I don't really believe that. The majority of people in Germany thought killing minorities in the 30's and 40's was right, should that have made it legal in that country? Though for the vast majority of things, what most people think is right is the law. You may think it's not true, but the majority of people still think marijuana should be illegal, the speed limits are fine (for the most part), and the drinking age is fine. You may be more influenced to think otherwise because people in your demographic have the loudest voices to you. Maybe in 20 years when our age group becomes the dominant generation that will change. Or maybe I'm just influenced by my conservative western Kansas heritage. What Dem Beats said is what I was thinking. I wasn't calling the rest of the countries in the world 3rd world. Just that the US has a higher living standard than most. If the US wasn't so great, why do we have so many immigrants from so many countries? Why would people leave their countries to come here if it's so great over there? I'm not being "typical American," I'm being a realist. Dem Beats hit my other thought on the head, that here we have a much better chance at owning things or having the ability to increase position than a lot of places. Hell, the government will give you money or at least a loan so that you can go to college. We have systems that basically make kids go to school, it's more or less up to the kid how far he wants to go. I'm curious as to what other countries you're comparing the US to and what differences there are that are more appealing to you? the % of people that think marijuana should be illegal vs legal is very very close to even now actually (i read some article on this a few days ago, i find it very interesting), not what i think simply what the data suggests. On top of that i'd love to see how that data would change if marijuana was legal, both from the perspective of people that are afraid to speak up now because it is illegal and those people that aren't speaking up against it because it's already illegal. If most people are ok with speed limits why doesn't anyone do them on the highway? I cannot remember the last time I was on an interstate and ANYWHERE close to the majority of people were doing the speed limit or under this of course is not taking crazy city traffic into account since nobody has an option. Find me a single source that shows that the majority of people in the 30's and 40's thought that killing minorities was right. You may show me a majority of people that did it, and a majority of people that didn't have an option, but i highly doubt you can speak for their conscience. Using a brutal example and putting words in someone else's mouth doesn't make a point, it makes up data. Tons of people think the drinking age is fine, i'll agree. How many of those people are actually affected by it? I mean if you give me an "automatically pardoned" card i wouldn't care as much about the country...admittedly i worry about me first. How many 18 year olds do you think agree with the drinking age? Why is it we need to impose a drinking age anyway? Once again it's another law that is constantly broken and people constantly overlook it. If this law served a purpose cops would be breaking up parties at colleges 24/7. In bburg i can tell you hands down they spend their time giving parking tickets or patrolling downtown for people that are drunk in public (not knocking this, just saying they aren't busting parties). I don't think otherwise because of other people's voices, but can you seriously provide any kind of real proof that these things are true? Give me some kind of data. Like i said i will agree 100% with the marijuana thing, but it's no staggering %, IIRC it's less than 10% difference. fair enough, people immigrate to this country, mostly from south of our border because nobody will argue that mexico sucks pretty badly, and lets not even bring places like cuba into the discussion, they'd swim to antartica if it was close enough(because even it's better). but if we're so great why do so many people go on vacation out of this country? just to see other places? because this country is huge and even in a lifetime you'd never see everything it has to offer. People usually come to this country for the same reason our govt wants more laws.....$$$$$$$. not because it's a good country, but because they can make money and unfortunately most people are so absorbed with those dollar signs they never realize just how much they hate life. most people agree about a few of our major cities sucking absolute ass, but that's where the money is so that's where people move, doesn't mean that's it's a better place, just that money is there. Lets not forget that with the education that some of these professionals have, they are simply ......better than us. Take allessandro for example, he came here to study engineering and do his post-doctorate because he will make way more $$ here, not becasue he likes anything else about the country. There he'd not be the best and the brightest. Here he's bilingual and has a doctorate in engineering which does make him stand out like whoa. I compare the US to just about any country. if you want to talk about prospering then look at asia and watch them stomp us into the ground over the next couple decades (if it takes that long). Take any country and there's multiple things they're doing better than we're doing. The obvious argument is that you can say the same about the US doing something better than any country, but we are supposed to be moving ahead and if we see another country doing something better, why the fuck aren't we adopting those ideas? I love this country, it's the government that I hate. And when i say i'll be leaving this country i dont mean to another developed one, i'll be moving somewhere with a great exchange rate where i can live and do whatever the fuck i want within reason for as long as i want. jesus christ i can't believe i just typed that much, i blame pharmacy school as i just got done typing up way too much shit on taxol. So your gonna move to The Netherlands I take it eh? Maybe Germany