

Ask HN: Do Americans have faith in America? - jamesgagan

I'm curious how Americans are feeling right now about their ability to regain their standing in the world.
======
jamesbrewer
Contrary to popular belief, Americans aren't actually stupid. We just have a
bunch of idiots running our country. Even Obama admitted that the American
people should not have to pay for the mistakes of the people on Capitol Hill.

Personally, I think S&P's decision to drop America's AAA credit rating down to
AA+ was the right decision. Someone needed to call us out on our bullshit. S&P
said months ago that, to keep our AAA credit rating, we needed to raise the
debt ceiling a develop a “creditable” plan to tackle the nation's long-term
debt.

We managed to strike a deal that allowed us to raise the debt ceiling, but
that's all we did. We have yet to come up with a way to fix our debt problems.
The important thing is that S&P didn't say “Well they tried, so they can keep
their credit rating.” Instead, they are holding America accountable for it's
actions, which is what should have been done ages ago. Whats the point of
having a “debt ceiling” if we're going to continue to raise it? We raised the
debt ceiling 7 times while George W. Bush was president – that's 7 times in 8
years.

America could be the greatest country on Earth (I think it already is, but
thats just my patriotism talking) if we stopped wasting money and came up with
an effective plan to start tackling our problems one by one. We have a lot of
work to do and hopefully losing our AAA credit rating will get the ball
rolling.

------
theitgirl
A brief history about myself first..I was born in India..grew up in the middle
east and then moved to the u.s. about 12 years ago and have been a citizen of
the u.s. for about 5 years.

Having said that, I don't think American's understand how fortunate they are.
This is the place where we get clean water and electricity 24/7, women can
drive, people can criticize their govt. and not be killed for it and there is
an awesome mix of culture and opportunity. The current state of the U.S
doesn't bother as much. This is still the place I want to be and raise my
children.

I don't think America has lost it's stand in the world. People may judge
America but given the chance most people across the world would want to move
here :)

------
TWAndrews
Our country, or our government? I suppose in a democracy those two are
inextricably linked, but it's a little too depressing to believe that we have
the government we deserve.

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the US just isn't interested in being
a serious country any more, at least politically. Everything is is oriented
towards posturing and signaling rather than delivering results.

Outside politics, I still have immense faith in America. My wife (who is
Swiss) was able to come here and build a business that she would have had no
real opportunity to even start in Switzerland.

