Joseph, sorry, but hang on. I've been doing this stuff my whole life
and what you say just isn't practical or worth mentioning in a forum
like this, it's dangerous.. Here's the deal:

1. The white wire is a current carrying conductor, the green wire is
not, under normal conditions, that's the simple answer to the
question, along with number 2 below.
2. The green wire is as has been stated, the wire that will carry any
current imposed on parts of an appliance or other metal surface, so
that a breaker will trip in a shorted circuit.
3. NEVER THINK THAT A WHITE WIRE WON'T SHOCK YOU, YOU WILL DIE. White
wires carry the same amount of current as black wires. When working on
a circuit, always kill power to it first. Discussion about balanced
circuits in this thread or in this group should be left alone because
balanced circuits rarely occur and in the context of this thread, a
single branch circuit, ie, 1 hot, 1neutral and 1 ground, the neutral
will carry current equal to the hot wire, and it can kill you. If a
circuit is energized and you break the neutral connection and hold on
to it while your body is grounded, you won't like what happens,
believe me. This has nothing to do with properly connected ground/
green wires, the white wires still have current on them or stated
another way, they are looking for a ground and if you become that
ground, like you say, you will be sorry, if you live to tell about it.
4. In new construction, the white wire and green wire terminate on
separate busses. So no more terminating on the same bus.