What are "American values"?

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I want more stuff. That's the only American value at the moment. It didn't used to be, but that's the post-war (WWII) reality. It's the same greed every nation faces in prosperity, and the same greed that eventually kills or neuters those societies. Our social groups are no different than other social animals: when they make a kill [win a war] they fight each other for the carcass [wealth that follows a victory].

That's pretty much universal.

As an outsider looking in, here are some impressions I get.

Standing on your own two feet. This seems more important to Americans than most other first World countries. Thus rejection of universal healthcare and other things that seem harsh to outsiders, such as the poor mental health in the country. Independence. Moving forward. Strength. Success. The strong and successful are looked up to and idealised and the weak and needy are looked down upon. This I think is why America gets tagged with things like "The Land of Opportunity." This elevated respect for strength and independence allows the strong and successful to rise more easily in American society.

The military are greatly respected and stronger than that of any other culture. Freedom. The freedom and strength to carve out your own destiny. Thus a strong military so foreign powers can't interfere with that, a gun in your hand to stop others interfering with that. Americans seem to like hierarchies and respect authority with less questioning than other countries. the physical rather than the mental seems to be valued more. The tangible over the intangible. Muscle over mind. A stack of money or status symbols over emotional stability and happiness. Loud exuberance over quiet contentment. Assertiveness. Overt displays of confidence.

Americans are accepting of outsiders coming in if they fit into the culture. This is a pretty universal thing, but I think it's more important to Americans. American exceptionalism is very much a thing, though I do think its influence is slightly exaggerated. Rejecting American culture is more of a slap in the face than for many others I think.

Americans also seem to like statistics. I think this fits in with the tangible over intangible. Hard, tangible statistics. You just have to look at American sports coverage (Americans love their sports) and compare it to other countries, how stat heavy it is. It's all about results and facts and what people can do.

Those are the reasons why so many people flock to the US from abroad and not the other way around.

capitalism

I'm in, for a sawbuck that says "Never"! ! If, however, an American would start a thread such as this, regarding another country, it'd be locked before even ONE person could respond!!

It'll get locked after the left starts getting pwn3d.

/\ Yeah, or that!! LOL

Actually I believe it was the allies including the U.S.A and other countries as well as the French Resistance and all the Germans who hid jewish people in their homes to save them from extermination who were the heros of WWII or in the case of Oscar Schindler created a fake concentration camp and saved as many as he could from being killed and had to pose as a Nazi the entire time. Any american who thinks america single handedly won WWII is delusional.

All of the allies played an important role in WW2, though the Soviets put in the greatest amount of effort. They Soviets killed more Nazis than any other ally.

America only entered WW2 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In other words, they only entered the war when their territory was in danger. There was nothing selfless about it.

The Soviet Union also invaded Japan after the nukes were dropped. Japan surrendered because they weren't prepared to fight two superpowers at once.

He was a nazi until he saw first hand the reality of the nazi party. Like many Germans did. That's why the true nazis kept it hidden as best they could. If people knew the Jews were being killed and saw it they'd not supported hitler, but they just believed they were being deported.

It was a real camp. He ran a factory made good money off Jew labor selling pots and stuff. He later spent all he made to keep them alive though. He was a good man misled who took the moral route when the truth was found out. Quite a bit of Germans did so. Valkrie is big example of that, but an unknown amount is f soldiers refused and got killed along side the Jews. The regular German military wasn't pro hitler. They fought on the front. It's a shame they didn't find out and act sooner. It's a shame good men let their loyalty and seeking of wealth blind them until it was too late to save millions. But that's being human I guess many people don't want to believe horrible things are happening or that their friends or family are doing them.

Americans wanted neutrality and to stay out of European wars. But we did give aid of money and weapons. There's still a lot of Americans to with such attitudess.

American values seem to have changed greatly in the past 50 years. Temperance is no longer a value it seems to me, and there has been a perhaps corresponding increase in "dog eat dog" values. I was greatly shocked by the changes that had taken place in my 2005 visit, because courtesy was so notable in decades before that and largely absent by the noughties in the many states I visited at that time. This may have been a global phenomenon, though it seemed more marked in the USA.

Yes. The freer the market, the freer the people, particularly the poor.

America is far from a world leader on free markets though. The Heritage Foundation ranks it joint 17th with Denmark, which is very good but not exceptional. World leaders on economic freedom include Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Switzerland, and New Zealand, with Estonia and Canada following close behind. Obviously the Heritage Foundation is not necessarily definitive, but they are rigorous. You may disagree with their values - I would not place nearly such high an emphasis on lowering income tax - but they make salient points.

A sign that the market is not truly free.


There certainly are a lot of people who only support the free market when it supports them. However, I think most liberals would support raising inheritance tax and closing loopholes.


This is partially why many liberal marketeers support the implementation of Georgist taxes, such as a land value tax (LVT). A land value tax discourages people from holding ownership of land without putting it to productive economic use. This will make them more likely to sell it to someone who will put it to good use.


Are you actually Donald Trump? It would explain why you hate the free market and why you spread lies about refugees...

The refugee crisis has barely affected the proportion of Europeans who are migrants. There have been huge levels of immigration throughout Europe since long before ideas like "citizenship" and "border restrictions" were dreamt up. The EEA has freedom of movement and there have been high levels of immigration from former colonies for decades.


Again, this isn't entirely true.

Sanders might just about be in the mainstream in most European countries, but he'd be very much on the left of the mainstream. His vision for America is far to the left of any European country in practice.

What are your favourite European countries? I'm guessing the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, and maybe Germany and Britain? Strong public services combined with strong economies? Well, according to Heritage, the UK and the Netherlands are more capitalist than the US. Denmark and Sweden are just as capitalist. Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Germany aren't very far off either. Of these countries, only one has single-payer healthcare, and even there it doesn't cover as much as Sanders wants to be covered in the US. All of them make it easy to start a business. All of them have economies which depend largely on trade. All of them are in the EEA and most are in the EU, providing massive international free trade and access to modern free trade deals with most major global economies.

If you want America to be more like Denmark then support liberals, not socialists.