Wikipedia

Talk:United States

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Random832 (talk | contribs) at 15:45, 7 February 2007 (box). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Latest comment: 18 years ago by 71.170.41.7 in topic Page Title
Learn more about this page

Template:Talkheaderlong

Please peruse the frequently asked questions for this article before contributing to this talk page.
Current population (est.): 340,285,000 as of August 27, 2025
WikiProject iconUnited States A‑class Top‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States
AThis article has been rated as A-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
TopThis article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale.

Template:GA-geo

"WP:WPC" redirects here. For the WikiProject on WikiProjects, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Council. For the editing tool, see Wikipedia:WPCleaner. See also Wikipedia:WikiProject Categories and Wikipedia:WikiProject China.
Project Countries main pageTalkParticipantsTemplatesArticlesPicturesTo doArticle assessmentCountries portal

This WikiProject helps develop country-related pages (of all types) and works toward standardizing the formats of sets and types of country-related pages. For example, the sets of Culture of x, Administrative divisions of x, and Demographics of x articles, etc. – (where "x" is a country name) – and the various types of pages, like stubs, categories, etc.

WikiProject Countries articles as of November 2, 2024
A map showing classes of articles in WikiProject Countries.
  Featured article
  Good article
  B-Class article
  C-Class article
  Start-Class article

What's new?

Did you know

Proposed deletions

  • 21 Aug 2025 – Cấn line (talk · edit · hist) PRODed by Henrydat (t · c) was deproded by Kvng (t · c) on 26 Aug 2025

Categories for discussion

Templates for discussion

Redirects for discussion

(25 more...)

Featured article candidates

Good article nominees

Featured article reviews

Requests for comments

Requested moves

Articles to be merged

Articles to be split

To do list

Scope

This WikiProject is focused on country coverage (content/gaps) and presentation (navigation, page naming, layout, formatting) on Wikipedia, especially country articles (articles with countries as their titles), country outlines, and articles with a country in their name (such as Demographics of Germany), but also all other country-related articles, stubs, categories, and lists pertaining to countries.

This WikiProject helps Wikipedia's navigation-related WikiProjects (Wikipedia:WikiProject Outline of knowledge, WikiProject Categories, WikiProject Portals, etc.) develop and maintain the navigation structures (menus, outlines, lists, templates, and categories) pertaining to countries. And since most countries share the same subtopics ("Cities of", "Cuisine of", "Religion in", "Prostitution in", etc.), it is advantageous to standardize their naming, and their order of presentation in Wikipedia's indexes and table-of-contents-like pages.

Categories

Click on "►" below to display subcategories:
Countries
Click on "►" below to display subcategories:
WikiProject Countries

Subpages

Formatting

Many country and country-related articles have been extensively developed, but much systematic or similar information about many countries is not presented in a consistent way. Inconsistencies are rampant in article naming, headings, data presented, types of things covered, order of coverage, etc. This WikiProject works towards standardizing page layouts of country-related articles of the same type ("Geography of", "Government of", "Politics of", "Wildlife of", etc.).

We are also involved with the standardization of country-related stubs, standardizing the structure of country-related lists and categories (the category trees for countries should be identical for the most part, as most countries share the same subcategories – though there will be some differences of course).

Goals

  1. Provide a centralized resource guide of all related topics in Wikipedia, as well as spearhead the effort to improve and develop them.
  2. Create uniform templates that serve to identify all related articles as part of this project, as well as stub templates to englobe all related stubs under specific categories.
  3. Standardize articles about different nations, cultures, holidays, and geography.
  4. Verify historical accuracy and neutrality of all articles within the scope of the project.
  5. Create, expand and cleanup related articles.

Structure and guidelines

Although referenced during FA and GA reviews, this structure guide is advisory only, and should not be enforced against the wishes of those actually working on the article in question. Articles may be best modeled on the layout of an existing article of appropriate structure and topic (See: Canada or Japan)

Main polities

Main article: Country

A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, states with limited recognition, constituent country, or a dependent territory.

Lead section

Shortcut
See also: WP:Lead section
For lead length see, #Size
Opening paragraphs
Further information: MOS:INTRO

The article should start with a good simple introduction, giving name of the country, general ___location in the world, bordering countries, seas and the like. Also give other names by which the country may still be known (for example Holland, Persia). Also, add a few facts about the country, the things that it is known for (for example the mentioning of windmills in the Netherlands article). The primary purpose of a Wikipedia lead is not to summarize the topic, but to summarize the content of the article.

First sentence
Further information: MOS:FIRST

The first sentence should introduce the topic, and tell the nonspecialist reader what the subject is, and where. It should be in plain English.

The etymology of a country's name, if worth noting and naming disputes, may be dealt with in the etymology section. Foreign-languages, pronunciations and acronyms may also belong in the etymology section or in a note to avoid WP:LEADCLUTTER.

Example:

 Y Sweden,[a] formally the Kingdom of Sweden,[b] is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe.
 N Sweden (Swedish: Sverige [ˈsvæ̌rjɛ] ⓘ), formally the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige [ˈkôːnɵŋaˌriːkɛt ˈsvæ̌rjɛ] ⓘ), is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe.

Detail, duplication and tangible information
Shortcut
Further information: Wikipedia:How to create and manage a good lead section

Overly detailed information or infobox data duplication such as listing random examples, excessive numbered statistics or naming individuals should be reserved for the infobox or body of the article. The lead prose should provide clear, relevant information through links to relevant sub-articles about the country an relevant terms, rather than listing random stats and articles with minimal information about the country.

Example:

 Y A developed country, Canada has a high nominal per capita income globally and its advanced economy ranks among the largest in the world, relying chiefly upon its abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade networks. Recognized as a middle power, Canada's support for multilateralism and internationalism has been closely related to its foreign relations policies of peacekeeping and aid for developing countries. Canada promotes its domestically shared values through participation in multiple international organizations and forums.
 N A highly developed country, Canada has the seventeenth-highest nominal per-capita income globally and the sixteenth-highest ranking in the Human Development Index. Its advanced economy is the tenth-largest in the world and the 14th for military expenditure by country, Canada is part of several major international institutions including the United Nations, NATO, the G7, the Group of Ten, the G20, the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the Organization of American States.

Infobox

There is a table with quick facts about the country called an infobox. A template for the table can be found at the bottom of this page.

Although the table can be moved out to the template namespace (to e.g. [[Template:CountryName Infobox]]) and thus easen the look of the edit page, most Wikipedians still disapprove as of now, see the talk page.

The contents are as follows:

  • The official long-form name of the country in the local language is to go on top as the caption. If there are several official names (languages), list all (if reasonably feasible). The conventional long-form name (in English), if it differs from the local long-form name, should follow the local name(s). This is not a parameter to list every recognized language of a country, but rather for listing officially recognize national languages.
  • The conventional short-form name of the country, recognised by the majority of the English-speaking world; ideally, this should also be used for the name of the article.
  • A picture of the national flag. You can find flags at the List of flags. A smaller version should be included in the table itself, a larger-sized version in a page titled Flag of <country>, linked to via the "In Detail" cell. Instead of two different images, use the autothumbnail function that wiki offers.
  • A picture of the national coat of arms. A good source is required for this, but not yet available. It should be no more than 125 pixels in width.
  • Below the flag and coat of arms is room for the national motto, often displayed on the coat of arms (with translation, if necessary).
  • The official language(s) of the country. (rot the place to list every recognized or used language)
  • The political status. Specify if it is a sovereign state or a dependent territory.
  • The capital city, or cities. Explain the differences if there are multiple capital cities using a footnote (see example at the Netherlands).
  • If the data on the population is recent and reliable, add the largest city of the country.
  • Land area: The area of the country in square kilometres (km²) and square miles (sq mi) with the world-ranking of this country. Also add the % of water, which can be calculated from the data in the Geography article (make it negligible if ~0%).
  • Population: The number of inhabitants and the world-ranking; also include a year for this estimate (should be 2000 for now, as that is the date of the ranking). For the population density you can use the numbers now available.
  • GDP: The amount of gross domestic product in nominal and PPP-adjusted terms, as well as their respective world ranking. Include both total and per capita amounts.
  • HDI: Information pertaining to the UN Human Development Index – the value, year (of value), rank (with ordinal), and category (colourised as per the HDI country list).
  • Currency; the name of the local currency. Use the pipe if the currency name is also used in other countries: [[Australian dollar|dollar]].
  • Time zone(s); the time zone or zones in which the country is relative to UTC
  • National anthem; the name of the National anthem and a link to the article about it.
  • Internet TLD; the top-level ___domain code for this country.
  • Calling Code; the international Calling Code used for dialing this country.
Lead map

There is a long-standing practice that areas out of a state's control should be depicted differently on introductory maps, to not give the impression the powers of a state extend somewhere they do not. This is for various types of a lack of control, be it another state (eg. Crimea, bits of Kashmir) or a separatist body (eg. DPR, TRNC).

Sections

Further information: Wikipedia:Summary style and Wikipedia:Too much detail
Shortcut

A section should be written in summary style, containing just the important facts. Undue weight can be given in several ways, including but not limited to the depth of detail, the quantity of text, prominence of placement, the juxtaposition of statements, and the use of imagery. Main article fixation is an observed effect that editors are likely to encounter in county articles. If a section it is too large, information should be transferred to the sub-article. Avoid sections focusing on criticisms or controversies. Try to achieve a more neutral text by folding debates into the narrative, rather than isolating them into sections.

Prose should provide clear, relevant information and links to relevant sub-articles about the country, rather than listing random stats and articles with minimal information about the country.

 Y Corruption in Liberia is endemic at every level of society, making it one of the most politically corrupt nations.
 N Liberia scored a 3.3 on a scale from 10 (highly clean) to 0 (highly corrupt) on the 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index.

 
Comparison table of section sizes in country articles as a percentage of article size. Click image for latest data.

Articles may consist of the following sections:

  • Etymology sections are often placed first (sometimes called name depending on the information in the article). Include only if due information is available.
  • History – An outline of the major events in the country's history (about 4 to 6 paragraphs, depending on complexity of history), including some detail on current events. Sub-article: "History of X"
  • Politics – Overview of the current governmental system, possibly previous forms, some short notes on the parliament. Sub-article: "Politics of X"
  • Administrative divisions – Overview of the administrative subdivisions of the country. Name the section after the first level of subdivisions (and subsequent levels, if available) (e.g. provinces, states, departments, districts, etc.) and give the English equivalent name, when available. Also include overseas possessions. This section should also include an overview map of the country and subdivisions, if available.
  • Geography – Details of the country's main geographic features and climate. Historical weather boxes should be reserved for sub articles. Sub-article: "Geography of X"
  • Economy – Details on the country's economy, major industries, bit of economic history, major trade partners, a tad comparison etc. Sub-article: "Economy of X"
  • Demographics – Mention the languages spoken, the major religions, some well known properties of the people of X, by which they are known. Uncontextualized data and charts should be avoided. (See WP:NOTSTATS and WP:PROSE) Sub-article: "Demographics of X".
  • Culture – Summary of the country's specific forms of art (anything from painting to film) and its best known cultural contributions. Caution should be taken to ensure that the sections are not simply a listing of names or mini biographies of individuals accomplishments. Good example Canada#Culture. Sub-article: "Culture of X".
  • See also – 'See also" sections of country articles normally only contain links to "Index of country" and "Outline of country" articles, alongside the main portal(s).
  • References – Sums up "Notes", "References", and all "Further Reading" or "Bibliography"
  • External links – Links to official websites about the country. See WP:External links
Size
 
Graphic showing article quality, size, contentiousness, protection, and vital level. Click for live data.
Shortcut
Main pages: Wikipedia:Article size and Wikipedia:Summary style § Article size
Articles that have gone through FA and GA reviews generally consists of approximately 8,000 to 10,000 words as per WP:SIZERULE, with a lead usually 250 to 400 words as per MOS:LEADLENGTH.
  •   Australia = Prose size (text only): 60 kB (9,304 words) "readable prose size"
  •   Bulgaria = Prose size (text only): 56 kB (8,847 words) "readable prose size"
  •   Canada = Prose size (text only): 67 kB (9,834 words) "readable prose size"
  •   Germany = Prose size (text only): 54 kB (8,456 words) "readable prose size"
  •   Japan = Prose size (text only): 51 kB (8,104 words) "readable prose size"
  •   East Timor = Prose size (text only): 53 kB (8,152 words) "readable prose size"
  •   Malaysia = Prose size (text only): 57 kB (9,092 words) "readable prose size"
  •   New Zealand = Prose size (text only): 62 kB (9,761 words) "readable prose size"
  •   Philippines = Prose size (text only): 62 kB (9,178 words) "readable prose size"
Hatnote

The link should be shown as below: Avoid link clutter of multiple child articles in a hierarchical setup as hatnotes. Important links/articles should be incorporated into the prose of the section. For example, Canada#Economy is a summary section with a hatnote to Economy of Canada that summarizes the history with a hatnote to Economic history of Canada. See WP:SUMMARYHATNOTE, WP:HATNOTERULES, WP:HATLENGTH for more recommended hatnote usages.

 Y== Economy ==

Main article: Economy of Canada

 N== Economy ==

Main article: Economy of Canada

See also: Petroleum industry in Canada and Agriculture in Canada

Further information: Economic history of Canada and Early Canadian banking system

Charts

Shortcut

As prose text is preferred, overly detailed statistical charts and diagrams that lack any context or explanation such as; economic trends, weather boxes, historical population charts, and past elections results, etc, should be reserved for main sub articles on the topic as per WP:DETAIL as outlined at WP:NOTSTATS.

Galleries

Shortcut

Galleries or clusters of images are generally discouraged - (unless a point of contrast or comparison is being made) - as they may cause undue weight to one particular section of a summary article and might cause accessibility problems, such as sand­wich­ing of text, images that are too small or fragmented image display for some readers as outlined at WP:GALLERY. Clusters of images may cause images to appear too late or too early for associated prose text, see MOS:SECTIONLOC for general recommendations. Articles that have gone through modern FA and GA reviews generally consists of one image for every three or four paragraph summary section, see MOS:ACCESS#FLOAT and MOS:SECTIONLOC for more information

Footers

As noted at Wikipedia:Categories, lists, and series boxes the number of templates at the bottom of any article should be kept to a minimum. Country pages generally have footers that link to pages for countries in their geographic region. Footers for international organizations are not added to country pages, but they rather can go on subpages such as "Economy of..." and "Foreign relations of..." Categories for some of these organizations are also sometimes added. Templates for supranational organizations like the European Union and CARICOM are permitted. A list of the footers that have been created can be found at Wikipedia:WikiProject Countries/Templates/Navboxes, however note that many of these are not currently in use.

Transclusions

Transclusions are generally discouraged in country articles for reasons outlined below.

This section is transcluded from Help:Transclusion. (edit | history)
Shortcut
Further information: Wikipedia:Transclusion costs and benefits

Like many software technologies, transclusion comes with a number of drawbacks. The most obvious one being the cost in terms of increased machine resources needed; to mitigate this to some extent, template limits are imposed by the software to reduce the complexity of pages. Some further drawbacks are listed below.

Lists of countries

To determine which entities should be considered separate "countries" or included on lists, use the entries in ISO 3166-1 plus the list of states with limited recognition, except:

  • Lists based on only a single source should follow that source.
  • Specific lists might need more logical criteria. For example, list of sovereign states omits non-sovereign entities listed by ISO-3166-1. Lists of sports teams list whichever entities that have teams, regardless of sovereignty. Lists of laws might follow jurisdiction boundaries (for example, England and Wales is a single jurisdiction).

For consistency with other Wikipedia articles, the names of entities do not need to follow sources or ISO-3166-1. The names used as the titles of English Wikipedia articles are a safe choice for those that are disputed.

Resources

Notes

  1. ^ Swedish: Sverige [ˈsvæ̌rjɛ] ⓘ; Finnish: Ruotsi; Meänkieli: Ruotti; Northern Sami: Ruoŧŧa; Lule Sami: Svierik; Pite Sami: Sverji; Ume Sami: Sverje; Southern Sami: Sveerje or Svöörje; Yiddish: שוועדן, romanized: Shvedn; Scandoromani: Svedikko; Kalo Finnish Romani: Sveittiko.
  2. ^ Swedish: Konungariket Sverige [ˈkôːnɵŋaˌriːkɛt ˈsvæ̌rjɛ] ⓘ

Template:V0.5 Template:FAOL

 
Archives
Chronological Archives
Archive 1 Archive 2 Archive 3
Archive 4 Archive 5 Archive 6
Archive 7 Archive 8 Archive 9
Archive 10 Archive 11 Archive 12
Archive 13 Archive 14 Archive 15
Archive 16 Archive 17 Archive 18
Archive 19 Archive 20 Archive 21
Archive 22
Topical Archives
Article Name Article Introduction Human Rights
Culture

Page Title

Latest comment: 18 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

The URL says "United States of America", the title at the top of the page only says "United States". How do you change the title of the page to match the URL and say "United States of America"? All national seals and legal tender sport this title, this page should as well. Genisc 02:28, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Senate

Latest comment: 18 years ago4 comments3 people in discussion

Anyone think either the Senate Majority Leader or the President Pro Tem should be listed in the infobox, and if so which? --Random832(tc) 17:40, 31 January 2007 (UTC)Reply

Fewer is better than more. After all, why stop there? Include all justices, perhaps the joint chiefs of staff, the cabinet? --Golbez 10:24, 1 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
True, having the four leaders of all three branches (congress has two, one for each house) is the best solution. Otherwise you could have a long, long list. Signaturebrendel 05:07, 2 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
We already have the leader of the senate, the VP. The President pro tempore is almost entirely ceremonial, except for the line of succession (which does not include the chief justice). --Golbez 06:05, 2 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Iraq sanctions

Latest comment: 18 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

"After many failed U.N. resolutions" is wrong. It was US unilateral sanctions that Hussein said no to exactly because they weren't endorsed by the UN. The UN sanctions were about to be lifted because they were complied with and the US made up its own rules in order to have an excuse to get into Iraq. Is wikipedia rewriting history? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 142.167.85.107 (talk) 01:37, 2 February 2007 (UTC).Reply

Article Too Long

Latest comment: 18 years ago13 comments3 people in discussion

The article is very long because the same information is repeated over and over again. The first sentence does not say the United States is a country, but lists the abbreviated forms. There are a lot of long sentances that with a bit of thought are covered in articles elsewhere or could get to the point in less words. Every section should be reduced by about half, or two-thirds. --Dlatimer 03:30, 3 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

I agree that the article is too long, but some useful tidbits of information were removed in recent edits to the introduction so I've restored them. Perhaps additional efforts should be made to prune the body of the article. Corticopia 08:11, 3 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
I agree the shortening was a bit to extensive and some sentences need to be worked out here frist. The intro is actually not the worst part. The article is overall too long but the intro is OK. Regards, Signaturebrendel 08:16, 3 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Great contribution. Lets revert to the previous boring, repetitive, rambling, over-qualified introduction. A useful, interesting, concise version is provided below: --Dlatimer 14:25, 3 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

The United States of America is a country in North America extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and sharing land borders with Canada and Mexico. The total area is over 3.7 million square miles (over 9.6 million km²) and makes it the world's third largest country.
The United States is a constitutional republic and a democratic federation consisting of fifty states and other federally administered areas, including the capital, Washington, D.C. It is the third most populous nation, with over 300 million people, primarily due to large-scale historical immigration. The nation has extensive ethnic and social diversity, and with a gross domestic product (GDP) of over $13 trillion, has the largest national economy in the world.
The United States was founded by thirteen colonies declaring independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776 and through the Articles of Confederation, ratified March 1, 1781. These original states ratified the current constitution on September 17, 1787. American power and cultural influence grew throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the U.S. became the only superpower and global affairs are predominantly influenced by its political, military and economic power to the present day.

I disagree with several parts.
  1. Leave this sentence in tact: "The result of large scale immigration and home to a complex social strcuture and a variety of household arrangments it is one of the socially and ethnically diverse nations on earth." You took out any mention of variety of households arragments (something mentioned nowhere else in the article)-which is at least as important as the GDP (which is mentioned in the infobox to begin with!)
  2. There is no mention of Spain's role in the nation's history. It must be mentioned that other nations played a role in America's history besides Great Britain. The version above is very East-Coast centric (There is no mother England out here in CA)
  3. Is mentioning the area and GDP and land area really neccessary (They're mentioned in the infobox already and America is much more than that!).
There is no consensus on the above version until it is further revised. Regards, Signaturebrendel 02:35, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
I generally agree with Brendel: boredom and length aside, the 'concise' introduction is generally less useful and informative than the 'detailed' version for various reasons. For one: the first sentence, with alternate names, is prescribed in the countries wikiproject. As well, the brief version eliminates necessary precision regarding the ___location of the U.S. (which is not just limited to North America) or its constituents (50 states, etc.); some of this doesn't currently live elsewhere in the article (e.g., Alaska's relative size). Morever, a couple references were removed in the pruning, which can't be useful in any event. Lastly, said changes weren't at all discussed or agreed upon despite notes to the contrary. There is a lot more to prune or refactor in the rest of the article foremost (perhaps moving/consolidating some content), but the version of the intro above is far from definitive or preferred. Corticopia 02:41, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Good points! Signaturebrendel 02:47, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Thanks! Corticopia 02:47, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
The sandpit says the article at 116KB, which is too long according to Wikipedia standards. This instruction demanded action, which I took. It says "check the talk page before editing" which I did. No effort had been made for months. Long-winded, repetitous articles get pruned. Let's not get all sentimental. That's how it is. --Dlatimer 11:55, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
True, the sandpit also notes that "[i]f you don't want your writing to be edited mercilessly or redistributed by others, do not submit it", so yes: let's not get sentimental. There is much more to prune than worthwhile information in the introduction. Corticopia 17:28, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Agreed. The intro is fine for now. The article itself needs to be pruned! The Sports section for example-does it need to be so long? There are several section. Just make another proposal fpr pruning. This is not about getting sentimental, but edits need to yield an improvement and certain things need to be mentioned. There are things to be cut though in many places (again, look at the sports or eytmology section). Signaturebrendel 20:53, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
The ___location of the US is now clearly stated in the introduction, instead of two descriptions. I discovered afterwards the Britannica reference uses the same structure. Now there is more useful information and with less repetition the intro is concise. Thanks for the advice. I'm now ready to go through the next section. --Dlatimer 04:39, 5 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
I've restored some tidbits from the prior version -- now its ___location is more clearly stated. However, I was tempted to also indicate that the Pacific Ocean is to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to its east (or similar) ... because Africa-Eurasia is also between those two oceans, just the other way.  :) Thanks. Corticopia 05:01, 5 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Mark Twain

Latest comment: 18 years ago3 comments3 people in discussion

I know that this article is already too long, but I really think that Mark Twain should have at least a mention in the literature section.(Lucas(CA) 05:47, 3 February 2007 (UTC))Reply

I agree; done. -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 05:59, 3 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Makes sense. Signaturebrendel 07:48, 3 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Healthcare exclusion

Latest comment: 18 years ago4 comments3 people in discussion

I tried to clean up a mammoth paragraph in the section on healthcare, as it didn't really read right. One thing that struck me was this: it is stated that 14.2% of the population were without insurance for at least part of a particular year, then that one third of these were from well-off households (income >$50000) and one-third were eligible for public insurance but had failed to sign up. Then it's stated that only 2% were "truly without access" to insurance. I'm not sure where this figure comes from as 14.2% - 2*(0.333*14.2%) leaves almost 5%.

Also, what exactly is the cutoff on household income before a person is "truly" unable to afford insurance? Many people will choose not to have insurance so they can afford something else; others who are not among the 14.2% will have chosen to go without cars, vacations or whatever to pay for what is in their view an essential.

I think that in this section care must be taken to provide only verifiable facts. Attempts to influence the reader's opinion on the desirability or otherwise of a healthcare system funded (partly) by private insurance belong elsewhere. I got the impression that this rather confused paragraph came about as people with opposing views attempted to counteract one-another's arguments, and this is not an appropriate forum for those discussions to be aired IMHO.

Any views?

—Casper Gutman 19:20, 3 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Well stated. I don't edit this article much but as a reader, this section has always bothered me as well. Healthcare is a "hot button" issue and promises to become even more so now with divided government. We have to be really careful with statistics as they can be manipulated very easily. Where the same statistic is interpreted differently we need to give the fact of the statistic and then provide the different sides' explanation of what those statistics mean (as long as reliable verifiable sources are given, of course). That is best done in the Healthcare in the United States article. There should just be a brief summary of pure facts at this page.--WilliamThweatt 19:33, 3 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Just noticed there's an item on the "To do" list that involves cutting this section down and removing some bits to the healthcare article. Should help! —Casper Gutman 19:24, 3 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Well we are not supposed to discuss our "views" here. I personally diagree with your overly-optimistic assessment. As for editing the section considered that there are great variations within states, MA for example does have universal health care and CA may soon follow suit. But please try and not to have our opinions influnce the editing of the article. The neutral info is that 15% are uninsured anything beyond that is POV territory. We just spit out Gov stats- please live up to your own standard of not attempting to influence the reader (that goes for conservative POV as well). There are studies done by the UN that rank nation and there are stistics from our government-let's stick with just sputing out the numbers. I don't mean this as a threat or anything, but I will remove conservative POV when it attempts to sway the reader. Signaturebrendel 21:30, 3 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Image talk:Motherhood and apple pie.jpg

Latest comment: 18 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion

The Apple pie picture is disrespectul to the United States, see it's discussion page. | AndonicO Talk · Sign Here 20:42, 4 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

I think it should be removed from this page for being "offensive" to the subject. Does anyone else agree? · AndonicO Talk · Sign Here 20:40, 6 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
As I have said on the discussion page, I don't find the image offensive. Let's see what the outcome on the image discussion page is (I'm thinking about starting an RfC to get more editors involved in the discussion). Regards, Signaturebrendel 21:37, 6 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Linguistic Usage of the name "United States"

Latest comment: 18 years ago4 comments4 people in discussion

Poeple refer to the Untied States singlarly( ex. The Unites States is a nation in North America.) When in fact it is a collection of semi-sovereign states( a federation: A form of government in which powers and functions are divided between a central government and a number of political subdivisions that have a significant degree of political autonomy) (state: the group of people comprising the government of a sovereign state; "the state has lowered its income tax") Therefore, that same sentence used as an example above shoudl read: The United States are a federation in North America). The latter example was the form used pre-civil war. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.151.167.250 (talk) 15:15, 6 February 2007 (UTC).Reply

The key lies in the "semi-sovereign." The US a fully sovereign nation with a united foreign policy. Nonetheless you are right to the extend that US states have considerable autonomy- something that the name "United States" actually reflects pretty well ;-) Regards, Signaturebrendel 19:05, 6 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
You can spin that on its head to say that the United States is a 'federation of [insert descriptor]'. Also note that the introduction indicates the US is a "federal constitutional republic. Corticopia 20:11, 6 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
You can use "united states," descriptively as a plural subject, but when you're using it as the name of a single nation it would be used as a singular subject. "A government, a party, a company (whether Tesco or Marks and Spencer) and a partnership (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill) are all it and take a singular verb. So does a country, even if its name looks plural." - Economist.com Research Tools: Style Guide Jecowa 20:34, 6 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

Unable to edit

Latest comment: 18 years ago2 comments2 people in discussion

I am unable to edit the United States article. Why? Is there an ongoing dispute? Featuresaltlakecity 23:19, 6 February 2007 (UTC)Reply

This is, as you might have guessed, a high-profile article. A lot of IPs and people just browsing the internet think it is funny to leave their mark on the US article. Just get a couple of edits somewhere else and after about 300 edits (that's less than what it sounds like) you should be able to edit this article. You could for example, create a user-page for yourself, afterwards you should be able to edit the article. Or you could describe things you want to change here. Signaturebrendel 23:39, 6 February 2007 (UTC)Reply
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:United_States&oldid=106326550"