What makes America different than the rest of the world?

Our country was designed so that the only limits on us were self imposed... that our failure or success was solely determined by our own choices and actions. Now, the government wants to make those determinations for us without any choices left to us. That is the defining difference between Liberty and Freedom with We The People in charge and Liberalism and Communism with a Tyrannical Government in charge. I choose self rule over government rule every time.

The limits that are placed by the government under Obama's administration are to help a person's ability to achieve and advance. By hardworking people - are you referring to the impoverished and middle class, or those who make their profits either investing in or working for companies that pay slave labour rates to children overseas?

Hmmm. Ok. What do I address first? I'm an American citizen living in Argentina (just in case you look at my profile). We were firstly a British colony until we got fed up and revolted. Hence, no titles of nobility. However, we do have them, don't we? We've got our "first families". Generation after generation that dominate a certain field strictly based on nepotism. A lot of politicians (Kennedy's, Bush's, etc.) business people (Hilton, Trump, etc.). The first people who came to the Americas did so for religious freedom mostly. Freedom from other things grew from that. Being rewarded for efforts and hard work became a propaganda tool used by our fledgling democracy and it stuck. There's more to it than simply being limited by the limits imposed by yourself. Socio-economic limits are firmly entrenched in U.S. society. I also believe the "American Dream" is an ideology originally purported as government propaganda. It gets people to work their butts off for somebody else to reap the rewards with the false hope that it'll pay off. It's all bunk. The "good life" is a matter of interpretation. If you're a materialistic person it has one meaning. If the "good life" to you is non-materialistic, it has another. I believe that the only people who are becoming upset about the "government" putting limitations on a "persons ability to achieve and advance" are the wealthy and those that believe in capitalism. All they want is "their share", whatever that may be to them, and damn the rest of us. The fact of the matter is, there is only so much to go around. If a certain percentage of the populace is permitted to horde it all for themselves, then how do others achieve the "American Dream" you refer to? As to the original question: What makes America different than the rest of the world? My answer would be that we're a myth and got a lot of other countries to believe in it. It may have been true for a while. We actually were the "land of the free, home of the brave" where anything was possible. But it hasn't been that way for a couple of decades now and it's starting to catch up to us. MHO.