jQuery Forum

I have code that initially sets a radio button and then changes some paragraph text based on the value of the radio button. After this initial setting, I want the user to be able to change the radio buttons and get changes to the paragraph text.  Currently, the code allows a change to the radio button and it shows on the screen, but the value does not change so the paragraph text does not change. I tracked this down by looking at alerts. How do I get the click on the radio button to register a change in the radio button value in jQuery?  Here's the simplified code.  I'm pretty new at this so code examples would be helpful.

$(function()
        {       
        //Initialize country
        $('input[name="country"]:first').attr('checked', 'checked');   //Set first radio button (United States)
        alert('|' + $('input[name="country"]').attr("selected", true).val() + '|1st');

        //Enable changes to the country selection and change page text as the selections change     
            $('input[name="country"]').change(function ()                  
                                                 
            // change the page per this logic
                        switch ($('input[name="country"]').attr("selected",true).val())
                        { 
                            case 'United_States':
                            alert('|' + $('input[name="country"]').attr("selected", true).val() + '|3rd');
                            $('#stateMessage').text('Select a state or territory of the United States.'); break;
                            case 'Canada':
                            alert('|' + $('input[name="country"]').attr("selected", true).val() + '|4th');
                            $('#stateMessage').text('Select a province or territory of Canada.'); break;
                            default:
                            $('#stateMessage').text('Test - all other');
                        };
                
            }).change();  // not clear what this change() does. Its in a jQuery example, but code works w or w/o it.
            // Autocomplete jQuery code here which works            
        });
  
<p><label for="country">1. Click a country: </label>
    <input type="radio" id="unitedStates"  name="country" value="United_States">United States
    <input type="radio" id="canada"  name="country" value="Canada">Canada</p
   
<p id="stateMessage"> 2. This text should change as radio buttons change.</p>