Annoyed by American culture

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There is so much even in this little thread that expresses the victim mindset and blame others paradigm that has become the American way of thinking. Much of what the Western audience understands of China is as misconstrued as the Chinese view of the West. It cannot be helped. Despite their best efforts they cannot master English and you do not even try to learn Chinese. Hence, both sides are fed the same type of self comforting propagandistic stew by blind demagogues and never ever seem to wise up.

The Hangover is not just some trashy Hollywood movie concocted by evil Jewish producers to scam the American public; it is a hit and as such expresses a collective yearning. The movie captures very eloquently the deep seated American desire to get something for nothing or to win by certain clever artifices. In this case, it was about going to Vegas, counting card and getting away with it. As one of the characters say, you have to be really smart to count cards. That, along with doing really ‘sick’ things like getting married to a hooker with a great rack, is the American definition of happiness.

Hookers with great tits certainly have their place in my book of happiness, but in these times of rising hardships and growing social dislocations, one would think that there would be a more informed debate of what the problem is and how it is to be tackled. Thus far, in my daily readings of the popular press, nothing is really said. Sometimes it feels that the editors and journalists do not quite understand the gravity of the situation, and at other times it seems as if they just do not want to upset an already very anxious readership. Whatever the reasons are, I do not think that people are quite ready to confront the very difficult challenges that lie ahead.

You can expect the next five years to be increasingly bitter. According to the U.S. government, the Chinese government has been selling Treasuries. But that is not the problem. The real problem is that America is no longer the place where private investors automatically park their funds. Everyone from Mexican drug lords to Korean sweatshop owners – the world’s moneyed elite – will now think twice about investing in dollar assets. They say that the U.S. dollar is still the world’s reserve currency, which is true, but they do not want to admit that everyone is now scrambling for an alternative.

It is not even about what world’s rich people think. The truth is America has run out of ways to create securities that are attractive enough. The CDOs and credit default swaps that were pedaled to wealthy individuals outside of America are obviously no longer saleable. High grade debt do not yield enough and high yield issues are toxic.

But there are those amongst you who celebrate this fall from grace. More would then join our ranks of impoverished souls living on the fringes of society. When the fringe gets crowded, you are going to realize that the problem is serious.

To the people who say that they will always choose America, tell me what you think 10-20 years from now.

When was America number one?
The people who brag about America being number one are typically the people who haven't even left the country

If memory serves me correct, the best country in which to live as voted by the U.N is Iceland. Other countries that have had the number one on that list in the past where Norway, Canada and sometimes Japan. They also have free health care too... go figure.

Irrelevant metric. And it isn't "free".

What was the question?

Well... public... you know what I mean.
Basically you don't need to bring any money when you go to the doctor, it's already paid for with tax money.

I don't get free healthcare...in fact I haven't seen a doctor in two years let alone a dentist because they're too expensive....

TANSTAAFL. There ain't no such thing as a Free Lunch -- Robert A. Heinlein.

So called free health care is paid for by someone, somewhere, sometime.

Nothing cames out of nothing.

ruveyn

Absolutely right. It's just a matter of seeing to it that the money appropriated for health care is spent on health care and not on the economic leeches that suck off huge amounts off for their own inappropriate use. Good health, like a good transportation system, like good information infrastructures, like excellent educational systems is the essential substructure for a properly functioning society and obviously with almost 50 million people in the USA not properly served the whole nation is threatened by the disease and disorder and inefficiency of a badly functioning system.

Education is a major issue in the US. If you are ignorant it maybe hard to fix the problem. Can't fix what you don't know needs fixing.

The problem is not that people are choosing to eat things that are bad for them. It is that they are told or lead to believe these things are not bad for them. For example I am willing to bet everyone here has seen an ad for margarine with claims it is better for you than butter.

Political polls indicate that about two thirds of the country is not stupid which I think is a good sign.(I come to this conclusion since GWB had a 20-30% approval rating)

America's Golden age: 1945-73.

We was #1, because all the other powers on Earth were carpet-bombed in dubya dubya 2. The rest of the world rebuilt with newer plant and equipment, and surged even, then ahead.

Formal fallacy here.
approvesOfDubya=>stupid
does not imply
disapprovesOfDubya=>notStupid

It doesn't really take a genious to disprove of Dubya, no?

However, it takes a really stupid buch of people to vote Dubya to office... TWICE.

Subsidized. Get it right. Quit misrepresenting.

correction, he won once. The other time, Gore won more votes and Bush won on a bull technicality.

Here is an interesting question.

Has anyone ever been a presidential hopeful, ran, lost, ran again and become president?

Nixon is the first who springs to mind. He was Eisenhower's VP, lost to Kennedy in 1960 then came back to win in 68 and 72. There are others, of course. Andrew Jackson lost to J.Q. Adams in 1824, then won in 1828. Grover Cleveland was president, lost a re-election bid, ran again and became president again. There are probably other examples, but I'm tired.

EDIT: Oh, Jefferson too. Duh.