Posted by Wulf on August 15, 19100 at 14:55:32:
In Reply to: America is a liberal country posted by Steve on August 15, 19100 at 13:14:35:
You're welfare state is much smaller than most nations' (I read today that Idaho caps its welfare payments at $276 per month per family, regardless of size, with a lifetime limit of two years. In 1997 it's spending on the poor was around $15 million, while it managed to find $200 million for a new prison to house it's groaning prison population. Not surprising given that the laws there are so strict the AVERAGE time served by a prisoner is 44 months)(1). Apart from Japan, the US has one of the least generous, most unforgiving welfare programs on earth.
In fact your spending on welfare is miniscule compared to the other government expenditures I ume you have no problem with. You spend a frightening amount on defence technology which is never used, yet can't seem to sc together a decent free healthcare system. Your national healthcare expenditure is only marginally higher than the combined bill of your intelligence services.
(What's more, that defence spending is infested with managerial thinking that actually works against your defence interests. Arms are simply a drain on the national coffers, always have been, always will be. The US decided in the 60s to cirvent this fact of life by attempting to make arms a saleable commodity. The result has been an arms trade of unimaginable size and scope, in the process of which you have, one way or another, ended up arming your enemies).
You are home to the most vocal religious conservative movement this side of the Taliban. You debate private morality with a ferocity not seen elsewhere. Your legislatures are stacked with some of the most ultra-conservative legislators ever to hold office. You are the only democracy to execute its own citizenry.
I mention these things not as direct criticisms, so please don't bother to respond to them as such. They are merely counters to your ridiculous ertion that America is a liberal country. You are arguably the most right-wing Liberal Democracy ever seen.
Wulf
1. Luttwack, Edward Turbo Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy