[WS:] This is indeed an excellent point worth repeating over an over again. If one were a casual observer of everyday life in different countries one would likely conclude that the Etats Unis is a second-world country - a few notches above the third world, but also a notch or two below Western Europe or Japan. One would have to read newspapers to learn that the Etats Unis is a superpower.
For traveled people, the choice is between what they see with their own eyes and what the authorities and the media are telling them. I have a feeling that I have been on that road before - in the 1970s crumbling Eastern European bloc.
Wojtek
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1. Please stop calling the United States the Etats Units; it's starting to grate, and I don't get the point.
2. What you see depends on where you look. There's Detroit, and there's Manhattan.
Joanna