(July 18, 2018 at 6:23 pm)ReptilianPeon Wrote:(July 18, 2018 at 2:07 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: What qualifies as a "modern nation." People like to use this term (or something similar) to basically mean Western Europe and a tiny handful of other countries and ignore the rest of the world.
I've heard it used that way too. Perhaps a better word is "developed" - in an economic sense - and the USA is such an anomaly among OECD countries. I'd say a country that has universal healthcare for its citizens - something which many* countries around the world have and yet the mainstream of the Democratic Party says is not feasible in the USA (because monied interests stop them) - is modern. If a person doesn't believe access to healthcare is a basic human right then there's something wrong with that person. Hospitals shouldn't be for only those who can afford them and saying so would have been an election winner for Hillary Clinton. But she won't go down that path because she's owned and manufactured by cooperations and Wall Street.
*many countries but sadly not enough. Frankly, if a person is the kind of Trump supporter who hates "Muslim baby factories" then you should support access to healthcare. It helps to reduce the birthrates, along with other measures such as foreign aid and encouraging girls to go to school.
Yeah, people say developed but what does that mean objectively? It seems to me a cherry picked list of countries.