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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?

#101

Post by pteraspidomorph »

piker wrote: post #34
lupire wrote: post #19

This is the blathering of spoiled rich kid on vacation. > 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…

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…

Hell yeah, I'm neither american nor british and I much prefer british shows. I do also like Netflix originals though...

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

#102

Post by ekianjo »

radicalbyte wrote: post #73
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…

> The other thing is that Europe may have 500 million people, most of them speak a different language/culture

That's far from sufficient to have a strong economy. Actually the strongest economies in the world (take GNI for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GNI_(nomi...) right now have small populations: Switzerland, Norway, Macau, Luxembourg, Iceland, Singapore... and the US. Most other developed countries in Western Europe rate relatively quite low.

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

#103

Post by lr4444lr »

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…

We have publicly funded elections in NYC. It doesn't the change the overall system very much.

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

#104

Post by devmunchies »

creaghpatr wrote: post #29

The linked blog is by a notorious America-hater Umair Haque, almost all of his pieces are slammed for similar reasons you see in this comments section. It's hate bait, nothing more. (I recommend "Why the Anglo World is Collapsing" /s) Take a look at his other work to get an idea of how seriously you should take this guy: https://eand.co/@umairh

oh you weren't kidding. I went through his twitter too. A real anglophobe.

I understand disliking big banks, big finance, capitalism etc, but to blame a culture of people sounds... familiar. "Its the anglos!" "Its the jews!"

No, its probably less than a few thousand highly influential elites who just care about themselves.

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

#105

Post by dsfyu404ed »

cbcoutinho wrote: post #92
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #83

Many, dare I say the majority, of Americans don't have any desire to have the European way of life, culture or institutions. We like heavily processed Walmart peanut butter on our goddamn Wonderbread made from GMO wheat with jelly sweetened with corn syrup. We like our Budweiser and $10 "Chinese" buffet. We like driving our cheaply registered, insured, and fueled cars. We'd prefer to sit in traffic than wait for a tr…

> pretty much nobody expects the current situation to persist for all that long. I envy your optimism

Give it 10yr for most of the old farts in congress to wash out.

Once it's possible for a republican congressmen to admit that Canada has it better without having the RNC fund whoever wants to primary them things will change.

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

#106

Post by bepotts »

cribbles wrote: post #63
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. This does not dispute the central point of the quoted piece, which is that the quality of life of most Americans is very poor contrast to that of the average person in some subset of European countries. I would wager that most coffee shop employees are more concerned with…

Americans don't believe the onus is on the whole to make sure the individual lives a happy life. We just don't have the collectivist culture the Europeans have. I think this is a great thing, and is why America is where most of the innovation, cultural, and political power is.

I personally have lower taxes, high quality healthcare, and live in an awesome location, and I got all of that through an education and training. That is available to almost every American if they just put in the work.

That, to me, is not just a great thing but the morally right thing. Apply yourself and make a better future for you and your family.

To the people responding to me with the most predictable lines: poverty exists in Europe; so does homelessness; as does food insecurity. Please don't tell me that Europe is some great place where poverty doesn't exist and everyone is living great lives.

It is also possible to be sympathetic toward the most needy while not supporting collectivism. You know what the poor need most? A marketable skill. A good job. Support programs that give people the skills they need in order to compete in a globalized market. It's funny how collectivists never push that though, and instead push for more collectivism.

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

#107

Post by microcolonel »

robenkleene wrote: post #81
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…

One, the sentence you’re responding to doesn’t say anything explicit about TV being better there, and two, I haven’t lived lived in Europe for over 15 years now, but yes when I did, the television was incredibly different and yes of course that ends up having a cultural impact. Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine[1] does a brief analysis of this between the US and Canada. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowlin…

Michael Moore's impression of Canada is ridiculous, and he's convinced Americans that the U.S. has an exceptionally high rate of massacres committed with guns, when this is not the case, even among highly developed countries.

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

#108

Post by bcmo »

dEnigma wrote: post #48
bcmo wrote: post #21

Please. Europe doesn't even have cold brew coffee

Not sure where you got that from but of course Europe has cold brew coffee, at least large parts of it.

France, Italy, Spain, people more commonly drink espressos, cafe au lait.. I've found cold brew or sometimes even decent iced coffee harder to get.

"order coffee and a croissant, both of which are fairly tasteless"

yeah right. I love drinking espressos.. but when given the option in Europe I'll take the starbucks. Plus I'd stack off a NY bagel against a French croissant any day. Both awesome, just different.

Article reminds me of the 'refined europeans' that 6th grade teachers that spent a week on their honeymoon in Paris talk about.

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

#109

Post by ghaff »

wozniacki wrote: post #88
cribbles wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. This does not dispute the central point of the quoted piece, which is that the quality of life of most Americans is very poor contrast to that of the average person in some subset of European countries. I would wager that most coffee shop employees are more concerned with…

It may be that Europeans are deincentivized from creating enormously overvalued startups because their quality of life is much better Come on you didn't even have a ride-hailing service like Uber and relied on those stodgy black cabs. Ireland still doesn't have Uber or Lyft.[1] [1] Does Uber or Lyft exist in Dublin?? https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g186591-i88-k11258020-...

>stodgy black cabs

Which IMO are better, if pricier, than Uber in London. They're what I take. But that isn't to disagree with your basic point. If cabs in some European cities are better than cabs in many American cities, that certainly isn't the case everywhere.

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

#110

Post by 0xfeba »

lupire wrote: post #19

This is the blathering of spoiled rich kid on vacation. > 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…

I'd have to agree.

> pick up some mass-produced groceries, full of toxins and colourings and GMOs, even if they are labelled “organic” and “fresh”, all forbidden in Europe

As if just being a "GMO" by itself is a disqualifier. That'd be 90% of the crops on the planet. And the catch-all "toxins". Oi the naivety.

There are some truths in that article but it was hard to read without cringing. That and he generalizes the entire US when public parks, transportation, art, events etc. vary wildly by state.

Ok, well public transport is pretty terrible everywhere in the US.

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