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Featured Agree or Disagree? America Needs to be Wealthy to be a Great Country

Discussion in 'Political Debate & Discussion' started by InTheLight, May 27, 2016.

  1. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Thread title says it all.

    Does America need to be a wealthy country in order to be a great country? Does wealth make one great?
     
  2. Zaac

    Zaac Well-Known Member

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    Wealth certainly doesn't make a country great. If it did, the continent of Africa should have some of the greatest countries in the world with all of its natural resources.

    I think people with freedom are what make a country great.

    I would like to know what Trump means when he says "make the country great again?" I have a pretty good idea. But he seems to skirt the issue.
     
  3. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Ha ha. You're getting warmer. In that speech in Bismarck ND, Trump actually said, "you (a country) have to be wealthy to be great, I'm sorry to say."

    So, if a country has to be wealthy to be great, and Trump wants to make America great again, I guess he means he wants to make America wealthy.

    1 Timothy 6:10 springs to mind...
     
  4. Rob_BW

    Rob_BW Well-Known Member
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    I hate to resort to semantics, but I suppose it goes back to your definition of great.

    A poor country can definitely be a godly country, though.
     
  5. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Yes, the definition of great is the key. Trump defines it as being wealthy. (I suspect he thinks great people need to be wealthy people as well.) Nations are made up of people. People can be great people without being wealthy.

    "Make America Great Again" is a nebulous statement that can mean whatever the listener wants it to mean. I can think of things that would make America a greater nation and they don't have anything to do with wealth.
     
  6. Rob_BW

    Rob_BW Well-Known Member
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    Is being powerful an aspect of greatness? Supercarriers ain't cheap, ya know. ;)
     
  7. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    LOL. True.

    Conversely, was the USSR a great nation because they had military might?
     
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  8. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    You conflated two different ideas here. One is the wealth of America, there other is the wealth of the individual ("one").

    Just because one may be a standard for being great does not mean it has to be a standard for the other.
     
  9. Rob_BW

    Rob_BW Well-Known Member
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    Ah, but did they? Projecting power into neighbor states isn't the same as projecting power over the oceans, so it's a little difficult to compare.

    Either way, even though it fell apart after 70 years or so, the Soviet Union will go down in the history books as one of the global superpowers.

    Their shortfall was their refusal to immerse their weapons during baptism. Laugh

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. InTheLight

    InTheLight Well-Known Member
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    Take it up with Donald. (35:05 on the timeline.)

     
  11. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    He was talking about the country not people. Bub I understand the animosity toward Trump but lately you have taken it to a whole new level. Maybe you need a break from news, politics and even maybe the board to get some mental rest. You have lost all sense of rationality when it comes to Trump.
     
  12. Rolfe

    Rolfe Well-Known Member
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    Well, so much for growing tired of tearing down others...
     
  13. Sapper Woody

    Sapper Woody Well-Known Member

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    Either on an individual level or the level of a country, wealth is not necessary to be great. It does, however, make it easier to do great things. For example, if I had more money I could help more people. I can be a great person and help anyway. But if I have money can do better things, while I am still at the same level of greatness personally.

    For the country, on a secular level, it's hard to maintain greatness while simultaneously maintaining a budget deficit. You're hands become tied when you try to do great things.

    Sent from my QTAQZ3 using Tapatalk
     
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  14. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    Can you name a few really great countries that are not wealthy?
     
  15. Aaron

    Aaron Member
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    A great country is a country whose banners make tyranny tremble. That means they have the biggest guns, and more of them, and aren't afraid to use them.
     
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  16. Use of Time

    Use of Time Well-Known Member
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    My irony meter just went off the charts.
     
  17. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    Not surprised at all that I didn't get an answer. :(
     
  18. HankD

    HankD Well-Known Member
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    Egypt, Greece.
     
  19. carpro

    carpro Well-Known Member
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    Disagree. Neither could even come close to being considered "great" today. But they were. And when they were , they were wealthy.
     
  20. JPPT1974

    JPPT1974 Active Member
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    But now Egypt is at war and Greece is on the verge of bankruptcy! :(
     
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