People suffer...globally, I have sympathy for all of them.

(January 3, 2016 at 4:00 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: Jesus, no we should compare it to the world at large. All of it, not a cherry picked list of countries. Also are you going to take back your 'most of Europe' comment, or admit that you forgot about eastern Europe?

The world at large, is it? Which in it's majority, is piss poor. I guess that's kind of what you might call cold comfort.

Eastern Europe? Might be a bit more specific there. Short of Romania, Kosovo or Russia, nothing comes to mind.

(January 3, 2016 at 4:32 pm)abaris Wrote:

(January 3, 2016 at 4:00 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: Jesus, no we should compare it to the world at large. All of it, not a cherry picked list of countries. Also are you going to take back your 'most of Europe' comment, or admit that you forgot about eastern Europe?

The world at large, is it? Which in it's majority, is piss poor. I guess that's kind of what you might call cold comfort.

Eastern Europe? Might be a bit more specific there. Short of Romania, Kosovo or Russia, nothing comes to mind.

What? Do you really not know more than three countries in eastern Europe (actually two as Kosovo is actually a disputed territory of Serbia)? Maybe I'm starting to realize the problem with this discussion.

Off the top of  my head: Poland, the Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, The Czech Republic, Slovokia, Romania, Belarus.... It's both a bigger land mass and population then western Europe, but people say Europe and don't even think about what is actually the majority of Europe. Also I'm pretty sure there isn't even a comparison between the poor in the US and any of those places,. Basically everything east of Germany has been traditionally been considered eastern Europe.

(January 3, 2016 at 4:00 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote:

(January 3, 2016 at 3:40 pm)abaris Wrote: So, we should compare it against countries like Somalia after all, and not Australia, Japan or any given country in Western Europe? Is that what you're saying?

Jesus, no we should compare it to the world at large. All of it, not a cherry picked list of countries. Also are you going to take back your 'most of Europe' comment, or admit that you forgot about eastern Europe?

So you are not part of the "We're #1" crowd?  Good. 

I don't take a lot of solace on being in the middle of the pack, though.

(January 3, 2016 at 5:31 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

(January 3, 2016 at 4:00 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: Jesus, no we should compare it to the world at large. All of it, not a cherry picked list of countries. Also are you going to take back your 'most of Europe' comment, or admit that you forgot about eastern Europe?

So you are not part of the "We're #1" crowd?  Good. 

I don't take a lot of solace on being in the middle of the pack, though.

No, I don't believe we are number one. I think that's a nonsense statement anyway, there is no number one country. However in no way are we in the middle of the pack either. We are grouped with a small collection of countries that are first world countries. We are very lucky to live in a first world country, most of the world is not so lucky.

I'm damned glad I was born here. Lest people forget, there's not just white privilege and male privilege, there's American privilege.

(January 3, 2016 at 5:45 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: I'm damned glad I was born here. Lest people forget, there's not just white privilege and male privilege, there's American privilege.

It's more like first world privileged. It gives you the ability to whine about your non-problems while using an Iphone made of conflict minerals.

(January 3, 2016 at 5:27 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: What? Do you really not know more than three countries in eastern Europe (actually two as Kosovo is actually a disputed territory of Serbia)? Maybe I'm starting to realize the problem with this discussion.

You do realize that Kosovo is a state? Recognized by 111 nations. Even if it's disputed.

Yes, I'm starting to realize the problem with this discussion too. And we were talking about poverty to put American poverty into perspective, which made me think of these three countries. Care to present any other examples of which I'm not aware of? I think, you will have a hard time doing that, if you don't move very far to the east. Which brings me back to the majority of the world living under piss poor conditions.

(January 3, 2016 at 6:36 pm)abaris Wrote:

(January 3, 2016 at 5:27 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: What? Do you really not know more than three countries in eastern Europe (actually two as Kosovo is actually a disputed territory of Serbia)? Maybe I'm starting to realize the problem with this discussion.

You do realize that Kosovo is a state? Recognized by 111 nations. Even if it's disputed.

Yes, I'm starting to realize the problem with this discussion too. And we were talking about poverty to put American poverty into perspective, which made me think of these three countries. Care to present any other examples of which I'm not aware of? I think, you will have a hard time doing that, if you don't move very far to the east. Which brings me back to the majority of the world living under piss poor conditions.

Every country in Eastern Europe the the poor are much more poor then in the US and the standard of living is lower. Do you really think Poland or the Ukraine has a higher standard of living for the poor then the US? Talk about a lack of perspective. I gave a brief list above of examples before, which you ignored. Also the conditions aren't piss poor, they are what's called 'average.' You, as a citizen of the first world, just have no perspective on what that means. Most people share housing in the world, most people use public transit or stay local, meanwhile those people normally have access to electricity, running water, etc. Those are the true poor in the world but there is a huge middle ground in a ton of countries. Would you call Argentina or Chile piss poor? How about Romania or Belarus?

(January 3, 2016 at 8:13 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: Every country in Eastern Europe the the poor are much more poor then in the US and the standard of living is lower. Do you really think Poland or the Ukraine has a higher standard of living for the poor then the US? Talk about a lack of perspective.

Yeah, well. Just board a plane and have a look. And then come back with an informed opinion. On that level, I'm done with that discussion