"WTF is wrong with Americans? This guy nails it"

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http://www.tickld.com/x/wtf-is-wrong-is ... y-nails-it

[img][708:2900]http://www.tickld.com/cdn_image_article/a_455_20140506161846.jpg[/img]

Very high taxes in America yet ...

-46 million Americans on means-based poverty food aid, and ever-increasing
-Over 100 million Americans on some form of means based aid, and ever increasing
-~25 million expected to collect on social security that has already been spent
-Hopelessly in debt - debt clock has at 61.54 trillion into total debt
-Essentially open borders - so poor keep coming from South/Central America/Canada
-middle class disappearing
-decade of productivity increases, and no real wage increase (so ever lower standard of living)
-Federal Reserve open up the money supply to banks to inflate the money
-Entire nation just got ACA "free health care" that has to been paid for
-adults moving back in with parents
-76% of Americans living pay check to pay check
-most Americans have no savings
-average household has credit card debt of 7,115
-lowest labor force participation rate in 35 years
-transition from higher paying manufacturing jobs to low wage service jobs

Game Over! Game Over Man!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsx2vdn7gpY[/youtube]

the cause of america's problems can't be indictment of taxes per sae because your tax isn't invested in socially protective infrastructure.

As the diagram above illustrates, you have a disproportionately high spending on military and punitive institutions while comparitively little or nothing spent on socially developing areas, specifically health and education.

Therein lies the problem.

Its similar to sending food aid to africa which is stolen by warlords and then blaming food donations for the famine.

Last edited by thomas81 on 12 May 2014, 3:02 am, edited 2 times in total.

Americans still think it's wrong to give anything to people "who haven't earned it." I know, it's bullsh*t.

if you dont give people a chance to get into a situation where they can earn it, what do you expect them to do?

Catch 22.

Exactly!

The Nordic countries are "WE" countries. The USA is a "I". I got mine, now F**K you, F**K off and go the F**K away country. And it doesn't matter how I get "mine". The more I have of "mine' the less it matters how I get it, even if I am stealing it from YOU. The further to the right, politically, the bigger and more loud the F**K you. Pull yourself up by your F**King bootstraps like I did when my daddy gave me everything I have.

And by the way, F**K YOU!!

And for explanation sake, every time you see or hear the term F**K you in these contexts, you can assume It is coming from a right winger. They live in this imaginary, bubble wrapped reality and no matter how many facts you tattoo to the inside of their eyelids, the louder their cries of denial that anyone exists other than themselves.

And just for good measure, from them, F**K YOU sideways, upside down and in the left nostril.

This seems to be consistent with America really being an oligarchy rather than a true democracy. The rich corporations who effectively run America (via political "donations" and lobbying) are only interested in their own profit margins, not the interests of the people or the nation as a whole.

This seems consistent with the fact that managers make up to 10 000 TIMES more more than an average employee. They can screw employees over for personal gain, so they do.

I personally never ''understood'' the USA. Their country and culture seems un-understandable for me, foreign. As far as I know many US people see a functioning, 'social' healthcare system as communism, but why? Why don't they want to pay a relatively small amount to make sure other people's loved ones don't die unnecessarily? And what if they themselves get seriously ill? Because in the USA they just die, right? If they can't afford all the treatment?

And student loans of course is socialism too... I suppose. I'd say it's very liberal because it gives everyone with the same capacities a comparable starting ground. But it seems that as soon as something is to be seen as 'social' or 'helping poor', it's socialism to many and an impairment of freedom/liberty, no matter how much it helps others or how much it helps the country.

What's also strange to me is how many people there seem to really defend the influence of corporations and free market at any cost. Because if you cling to freedom, you should understand that it doesn't matter if a private entity oppresses you or a public one. It's not 'freedom' if some lobbyists can take your liberty away, just because they're not from the government. And they sure as hell aren't thinking and acting in YOUR benefit.

But then again I could be wrong on this all as I'm not an expert on your culture.

thomas81,

We Americans are going to get what's coming to us, sooner or later. Whether you vote GOP or Democratic, you are voting for disproportionately high levels of military and punitive spending.

As the military-industrial complex grows out of control, American cities will begin to look like Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the Tokyo firebombing.

As punitive spending increases and creates an increasingly large disenfranchised and angry young male underclass, with disproportionate impacts on blacks and Latinos, you will see balkanization and bloodshed all across America.

Either way, or if both ways, we're going to get what's coming to us, we Americans will.

John Martin (1789-1854), "The Fall of Babylon" (1831):

[img][800:517]http://i60.tinypic.com/a1nu6x.jpg[/img]

I'm not going to disagree with the image, but there are some points to be considered.

1. The inherent problem America has with anything being "provided" for someone is who decides what will be done. The US education system is highly political (which it should not be). It's bad enough the colleges and universities (on average) are heavily liberal think tanks and ARE NOT teaching kids critical thinking skills that would cause them to embrace ideologies contrary to their cherished beliefs. IMAGINE HOW BAD THIS WOULD GET IF EDUCATION WAS PROVIDED AND PAID FOR BY THE STATE.

2. America also has a free market system where value is based on supply vs. demand. Education isn't possessed by all, making it more valuable and marketable. In the USA, we are at a crossroads where employers want everyone to have post-high school education/training, but if everyone has it, then it ceases to be very marketable. We do need to go for a "soup to nuts" paid education system because we can't expect prospective employees to go out and get job skills BEFORE even being able to apply for a job that may (or may not) be there after they graduate...especially when that training is paid for by the prospective employee.

America needs a paradigm shift in how we handle education. I advocate eliminating student loans entirely. Let schools compete on what people can afford to pay. We need a culling in education institutions, because most exist purely because they know government loans will pay the bills. Education was always obtainable for those willing to work for it, but without government loans, they had to keep prices within what people could afford. Employers didn't have a glut of graduates to choose from, so they had to do more on the job training of new hires. This would restore the "free market" balance to the US workforce.

Before student loans, a person was trained to be able to go out and hold a job. Employers trained in specific skills. Other than liberal arts, law and medicine, colleges served no other purpose and were not needed for most jobs. Student loans only disrupted the natural balance in the system by flooding the market with supply, created by easy credit, bringing down wages for graduates who were promised that education would result in prosperity compared to not getting the advanced education.

I would consider state-funded education for all, but the problem is that I don't trust the agenda government might impose on how people are taught or what they are taught. State schools can be a tool of indoctrination rather than an institution of education. The up shot is that if students don't graduate with crippling debt, employers don't have to worry about paying huge wages to compensate for their educational investment. The down side is the best group to assess for this cost are employers because they will reap the benefit of an educated populace, and you can expect them to protest loudly such a change.

I can't answer every question you have perfectly, but I will try my best to do what I can. The biggest reason why some people consider a functioning universal health care service socialism is because of the USSR. A lot of Americans grew up with the idea that Socialism is evil, and should be avoided like the plague. The term " Red Scare " is what it was called, so why do I bring that up? Because a lot of people who grew up in that time still vote. It doesn't matter if it would be beneficial to everyone in the long run, if it sounds like socialism it must be avoided at all cost. That is the mentality of a lot of Americans have with Affordabe Health Care Act or Obamacare as it is known to many. I agree with student loans being socialist, in fact there are a lot of things that would be consider technically socialist. Anything welfare is something that comes to mind, but Americans don't necessary consider it socialism at least not on the surface. As for the defending of corporations and free market even I don't understand the logic behind it. The best that I can do is say that Americans don't like being hit in the wallet if that makes sense to you.
To summarized Americans don't vote rationally, but reactionary.

Americans would gladly support a lot of good ideas if you could (1) prove it would work and (2) prove it won't be abused by the few over the many.

Government has an abysmal track record on both point.

Proof that it works is already there: the countries mentioned above.

The population of all three of those countries combined is less than population of the state I live in America.

America has promised trillions of social welfare. Much more than Sweden, Denmark, Norway. So much is promised that there is no possible way to provide it. The social programs like Social Security and Medicare are expected to be insolvent in ten years or so. And raising taxes is not an option because the numbers are so staggering.

The U.S. Census shows 108 million Americans on some form of means-tested welfare.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/christiner ... e-n1731984

Quoted: "If American welfare recipients were counted as a country, they would be the 12th largest in the world".

We have plenty of social welfare and it is growing. So, don't we have "Socialism" ? Isn't this what Socialism is? Everyone tries to get freebies from the government, and work as least as possible ?

Norway, Sweden, Denmark would go bankrupt if they took on millions of poor people every year.