Do people in America who say 'we are the greatest, best place to live" actually know anything about out standard of living or are they engaging in mass hypnosis?

see: liberals will give access to the opposition in an argument. unlike progressive nitwits and conservative troglodytes, liberals do not fear open debate.
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When a true genius appears in the world, you may know them by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against them.
-Jonathan Swift

---"Thoughts On Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting."

I can love my country and think it is the best place to live (for me) without having to suffer the delusions of grandeur that come out of ignorance and hostility to any challenge(s).

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When a true genius appears in the world, you may know them by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against them.
-Jonathan Swift

---"Thoughts On Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting."

I guess the question becomes whether the economic measures are the end-all and be-all of standard of living.

I don't think there's much question that our economic floor is much higher than any other country. It is also true that, in general, our economic ceiling is available to a larger percentage of the population.

Is economic parity really an appropriate measure? Hell, is it even a goal?

If you measure the standard of living of the "average" citizen, I think you'll find us right up there.

The answer of course is an obvious Yes. The reason why the rich/ poor gap is so vast is because we have the richest people in the world. And alot of them! Our poor arent really poor by international standards because they arent starving to death, most of them own their own homes, and they enjoy amenities that poor people in other countrys dont have. Amenities like tv's, one or two cars, air conditioning, fresh running water, electricity, washer/dryers, dishwashers, etc etc etc.

In a truly free nation you will have people who work harder than others. You will also have people who are more sucessful than others. But ultematly the choice to suceed is the responsibility of the induvidual and not the state. And thats what makes america great!

If the poor in this country have a standard of living that is higher than your average Citizen in the EU, then imagine how the rest of us live?

I'm not wealthy, yet I live in a 3000 Sq. Ft. home that is centrally located. My wife drives an 8 Passenger $50,000.00 8 Cylinder SUV and I drive a $40,000.00 8 Cylinder Sport Sedan. We take our family on week long vacations twice a year and live fairly comfortably, even though we have 6 kids, though 3 of them are 18 or over. Point is, for me to live my lifestyle in Europe, I'd have to earn at least 200K a year. Instead, we only earn about 40% above average, and actually for our age group, we only earn around 10% above average. The only reson there's a 'Smaller Disparity' of incomes in Europe is because your confiscatory taxation policies have pulled down more of the higher income earners, and has resulted in LESS wealth. It hasn't CREATED better living conditions for the poor.

While Switzerland, being a financial center, is a lot better off than most of the E.U. Your high prices and overly regulated economy makes living there incredibly expensive compared to the U.S.

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http://www.nosocialism.com
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America is not a Socialist country, this is why the only democrats who ever win, are democrats who SOUND like Republicans (Hello Bill Clinton - Low taxes, Free Trade, Welfare Reform, Era of Big Government Over - Sounds Republican).

Standard of living is an ambiguous term, and it can be redefined by the point a person is trying to make. However, by most standards, the US does have the highest standard of living in the world. The inequality factor does slightly reduce its standing, but the US makes up for that even when included if you include other factors such as the opportunity for success that makes that possible and such as the ability of the poor to choose how successful they want to be.

Here's a history of the standard of living in the US that I reference a lot.

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a

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"It is extremely difficult for our contemporaries to conceive of the conditions of free banking because they take government interference with banking for granted and as necessary"

-- Ludwig von Mises

we are right up there, but are we the very top, is what i asked. some say we are.

though I am unclear how the rest of you post fits into this:

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When a true genius appears in the world, you may know them by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against them.
-Jonathan Swift

---"Thoughts On Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting."

as far as most industrialized democratic nations go I think their poor aren't starving in the streets either.

most of them own their own homes? WTF rents all those slum apts?

one or two cars? I'd love to be poor in your fictional town mister rogers, but I don't have that luxury.

we are the best? you add nothing to back up your argument but opinions.

your list of the amenities you say poor Americans have is surely filled with gross errors. take washers and dryers for an example...why do we have so many laundromats in poor ares? what people like to carry wash loads for exercice..to say nothing about throwing away money?



another of your truly weird speeches? why ruin a rational response (however faulty) with this sort of stuff? is it an ocd type of thing?

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When a true genius appears in the world, you may know them by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against them.
-Jonathan Swift

---"Thoughts On Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting."

This is from census data:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg1713.cfm

# Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
# Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
# Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
# The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
# Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
# Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
# Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
# Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.

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"It is extremely difficult for our contemporaries to conceive of the conditions of free banking because they take government interference with banking for granted and as necessary"

-- Ludwig von Mises

I is a poor hillybilly who clings to my guns and my bible

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Aint but three things in this world thats worth a solitary dime,
But old dogs and children and watermelon wine.
Tom T. Hall
http://www.obamatruth.org/