America is awful. The taxes, the president, the country music awards, obesity, the alt-right and antifa left, the slow government, Logan Paul…However, I don’t really think many of the common critiques of America can rightly be thrown at Lady Liberty’s feet.

We often remark how inappropriate it is for anyone to wear Nazi armbands or march with the KKK (which it really is); but at the same time, we ought to respect the freedoms of others to do something terribly wrong. I would much prefer that to the alternative, which is a country where the government can outlaw offensive or upsetting actions because we’re frankly all wrong and offensive in our own ways.

It’s easy to compare the US to other countries, but we often forget the areas we succeed…especially in comparison with others.

For instance, countries like Sweden might seem fun, with their month of free vacation, but we should be aware that the Swedish tax rate is an abysmal 56%. I’d expect a month off, too, if the government was taking more than half of my money! I would take America’s tax rate of 10-35% based on income any day of the week and book my own vacation!

America’s government is slow, sure, but it also works (most of the time). Dozens of countries have based their Constitutions on America, from Mexico to Poland, and there’s a reason many more immigrants apply for visas than can be given. Things are slow to change, but at least they are changing, which is better than most places.

We often forget the importance of free speech allowing us to criticize the government, of being allowed a simple jury trial, and lawfully promised equality–even if we often stumble getting there.

As American citizens, we often don’t realize America’s international impacts. Not only is Hollywood the movie capital of the world,where people in China, India, and Britain are watching American movies. Twitter, YouTube, Google, Snapchat, and Netflix are all American companies. It seems clear that America is the place to go to invest in new ideas and actually have them take off in the business world. . It has an economy ripe for business, made for dreams and dreamers.

Sometimes we compare certain policies, like gun control, to other countries, but it’s easy to forget that there is not a scientific consensus on gun ownership causing or preventing crime, and America is not even ranked top ten for violent crime per capita, and as of 2016, NPR argued that the U.S.’ gun violence rate was 31st. We certainly have problems, but the extent of these problems are often mixed.

As is, America is far from perfect, but we also are a superpower for a reason, and alternatives which might make America, well…”great again” often forget how great we already are.