Opinion Essay Sample: Is The US The Greatest Country In The World?

The United States, the greatest country in the world, right? Most Americans would answer yes to that question, but the answer is much more complicated. Sure the United States leads the world in wealth, military spending, technological innovation and billionaires, but that doesn’t necessarily make it number one. Many other countries have a higher happiness index, better healthcare systems, and more flexible social classes. To say that people in the US are united would be a stretch as well. Last summer protests flooded the streets in the wake of a black man’s murder by the hands of a policeofficer. Over the winter, president Trump rallied his supporters to DC, where they attempted to overthrow the election. The temperature is rising, natural disasters are becoming more and more frequent. The wealthiest country in the world has one of the hardest social ladders to climb. The United States is far from the best country in the world.

Last summer was one of the driest summers in a long time. Lake Bemidji seemed like it was dropping an inch every day. Water shortages made water much more expensive. Crop shortages were created by an over exposure of the scorching sun, all while not being provided enough water to grow. Wildfires devastated the forests throughout the states, hitting the west coast the hardest. Gas prices have skyrocketed, hitting an average of $3.10 over the summer. Factories in use haven’t been helping the problem either. Without regulation, corporations are able to pump out as much CO2 into the atmosphere as they want to. Coal and natural gas have been used for the past 150 years, and they’ve been proven to have negative effects, it’s time to look for different energy options. Renewable energy is a great option for smaller scale uses, because of its lack of efficiency, it’d be difficult to power entire cities. Nuclear energy would be great for larger scale operations, as long as we switched from Uranium to Thorium.

It’s very ironic that our nation is called the “United” States of America. If you’re referring to the states themself, then yeah, all of the states are united. The people however, not so much. Modern politics are so bipartisan it scares me. People are only willing to vote on party lines, and each politician has to fit a certain archetype to be elected. Each party is becoming more and more radical with their views. Where one side requests we take one step forward, the other suggests we take three steps back. A great example of this would be Covid-19. Our nation was struck by a global pandemic, and a group of people are staunchly against trying to stop it. First it was quarantining that people had a problem with, then it was masks, and now it’s the vaccine. These people constantly preach about how Covid is ruining our lives, which it is, but they are blind to see that they are a contributing factor to the problem. 670,000 people have died to Covid-19, but some people refuse to try and stop the problem. Ignoring the pandemic and returning to normal is not a “solution”, that's how we add to the already way too high death count.

The United States is the wealthiest country in the world, boasting a GDP of $21.43 Trillion dollars. That's $21,430,000,000,000 dollars. That's about one quarter of the global GDP ($81.54 trillion). With money like that you’d think that every American lives like a king, but the reality is much different. Did you know that the bottom 80% of Americans own 7% of the nation's wealth. That means, the average person in the bottom 80% of Americans owns $5,713.36. That may sound like a lot, but the average person in the top 20% of Americans, owns $303,624.31! That’s 53 times more than the bottom 80%! I don’t think that 20% of people “work harder” than everyone else. Single mothers working two jobs to support herself and her children work a whole lot harder than stock players who're good at investing. Our economy is rigged against those who don’t have the resources to participate. 

The United States may have once been a beacon of hope throughout the world, but in recent times, it’s been difficult to see our nation in that same light. There’s a lot for us to work on, and a whole lot more for us to fix. Our environment first and foremost needs to be solved before we’ve passed the point of no return. We as a nation rely too heavily on fossil fuels, we need to start switching to alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro, or nuclear. Secondly, we need to start working together as a nation. The polarity of the political landscape needs to change sooner rather than later.