Not sure the country (USA) can improve

Farrah Nuff said:
Maybe someone who's young right now will figure out a way to make nursing homes more palatable when your time comes. Or maybe one of them will figure out something that none of us can even imagine, up to now, that will be a better way of life. We don't still live in caves, after all. Things do sometimes change for the better.
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yes but not by someone who doesn't even know the USA has a Capital city
 

I admit I do not like the subject of this thread. In fact, I seriously object to it.

I see no need for the US to “improve”. I see no need for any individual country to ”improve”. In fact, I could name several countries and the way I think they should improve. But it is not my business to do so.

Nor is it the business of anyone, who is not an American, to comment on any improvements they feel the US might need. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.

Everyone, especially Americans, must remember that the US is a “young” country. Older countries, Great Britain, France, Africa, the countries of the Middle East, are older and have just as many concerns and just as much a need for “improvement“ as the US.

The US is having elections now that may or may not change our way of life dramatically. This is an especially bad time for a thread like this, IMO. And, as usual, this thread has wandered off topic as many threads do.

What needs to improve? The world. All the nations of the world need to improve. That is my opinion and I am sticking to it.
 
SeniorBen said:
We did have better music, art, and literature in our youth. That much is true.
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It wasn't better for young girls then. Career choices were very limited and childcare was practically non existent. Grandmothers picked up the slack for their daughters, sacrificing any earnings they may have made to provide for their old age.

It may have been a golden age for men and boys but it was brass for the women and girls.
Fortunately for me, the times they were a'changin'.
 
I saw a segment today that indicated the majority of US teenagers want to be "influencers" when they grow up vs. Chinese teenagers that want to be astronauts. IMO, there is no coming back from the impact of social media on kids.
 
dseag2 said:
I saw a segment today that indicated the majority of US teenagers want to be "influencers" when they grow up vs. Chinese teenagers that want to be astronauts. IMO, there is no coming back from the impact of social media on kids.
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On this we sadly agree.
 
Entirely too many youngsters are quite ignorant about world facts. I was watching a "man on the street" question and answer video.
Shocking what they didn't know.
What language do they speak in Great Britain ? answer ? British ?
What do you call people who live in Denmark ? answer ? No idea.
What ocean is off the eastern coast of America ? answer Pacific ?
What continent is Brazil on ? answer Africa ?
What infamously happened on Dec 7th, 1941 ? answer. I don't know

On and on it went. My God, what do they teach in schools today ?
 
senior chef said:
Entirely too many youngsters are quite ignorant about world facts. I was watching a "man on the street" question and answer video.
Shocking what they didn't know.
What language do they speak in Great Britain ? answer ? British ?
What do you call people who live in Denmark ? answer ? No idea.
What ocean is off the eastern coast of America ? answer Pacific ?
What continent is Brazil on ? answer Africa ?
What infamously happened on Dec 7th, 1941 ? answer. I don't know

On and on it went. My God, what do they teach in schools today ?
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They don’t really teach history in school anymore or much of anything. They teach socializing-how to get along and through life with the basics of reading, writing, and math. They don’t teach manners, or history, or why these things matter.

The internet is bad, bad, bad. People don’t interact face to face as much as they used to. If you need an answer to something you can Google it. And their parents have taught them that THEY are the most important person in the world. Which is why people in the current young generation are shocked to learn that they are not the center of the universe; but just another sheep in the herd.

Young people are ignorant not stupid. There is a big difference. After all, you don’t know what you don’t know. Its a new world. Maybe it’s better, maybe not. Time will tell.
 
SeniorBen said:
We did have better music, art, and literature in our youth. That much is true.
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Dang, I hate to agree with you again, but you're absolutely right. And don't get me started on movies, which have become a more or less dead art form. Top movies 50 years ago included The Godfather, Deliverance, Last Tango in Paris, Jeremiah Johnson, and Cabaret -- and that's a more or less random sampling. Top movies in 2022 include the Top Gun sequel and a bunch of movies based on comic books.
 
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dseag2 said:
I saw a segment today that indicated the majority of US teenagers want to be "influencers" when they grow up vs. Chinese teenagers that want to be astronauts. IMO, there is no coming back from the impact of social media on kids.
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My niece is a high school teacher in an affluent town. When she chides students about the importance of learning math or grammar or history, they tell her that they are going to be influencers and so none of that will be important.
 
Paco Dennis said:
I f you are for corporations running the country, then it is improving. If you are for human well being, then the country is in decline.
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I would actually argue that corporate power has diminished over the past 50 years. Industrial titans like GE, GM, US Steel used to dominate the landscape. Not so much any more. Facebook is falling apart. I guess you could say Microsoft and Apple have a lot of power, but I'm not sure they abuse that power.
 
Are corporations getting bigger?


Now they're doing even better. The top 50 companies by value added $4.5 trillion of stock market capitalization in 2020, taking their combined worth to about 28% of global gross domestic product. Three decades ago the equivalent figure was less than 5%.
 
Paco Dennis said:
Are corporations getting bigger?


Now they're doing even better. The top 50 companies by value added $4.5 trillion of stock market capitalization in 2020, taking their combined worth to about 28% of global gross domestic product. Three decades ago the equivalent figure was less than 5%.
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That reflects the creation of enormous wealth -- the rise of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Tesla and many others. I'm not sure that's a bad thing. It's created a lot of multi millionaires so it's probably pushed up house prices and added to inequality. But it's also made a lot of people rich and transformed the way we live, work and communicate. We wouldn't be having this discussion without the work of such companies.
 

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