2017-12-14
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The United States of America
The United States is the world’s fourth largest nation in both area and population. It consists of 50 states and a “federal district", the site of the capital, Washington D.C. Like West Germany, the U.S. is a federal republic. In contrast to countries like Britain - where the head of state (the king or queen) and the head of government (the prime minister) are two different people - the United States has a president who is both the head of government and the head of state.
Politically and economically the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world. It is also the most conspicuous country in the sense that America's fashions and policies, goods and weapons, executives and soldiers have shaped today's world to a much greater extent than those of any other nation.
Considering its prominent position in the world, it is perhaps not surprising that the United States is both liked and disliked more intensely than any other country. Sometimes a difference is made between the American people, who are seen as warm, friendly and open, and the U.S. government, whose policies are disapproved of.
“America is so vast that almost everything said about it is likely to be true, and the opposite is probably equally true," said the American writer James T. Farrell. The United States is a country of rain forests and deserts, mountains and prairies. On one and the same November day the temperature may be 28 degrees in Texas and -7 degrees in Alaska. Its citizens may be “old-stock" Americans or the de-scendants of immigrants from European, Asian and Latin American countries, they may be American Indians or the descendants of African slaves, or they may be foreigners who have become naturalized. Though they are all Americans, some of them are still underprivileged minority groups, who live in neighbourhoods of their own and have their own character, customs, religion, and sometimes language. “The worst country to be poor in is America," said the English historian Arnold Toynbee. While U.S. wages are among the highest in the world and the majority of Americans are extremely well off, about 15 per cent of the population live “below the poverty line”. The poverty rate is highest in Mississippi (25 per cent) and lowest in Wyoming (8 per cent). Nationwide the poverty rate is 11 per cent for whites, 30 per cent for Hispanics, and a shocking 35 per cent for blacks - every third black person lives in poverty.
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What would the world be like if there was no America, if there were no Americans? Would there be another superpower to take America's place? Would international business be as lively as it is? Would we Europeans be as prosperous as we are? Would there be jeans and T-shirts, Coca-Cola and hamburgers, soap operas and supermarkets? Would there be cheap cars if Henry Ford hadn't started mass- producing them? Would we have telephones and washing machines, ballpoint pens and personal computers if Americans hadn't invented or perfected them? We don't know the answers to these questions, but most people would probably agree that life in our time owes a great deal of its vitality, colour, and material comforts to the people of the United States of America.
