Oh you're from America!". Why would I want to go to the effort of facing this communication difficulty every time just because it offends retards like you?
As a Spaniard myself and traveler I had listen to many topics about Americans, one of the most heard(in South America and Europe) is this:
"Never go to eat where Americans go, is going to be expensive, and bad quality".
Also, "they want to stay alone, they don't like sharing spaces,people"(we Spaniards do).
As much as I dislike to use topics, I have over the years came to the conclusion that they are right, they are a lot of good things about American too. Every culture is different, and weird for the others(you get used to the one you live most of your life). When you travel, you pick the things you like, and become weird for the people that stayed (the majority of the population).
My favorite weirdness of the USA: the sex ratio of killing (SROK) in spousal relationships. Women kill their husbands (proportional to husbands killing wives) in the USA WAY more than in any other country or society studied - 75 to 100 in the US, versus more like 30 to 100 or less in other countries. It's not guns (it predates gun prevalence, and a huge proportion of women-on-man spousal killings are non-gun) and it's not the generally greater proportional violence of American women compared to American men versus other countries' women versus other countries' men.
See, e.g., Who Kills Who in Spousal Killings? On the Exceptional Ratio of Spousal Homicides in the United States.
I don't think the authors are saying anything self-centered. They're just pointing out that others will imitate the success stories in any given society, and that will mold the character of the nation as a whole. Only someone who assumes that the US characteristics are obviously superior would then conclude that the authors are suggesting the US is better than everyone else. So what if the US culture pushes the population to have higher IQ or analytical reasoning? Do those make US better?
@TGGPI honestly can't say, for I need to read a lot more economic history in the coming years. This is just an analysis I arrived at in the last six years of steady reading in other areas economic: that, and of course having struggled too long as someone self employed.
Very interesting article, and touches upon interesting notions of "better" vs. value. For example, individuality / having your own room or space / having more options are all associated with a higher quality of life, whereas other countries may see sharing / quality over quantity as superior.
I think that some of the differences in the USA are due to us having a 12 percent black minority that is different enough from the majority and big enough to affect many things.
Examples:
Perhaps we have less welfare because the majority of whites think that blacks are not like them and will take advantage of it when they should not.
Crime, longevity and health seems to be strongly affected by the ethnic make up, and higher crime rate in poorer areas might make us work more hours.
Whites may even adopt certain behaviors to differentiate from black.
North Dakota does not have much of a black minority and is more similar to other western nations.
It's actually two continents...
Nobody is trying to be a prick, but there doesn't seem to be a well known, acceptable alternative. I know plenty of US citizens who don't like it either, but what do you suggest any given individual should do about it?
Great document, but it does in fact suggest that US workers are among the most productive. The USA ranks 4th in highest GDP per hour worked, which is a standard measure of productivity. However, Luxembourg, Norway, and Ireland all rank ahead of the US.
You know perfectly well that the person you're adressing had no say in that.
Colombia originally referred to the whole new world, but the Colombians cleverly appropriated the word for themselves, and Americans grabbed "American".
If you don't like it, maybe your country should have declared independence sooner and grabbed that name first. :3
prick? You, my friend, ARE THE PRICK. I didn't particularly like saying "I'm from America" in the first place. But my travels to 3 countries has taught me at least 1/6th+ of the world's population doesn't understand "I'm from the US" and just look at me like WTF. Finally when they do figure it out they insist "Oh you're from America!". Why would I want to go to the effort of facing this communication difficulty every time just because it offends retards like you?
America is the whole freaking continent not just the USA. Stop using that term just to refer to you pricks.
USA is number one place to make money, Europe is number one place to spend it :)
As a Spaniard myself and traveler I had listen to many topics about Americans, one of the most heard(in South America and Europe) is this:
"Never go to eat where Americans go, is going to be expensive, and bad quality".
Also, "they want to stay alone, they don't like sharing spaces,people"(we Spaniards do).
As much as I dislike to use topics, I have over the years came to the conclusion that they are right, they are a lot of good things about American too. Every culture is different, and weird for the others(you get used to the one you live most of your life). When you travel, you pick the things you like, and become weird for the people that stayed (the majority of the population).
Sisters are doin' it for themselves, standing on their own two feet.
My favorite weirdness of the USA: the sex ratio of killing (SROK) in spousal relationships. Women kill their husbands (proportional to husbands killing wives) in the USA WAY more than in any other country or society studied - 75 to 100 in the US, versus more like 30 to 100 or less in other countries. It's not guns (it predates gun prevalence, and a huge proportion of women-on-man spousal killings are non-gun) and it's not the generally greater proportional violence of American women compared to American men versus other countries' women versus other countries' men.
See, e.g., Who Kills Who in Spousal Killings? On the Exceptional Ratio of Spousal Homicides in the United States.
This document states that US workers aren't really the most productive. Where did you get your data from ?
I don't think the authors are saying anything self-centered. They're just pointing out that others will imitate the success stories in any given society, and that will mold the character of the nation as a whole. Only someone who assumes that the US characteristics are obviously superior would then conclude that the authors are suggesting the US is better than everyone else. So what if the US culture pushes the population to have higher IQ or analytical reasoning? Do those make US better?
@TGGPI honestly can't say, for I need to read a lot more economic history in the coming years. This is just an analysis I arrived at in the last six years of steady reading in other areas economic: that, and of course having struggled too long as someone self employed.
Very interesting article, and touches upon interesting notions of "better" vs. value. For example, individuality / having your own room or space / having more options are all associated with a higher quality of life, whereas other countries may see sharing / quality over quantity as superior.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
I think that some of the differences in the USA are due to us having a 12 percent black minority that is different enough from the majority and big enough to affect many things.
Examples:
Perhaps we have less welfare because the majority of whites think that blacks are not like them and will take advantage of it when they should not.
Crime, longevity and health seems to be strongly affected by the ethnic make up, and higher crime rate in poorer areas might make us work more hours.
Whites may even adopt certain behaviors to differentiate from black.
North Dakota does not have much of a black minority and is more similar to other western nations.