Is U.S. Capitalism On The Brink Of Collapse?

[ToomuchStuff]

Does any country practice "humanism" instead of "capitalism"?

Imho, capitalism is not a good system for people as it puts moneyprofits over human needs. And the environment be damned if it get in the way of profits.

I guess socialism is the closest to humanism, but in the U.S. it's likened to communism and all sorts of scary bad thought arise among many from this labeling...

Meanwhile, we continue to slouch forward toward looming crisis. "Something evil this way cometh" -- the impending environmental crisis will trump profits soon enough for so many humans..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan

[HappyHiker]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan

Thanks for the link!

Gross National Happiness??

Bhutan sounds very evolved.

[catherine]

Thanks for the link!

Gross National Happiness??

Bhutan sounds very evolved.

Yes, I agree--GDP is not the best climate metric of our well-being as a country.

Here's an interesting chart showing "World Happiness" on a variety of measures. US winds up being #18 overall; however, you can actually choose which variable you want to rank order the countries by. Doing that, I found that the "Land of the Free" actually are 51st in "Freedom to Make Life Choices." We're 33 in "Healthy Life Expectancy." We're 36 in "Social Support." But we are 10th in GDP.

[JaneV2.0]

Yes, I agree--GDP is not the best climate metric of our well-being as a country.

Here's an interesting chart showing "World Happiness" on a variety of measures. US winds up being #18 overall; however, you can actually choose which variable you want to rank order the countries by. Doing that, I found that the "Land of the Free" actually are 51st in "Freedom to Make Life Choices." We're 33 in "Healthy Life Expectancy." We're 36 in "Social Support." But we are 10th in GDP.

A friend and I like to trade quips that start with "We're number one!" when we run across such rankings. I think we're only first when it comes to gun violence and weapons dealing.

[ToomuchStuff]

Yes, I agree--GDP is not the best climate metric of our well-being as a country.

Here's an interesting chart showing "World Happiness" on a variety of measures. US winds up being #18 overall; however, you can actually choose which variable you want to rank order the countries by. Doing that, I found that the "Land of the Free" actually are 51st in "Freedom to Make Life Choices." We're 33 in "Healthy Life Expectancy." We're 36 in "Social Support." But we are 10th in GDP.

Because so many people buy stuff, believing it is/brings happiness, perhaps?
However, reading this, made me think of a show I still would like to see (shown the opening by a relative):

[LDAHL]

Asking the measure of a country’s greatness is problematic in my mind. If one claims superior happiness, the other might say they’re simply afraid to complain. Is it the generosity of its welfare state? Military, economic or scientific prowess? Equality of condition or of opportunity? Internal comity or tolerance? Freedom to compete to speak or act? Long term survival?

Is there any dispositive proof of one society’s superiority to another?

[ApatheticNoMore]

The happiness stuff does seem too difficult to remove from bias as some might just be social attitudes to more or less expression of positive/negative feelings,and that can be independent of how much such feelings are actually experienced.

However some things are just bad period or at the very least are bad within the context of that social system (and that's kinda key because it all is experienced in a social system). A country where half the population is near starvation, ok that's just bad period, in any system. Extreme poverty amongst extreme wealth tends to be that kind of bad. Poverty by itself, uh at the point of starvation etc. yes, but not at that point in a country where pretty much everyone is poor ... maybe... it depends.