"Americans" Lets have some feedback from eveyone! ( Archived) (290)

i agree with what you are saying and many americans do as well, those very examples you state, from your taxi, those very people are a**hole when here as well and i dislike them as i have to deal with their like, daily, but a asure you most arent like that, we thry to get thru our lives, i also agree about the inocents that are killed in war and feel for their families as well, most americans that travel abroad maybe of better means finantialy and feel like they are entitled to be jerks, those same people are jerks here as well, i must sa that not all who travel abroad are this way, a jerk is a jerk, and there are plenty to go around of all cultures, i just want to live my life as i see it and most that i know do as well, don't lump all americans together, there are many diferent voices here, and alot of good decent people as i'm sure there are in your country.

My apologies to you and your countrymen. Sometimes I watch FOX news and it scares me that you all might buy into that stuff.And this is the only place where the little guys like myself have a say.

If I say what I know I will get a lot of people offended up here. All the jobs were taken out of this country on purpose. Then All the corruption and division in this country is being controled when people no longer trust there government it will fail, We are being brought down by the world banks. Next if you listen to the Unites nations the Dollar should no longer be the world currency but a (one world currency) should be introduced, This has even angered the Chineese . Now how do you get the people to follow you if there country is down in depression and they can't eat they will beg for a world government that will feed them .

As far as your standard of living, europe comes no where near. It is interesting to note the ones that come closest are closer to our system of lower taxes and regulation.





"But a rising tide still lifts all boats, and U.S. GDP per capita was a whopping 32% higher than the EU average in 2000, and the gap hasn't closed since. It is so wide that if the U.S. economy had frozen in place at 2000 levels while Europe grew, the Continent would still require years to catch up. Ireland, which has lower tax burdens and fewer regulations than the rest of the EU, would be the first but only by 2005. Switzerland, not a member of the EU, and Britain would get there by 2010. But Germany and Spain would need until 2015, while Italy, Sweden and Portugal would have to wait until 2022.

Higher GDP per capita allows the average American to spend about $9,700 more on consumption every year than the average European. So Yanks have by far more cars, TVs, computers and other modern goods. "Most Americans have a standard of living which the majority of Europeans will never come anywhere near," the Swedish study says.

But what about equality? Well, the percentage of Americans living below the poverty line has dropped to 12% from 22% since 1959. In 1999, 25% of American households were considered "low income," meaning they had an annual income of less than $25,000. If Sweden--the very model of a modern welfare state--were judged by the same standard, about 40% of its households would be considered low-income.

In other words poverty is relative, and in the U.S. a large 45.9% of the "poor" own their homes, 72.8% have a car and almost 77% have air conditioning, which remains a luxury in most of Western Europe. The average living space for poor American households is 1,200 square feet. In Europe, the average space for all households, not just the poor, is 1,000 square feet.

So what is Europe's problem? "The expansion of the public sector into overripe welfare states in large parts of Europe is and remains the best guess as to why our continent cannot measure up to our neighbor in the west," the authors write. In 1999, average EU tax revenues were more than 40% of GDP, and in some countries above 50%, compared with less than 30% for most of the U.S.

We don't report this with any nationalist glee. The world needs a prosperous, growing Europe, and its relative economic decline is one reason for growing EU-American tension. A poorer Europe lacks the wealth to invest in defense, a fact that in turn affects the willingness of Europeans to join America in confronting global security threats. But at least all of this is a warning to U.S. politicians who want this country to go down the same welfare-state road to decline. "

thanks, as for politicians, i don't trust most of what they say either, and most people that i know take what they see on these news shows with a grain of salt, people yelling about this or that, its all a person can do to get decent work and have safe healthy lives, let alone worry too much what these political groupies are going on about, they get paid to get folks all lathered up, whats good for ratings is good for their profit. meanwhile the rest of us just go about our business, because thats all we can do.

What things on fox scare you? What particular policy do you see advocated that is "scary". I kind of like fox because while I think they have more commentators that are to the right, CNN, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, HNN, etc. are all universally left wing. I see a socialist/fascist or their views on fox far more often than I see a conservative/libertarian or their views on any of the above.

Every single paper and television news is biased toward the globalist/socialist/fascist point of view. Yet one single news channel along with some AM radio shows get painted as some terrible example of bias.

The g/f/s crowd should be careful, they might shut down talk radio with the fairness doctrine but might end up having to air michael savage after kieth olbermann..lol..

OK, now remember that in Ireland and The UK that all channels carry much the same stories and claim to be impartial though I suspect that's getting harder as the world gets smaller. My problems with FOX are simply that they seemed to follow the GW Bush line and in my view, it was a dangerous line to follow. I feel the days of empire building are over and I expect that you take the opposite view from me and God knows there are enough political posts on here.

My guess is that life will get more and more complex from here on in. We are in a situation where the politics of one country directly affects another.

My feeling from FOX and GW is that the best and easiest plan is just to bulldoze our opponents out of the way. That leaves the west open to the kind of guerella warfare we are seeing that our oh so high tech weapons are not designed for and I just see that going on for generations ad infinitum.That is why I fear this doctrine. If one lunatic appears on either side, then we're all dead. It's a war that can't be won.

Now, my own view which you would describe as left wing and I would describe as realistic is that we really need to start talking to these people and find some kind of compromise. And it won't be a one off occaision and then resolved. There will continue to be problems and we'll have to continue to talk.

A hard task either way when we seem to have trouble even talking amongst ourselves.

What is arrogant about having your country's flag on your desk at work? What is arrogant about being proud of your country?

If you want to talk about YOUR perception of "arrogance", look around your homeland in Ireland. Almost EVERY other house is painted in the tri-color, almost every house window/car window sports either an Irish Tricolor or the relevant County flag. "Irish Pride" is lengendary, dont you agree?? I have always considered that a good and admirable thing to see - people being proud of their country/county as so many Irish people are..

What difference is there between what the Irish do, and what Snuggs mentioned in her post?

Firstly, I'm neither Irish or Catholic. Secondly, and the other posts covered this, the arrogance is the assumption that this is an American forum as opposed to an international one.