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Why Don't Americans Understand How Poor Their Lives Are?

danielsjourney.com

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Re: Why Don't Americans Understand How Poor Their Lives Are?

#71

Post by jlawson »

exelius wrote: post #28

Americans don’t travel. If we did, we wouldn’t buy the myth of American exceptionalism. But then, we are largely becoming a country controlled by global financial interests rather than the population. Money is the deciding factor in our elections, and the most concentrated forms of wealth out there are sovereign wealth funds and large multinational corporations whose executives are largely above the law. Which means…

Money is not the deciding factor in American elections. Hillary Clinton spent twice as much as Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign.

Re: Why Don't Americans Understand How Poor Their Lives Are?

#72

Post by keiferski »

As an American who has lived in Europe for 5+ years: the single biggest issue with the States is that everything is filtered through a money-first mentality.

Reading a book? It better be nonfiction, because fiction “isn’t real” and won’t help you get ahead. Writing a book? It’s only a success if it’s a best-seller. Studying a new language? Only worth it if you can monetize it somehow. Hate your job? Not a problem if your salary is high enough.

This baseline mentality underlies everything and injects a market in to places where it doesn’t belong. Europe certainly has its own issues, but at the very least it allows for the possibility that life isn’t primarily a series of financial decisions.

Re: Why Don't Americans Understand How Poor Their Lives Are?

#73

Post by radicalbyte »

seibelj wrote: post #20

> In London, Paris, Berlin, I hop on the train, head to the cafe — it’s the afternoon, and nobody’s gotten to work until 9am, and even then, maybe not until 10 — order a carefully made coffee and a newly baked croissant, do some writing, pick up some fresh groceries, maybe a meal or two, head home — now it’s 6 or 7, and everyone else has already gone home around 5 — and watch something interesting, maybe a documentar…

It's more because European capital is more risk averse and the labor laws here are very strong when compared to the US. That increases the risks involved in new ventures.

The other thing is that Europe may have 500 million people, most of them speak a different language/culture. The US is one massive market who broadly share the same mother tongue. In the US you can have one company market to all states (and the 51st over the pond!). In Europe you need at least a dozen to get similar reach.

Re: Why Don't Americans Understand How Poor Their Lives Are?

#74

Post by EliRivers »

roenxi wrote: post #53
EliRivers wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this not being hosted on a Linux box somewhere? Sure, it may well not be, but Linux is common enough that it could be.

I can claim that for the list if you want. Torvalds is American and lives in Oregon; most of the major Linux contributors were sponsored by American companies if I recall correctly. Red Hats and IBMs of the world. America must be doing something right.

America must be doing something right.

It is indeed. And a lot wrong too.

This that you said; "It would be easy to have great life expectancy by raising the cost of living to be so high the poor are all forced to leave." I don't understand. Is that how France did it?

Re: Why Don't Americans Understand How Poor Their Lives Are?

#75

Post by piker »

murph-almighty wrote: post #61
piker wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hilarious that the author is citing television. Is there anyone on the Earth who believes, e.g., British television is better as a whole than US television? They must really like slow-to-never-developing low budget, single camera angle crime dramas. [Edit: Apparently so! Quite the controversial statement. However, when voting, do consider what percentage of television consumed outside of the US was produced IN t…

I think they have us beat on the reality cooking show front- British Bakeoff is an oddly positive show while the judges are still providing a valuable critique of the contestants skills. Compare this to to Chopped, which just feels rushed and intensely competitive and cutthroat.

This is fair. However, note the "as a whole" above.

Re: Why Don't Americans Understand How Poor Their Lives Are?

#76

Post by DamienB »

I don't think the author understands how extraordinary his life is. His complaint is essentially that there's nothing satisfying on his trello board? That's a great problem to have. It's a good thing he has clean water, an education, an aptitude and the opportunity to participate in the upper echelons of a technological revolution. He isn't living under war, famine or a communist dystopia where his options would be far more limited. He's in relatively good health and perhaps he hasn't yet suffered the extraordinary personal losses we'll all face as our loved ones grow old, sick and die. It's a good time for him. It's a fallacy to extrapolate one's mental state to the entire nation. We are living under the greatest conditions in all of human history. If you can't be satisfied here then by all means go on a soul searching adventure and figure yourself out. It's your journey, it's your time on Earth and it's literally never been better.

Re: Why Don't Americans Understand How Poor Their Lives Are?

#78

Post by roenxi »

danjac wrote: post #64
seibelj wrote: post #20

> In London, Paris, Berlin, I hop on the train, head to the cafe — it’s the afternoon, and nobody’s gotten to work until 9am, and even then, maybe not until 10 — order a carefully made coffee and a newly baked croissant, do some writing, pick up some fresh groceries, maybe a meal or two, head home — now it’s 6 or 7, and everyone else has already gone home around 5 — and watch something interesting, maybe a documentar…

> One reason that Europe has very few innovative new companies created in the last 25 years is that everyone is at the coffee shop writing poetry. > No, not everyone in Europe gets to live white-collar worker dream of writing poetry at the coffee shop and coming in late Um,so which is it?

It can be both. The wealthy and the capable people waste their time in coffee shops instead of working out how to do something useful; poor people and the capability-disadvantaged work in horrible jobs making ends meet.

Re: Why Don't Americans Understand How Poor Their Lives Are?

#79

Post by lumberjack »

I am European, but I understand why America is the way it is. America is a country of strangers trying to coexist. They cannot agree on what way of life is the best so they cannot have strong convictions, and thus they cannot have government programs as intrusive as countries in Europe. All the good things in our European countries come at the cost of choice. Yes, we have universal healthcare, but it is mandatory and you have no say in the matter. This is fine if everyone is convinced that it is the best solution, but what if they are not?

Re: Why Don't Americans Understand How Poor Their Lives Are?

#80

Post by Improvotter »

TuringNYC wrote: post #15

A lot depends on your particulars. I'm a minority and the US is great because I can earn opportunities my relatives in some other countries would not be allowed. In some other countries, your ethnicity/background/religion would get in the way far more than in the US. This is not to say we don't have room for improvement, we do. Just that we're more meritocratic than certain other first world countries. I know this ju…

> In some other countries, your ethnicity/background/religion would get in the way far more than in the US.

I completely disagree. I'm from Europe and applied to a few American-based companies and they all had these ridiculous forms related to anti-discrimination and the like. Is it that big of a problem in the US? That's whay I'm asking myself when I have to fill in those forms. Why do you have to know my ethnicity? Why do people in the US _constantly_, and I mean CONSTANTLY, talk about their origins? Literally no one cares in Europe, but it's always said in the US. "Native-american btw", "african-american btw", etc. I personally think this is an issue in the US, but it isn't that big of an issue in Europe.

> This is not to say we don't have room for improvement, we do. Just that we're more meritocratic than certain other first world countries.

I personally think that this is an illusion. Europe is in my opinion a lot more meritocratic than the US from my visits. I think the US is very hypocritical when it talks about immigrants as the whole of the US is made of immigrants, just all from different generations. Europe doesn't currently have a problem with building a wall to keep the Mexicans out or anything.

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