Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Norwegians are pretty damn modest all things considered.

They are the fourth highest per capita income in the world , higher than us, and the only ones higher are an oil emirate and two city states (luxembourg and Singapore).

They manage to do this while providing free university education and universal health care. Their people manage to live a full two years longer than ours.

They are the top ranked country in the Democracy Index, so on the best measure of democratic performance they have plenty of bragging rights.

They are also ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living by another important index, (HDI).


Given how modest Norwegians are, I think it is a bit of a shocker. And before you start criticizing me for being insufficiently patriotic, give it a rest. I am not expressing opinions about their superiority or inferiority.

I was just curious about what country would have statistical bragging rights in the areas of economics, health, education, democracy, life expectancy, and quality of life. This is the one that rises to the top of all of the lists.

Have you ever even been to Norway? It's an incredible depressing, provincial and, except for some nature, ugly place. They are supposedly rich, but they appear poor in every respect. Their shop-windows (except for H&M and a few others) look like they live under communism; there is virtually nothing to buy. Everything is extremely expensive so their standard of living is objectively not that high. In the summer, daylight runs till midnight - haven't been there during winter and never want to be. Most shockingly of all for a presumably very successful welfare state, very aggressive beggars are everywhere.

I was there with an international (mostly European) crowd and virtually everyone was shocked how boring and small Oslo is. I don't care how well they score (and I am well aware that they do and, in fact, went there with pretty high expectations), there truly exist a limit to "statistical bragging rights". Put US aside, I would much rather live in Italy, France, even Turkey than Norway.

Your comments sadden me. I haven't been to Norway in over 30 years but thought it was a beautiful country at the time (was there for a week) with miles of natural terrain and fjords. Also thought all the tall, blond, blue-eyed guys were incredibly handsome!

It has beautiful nature - the see has incredibly color and the hills are nice and fresh... But they have no notable architecture and a lot of soc-realistic type of buildings. There are a few cool new buildings like the Opera but you have that kind of stuff everywhere now, so that's not so special.

I find Dutch men (and women) incredibly attractive; Norwegians not so much. Yes, they are tall and fit which is not that surprising because the food is so expensive one needs to make like 300k in order to be fat... The portions are minuscule.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Norwegians are pretty damn modest all things considered.

They are the fourth highest per capita income in the world , higher than us, and the only ones higher are an oil emirate and two city states (luxembourg and Singapore).

They manage to do this while providing free university education and universal health care. Their people manage to live a full two years longer than ours.

They are the top ranked country in the Democracy Index, so on the best measure of democratic performance they have plenty of bragging rights.

They are also ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living by another important index, (HDI).


Given how modest Norwegians are, I think it is a bit of a shocker. And before you start criticizing me for being insufficiently patriotic, give it a rest. I am not expressing opinions about their superiority or inferiority.

I was just curious about what country would have statistical bragging rights in the areas of economics, health, education, democracy, life expectancy, and quality of life. This is the one that rises to the top of all of the lists.

Have you ever even been to Norway? It's an incredible depressing, provincial and, except for some nature, ugly place. They are supposedly rich, but they appear poor in every respect. Their shop-windows (except for H&M and a few others) look like they live under communism; there is virtually nothing to buy. Everything is extremely expensive so their standard of living is objectively not that high. In the summer, daylight runs till midnight - haven't been there during winter and never want to be. Most shockingly of all for a presumably very successful welfare state, very aggressive beggars are everywhere.

I was there with an international (mostly European) crowd and virtually everyone was shocked how boring and small Oslo is. I don't care how well they score (and I am well aware that they do and, in fact, went there with pretty high expectations), there truly exist a limit to "statistical bragging rights". Put US aside, I would much rather live in Italy, France, even Turkey than Norway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Norwegians are pretty damn modest all things considered.

They are the fourth highest per capita income in the world , higher than us, and the only ones higher are an oil emirate and two city states (luxembourg and Singapore).

They manage to do this while providing free university education and universal health care. Their people manage to live a full two years longer than ours.

They are the top ranked country in the Democracy Index, so on the best measure of democratic performance they have plenty of bragging rights.

They are also ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living by another important index, (HDI).


Given how modest Norwegians are, I think it is a bit of a shocker. And before you start criticizing me for being insufficiently patriotic, give it a rest. I am not expressing opinions about their superiority or inferiority.

I was just curious about what country would have statistical bragging rights in the areas of economics, health, education, democracy, life expectancy, and quality of life. This is the one that rises to the top of all of the lists.

Have you ever even been to Norway? It's an incredible depressing, provincial and, except for some nature, ugly place. They are supposedly rich, but they appear poor in every respect. Their shop-windows (except for H&M and a few others) look like they live under communism; there is virtually nothing to buy. Everything is extremely expensive so their standard of living is objectively not that high. In the summer, daylight runs till midnight - haven't been there during winter and never want to be. Most shockingly of all for a presumably very successful welfare state, very aggressive beggars are everywhere.

I was there with an international (mostly European) crowd and virtually everyone was shocked how boring and small Oslo is. I don't care how well they score (and I am well aware that they do and, in fact, went there with pretty high expectations), there truly exist a limit to "statistical bragging rights". Put US aside, I would much rather live in Italy, France, even Turkey than Norway.

Your comments sadden me. I haven't been to Norway in over 30 years but thought it was a beautiful country at the time (was there for a week) with miles of natural terrain and fjords. Also thought all the tall, blond, blue-eyed guys were incredibly handsome!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Norwegians are pretty damn modest all things considered.

They are the fourth highest per capita income in the world , higher than us, and the only ones higher are an oil emirate and two city states (luxembourg and Singapore).

They manage to do this while providing free university education and universal health care. Their people manage to live a full two years longer than ours.

They are the top ranked country in the Democracy Index, so on the best measure of democratic performance they have plenty of bragging rights.

They are also ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living by another important index, (HDI).


Given how modest Norwegians are, I think it is a bit of a shocker. And before you start criticizing me for being insufficiently patriotic, give it a rest. I am not expressing opinions about their superiority or inferiority.

I was just curious about what country would have statistical bragging rights in the areas of economics, health, education, democracy, life expectancy, and quality of life. This is the one that rises to the top of all of the lists.

Have you ever even been to Norway? It's an incredible depressing, provincial and, except for some nature, ugly place. They are supposedly rich, but they appear poor in every respect. Their shop-windows (except for H&M and a few others) look like they live under communism; there is virtually nothing to buy. Everything is extremely expensive so their standard of living is objectively not that high. In the summer, daylight runs till midnight - haven't been there during winter and never want to be. Most shockingly of all for a presumably very successful welfare state, very aggressive beggars are everywhere.

I was there with an international (mostly European) crowd and virtually everyone was shocked how boring and small Oslo is. I don't care how well they score (and I am well aware that they do and, in fact, went there with pretty high expectations), there truly exist a limit to "statistical bragging rights". Put US aside, I would much rather live in Italy, France, even Turkey than Norway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, we don't need to go around telling the world how great we are. There's also nothing wrong with feeling a sense of pride in much of what our country has accomplished. The leading question of this thread prompted several posters to share those feelings. Nothing wrong with that!

And yet we do. Constantly.

For all of our greatness, humility is not one of our traits.

BTW, it's usually the people who've never set foot outside of the USA who are most guilty of this obnoxious behavior.

Just curious, which countries do you view as being appropriately modest about their achievements?

All of them, I guess, since, you know, they don't run around bragging about them, so no examples of the contrary come immediately to mind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am proud to be an American. I think it is a special, exceptional place. For about 75 years we have been one of the most powerful nations in the history of Earth - basically the sole economic and military superpower with no true rivals. But instead of expanding and conquering, we have used that power for mostly well-intentioned purposes. Millions around the world dream of moving to America and to have the opportunities and blessings that we take for granted. When Cuban beaches are full of swimmers coming over from Miami then talk to me ...

Instead of "conquering", we have used that power for 'mostly' well-intentioned purposes.

This reply takes the cake. PP, you are one proud American...

study history. where else in the 10,000 years of recorded civilizations as a country been so ridiculously powerful but acted so relatively restrained? come on. the only thing comparable would be China in the 1200s-1300s.

Anonymous wrote:I think Norwegians are pretty damn modest all things considered.

They are the fourth highest per capita income in the world , higher than us, and the only ones higher are an oil emirate and two city states (luxembourg and Singapore).

They manage to do this while providing free university education and universal health care. Their people manage to live a full two years longer than ours.

They are the top ranked country in the Democracy Index, so on the best measure of democratic performance they have plenty of bragging rights.

They are also ranked as the nation with the highest standard of living by another important index, (HDI).


Given how modest Norwegians are, I think it is a bit of a shocker. And before you start criticizing me for being insufficiently patriotic, give it a rest. I am not expressing opinions about their superiority or inferiority.

I was just curious about what country would have statistical bragging rights in the areas of economics, health, education, democracy, life expectancy, and quality of life. This is the one that rises to the top of all of the lists.

Anonymous wrote:i apologize for nitpicking, but isn't the PP who is limiting to the last 75 years the same one who said "where else in the 10,000 years of recorded civilizations ..."? Actually, perhaps the difference between 75 and 10,000 is more than a nit. BTW, what recorded civilizations go back 10,000 years???

This is just rhetorical, since the other PP was actually limiting to the past century anyway, so don't feel a need to respond. The 10,000 exaggeration did not bother me until the fuss over the 75.