What does American exceptionalism really mean?
Asked by
ETpro (
34605
)
December 18th, 2013
Nearly the entire world uses the metric system of measurement, but the USA is the exception, making it difficult for most of the world to follow what we’re talking about when we discuss measurements if things, and requiring that we spend time and money converting units of measurement from what the rest of the world uses to our own unique standard.
All the world’s developed nations use some form of single-payer healthcare coverage except the USA. As the exception, we use an employer based system and for-profit insurers. This added cost hurts our companies in international competition. Further, in comparing how the two models work, the US is at the very bottom of the developed world in healthcare outcomes and leaves over 50 million of its citizens uninsured, but still healthcare costs each American citizen a far greater percentage of our GDP than the more effective single-payer systems of the rest of the developed world. As the preceeding link shows, we pay far more for healthcare per capita than any other nation on Earth. Obamacare may do a bit to improve this, but those who crow most loudly about American Exceptionalism are also determined to destroy Obamacare, whatever the cost.
Most developed countries pay a good living wage to their hourly workers, but we are the exception. Our American Exceptionalism crowd bemoans even having a minimum wage law, despite the fact it’s so low our hourly workers can’t live on it. They want the minimum wage eliminated, claiming the cost of it devastates corporate profits, and we can achieve full employment if corporate elites are able to pay far lower wages than the current minimum wage. Better the taxpayers chip in for food stamps and medicaid so our corporate CEOs can earn 50 or 100 times as more than the CEOs of our companies in our major trading partners. CEO pay doesn’t impact corporate costs, only hourly worker pay counts.
Remind me, what is it exactly that we Americans are exceptional at?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
33 Answers
You’re just trying to get my dander up, aren’t you?
American exceptionalism is very simple to understand: the rules apply to everyone equally—except Americans.*
* Note: this applies only to “real Americans,” which means only people with whom you agree.
We’re exceptional at allowing everyone here the opportunity to succeed regardless of origin or education.
@glacial Sure he is, why do we keep answering though? ;)
“We.Drink.Your.Milkshake!”
@KNOWITALL But we’re not very good at that, either. The US ranks very low relative to other developed nations when it comes to socio-economic mobility. Here is one study that compares the US and the UK to Nordic countries on this score. The authors even go so far as to explicitly note how their results challenge the notion of American exceptionalism.
@SavoirFaire My many refugee friends would probably disagree, but I acknowledge your statistics.
@KNOWITALL False dilemma. That America is better than some countries does not make it the best. I have known and taught many refugees as well. The city I grew up in was a major immigration center, and we had many refugees from Rwanda and Sudan. There is no doubt that the US was much better to them than their home countries had been. But it does not follow from this fact that the United States is exceptional at allowing everyone here the opportunity to succeed regardless of origin or education.
Wow, Obamacare is going down in flames and you can only try to blame those that told you it would happen. If the US was spending more on health care than any other country why would democrats think that spending an additional $2 trillion on it would make it cheaper? Only a democrat could believe that.
None of the goals for Obamacare are coming to pass. Health care is getting more expensive, more are losing their insurance than are gaining it, and doctors are bailing out in droves. It’s not that Republicans don’t want to support this Obama brain child, it’s that it doesn’t work. It’s funny that the worse it fails, the more you seem to want to support it. Let’s stop throwing good money after bad. Enough is enough.
American exceptionalism is just a political system that retains the right to bomb, torture, or otherwise dominate people that have not gained approval by the governing faction.
It used to be Bush and the Republicans, now it’s Obama and right wing republicans and democrats.
I heard someone put it this way: “Americans think the rest of the world is just America waiting to happen”.
Argumentum ad populum. If lots of people are doing it, it must be correct.
By that logic it is virtuous to be fat, because so many Americans are fat.
Anyway, didn’t you get all sorts of lists of American accomplishments in another, similar question?
It means: “Everything the colonies do is good, no matter how stupid or evil it actually is.”
American exceptionalism Don’t share, right now, If I paid for it it’s mine, I have a right, might is right, money is the score card, big boy toys, our standard of living, how sad to bad, we won’t lower the flag for anybody. we have more so we need more. Truth, just us and the American way. That’s not wrong it’s real.
@glacial When mine is up, I tend to pass it on. Sorry.
@SavoirFaire Well said. GA.
@KNOWITALL As @SavoirFaire notes, our system is now set up to pretty much ensure that those who already have succeeded keep what they have and get more, while those that aren’t yet successful stay that way. That’s because those with to gold buy the lobbyists they need to get themselves more gold.
@Jaxk Obamacare isn’t going down in flames. It reduced Federal spending on healthcare, it didn’t add $2 trillion to it. The figures quoted on per capita spending were under Bushcare, not Obamacare, which hasn’t even taken effect yet. But wow, what a wonderful litany of lies to build a rant on.
I wish we’d at least set up a single payer option. I was very let down that Obama, in his insane delusion that you can compromise with current cons, let the public option die. We will eventually have to move to that. But my disappointment with that isn’t enough to get me to endorse such a ridiculous set of claims as you make. Everything I listed about the problems with healthcare were wrong with it before the ACA even was introduced. Healthcare costs under your grand plan had been going up at 3 to 5 times the rate of inflation for 3 decades. They have actually leveled off now. But never let reality get in the way of right-wing ideology.
@Ron_C That’s certainly part of it.
@flutherother Yeah I was just curious as to how they retain that delusion.
@josie Sorry, you lost me there. What is it lots of people are doing? What post was similar?
@ragingloli The more I hear from the proponents of it, the more I see that’s exactly what it means.
@graynett I might prefer Gandhi exceptionalism.
I strongly object to efforts to brainwash us into the metric system. Don’t give me that crap about it allows easy conversion of units from one dimension into others. The damn system is not intuitive!
A mile is a long walk. Five miles is a good hike. An inch is a good small measure, a foot a handy modest measure. Easy to conceptualize someone five foot six tall, not so much 170 cm. You want a good day’s long bike ride? Go 100 miles. Oh wait, 100K is an okay workout but just an afternoon.
And about the coldest you can stand is Zero Fahrenheit, and really hot is 100 Fahrenheit. But zero C just means there is ice on the road, and 42 is hot? 42? WTF?
How much meat you want? A whole kilogram? That’s enough for a family of 10.
People have been able to manipulate the English system for centuries, all it takes to get an answer is a good slide rule.
“They want the minimum wage eliminated, claiming the cost of it devastates corporate profits, and we can achieve full employment if corporate elites are able to pay far lower wages than the current minimum wage.”
Someone explain to me why people, who are too short sighted to realise that in the long run they will ruin their own business by continuously making potential customers unable to actually afford their products with their lower and lower wage policies, should run the country?
The question I thought was similar is this one http://www.fluther.com/165408/by-what-metrics-is-america-the-greatest-nation-on-earth/
The criticism of your ad populum argument is based on your comparison to what the rest of the world is doing. Although, the truth is, you sort of equivocate on the word exceptional. Many people use it to describe something better, you use it to make a somewhat disparaging comment on the American way of doing things.
I think an argument can be made that one of things that makes America exceptional is the American tendency to resist the temptation to engage in the statist, collectivist policies that some of the other folks on earth have succumbed to. That resistance is slowly breaking down, but it is still there. Good.
As regards the metric system, it is pretty handy to be sure. But what is wrong with being unique?
Not really. History, and especially the 20th Century, has provided us with lots and lots of murderous dictators. What was unique was the swift (from the time his intentions were fully understood, until his death-less than a decade) and violent resistance to Hitler coming from, among others, the Americans.
The average tax cost per household towards food stamps is $36.00 but the tax burden per household for corporate welfare is $6000.00. are we really still a exceptional nation or are our priorities screwed up? is our government still by the people for the people or by the politicians for the corporations?
@ETpro
I know you’ve got your talking points lined up but let’s look at this with a bit of reality. According to your source we spend about 17% of GDP on healthcare. According to the CBO latest figure, Obamacare will cost about $2 Trillion (over ten years). You have to add those two figures to get what we will be spending on health care. It is only the democrats that can increase spending and say they’ve reduced costs.
@ETpro Most of you know I grew up pretty poor and my mom had to utilize the system for food and shelter (because my not-so-nice rich father), and now I have a nice home, a good job, two vehicles paid off and a nice 401k. The American system helped this poor little girl grow up into a giving, compassionate adult who tries to pay it forward. To me that is a success story.
@josie You’re right that the previous question was similar. I do think the greatest nation claim and American Exceptionalism claim, while similar, are different, though. But I was on an exceptionalism quest leading to this question today and just thought I’d slide the American Exceptionalism one in for good measure.
American exceptionalism: n. the tendency of many Americans to take exception to any person or group of persons not from around here or associated in any way, shape or form with the Democratic Party i.e. unclean heathen pinko commies who are out to take our guns and God knows what else!
@dougiedawg GA. I believe that about sums it up.
@Jaxk The Affordable Care Act will cost $1.3 billion over the next decade but savings from it will reduce the deficit by $200 billion. Privatizing things doesn’t make them free any more than the reverse. There are costs associated with having 1/6th of the population uninsured. There were skyrocketing costs associated with for-profit insurance as it was over the last 33 years.
@ETpro
You seem to be missing the point. When all this was being argued in 2009 the CBO estimated that the cost would be $900 and some odd billion over 10 years. They also took money from various places and added new taxes to pay for it. Since then the CBO has revised it’s estimate to double the original estimate.
The point is this is new spending on health care whether or not it is paid for through new taxes. So when you post a link comparing what we spend in the US to what other countries spend, Obamacare will increase our spending relative to other countries. It doesn’t matter if we borrow it and spend it or tax and spend it, we’re still spending it. And the amount we spend on health care will go up.
@Jaxk No, I am working form current CBO estimates. I think it is you who always misses the point that letting Blackwater/Ze do it instead of the US Military doesn’t make it free. If the CBO is right, Obamacare will slightly reduce our spending relative to other countries. If there had been no Obamacare, our spending relative to other countries was due to increase substantially. And we are already #1 in spending, and #37 in results, all thanks to the program you want to reinstate.
^ I’m not seeing this big reduction in spending you seem to feel is happening. January 1 is when all the new spending hits and can’t possibly reduce the numbers. But hey, hope springs eternal.
@Jaxk I don’t think it’s a big reduction in spending. What ever gave you that impression? A reduction of $200 billion over 10 years is an average reduction of $20 billion per year, and most of that will begin to accrue in years 3 and beyond. That’s if Republicans don’t succeed in sabotaging it and taking us back to exclusions for a growing set of Americans, cancellations when you get sick, lifetime caps, and price increases 2 to 3 times the rate of inflation.
@ETpro- We are exceptional in several areas aside from our current shortcomings in healthcare costs, minimum wage standards, education, campaign financing, control of banks, pharmaceutical companies, downsizing of the military-industrial complex, corporate welfare, veterans’ benefits and infant mortality rates, and protection of those citizens most in need.
The U.S. has more people incarcerated (over 2 mil) than all the other industrialized countries combined I believe.
We also tend to protect wealth over work much better than other civilized societies do as you noted with CEO pay being 160 times higher than the average (not the lowest) take home pay of American workers.
And let me mention that we play a mean game of football (granted, it’s our very own version) and our tv commercials are completely off the charts in terms of cleverness and quantity and although our pizza wins no prizes, we sell more;) So there.
@dougiedawg Thanks for the excellent laundry list. All that ads up to a formula to become a banana republic.
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
