The American Indepenence was net harmful

Clarification:This debate is not about the U.S. joining the commonwealth, nor is it about the likelihood of the American Revolution failing.The purpose of this debate is to assume that the U.S. never achieved independence, and then to compare the outcomes.II. U.S society- Canadian styleIf the U.S. had developed the same way that Canada had, the U.S. would experience many benefits that it does not fully enjoy today.Canada ranks sixth in global happiness. Canadian citizens are happy because they have a liberal democratic society.(1)(2)The primary contributors to happiness are social bonds, quality of life, and freedom.1. Social bondsAmerican society is the most typically example of a hyper-individualist society. The people of the U.S. are lacking in social bonds. On average, Americans spend less time socializing that their counterparts elsewhere. Americans started the trend of urbanization, where communities became more secluded and separate. Voter apathy in the U.S. is one of the worst in the Western world.2. Quality of lifeStudies have found that societies with high welfare and social spending achieve a much higher quality of life than those who don’t. Free universal health care, social services, higher education and investment into lower education all lead towards a high quality of life.”on an international level those states with the most extensive social programs tend to be the ones with the highest turnouts.”(4)3. FreedomNorth American societies pride themselves on freedom. Canadians have an open democracy with a free press and no significant censorship. In terms of Freedom, the U.S., Australia and Canada are very similar. In fact, Canada ranks ninth in the world on the democracy index(5). If the U.S. had adopted a British-dominion type society (such as Canada or Australia), there would be little noticeable harms towards civil rights and civil liberties.Conclusion:While American society has many benefits, a Canadian/Australian type society produces even more benefits. Canadians are happier, better educated, more democratic, and are healthier. If American had modeld itself on Canada in it's formative years, U.S. citizens could have benefited from these boons as well.RebutalsImperialism and Violence“America was a isolationist country for most of its history. Despite some conflicts in the cold war, we have a smaller track record then other nations.”Wrong. and wrong. American “isolationism” was a front, so that America could covertly dominate places like Latin America through repeated “interventions” which usually involved the use of naval fleets, occupation by the marines and army, and later, CIA operations.America did not become the world’s most powerful empire in history by being peaceful. In fact, America is most probably the largest terrorist state in the world. World famous and well-respected Noam Chomsky even states that the U.S. should be recognized as the “world’s largest terrorist” (15,16,17).“Your arguing about imperialism. The whole commonwealth was built on imperialism”, “You keep pretending like the rest of the world did not engage in colonialism. America practiced a little thing called capitalism, and it is not the same thing.”Britain and many other European powers certainly participated in imperialism. But Britain’s dominions did not. There are no stories of Canadian or Australian troops unilaterally invading neighbors in order to assert economic or political hegemony. If the U.S. had joined Canada and Australia in dominion status, the U.S. would not have been able to create its global empire.Less empire/imperialism = less harms = good1. Manifest Destiny“British dominions rarely took aggressive expansionist actions towards fellow western countries, Certainly not on a large scale when they did.No, they just bullied the countries they deemed beatable.”Con has not cited any proof that Britain seized large European territories. I know that the con will never be able to provide such sources (outside of fiction), because such events never occurred.“Mexico sent a army to fight after we started patrolling the borders. Not really the Usa's fault on this one.”This was propaganda used by the U.S. government to justify war and expansion to the people. The government had an expansionist policy and several high-ranking politicians coveted the territories of California, Oregon and Texas (6).The war was started on purpose, which clear objectives. Normally, minor border disputes do not result in the annexation of half the land of one of the countries involved.“Spain sold us our lands after they started to lose theirs to white colonists”Spain did not sell Cuba and their territories in the Caribbean to anyone. They were indisputably taken by force and force alone. On the subject of Florida, U.S. forces would regularly raid and assault the Spanish, forcing them into a situation where they had no choice but to give away the land. “West Florida was declared to be a U.S. possession in 1810 by President James Madison. The Army then took control”(7).2. Pacific“To blame Japans imperialistic invasions on the US is silly.”I am not blaming the U.S., I am just saying that heavy U.S. involvement in the Pacific greatly facilitated Japan’s move in the direction towards imperialism.“we only controlled the Philippines and the American Samoa.”And Hawaii (still a territory at the time), and the Marianas, and Guam, and Midway, and Johnson Atoll, and Wake, and Kingman Reef, and Palmyra Reef, and Howland, and Baker, and Marshall and Jarvis and trade posts in China. Plus investments and economic interests in both China and Japan, as well as naval bases and airbases in all of the above plus the NSF Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, a ship support base in Hong Kong, and the Sembawand naval base in Singapore, and Pine Gap and Alice Spings in Australia and Paya Lebar Air base in Singapore.It is clear that the U.S. was determined to make its presence and domination felt in the region, putting pressure on the locals, such as the Japanese.(8)3. Latin America“While the US may of had some contribution in Central America. Most of the conflict stemmed from clashes of fascist,Marxist, and democratic forces.”This is not true. The U.S. was heavily involved in the overthrow of democratically elected leaders in order to install friendly despots. People who complained and fought for a return of democracy were deemed “marxists, fascists, and socialists”. CIA operations alone, such as Operation Condor, killed tens of thousands in order to put down dissent and keep allied dictators in power (9)(10)4. Cold War“Vietnam War: French asked us to aid them, and bailed out shortly after our arrival.”Ho Chi Minh originally wanted U.S. support against European imperialism, but was turned down, and so was forced to turn to the Soviets and Chinese. The people of Vietnam democratically elected a socialist government to rule their new independent country. The U.S. cancelled the elections and instead chose war. (11)“Korean War: Soviets, Koreans, and Chinese troops invaded the UN democratic country of South Korea. We just defended them.”Not true. The U.S. defeated the North Korean invasion, and the invaded the sovereign country of North Korea, right up to the Chinese border. Understandably, the Chinese were not happy about this. The Chinese had issued warnings to the U.S. from bringing troops too close to China, but these warning were ignored, leading to a protraction of the war and much more bloodshed. “MacArthur felt that the North Korean army had been essentially destroyed by the middle of October, and, against the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he sent his forces into the northernmost parts of North Korea”(12).“Bay of Pigs: They aimed missiles at us, so we infiltrated their country.”The only reason why the Soviets considered moving weapons, both nuclear and conventional, to Cuba was because the U.S. had surrounded the Soviets with many bases, and had nuclear missiles stationed in nearby Turkey.“After the US had placed nuclear missiles in Turkey and Italy, aimed at Moscow, and the failed US attempt to overthrow the Cuban regime, in May 1962 Nikita Khrushchev proposed the idea of placing Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba to deter any future invasion attempt” (13).“Eritrean War of Independence: Supported oppressed Eritrean against the socialist Derg.”Eritrea is a corrupt and despotic country that is famous in only one subject - human rights violations (14).5. EuropeCon did not refute my points on the harms in Europe that could have been avoided. They are dropped points and are thus uncontested.Sources:1)http://www.theglobeandmail.com...2)http://www.cbc.ca...3)http://seetheconnection.com...4)Richard Sclove p. 2415)http://www.economist.com...6)http://www.history.com...7)Samuel C. Hyde Jr., "Consolidating the Revolution: Factionalism and Finesse in the West Florida Revolt, 1810," Louisiana History (2010) 51#3 pp 261-2838) http://monthlyreview.org...9)http://www.aljazeera.com...10)http://en.wikipedia.org...11)http://en.wikipedia.org...12)http://www.sparknotes.com...13)http://en.wikipedia.org...14)http://www.hrw.org...15)http://www.veteranstoday.com...16)http://topdocumentaryfilms.com...17)http://www.washingtonsblog.com...