I think a fair test of whether a country and its governance are successful and meeting the needs of its people is the following. It needs to get at least a qualified yes to all these questions.
1. Is it able to effectively function in the community of nations, so as to avoid unnecessary conflict with other nations?
2. Is it able to fairly and equitably maintain domestic civil order?
3. Does it provide a reasonably fair and equitable means of resolving civil disputes?
4 . Does it afford the rights of reasonable privacy, freedom of religion, speech and association?
5. Does it have a reasonable legal system to ensure honest, non-corrupt governance and commerce?
6. Does it ensure universal public education at all levels?
7. Does is ensure child and elder care (including retirement security) as entitlements of citizenship?
8. Does it ensure universal health care?
9. Where conflict is unavoidable, does it adequately provide for defense of the nation?
10. Does it have an effective system of ensuring meaningful work for most of its people, and providing for minimal, decent housing and assistance to those who are unable to provide for themselves?
The US is teetering on the edge of failure as to No. 1, has some problems with Nos. 2 and 5, is solid on Nos. 4 and 9, only fair on 3 and 5, and as for 6, which it invented, it is failing, and it fails generally on 7 and 8. All in all, a failing grade. This is just not good enough and we MUST make it better. No country is perfect by these standards, but quite a few other developed nations do considerably better overall than our country, and we have plenty of resources to match and even do better than all of them. And we have NO EXCUSES for not doing so.
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Musica lætitiæ comes medicina dolorum.
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