(August 5, 2011 at 8:56 pm)Salty Amy Wrote:

(August 5, 2011 at 8:24 pm)BethK Wrote: The USA is the most INDEBTED country in the world, with the per-capita share of the National debt being around $186,000 and the average personal debt being around $50,000

No it's not http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychar...debt-guide

I never said everybody in Us is rich, just that being poor in the US is very different than being poor in a 3rd world country, have you seen slumdog millionaire? If you did you now what a slum is, tell me do you have anything like that in USA?
I am sorry for your personal problems but that also doesn't change the fact that USA is still one of the richest countries in the world.

I do believe that this crisis of yours is only beggining, besides the economy I think there is a political crisis were the polarisation reached a very dangerous level that can make the economic problems a lot worse I do think you are going to figure it out eventually.

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(August 5, 2011 at 8:56 pm)Salty Amy Wrote: No it's not http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychar...debt-guide

I never said everybody in Us is rich, just that being poor in the US is very different than being poor in a 3rd world country, have you seen slumdog millionaire? If you did you now what a slum is, tell me do you have anything like that in USA?
I am sorry for your personal problems but that also doesn't change the fact that USA is still one of the richest countries in the world.

I do believe that this crisis of yours is only beggining, besides the economy I think there is a political crisis were the polarisation reached a very dangerous level that can make the economic problems a lot worse I do think you are going to figure it out eventually.

I have lived in countries with third world conditions besides this one. I was an high school exchange student in Brazil in 1976 and 1977 (though the only reason I was able to go was because my mother won $5,000 in the Michigan State Lottery one month before I was scheduled to depart). Eu vivei em Birigüi, 10 km do leste de Araçatuba, no Estado de São Paulo. The families I stayed with are far wealthier than my own single mother family was. (My father, chief breadwinner, was killed in the Vietnam War.)

There are many poor areas in Brazil; the favelas of Rio, districts in São Paulo, &c. Even Birigui and Araçatuba have districts which are poor. So does the USA. And it is interesting to note that Brazil's general literacy rate was higher in the 1970s than our previous state of Oklahoma is now. (I also taught Adult Literacy along with my wife when I came to be with her.) Our schools are overrun with people trying to put unintelligent design in place of science classes.

I got to witness the changes in Brazilian politics while I was there, as President Gen. Ernesto Geisel set about dismantling the military dictatorship and fostered real democratic change. In one of the families I stayed with, the father of the family ran for mayor from the opposition Movimento Democratico Brasileiro party, unthinkable in Birigüi before, as it was considered an area of military importance because of a dam, and only the Arena party could run before I was there.

Many Third World nations have problems accessing such things as clean water. So do we. Here there is uranium and cyanide in the water. Can't remove those with a boil order.

We are not a wealthy nation because we borrowed our wealth rather than built it: at the end of World War Two we were the largest creditor in the world. We are now the largest debtor. (While your link does show that as a percentage of GDP nations such as the UK are higher than us, we certainly owe more than any other country in terms of dollars.)

Our wealth was squandered in a mass of borrowing to pay for a TV lifestyle that few people here actually live. )And we don't own a TV, but that doesn't matter anyway because there are no TV stations here).

When I lived in Brazil, I was amazed at the number of people who actually believed the American television programming, that everything was either like the Old West or that everyone was wealthy like Beverly Hills. Or maybe they were just having me on.

Our cities and states are so strapped for money they are having private companies run prisons and selling freeways and parking meters to foreign companies to operate (like the Chicago Skyway to Cintas of Spain).

The standard model of business here today is to purchase undervalued companies and break them up and sell them, not create new wealth. Our most popular news network, Fox, is owned by an Australian that can't keep his reporters out of other people's voicemail and only pushes his agenda of "make the rich richer and it will help the poor." And by-and-large our poor here believe it.

I note looking at a couple of investment house Websites today that they recommend those investing in government bonds get out of US treasuries and invest in Brazilian bonds. Seems they trust Brazil better to pay back its debts.

I also lived in Spain, when I was in the Navy. I lived in town with the Spanish, not on base. Rota, a town of 20,000, had twenty-four hour bus service, taxis, a hospital, train service to all of Europe was 15 km away, which you could also get to by bus. We had a post office there, and numerous banks. I could get a telephone by walking downtown.

Here in Western Nebraska, the hospital is 80 km away, so are the doctors, the nearest bus station is in Denver, almost 300 km away. There are no taxis. We might as well be in Amazonas. (Wait, Manaus has taxis, hospitals, and busses.)

Since my wife brought it up, I was a homeless disabled veteran for eleven years, from 1996 to 2007, tossed from the Navy for epilepsy and divorced by my first wife for the same. When I met my wife BethK, I was indeed fortunate she looked past my poverty and saw someone she loved .When she took me in, I had my clothes and my musical instrument. That is everything I possessed.

I am quite familiar with what poverty is in this country. It is just like poverty in every other country, it sucks eggs.-James

(August 5, 2011 at 9:41 pm)Anymouse Wrote: I am quite familiar with what poverty is in this country. It is just like poverty in every other country, it sucks eggs.-James[/font]

Wow Anymouse! Thank you for taking the time to write this, right now I'm in no condition to answer this as you deserve, but I will soon. I just have to say that although I hate the US foreign policy (more on that latter) and wars in general I have the upmost respect and admiration for veterans and for those who died in battle.

That's all for now.

I'll be back.

(August 6, 2011 at 10:49 am)Salty Amy Wrote: I'll be back.

Well I'm scared

(August 3, 2011 at 8:53 pm)Salty Amy Wrote: So how do you explain the almight USA on this theory of yours?

The people of the United States do not believe in God, Amy.

Many of us claim to, but that isn't the same thing. They're trying to cover their asses just in case he does exist, but they don't honestly believe. Too many of the instructions allegedly left by Jesus are ignored for there to be any real belief.

(August 7, 2011 at 11:30 am)Valkyrie Wrote: The people of the United States do not believe in God, Amy.

Many of us claim to, but that isn't the same thing. They're trying to cover their asses just in case he does exist, but they don't honestly believe. Too many of the instructions allegedly left by Jesus are ignored for there to be any real belief.

The people of the US don't believe in god???? Where are you getting that statistic Valkyrie?

If someone claims to believe in god, you really have no reason not to believe them. If you find that you truly do feel this way - it's probably more likely that you're projecting your own thoughts, beliefs, inner battles and/or wishes onto the general populace of this country.

Statistics clearly show that the majority of this country (sadly) are indeed believers in god. Everybody? Certainly not, but unless you can show me some kind of evidence to this claim you're making, I'm going to have to call, Bunk.

(August 6, 2011 at 10:49 am)Salty Amy Wrote: Wow Anymouse! Thank you for taking the time to write this, right now I'm in no condition to answer this as you deserve, but I will soon. I just have to say that although I hate the US foreign policy (more on that latter) and wars in general I have the upmost respect and admiration for veterans and for those who died in battle.

That's all for now.

I'll be back.

Please hurry back, Miss Salty.

Having been on the business end of US foreign policy (my father, mother, sister, and I were all in the military), I am not real fond of it either. None of us were able to complete our service (my father killed-in-action, my mother kicked out for pregnancy with me, my sister under don't ask don't tell, and me for epilepsy and being crazy).

Rather than having respect because my father died in Vietnam (well, actually Cambodia, and before our country was legally allowed to be fighting there), or because I am a veteran (or because I am a disabled veteran), I would rather have your respect because you feel I deserve it.

There are those here in my new village of 140 that see my Department of Defense base sticker on my car, and talk about things like "respect" for my service, or "honor," or other such things. I would rather earn their respect for being a person worthy of their respect, not because I was in the military seventeen years (more than all my family's service put together).

No one says, "Wow, you edit Romance novels now? I have to respect that, it is such dangerous and tedious work." (Tedious yes, dangerous, well, if you ever had to tell an author their baby [their novel] was stillborn or has birth defects, you'd find it dangerous, too.) Even our town librarians do not respect my editing "trashy" Romance novels: I gave them one (signed) to put up on the shelves and they refused.

No one "shows me respect" because I play hammered dulcimer well, or because of my calligraphy and illumination, why for being in the military? Even when I was in the military I wanted respect for who I was, not what I did.

(My ex-wife is another matter.)

James.

I've had this same sentiment for awhile. I get the "Thank you"s, and the "I respect what you did"s. I always take the time to tell them that I didn't do much, that what I did was not honorable, and that anyone could have done it.

(August 8, 2011 at 12:10 am)Cinjin Wrote:

(August 7, 2011 at 11:30 am)Valkyrie Wrote: The people of the United States do not believe in God, Amy.

Many of us claim to, but that isn't the same thing. They're trying to cover their asses just in case he does exist, but they don't honestly believe. Too many of the instructions allegedly left by Jesus are ignored for there to be any real belief.

The people of the US don't believe in god???? Where are you getting that statistic Valkyrie?

If someone claims to believe in god, you really have no reason not to believe them. If you find that you truly do feel this way - it's probably more likely that you're projecting your own thoughts, beliefs, inner battles and/or wishes onto the general populace of this country.

Statistics clearly show that the majority of this country (sadly) are indeed believers in god. Everybody? Certainly not, but unless you can show me some kind of evidence to this claim you're making, I'm going to have to call, Bunk.

It's not a statistic. Just open your eyes a little: How many Americans give everything they have to the poor? How many of us love our brothers as we love ourselves? Which of us takes our sick children to church instead of the doctor?

According to the Bible, if one has the faith of a mustard seed they could tell a mountain to throw itself into the sea. Do you know anyone who can do that? By contrast, radical Muslims DO believe, and the evidence is in the number of them who are willing to commit suicide in order to go to heaven.

Statistically, you'll find that most Americans CLAIM to believe in God- there are no statistics kept for the number of people who delude themselves. If you can find such a statistic, I'll retract my statement. Until then, I stand by my post.

Valkyrie: The things as you ask, you won't find it as much but...every time some news comes up that someone has prayed for health while a simple visit to the doctor would have done the trick, it comes from the USA. I have even heard news of a child suffering from diabetes, which was untreated because the parents preferred praying for a cure instead of a proven and working way to deal with it. So amongst the 'western world', the USA citizens certainly seem to be the most religious.

There also seems to be a 'is the USA poor' discussion going on. The problem of course, is to define poor. Would we look at debts, the USA is poor. Do we look at average income, it's not so poor. If we look at the income of the majority of the population, it's slowly edging towards poor again. But even with these interpetations, the USA is certainly not the poorest, and it's far from being the poorest.
But I do think that when it comes to religion and atheism, the USA is actually the 'oddball', and not Sweden. The USA is an oddball in many ways, like being a very poor and a stinking rich country at the same time. When I look at other European countires, it seems that atheism is also growing there, and religion (I mean Christianity) is in decline.

I wonder if the USA is becoming more radical. It´s hard to see because I don´t really know how it was exactly like there a couple of decades back.

(August 9, 2011 at 7:32 am)Girlysprite Wrote: I wonder if the USA is becoming more radical.

It's an easy argument to make, yeah.