Posted on 10/17/2013 1:45:07 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I have traveled and lived all over the world. Every time I went to a new country, I thanked God for the blessing of being born and raised in the United States. Sure there were some things in each country that I liked but overall there is no place in the world like the US. I am not saying we the US people are the greatest, I am saying that our land, our type of government, our freedom, our Constitutional rights are far superior than any I have seen. However, with our current President and Congress, I am sadly seeing much of what makes this country great quickly eroding. May God help us.
I actually concur with several of these. But then again I’m a realist.
Every one of those charming folks in brand-Xville would cut your throat if they had the opportunity (yeah, I know, the denizens of Detroit would too but we won't go there).
More food for a given price means more profit?
Sure. When I was an exchange student in France, the French described Americans as friendly and shallow, in comparison to the French, who are more aloof, but whose friendships are far deeper.
Although this guy describes living in multiple countries for the past three years, I doubt he stayed in any one country long enough to get to really know it. As an exchange student in France, I lived with two different French families, and got a very good view of France. I still wouldn't claim to know France. I also lived in Spain for three years--I wouldn't say I know the Spanish well. I'm afraid that unless one spends a prolonged period of time fully immersed in another culture, one cannot get a real perspective on that culture.
Also, this guy is totally off on his pronouncements about medicine. On an apples-to-apples comparison--which you don't get by looking at UN or WHO data--medicine in the US *is* better. Despite the promises of socialized medicine, it does not and cannot deliver quality care. He has no clue about the real prices of medical procedures. Shots costing hundreds of dollars? I believe the flu shot for my son cost around $30 this year--last year, it was about $20 (thanks, Obamacare?). Socialized medicine is not free; it is paid for by excessive taxes on everything--you aren't paying for your own care with those taxes, you are paying for every person with hypochondriac tendencies to go visit the doctor every time they sneeze, plus the salaries of all of the bureaucrats whose numbers keep increasing far faster than the number of actual health care professionals. Furthermore, he should look a little below the surface in his pronouncements on the quality of healthcare, and where American medicine stands in that regard. We really are the forefront there. Every country in the world seeks to emulate the US; their goals are to implement regulatory standards comparable to ours. One last thing is that the prices we pay for drugs as opposed to everyone else is high, because no one else is paying the research and development costs of those drugs. This puts Americans in the position of having to pay not only our share of the R&D costs, but subsidizing Canada's share as well. If we ever go to a system where drug companies are told to eat the costs of R&D (because they make "too much" profit), we will never see a new drug again.
Otherwise I'd say, MAYBE it's all understandable... but in the end... WHO steps up to the plate every single time there are thousands and millions of people (whole nations, many of whom are our avowed enemies) all over the world when they need assistance, food and medical help, etc. in a disaster?
The cold, greedy, passionless and spoiled Americans, THAT'S who!
I happen to be Australian and think the USA is special so strike up a whoop-te-do for me. A lot of those points I see as right for a large amount of Americans mostly lefties. Also he is wrong about people not caring about what the USA does - lefties all over the world go apoplectic when something like voting for a Right-wing President happens in your country.
I personally went around correcting the lies told about Sarah Palin when she was running for VP. These jokes and lies are never spread even in Australia about lefties. I know a lady, who seems commonsense in many ways, and she said how she loved Obama - I ran off a quick 10 things that Obama had done that she would have hated if GW had of done them and she said “I still like him anyway”.
I cannot speak to living conditions for the working poor. The only major problems with the USA is that you have been living well beyond your means (especially your government) for a lot of years and the rest of the world has been encouraging you to spend, spend, spend. It is time for a correction or a change of path but even a small one is going to feel radical to everyone and not only you guys but to the whole world - we will see how little attention they pay to you then.
Mel
heh, well. My insulin would probably run pretty expensive in the US, here (in Norway) it’s free - sort of, along with stuff like needles and sugar tests. But there’s the apples thing, you can’t really do a direct comparison. In the US you can get decent, well-functioning and harmless painkillers like aspirin for a few dollars per thousand, globally aspirin is tightly regulated - more than some narcotics - and the price is corresponding. In Obama’s world, the US will quite certainly lock down harmless preparations just like that, and it’s not out of a concern for your health.
Your insulin (etc.) is not free in Norway, any more than it is free in the US. The difference is that everyone is being taxed to pay for your insulin, along with the salaries of all the bureaucrats in charge of wealth redistribution.
Why should other people—people who don’t know you, aren’t related to you, and will never meet you—be expected to pay YOUR bills? Don’t they have expenses of their own that need to be taken care of?
p.s. By the way, the U.S. is still the best country in the world indicated by the millions still trying to get into it. Put that in your lying, socialist pipe sir, and smoke it.
So some person making a blanket statement about how all Americans feel is truthful? So Manson has polled every American to find out what they believe about the subjects in the article? I think you’re probably as blind as Mr. Manson and all the straw men he excoriates.
I said “sort of”, didn’t I? Don’t make like an idiot.
I personally doubt very much that the American (or global) taxpayer stands for anything of our consumption, rather we’re a net exporter of tax money. The biggest pharma in the diabetes business is Novo, which is Danish. Where the venture capital comes from varies, but it used to be heavily weighted Scandinavia.
As an American, I thank you for your comments. My wife and I plan on visiting Australia in the near future. The thing this guy gets really wrong is the idea that Americans believe they’re some sort of special, super people. I doubt few Americans think that. Likewise, most Americans are aware of major faults in our country. Like high crime in big cities. And I doubt few Americans with an IQ above turnip level don’t know that many other western countries, like Australia, have high standards of living. This guy set up a straw man where all Americans are the same and think the same thing about everything. This makes him a major-league liar.
Well, of course, it’s Texas. If I ever move back, that’s where I’ll be heading as well. Not that I expect it to happen anytime soon, and certainly not while Obama is der Furhrer.
When some commie org places the U.S. 37th in health care, you know they’re using screwy standards other than the health of the people using the system. Which they are. There are a number of conservative websites that show the screwball way the WHO arrives at their rating.
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Oh yes. The Europeans are very pleased that the US is approaching the EU standards on healthcare, now they have the prospect of uniformly regulating and choking a captive audience with no chance of flight.
I found a similar attitude on a recent trip to Ireland. The Irish still love Americans, but not America. As one guy explained to me over a few pints of Guinness at a pub in Galway:
"The Irish no longer perceive America as the land of opportunity where even the poorest dirt farmer can advance through the social and economic classes if he is motivated and works hard enough. You've become an overly-bureaucratic, overly-regulated land of paper-pushers, where the biggest growth industry is the advancement of the welfare state and the dependency of the masses, and in the process, you've created a static society of whiners and takers, who complain about everything, but do nothing to change their situation. In otherwords, you have become just like us in Europe, and that's really sad."
OK, free knee surgery, so go back to KOS land if you believe his fantasies.
Lol. Are you a retard? Knee surgery can be almost anything, down to ittybitty issues. Brazil wasn’t always left-leaning but pretty rightist, and they had some rather good employee policies in place.
Do you derive all your politics from reading Daily KOS, DU, Stormfront and other moonbats?
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