[quote name='PKRipp3r']again... name any empire (of any sort) that is greater and give your reasons
the only one I can think of, off hand is the Playboy Empire. If 'Hef-istan' were a sovereign nation, I'd give it the title...
in the real world though that's just one more reason why the U.S.A. owns every other nation.
we even invented the centerfold.
can't front on that[/QUOTE]
Land controlled, relative military strength, different populations controlled and united (ie. keeping the roman empire intact takes more effort than keeping the u.s. intact) etc., there are many different ways to judge the greatest empire ever.
There are a lot of things that go into being the greatest country, form of government, ingenuity, education available, treatment of poor, freedom, wealth, treatment of minorities, cultural history, use of influence, use of military, equal opportunity etc. There is no way to possibly decide the greatest country. You can have an opinion on which you think is best, but there's no way to get a definitive answer. There's 4 clear cut things about america, it has made more major inventions than any other country since 1776 (population size, expansion and wealth plays a role here), it is the, overal, wealthiest nation on earth (then again, the condition of our poor is nothing to brag about), most high quality universities (which most people will never, and can never, get near), and it's the worlds strongest military. But, the level of importance given to specific strengths and weaknesses, and the decision of what a strength and weakness is (ie. someone may see our great wealth as a strength, others may see it as a weakness since we tend to view success and failure as entirely deserved, and therefore don't do much to help our poor compared to the resources we have), will result in many, many different opinions on greatest country.
Personally, I don't think there is a greatest country. I think there are greatest countries in particular areas, but no overal best country. Personally, there are many reasons that many countries can be considered the greatest country. Though I find that inventions, military, and playboy to be negligable reasons compared to social aspects, like the conditions of poor, social equality, access to opportunities and other similar issues. On the criteria you used, yes america probably would come out top overal, on the criteria I used, and the criteria normally used in deciding quality of life, it doesn't get near it. Honestly, as much as I find u2k to be bible thumping and close minded, he does have a point. You're basing greatness on things of material concern more than social wellbeing and happiness. Quite honestly, I really don't think I'd be any less happy or any less well off if I never had a microwave, but I know that, without quality health insurance, my father would never have recieved the level of care he did and would still be a hospitalized quadraplegic. I think that would have a much greater effect on my happiness and well being.