to tired to reply, lets see how this thread turns out 
never thought I would here someone say Americans were friendlyâŚyeah we got many fun natural thing here to see. I have not been around the US a whole lot so I cannot say that I have see everything but I would recommend Grand Canyon (scary as shit) and Yellow Stone. Yellow Stone is basically one giant active volcano. There are all sorts of geysers and mud pit things where the mud is bright vibrant colors. Then there are some natural water falls and the such which is always nice.
i recommend vegas if you want to lose all your money. Oh, and ra4kingâs house.
Iâm not to keen about visiting USA again
seems like more and more police state by the minute
Iâm afraid I would get locked up at the airport for carrying an USB thumbdrive
fun fact: In the UK you HAVE to give the police your password to decrypt your harddrive or whatever if its seized by the police and relevant, if you dont you get locked up for up to 5 years, which actually happens
So bottom line: you encrypt one USB thumbdrive, forget password, SOMEONE tells the police your doing illegal stuff and or drugs/child porn, police seize your stuff, you dont know the password of this stick, you go to jail. bam
I dont like germany, but at least we still do have good laws, especially in the IT region due to the chaos computer club and other entities⌠(on topic: germany was one of the only countries to outright reject ACTA and not sign it)
In Germany we have the GEMA so yeah 
Also we have a chancellor that tries to get the money from the people and shove up the 1% top-earner.
Itâs gonna burn⌠I bet you itâs going down some day =D
Dude my house is the bomb.com
Anyway, cool thread. I unfortunately couldnât vote but I supported Obama over Romney, mostly because Romney will bring along his entire anti-science anti-intellectualism Christian fanfare. Also Iâm pro-gay marriage and pro-choice.
Concerning healthcare: it should not be a luxury. Health care is a universal right. âObamacareâ is a step in the right direction but a true single-payer universal health system (like Canada, Sweden, etcâŚ) would be best.
For more information about Obamacare, this post explains everything.
Concerning military: yup our military spending is greater than the next 10-14 countries combined. We need to pull out of the Middle East and reduce our military spending, using the surplus to pay off the debt and fund education.
I just hope military could produce something more useful to us, like another âinternetâ. US sure knows how to do it.
Warning long post but donât fret it will be my last. Quick note to non Americans. This is all based on how America does things and I am in no way saying that our way is best by any means.
The pro-gay/pro-abortion things really bugs me. Republicans will never change abortionâŚever. Gays will never lose any more rights then what they have. Give it a little longer and they will get marriage. These topics really are not that important when you compare them with things like spending. So what if homosexuals can get married and not get jobs.
I agree that health care should be a necessity but right now there is no law saying we have a right to it. A basic system to pay for things like simple surgeries, broken arms, routine check ups would be great but keep things like plastic surgery, sex changes, and abortions out. Do that and you will have my full support.
Now for the long one. There are only a few objections I real have with the content from the poster in that link. First, he/she comes off as a complete ass when they start off with insulting whom ever the read is. Like they said, there is mass amounts of propaganda against it and it is likely readers are there to get some facts. The first thing that really caught my attention was that everyone is suppose to just believe this person read it and that it means what they say. Say it does. Lets look at the biggest issue on there. Spending. 1.7 trillion. to jump start itâŚok lets go with that. Now fist if you read the source the estimates are extremely inaccurate as they say themselves. Fact is you cannot just give millions of people health care without taking a huge hit. What makes things even more ridiculous is that this will supposedly generate money. By 2021 it will almost pay itself offâŚman if it was this easy to make money I am going into the wrong field. This does not just magically work financially. 1.7 trillion is also a huge investment that will pay if in how many years? Ask a company if they can run in the black for 8+ years. Often, if something is too good to be true, it isnât. I really wish we could add health care for this cost but it is just not possible.
The next thing is all the âchurches will not have to pay for abortions.â If this was true why is it that the Catholic church is fighting this so vehemently? Are they just THAT crazy? I donât think so.
Now I hope I can clarify some of the reasons why many countries still have armiesâŚif you look at the actual amount of men/troops/tanks/vehicles/planes/all that jazz be are in the lead but not by what we should be given our spending. This is because we invest copious amounts of money it to research projects. You know, throw 2 billion at some project to make a slightly more fuel efficient jet. Rebuild the entire navy because we want more fuel efficient boats.
If you look at what we have and what we are trying to protect it is amazing we are doing it this successfully. Nukes are simply not an option. We have them so we can keep others from using them as they are one of those âno body winsâ cases. Thing is, we can still go to war without nukes. Look at the cold war. My father was part of it towards the tail end and I can till you it was a war but not like WWII. Basically, lots of âflexing.â If we dropped all our troop and cut down the military then that would be a sign of weakness which could lead to increased tensions which could lead to war. China as increase military spending by 10% every year for many years now and all the estimates we have on how much they are spending are given to us from themâŚthey are a closed country so the figures are relatively meaningless. We can cut spending but not to the point that everyone seems to want.
AnywaysâŚI am tired and think I am getting a coldâŚgood night.
At least I live in Australia! ;D
Even the magnetic boots would get more costly (how else could Australians walk without falling into the sky?)
We donât have magnetic boots!! >:(
Kangaroos have sticky feet, thatâs why we ride them.
[quote=âStumpyStrust,post:49,topic:40087â]
Thank you for your thoughts, it was an interesting read. For me the main issue is wealth differences between people in a country, and how this translates to next generations. Health care for everyone is part of this, but only part. Thereâs a vicious cycle that tends to make children of people who do not have money also poor. If you have a million dollars, you can lend it out to poor people; you get richer, they get poorer, and you donât even have to do anything for that. If your parents donât have a good education and are poor, your chance of being educated well is low. If your parents didnât teach you how to live healthy, youâll have a much harder time learning how to live healthy than if they did.
The American Dream, as far as I understand it, is one of social mobility, as the land of opportunity. However, in reality, social mobility in the USA is pretty much the lowest of all Western countries (only the UK, modeled after the US in many respects, is worse). If you are born poor in the USA, you will die poor (or at least, the chances are pretty high you will). Not only is this fundamentally unfair, in the end this is not a sustainable situation either. Public health care is one part of setting this right: providing care to everyone (even if it is of a lower standard than the rich get now) is ultimately an instrument for supporting social mobility for me, which may help in people from poor social backgrounds get a real chance in society. Same with providing children of poor parents with support in financing their education. Same with many other things, including taxes on financial transactions (putting a brake on mechanisms which make money flow from the poor to the rich).
Hah, I need to get to work now ;D Sorry for my wall of text, just some thoughts.
[quote=âStumpyStrust,post:49,topic:40087â]
Be well ;D
Everyone wants to look at the downsides of the electoral college. And it is a quirky system whose roots only really make sense if you look at the historic reasons for its existence. BUT consider how bad a recount situation would be in the states if the election was by popular vote. With some minor tweets it would be quite reasonable (like more electoral votes and requiring they be distributed in portion to the given stateâs percentages)
Yeah in France virtually everyone wanted an Obama win. I asked a number of people why and nobody could give a rational reason. (SEE: below)
UmmâŚa true US economic crash would cause world-wide economic upheaval. Thatâs just the way it currently is.
Look further back. Reganâs reduction in oversight of banking practices are a huge contributing factor. As much as I disliked âWâ, alot of people were had a hand in making the mess.
Only in spirit. Although the âseparation of church and stateâ notion is constitutional by supreme court ruling (donât remember the titleâŚbut it was about bussing in one of the eastern state). However thatâs getting trampled on all-over-the-place (sadly).
I would restate thatâŚand it is in fact my only moral code: My rights end where someone elses begin. I wish more people would buy into that notion.
Do you really have a reasonable expectation of having that with anyone? Letâs face it, politics for most people is a religion. Itâs not based on anything rational. And religion is like software end-user licenses. Users just scroll to the end of the text without reading and click: âI agreeâ.
Never understood the JFK myth.
Thatâs smoke and mirrors. The real problem with US reduction of military expenditure is purely pragmatic and economic. The money comes from federal coffers and is used in states. If you reduce military spending, itâs highly likely your state is now received a large chunk of less cash. All the services which various bases use? Bye-bye. Do we need that new fleet of âXâ which cost billions and is produced in âNâ states? Do you vote against it if you represent one of those âNâ states? Probably not if you want to get re-elected. Itâs a snake which is eating itâs own tail. In addition I have the impression that a fair number of people use the military to start out in life: to learn a trade or to get money for higher education. Also no sane politician ever wants to be in the position to need to vote for a reinstatement of the draft if placing people on the ground was deemed necessary. Now of course all of these are âshort-termâ issues and it would be pretty easy to use some of that money in much better ways which more than address these issues in the long term. Sadly people only care about the long-term in a very abstract way, and only if the long term solution doesnât have a short term impact on them. So it goes.
ErrâŚno. Technical superiority is more than sufficient. You only need a lot of bodies to occupy foreign soil. Unless my history is getting too rusty, the last time that was successful was the Romans, unless you count post-WWIIâŚwhich you really shouldnât.
Of the people I know that have visited the states, thatâs one of the most common things youâll hearâŚsame for Canada.
The trouble with healthcare is all the solutions suck. OK I havenât been paying attention on how the reforms are working-out in Canada, but most countries that have very good healthcare systems from an individual standpoint are massive economic drains if not outright disasters. Sadly too many people are abusive of things they deemed freeâŚor worse free and their ârightâ. You need a very civic minded populous to have any hope of success.
What should really bug most Americans is that issues like gay-related anything, abortion related anything and region based anything is âbait-and-switchâ to avoid any real issues. Not that they same thing doesnât happen elsewhereâŚjust the topics are different.
Itâs surely not your intent, but placing these together is somewhat insulting. Not asking for a response, but by âno abortionsââŚnot in cases of rape? severe risk to the motherâs health? massively deformed baby?
(This is an aside and not targeting StumpyStrust) What I find most strange about Americans ATM is the more religious they qualify themselves as, the more likely they are to be opposed to abortion (in ever increasing cases) and yet in favor of the death penalty. Aid to these children AFTER their born? Thatâs a no. The fact that unwanted children are statically likely to have more miserable lives and thereâs a much higher rate of abuse? ToughâŚgodâs will and all that. So it goes.
AhâŚI think you need to re-think that.
AhâŚI think you need to re-think that.
[/quote]
Really? Why? Iâm really curious if you have some insight that I miss.
Hereâs an interesting read from Princeton researchers, or a nice chart showing the USA at the absolute bottom of all compared countries. Iâve read similar findings elsewhere several times, and little to suggest the opposite. Iâm strongly opposed to âAmericanizationâ of Dutch public policy based on such insights (in addition to the atrociously inefficient US âmarket-basedâ healthcare system).
[quote]ErrâŚno. Technical superiority is more than sufficient. You only need a lot of bodies to occupy foreign soil. Unless my history is getting too rusty, the last time that was successful was the Romans, unless you count post-WWIIâŚwhich you really shouldnât.
[/quote]
You forget here the Proxy wars (Korea, Vietnam for example)
There was no direct war between Russia and the US (impossible due to Atomic retaliation options on both sides), instead the battlefield was taken to other countries.
And thats where you need the classical army.
If there would be tention between China and the US, or Russia/China or whatever in the future
it will be in the form of said Proxy war in some other poor country. (financing a revolution by rebels, the âprotectorâ country has to step in ⌠or whatever)
âŚI said, âthe last time that was successfulâ. Are you calling Korea & Vietnam successes?
@Grunnt: Itâll take me a bit of time to work through the princeton reference. The other link is too questionableâŚan organization, which has itâs own agenda, and too little in reference material (or Iâm missing something). Thanks for the links by-the-way. My option is based on living in the states for 10 years where I saw a fair number of people go from nothing and having little to no educational background build successful business which would be absolutely impossible here.
I can report that close to 80% of Denmark is for Obama.
The behavior of a human being is a construction influenced by culture, human nature doesnât explain anything in psychology.