Has America done more good or more bad for the world?

25 comments

1. Depends who you ask.

2. Of course more good

3. The US has advanced the notion of natural rights: individuals have rights that exist simply because the individual exists. Our most basic rights are not granted by a government and can not be taken away, morally, by a moral government. Without this idea, we would not have the concept of civil rights or human rights, which have resounded throughout the world. Even authoritarians give lip-service to the idea.

   Our constitution is a living document. We are not perfect as a society or government, but right there in the preamble is the mission statement “to form a more perfect union.” The US has included more and more people in those with natural rights as history has progressed, and this has been taken up worldwide as a generally good, if messy, thing.

4. My gut instinct says we’ve done more good. Compared to most other powerful countries throughout world history, we’re quite benign, but we certainly have room for improvement.

5. More good of course. It doesn’t mean we should overlook the bad though.

6. If you knew the name Norman Borlaug you wouldn’t have to ask (unless you have some particular racial supremacy/Malthusian/anarcho-primitivist ideas against an uncountable number of people not starving)

7. I’d say good, but that has mostly come from the average citizen through inventions, achievements in business etc.

   The government has some wins, but there are a lot of losses as well…toss up?

8. A lot of good, medical technology produced in the US alongside research has truly taken humanity forward.

9. Like others have said, depends on your standard of measurement. I think it’s important to recognize both the good and the bad, and to have a hopeful outlook that perhaps the future might contain more good and less bad.

10. Ask all the countries that ask and receive America’s help, as well as the daily humanitarian aid the US provides to over 100 countries. Or the countries that receive American donations (America donating the most money to foreign countries than any other country).

    America has done wrong, as if no other country has, but it’s simply wrong to say America does more harm than good regardless of your stance.

11. From a citizen perspective weve done good. Inventions, medical breakthroughs, technology, etc.

    While a few foreign affairs were good, we should have listened to George Washington

12. Depends on the background of the person affected.

13. Anecdotally I say good. For all the faults of the USA, and there are many, when push came to shove they gave their lives to save Europe from the Nazis.

14. Like a lot of nations, America has a mixed record, but I’d say more good than bad. But ask me again in 2025.

15. Good objectively

16. Yet another European who wants to criticise the US for everything without looking at their own history.

17. Much more good.
    We basically act as the global police of the world, we keep pirates out of the sea, we spearhead the front in the fight for democracy

    we do a lot of thing that people just don’t think about it because we’ve been doing it for so long.
    For example some think that not worrying about pirates is normal but just about a few years ago we saved a North Korean ship some of them off the tip of the African horn.

18. Anybody who says “bad” is only considering their potentially valid *personal* experience while discounting the larger picture or is lying.

19. An example I haven’t seen yet is our Navy ensuring the free use of the world’s sea lanes. We’ve done it since the end of WWII and it’s the one of the reasons our world is wealthier today than at any point in human history.

20. Good because the rest of the world isn’t rising up against us. Don’t let the internet haters fool you.

21. So, how’s your internet? Were you able to navigate using GPS recently? I also assume pirates haven’t hijacked any of your food shipments recently.

    I could go on

22. I think people often compare real-life politics and institutions to some kind of ideal, rather than to the real-life alternatives. Has the US perpetuated inequality, oppression, white supremacy, imperialism in its time on this earth? No doubt, it’s done many bad things. But that’s not the question, in the question of net positive or net negative we also have to look at the powerful foes the US has faced down over its brief time on the stage of world politics. The British Empire, the Confederacy, Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union.

    The US plays a key role in the current world order, and the current world order is far from perfect. It is worthy of intense criticism and scrutiny. But this question does not invite us to compare against perfection, it asks us to compare against what came before – the age of European Empire, under which whole continents were oppressed and history’s two most destructive wars were waged – and the alternative visions presented by Messrs. Hitler and Stalin. In that light, the answer is obvious.

23. Our armed forces keep the land, sea, and air safe from terrorism. We give (perhaps a little too much) money and food to anyone who needs it (and is not a terror group controlled state)
    We allow practicly anyone to immigrate to the USA no matter what faith/race you are.
    We lead medical science along with green energy discovery.

    Overall yes.

24. And the end of the day, the U.S. did what most, if not all hegemonic powers never did, which is refraining from being an imperialist power. The Brits expanded, the French, the Russians, the Romans, the Ottomans, the Mongols, etc. Every dominant power in history has sought to conquer the known world, or large parts of it. After WW2, the U.S. gave the Philippines their independence, the first nation to gain independence after the war. Instead of invading Canada or Mexico when the U.S. was far superior in capability, and instead of taking large parts of Europe when they were recovering from war, or subjugating Japan of any of the poorest nations, instead the U.S. vouched for the IMF, WTO, UN, etc. Obviously the U.S. has an imperialist past, with Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, etc. but when they had the chance to do what everyone else did prior, they didn’t. Also quite obvious is that not all of this was done with good intent, as it is in itself also imperialistic, just in an economic sense and not a military one. Twice the U.S. has had the chance to roll into wherever they wanted and got away with it. Once in those few years post war when the Soviets had not yet developed a nuclear bomb, and once again after the dissolution of the USSR, and neither time did they. Now, that does not in any way, shape, or form, excuse what we’ve done in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Iran, etc., but it worth noting of how isolationism and/or libertarianism has played a significant role not only in American politics, but also in geopolitics as it pertains to America’s actions.

25. Good obviously