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Stark reality of the American dream (barf? funny? i don't even know)
BBC ^ | 8/18/05 | Humphrey Hawksley

Posted on 08/18/2005 9:14:42 AM PDT by minus_273

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so weird because, the guy just doesnt get it. he cant figure out why anyone would want to live in a place where you can be anything you want if you work for it without govenment interference.. it supposed to be an attack, but i he has such a distorted view, things we consider good are presented as if they are bad. Read the last few paragraphs, i think it was intended to be presented in a negative light, he he.
1 posted on 08/18/2005 9:14:43 AM PDT by minus_273
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To: minus_273

The writer assumes that to be wrapped in European socialism is to not be poor.


2 posted on 08/18/2005 9:24:58 AM PDT by atomicpossum (Replies should be as pedantic as possible. I love that so much.)
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To: minus_273

I've lived in Europe, and of course, in the USA. In Europe it's harder to get a job esecially the job you want, but once you get it it's harder to lose it. European gov'ts interfere with every aspect of your life. I'd rather be poor (and I have been from time to time) in the USA, than the average in Europe. The US provides so many opportunities - all it takes is a little perseverance and a willingness to chase them.


3 posted on 08/18/2005 9:26:05 AM PDT by loreldan (Lincoln, Reagan, & G. W. Bush - the cure for Democrat lunacy.)
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To: minus_273

You missed the main point, genius. Yeah, he's a Euro-liberal with an agenda, but his point wasn't to question why we are happy with a system that allows us freedom, it was to ask why we're happy with a system that gives us less economic mobility than the rest of the civilized world. Yeah, we're free, but we're becoming more and more free to fail rather than to succeed. We think that we're the Land of Opportunity, but we've been falling behind in this regard over the last forty years, and yodelheads like you aren't smart enough to understand when someone is pointing this out. You automatically think that this socialist is making fun of our freedom.


4 posted on 08/18/2005 9:27:17 AM PDT by Doctor Doctor
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To: minus_273

What terrible writing. And what a maroon.


5 posted on 08/18/2005 9:27:21 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Officially around the bend, at least for now.)
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To: minus_273
"In Europe, the government is entwined with a lot of what we do, yet in America, I felt a sentiment that the more say the government has over you, the more you carry a sense of failure."

There's the difference- In America it is shameful to live on welfare(as it should be for most people) while in Europe it's the norm.

6 posted on 08/18/2005 9:27:43 AM PDT by varyouga (Reformed Kerry voter (I know, I'm a frickin' idiot))
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To: minus_273
It seems like it's kind of a 'from both sides of the fence' take on the modern state of the American Dream.

Although I often feel a sense of disgust with certain things... massive government encroachment of personal liberty, that began long before I was born. Large scale misunderstanding of the Constitution and the Federal Governments role in our lives, etc. Because those things lead to less free markets that are inhibited from being as free as they once were and could be again, from regulation.

Having said that I still step back and marvel at the fact that we're still holding things together after nearly 230 years of independence.

Dinesh D'Souza had a book a few years ago called "What's So Great About America" and in the book there's an interview with a young man from India (D'Souza himself is an immigrated American citizen, from India.. his parents came over when he was an infant, I believe). The gist of the interview is that America is the richest most prosperous nation in the world, the greatest nation in the history of the world. Even the poorest citizens in this country have weight problems. If I remember the quote correctly; "I want to live in a country where even poor people are fat".

Pretty much sums up how great this country is.. I think.

7 posted on 08/18/2005 9:29:13 AM PDT by soundandvision
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To: Doctor Doctor; Darksheare; Conspiracy Guy
Yeah, we're free, but we're becoming more and more free to fail rather than to succeed. We think that we're the Land of Opportunity, but we've been falling behind in this regard over the last forty years, and yodelheads like you aren't smart enough to understand when someone is pointing this out.

Welcome to FR. I'm sure your stay will be interesting. Just like "out there," you're free to fail here, too.

8 posted on 08/18/2005 9:29:46 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Officially around the bend, at least for now.)
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To: Tax-chick

Yeah, what a "maroon". I hate "maroons", and really stupid macaroons, too.


9 posted on 08/18/2005 9:30:08 AM PDT by Doctor Doctor
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To: minus_273

Seattle? As a model of America? Well, maybe a lifetime ago. Seattle as a model of socialist nannyocracy, I can accept that. Why didn't he go to Dallas? Because he's clueless, that's why.


10 posted on 08/18/2005 9:30:28 AM PDT by NaughtiusMaximus (The liberals promised to move to Canada but they lied . . . bwaaaaah.)
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To: Doctor Doctor

Welcome to FR, we try being a little more polite on this board than your friends at DU are.


11 posted on 08/18/2005 9:30:35 AM PDT by Abathar (Proudly catching hell for posting without reading since 2004)
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To: Doctor Doctor
We think that we're the Land of Opportunity, but we've been falling behind in this regard over the last forty years, and yodelheads like you aren't smart enough to understand when someone is pointing this out.

Do you think you can be any more sarcastic and overbearing or did you just sign on today because DU is slow.

12 posted on 08/18/2005 9:33:54 AM PDT by ScreamingFist (Peace through Stupidity)
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To: Doctor Doctor

read my bio dufus, i am an immigrant myself. people like you who are born with the privilege of being American and then complain don't know how well you have it. you are like Paris Hilton complaining to some kid in Somalia how hungry she is.


13 posted on 08/18/2005 9:34:45 AM PDT by minus_273
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To: Doctor Doctor
We think that we're the Land of Opportunity, but we've been falling behind in this regard over the last forty years, and yodelheads like you aren't smart enough to understand when someone is pointing this out. You automatically think that this socialist is making fun of our freedom.

"Yodelheads"? That sounds almost as sophisticated as "Doodyheads". Welcome to FR, but you will find that logic and reason go farther here than name-calling and ad-hominem attacks.

14 posted on 08/18/2005 9:36:39 AM PDT by The Electrician ("Government is the only enterprise in the world which expands in size when its failures increase.")
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To: minus_273
In Europe or just across the border in Canada, they would get social security, but this was America, where society is starkly divided into winners and losers.

America: 90% winners, 10% losers.

Europe and Canada: 9% winners, 1% losers, 90% trapped in permanent lower middle class immobility.

But instead of hearing about how 90% of Americans do better than 90% of Europeans and Canadians will ever have a chance to, we only hear about America having ten times as many losers as the socialist countries. It's like looking through the wrong end of the telescope.

15 posted on 08/18/2005 9:37:02 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ("Feelings are not a tool of cognition, therefore they are not a criterion of morality." -- Ayn Rand)
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To: Doctor Doctor; All

Your not blaming Bush for all of the problems???


16 posted on 08/18/2005 9:37:35 AM PDT by KevinDavis (the space/future belongs to the eagles --> http://www.cafepress.com/kevinspace1)
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To: Doctor Doctor

Amusing!


17 posted on 08/18/2005 9:38:31 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Officially around the bend, at least for now.)
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To: minus_273
I believe the term skid row was coined in Seattle.

It was at the bottom of where they skidded the logs down to the waterfront.

I think many in Seattle are proud to be the home of the original skid row.

18 posted on 08/18/2005 9:39:32 AM PDT by concrete is my business
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To: Abathar


Polite? Stop being so sensitive; you sound as thin-skinned as some PC'er. Here's some examples of FR politeness I found:

"If Cindy Sheehan and her ragtag band of America-hating moonbats don't like living here..."

"Yeah, he removed his lips from La Raza's a$$ long enough to declare a State of Emergency"

" Were we raised differently than the liberal nuts?"

"I hope the DUmmies read this"

" The loony left..."

Sorry, I thought I was just going with the general tone here. What's DU, by the way?


19 posted on 08/18/2005 9:40:45 AM PDT by Doctor Doctor
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To: Mr. Jeeves

Read this: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/about/news/IntergenerationalMobility.pdf

Then you can base your made-up figures on actual numbers. Looks like us and the Brits are tied for last...


20 posted on 08/18/2005 9:46:57 AM PDT by Doctor Doctor
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