-an unbelievable track record of political stability
Political stability, are you sure about this? I seem to remember there has been at least a civil war, the civil rights campaign, more recently you guys have had large scale riots in various places such as Ferguson.
yep, pretty certain about it. no comparison with Australia at all - remind me please what Australia was circa 1770 and what laws it was operating under? Wasn't it still a Queens Dominion during the time of US Civil War? How old is the current constitution of the Australia (from colony , to self governing colony, to Commonwealth ,etc) ? No comparison here at all for political stability. And do not get me started on Europe (with two world wars in 20th century alone), what republic are French under now? how many monarchies that had in between? I know of no other country (and would like to hear it) that kept is primary law through over 2 centuries, may be Swiss did?
-a federal system that works remarkably well
Are you sure on this. My understanding is that now you have to have hundreds of millions of dollars to be elected president. Interesting that it cost 2 billion dollars to elect a president in 2012... Source:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/02/economist-explains-4.
yep, pretty sure about that too. federal system works and pretty much the only way to run vast countries, China may be the only country of sufficient size that is not run that way. federal system is not about dollars to be elected president , it is about separation of power between global and local levels, local elections with real power to influence results, it is about tolerance to different (in cases massively different) operating social contracts (laws in our states). Australia is federal too, but I am not sure how much the 'rights of the lands' withing Australia are balanced against the feds.
Also if this is so, why have we in Australia for the last few years had news about congress blocking the debt ceiling because of petty differences of opinion. Admittedly the states can continue to function well while this is occuring I presume.
:) that is exactly what we want out of our government, making sure it can not screw us too much. the best government is the one that does not get in the way.
-more economic opportunity than just about anywhere on the planet
Incorrect. Your socio-economic mobility stats contradict this. It has just been indoctrinated in to you guys that this is true.
:) compare it with any other country over 100 million people please and come back with your findings. Australia is not a good cause since it is tiny population wise, less than multiple US states..
-a very high standard of living (maybe too high)
Are you sure on this. For some yes, but for a number of your poor people perhaps not so much. I hear that some poorer people have 2-3 part time jobs just to survive, my question would be why?
Yes. again , nothing to do with number of poor people (or we will be using Bahrain here as example of good country where there is citizen master class and massive slave class (I mean non resident workers) for residents)
So in short , US is better and much larger Australia - both started with good stock (primarily English colonists) where we got religious sects and you got convicts . The difference , US had the balls (ok, fortitude) to kick Brits out while Australians did not. Both had horrible track record on native population, both are first world countries and close allies on multiple levels united by common language (expect Australians speak it funny).
See? :)
