Mike, economically we are in much, much better shape than you.
One of those reasons is the limitations put on our banking industry. Debt couldn't be onsold four or more times !
Our banks are in incredibly strong positions, mainly through regulation. They just weren't allowed the unfettered speculation of your financial sector. that was just madness !
Pure, laissez faire free market economics just doesn't work, the corrections are too great and savage, so far too many, through no fault of their own fall through the cracks, although I doubt Friedman's adherents would allow that yet.
Our economy is also heavily tied into Asia as a commodities supplier, for better or worse, but that's another argument. At the moment it has sustained our economy, we never dipped into technical recession at all and are now growing strognly.
I have to ask, if the current administration didn't pump massive amounts of cash into the economy and left it all to fall, where would the US be now ? How long would that Depression last ? could you as a nation actually survive ? (although a part of me thinks it may have been for the best, or do as one wag suggested and just pay out $1,000,000 to each individual in the US. No more mortgage defaults, a huge injection into the cash economy and a hell of a lot cheaper than what it's cost already... a bit simplistic but it appeals to me...)
Maybe there was some leverage from the far east to keep things percolating, seeing as they already held so many Treasury Bonds thanks to Mr Bush having to fund two wars ?
As for living standards and lifestyle, is it that different and how ?
I'm curious as to your take. According to these figures it isn't that different
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living http://www.internationalliving.com/Internal-Components/Further-Resources/qofl2009
As far as freedoms go, whether the average person realises it or not, quite substantial freedoms were lost thanks to the Bush administration under the guise of 'security', ie the Patriot Act.
From my reading this is far, far more insidious, far more draconian than any potential gun control could ever be.
Big government can now pry into your lives as never before under the guise of 'Homeland Security', watch and listen, keeping files and notes on US citizens. The security agencies can intrude as never before with 'normal' rights and conventions as far as being held and arrest gone out the window.
In another time and place this would be called Fascist, yet it seems (?) to slip through with nary a murmur. Both sides of the House are complicit in this one.
Similar (actually worse) things happened here (and the UK) much to my disgust, and under a conservative government in Australia to boot.
When we lose freedoms such as we already have, the terrorists have won. The UK refused to buckle under constant bombings by the IRA through the seventies and eighties, yet now London and other major UK cities have the 'best' (most intrusive ?) public CCTV network in the world, one that would be the envy of the Chinese Communist Party....
Re healthcare, our healthcare system has many holes in it, and an ageing population like most western countries is putting greater strains on it but at least everyone has access to care, regardless of circumstances. If you need a heart by-pass, you will get it under the public system. Knee reconstruction ? It will happen eventually, if you can stand the wait.....
I want some input into who my surgeon is and where and more importantly when I get care so I've opted for (admittedly subsidised) Private cover, but we have that choice.
The govt also subsidises pharmaceuticals, so that many drugs and treatments are affordable for those that couldn't necessarily afford the latest and greatest treatments.
Can it be better ? Absolutely, it appears to be teetering ATM, at least in this state (which has an inept and incompetent Labor Govt) as each state controls their public hospital system, but Federal Medicare cover is available for all. This is financed by a 1.5% levy on your income.
Re taxation, the funny thing is, we think we are highly taxed here, but we are actually pretty average in world terms.
Aussies just love to whinge about Government, particularly taxation, so it doesn't sound too different from you lot
According to these '05 figures our personal income and corporate rates are lower than the US
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Income_Taxes_By_Country.svg
More current data is here
http://www.worldwide-tax.com/ and '09 Corporate rates are here
http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/24973.html
I'm probably a red ragging socialist in many eyes on here, I do believe in a strong safety net for those that need it but I hate the intrusiveness of modern government and despair at the continuing errosion of freedoms and liberties that are occurring in all our societies, particularly under the fear mongering guise of 'Security'.
I'm guessing we sing form the same song sheet regarding personal responsibility and what that entails, I just can't agree with the majority view here on the saintliness of the Repubs and the perfidy of the Dems. From an outsiders perspective it's the current Repubs that have got you (and by default, the rest of the world) into the economic mess that we see ourselves in. The behaviour of the Halliburton boys and a couple of wars you didn't really need might have coloured my view.
BTW, it's a bit of a common myth that we were 'disarmed'. Yes, semi-auto's were confiscated (and handsome compensation paid, many I know were paid more than the purchase price) but there are actually more firearms here now than before that crazy time. Virtually everyone outside urban areas has multiple long arms, it's as much in our culture as yours, except for handguns which have been heavily restricted for something like eighty years. Probably goes back to the days of too many Bushrangers running around screaming "stand and deliver !" at stage coaches.
Anyway, it's a myth we were totally disarmed, open anyone's gun cabinet around here and you'll probably see half a dozen rifles, just not quite the mix we used to sport.
Unfortunately most Australians these days are urban/city based and so IMO have lost touch a little with the 'realities' of life. ie. life, death, etc. Unfortunately this appears to lead to more appeals to authorities to regulate everything. Personal responsibility and the basic uncertainty of life seems to be disappearing. The Crocodile Dundee myth is just that. I've heard it said we are the most urbanised society on earth ! If that's true, most all the Aussies on this board are the last remaining links to the sun bronzed, tough, mythological Aussies.