Thanks HD, I would also like to point out from my statistics that private giving by American people is a lot more than others, (except for the Irish). Which supports the view that I have long held that Americans are very generous people.
Being the only military superpower is a lonely role. Your damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Per Capita Foreign Aid Assistance by World's Wealthiest Countries, 2002 Country Per capita government aid Per capita private giving I like America and think there is good and bad in all societies, the US is no better or worse than most.
But it is irritating that almost all Americans think they are the most charitable and give more in foreign aid than everybody else.
Here are some figures of per capita donations to foreign aid, the first figure is government spending, the second private donations per head of population.
Australia 14¢ 3¢ Austria 18 2 Belgium 28 2 Canada 17 2 Denmark 64 1 Finland 24 1 France 25 1 Greece 7 0.1 Germany 18 3 Ireland 28 6 Italy 11 0.2 Japan 20¢ 0.4¢ Netherlands 57 4 New Zealand 8 1 Norway 102 24 Portugal 9 0.1 Spain 11 1 Sweden 61 1 Switzerland 35 7 United Kingdom 23 2 United States 13 5
You can see that Scandinavia totally dwarfs giving by the US. Even Britain does much better.
Most politicians, and all good ones, are ultimately realists. They have to balance the needs and wishes of employers, who are increasingly multinational corporations, against the needs and rights of the workforce.
If they make it too difficult and inflexible for the employer, he simply goes elsewhere, and then there are no jobs. But if they ignore worker's rights they lose votes and thus their own job. So they try to get the balance right.
At the moment there may be a small change to encourage employers to invest in the EU. But it isn't dismantling all workers rights, only the extremes, such as job protection for life. No-one has that right.
I think you are too worried about it. As the business environment improves there will be more jobs and then market forces will improve workers pay and conditions.
I read all the posts full of biblical gobbledegook and what sounds to me like pseudo intellectual justification for believing in fairy stories, and it was scary. Then suddenly in the midst of it all this wonderful, crystal clear message that has a real ring of truth. So simple but beautiful.
Well I agree with the Gorilla. Rocky was romantic, it was a great movie about a man who expressed his feelings through his spirit, not words, and his wife (played by Talia Shire) expressed her love for him totally without flowery words or tear-jerking music too.
But for conventional romances, Dirty Dancing takes some beating.
I lived through the depressing years of socialist extremes in Britain before Thatcher. Constant strikes, lack of investment, business closures, the brain drain as the good ones all left the sinking ship.
Margarate Thatcher stood up to the megalomanic trades union thugs and saved the country from certain ruin.
Along with Winston Churchill she was the greatest British politician of the century. Without her the country would have descended into something akin to the Soviet Union, another workers paradise.
Sorry, I missed "The Last Post" before I sent my previous reply.
Scandinavia? Well I worked for a Danish company for ten years, speak the language and know a lot about it as I was married to a Dane for thirty years.
They have a small population with high standards of education and a very strong work ethic. Job protection in Denmark is no greater than it is in the UK. Management is generally first class and they are highly entrepreneurial. All of which leads to a successful economy and well organised social structure.
Their wages high but so is the cost of living.
Sweden I don't know much about but suspect it is similar to Denmark.
Norway is so rich in oil and gas they could afford to pay every man woman and child a million krone a year and still have a healthy surplus. But they still work hard.
And I simply asked you to check your facts before making uniformed statements.
And I believe strongly in job security, but not by sheltering unreal jobs, or protecting the lazy or incompetent with jobs for life.
And I believe in a social security safety net for those in genuine need. Not in trade union sponsored political power to strangle employers and damage the economy which provides that safety net.
Ther isn't. It's 4 - 5% which is a normal healthy rate from people changing jobs or just not wanting to work. Unemplyment in protectionist France was recently up around 10%. There are plenty of jobs in the UK which has a minimum wage of nearly 9 euros an hour, twice what they pay people in Spain I can assure you. And job security in UK is greater because there are more jobs, employers are not so scared to hire people beacause of protectionist legislation.
It has been good for the UK to stay out of the Euro, now they set interest rates to suit their own economy and not everyone else's.
The UK liberalised labour laws, unlike much of protectionist Europe. That made it easier for employers to hire and fire workeres and prevented job protection which is a disincentive to work and to employ. As a result UK has o low unemployment rate and anyone who really wants to work, can.
I see no evidence of cost and price equality across borders, no tax harmony, I still need a passport to travel within the EU, I still subsidise inefficient French farmers, and I resent paying for hundreds of extra politicians in Brussels or wherever.
But I'm still in favour of the EU, just can't really say why. I guess I'm an optimist.
The best way to confound bullies on this site is to block and ignore them.
Your posts are always entertaining but you do say some strange stuff, haha, like all US doctors have been ordered to "chip" their patients? Do you really believe that?
C'mon Hennery, some of your views are a bit extreme in my opinion but now that I'm used to you I find your posts quite entertaining. So don't quite now.
steve25 Forum Posts (251)
RE: do american people love people as much as british people do..? or do they just love money?
Oops, I should have said Irish, Swiss and Norwegians, in ascending order.