American economic dominance

[tooblue]

Right on death penalty, wrong on health care, wrong on MAID, right on poutine.

Death penalty—I can understand the sentiment. Health care is a win precisely because everyone has access to it. 13 US states offer MAID, and well 40 50k die in the US each year because of lack of access to health care, so there is no winner here. Poutine is disgusting.

[Jeff Lebowski]

You say this is a thread about American economic dominance but then pivot to well being. All economic metrics point to the USA being better than Canada. Regardless of well being, do you have data that suggests Canada is economically better than the USA?

Haha. No, of course not. He gives the same responses the europoors give: "Sure you guys are rich, but you are don't realize just how miserable you are." Blah, blah, blah...

[Moliere]

From my initial response to the first post in the thread:

GDP Is Not a Measure of Human Well-Being
https://hbr.org/2019/10/gdp-is-not-a...man-well-being

"Economic growth has raised living standards around the world. However, modern economies have lost sight of the fact that the standard metric of economic growth, gross domestic product (GDP), merely measures the size of a nation’s economy and doesn’t reflect a nation’s welfare. Yet policymakers and economists often treat GDP, or GDP per capita in some cases, as an all-encompassing unit to signify a nation’s development, combining its economic prosperity and societal well-being."

It's great that the US GDP is strong, but what does that mean to the nations' citizens?

It means America is dominating economically, just like the thread title states.

[dabrockster]

Death penalty—I can understand the sentiment. Health care is a win precisely because everyone has access to it. 13 US states offer MAID, and well 40 50k die in the US each year because of lack of access to health care, so there is no winner here. Poutine is disgusting.

Data for this way over estimation of deaths in the U.S. each year please. My quick view it was in the range of 12K while Canada is in the range of 28K..

[tooblue]

It means America is dominating economically, just like the thread title states.

Cool. And so, the "dominating" and "killing" everyone else and the "progressives" that want to be "Europoor" should just suck it except where well-being is concerned!

lol ... USA USA USA

[" "all from the original post that started the thread]

[tooblue]

Haha. No, of course not. He gives the same responses the europoors give: "Sure you guys are rich, but you are don't realize just how miserable you are." Blah, blah, blah...

I never said all Americans are miserable, just that GDP is not a good measure of well-being, because it is not. It's not arguable. Also, the whole more disposable income argument doesn't fly, at least not for far too many Americans—especially the 4 in 10 Utahns.

[Moliere]

Cool. And so, the "dominating" and "killing" everyone else and the "progressives" that want to be "Europoor" should just suck it except where well-being is concerned!

lol ... USA USA USA

[" "all from the original post that started the thread]

IMO, we should spend more on health care/medicare and I’d like to see some defense funds reduced to do it, but it’s hard to reduce defense spending when all your allies aren’t spending enough on defense.

Looking at the long arc of history, capitalism has done more than anything else to bring people out of poverty and it’s not even close. No wealth taxing of billionaires is going to fix societal ills more than just straight up capitalism.

[tooblue]

IMO, we should spend more on health care/medicare and I’d like to see some defense funds reduced to do it, but it’s hard to reduce defense spending when all your allies aren’t spending enough on defense.

Looking at the long arc of history, capitalism has done more than anything else to bring people out of poverty and it’s not even close. No wealth taxing of billionaires is going to fix societal ills more than just straight up capitalism.

It's a good thing as many as 195 countries around the world are capitalist. The Human Freedom Index published by the Cato Institute suggests the US ranks 15th (Canada ranks 12th):

https://www.cato.org/human-freedom-index/2025

Not sure what to say about allies spending more on military, but I am not sure that will change US governments behaviour, but maybe

[BlueK]

IMO, we should spend more on health care/medicare and I’d like to see some defense funds reduced to do it, but it’s hard to reduce defense spending when all your allies aren’t spending enough on defense.

Looking at the long arc of history, capitalism has done more than anything else to bring people out of poverty and it’s not even close. No wealth taxing of billionaires is going to fix societal ills more than just straight up capitalism.

I agree as long as we're talking about true free market capitalism and not oligarch crony capitalism.

[frank ryan]

IMO, we should spend more on health care/medicare and I’d like to see some defense funds reduced to do it, but it’s hard to reduce defense spending when all your allies aren’t spending enough on defense.

Looking at the long arc of history, capitalism has done more than anything else to bring people out of poverty and it’s not even close. No wealth taxing of billionaires is going to fix societal ills more than just straight up capitalism.

I don't think that's a great summation of why are military spending is control. Yes, most of the European NATO members (and Canada) should spend more, but the MAGA narrative that's the issue around extreme defense spending isn't a sound one. Especially when it comes to geopolitics, there should be default skepticism of what anyone is this current admin says.

[Jeff Lebowski]

IMO, we should spend more on health care/medicare and I’d like to see some defense funds reduced to do it, but it’s hard to reduce defense spending when all your allies aren’t spending enough on defense.

Looking at the long arc of history, capitalism has done more than anything else to bring people out of poverty and it’s not even close. No wealth taxing of billionaires is going to fix societal ills more than just straight up capitalism.

[dabrockster]

Merica—>Tooblue/Canada/Europepoor Economy

TooBlue/Europepoor Healthcare is better—>



What this thread has become.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Death penalty—I can understand the sentiment. Health care is a win precisely because everyone has access to it. 13 US states offer MAID, and well 40 50k die in the US each year because of lack of access to health care, so there is no winner here. Poutine is disgusting.

I call BS on those numbers. Stats like that are often manufactured by someone with an agenda to push.

Furthermore, with the mostly private health care system we have in the US, it is more expensive to the end user, but the efficiency, accessibility, and standard of care is very high. And the US pharmaceutical industry's innovation benefits the entire world. With single payer/socialized medicine, there is more equal access, but you have more rationing, longer wait times, higher taxes, and ultimately higher poverty levels and reduced standard of living overall due to the economic drag of the social safety net. If a country like Canada decides to go the single payer route, fine - knock yourself out. I can certainly respect the reasoning behind that choice. But please spare us the moralizing. Both systems have tradeoffs. If you think there aren't a significant number of deaths in a single payer system due to rationing and long wait times, you are a fool.

[Moliere]

Didn’t one of the doctors that used to post here spend some time in New Zealand and he basically validated that rationing is a problem. I remember him discussing how MRIs are very difficult to get done down there without a very significant problem since there is limited equipment due to the lack of funding since it’s all government funded.

[falafel]

Right on death penalty, wrong on health care, wrong on MAID, right on poutine.

I will sign on for this one!