To use your analogy, When I get a cold I buy myself some cold medicine. I don't go next door and demand it from my neighbor. If I can't afford cold medicine I get a better job so that I can. I see little difference.

What if you can't find a job, you ask your friends to help you find a job, it is same way here too.

No, I don't.

I go out and get a job like 90% of the rest of the people in America. You are judged by what you can do not who you know. That's my world. Reality.

You are judged by what you can do not who you know

Don't know where you live, but in my neck of the woods this isn't true...

It's not what you know, but who you know...

Originally posted by Fry2
No, I don't.

I go out and get a job like 90% of the rest of the people in America. You are judged by what you can do not who you know. That's my world. Reality.

You're wrong. I could go outside right now and walk around the block and see people who could never get a job even if they wanted.

Because they have no address, no telephone, no ID, no money, one pair of clothes that is dirty and unpresentable, no food, no energy, maybe no skills, no way to get anywhere except walking, no strength to walk anywhere, no place to sleep, no blankets, no friends, no family, atrophied social skills, etc., etc., etc.

Where do you expect them to get a job?

Originally posted by surfup
Nathraq, I have three arguments why you are wrong...*

*You know what I mean.

1. Just tell me why you love America that much! There is no such thing as true American.

Answer: never said there was. I don't love this country any more than the next guy/gal.

That poor guy in India could be your half-brother or that starving child in El Salvador could be distant cousin.

Answer: Highly doubtful, as I am Croatian, and the Slav's tended to stay with their own kind( not including the mixing with the Turks during occupation).

If a Brit (no offense) or a Cuban or Chinese said what you said I would accept, because for the most part they are pretty much from the same ancestors(not really, but same ancestory compared to Americans) but in your case you aren't.

Answer: A Brit is from the same anscestors? What about the Roman, Saxon, Viking, and Norman invasions?

America is the land of oppurtunity and millions have come from all over the world and settled here. Many U.S. citizens know only their majority race...I heard people tell they are half-irish and half-german...but that isn't entirely true, you are probably a Frenchie and Brit and Swedish, and you don't even know it.

Answer: No, I am a Croatian. My family is from the county of Lika, city of Gospic. Not very many foreigners come to this region of the world. Highly unlikely that I'm a 'Frenchie'.

2. What is so different about you and that guy in India or El Savador or Russia? Did you not come through ancestors...from Africa? Do they eat with their legs and you eat with your hands? Tell me what is so different.

Answer: I did not say I am 'better' than them. All I said was I don't really give a rat's crap what happens to them

Why do your desereve anything better than them? Give me one damn good reason. Did God make U.S. so special that they should get all the happiness and money that there is offer?

Answer: No, the blood of the American forefathers made this country 'so special'. We get all our money and happiness from working our tails off. Nothing here is free, despite what the world believes.

3. How about all the money the U.S. government is spending on Space, Science and not to mention another thousand places?

Answer: What about it?

Could you not take that money and used to feed your Chicago mother of too?

Answer: Probably, but why? We could take the billions allocated to the war in Iraq, and feed a million families.

If she is more important than the same Russian mother, why don't you stop wasting money and send it to to her? You alone are wasting so much money on Entertainment, Furniture, Clothes.

Answer: Is she more important? Depends on perpesctive. To me, as an American, she is more important. Let Russia deal with their mothers, we'll deal with ours.

No, you wouldn't rather sit at home and complain that the U.S. is wasting money helping other countries, rather than helping. People like you think donating $100 every chirstmas to Salvation army is enough, but it really isn't.

Answer: Did you ever donate $100? I can't afford that much!

If I have said anything that might have offended you slightly in any way, please forgive me.

Answer: No offense taken! Peace!

Peace.
Surfup

America is that big kid from highschool. A bit of a bad boy, tough. But he had a good heart, and always came through in a pinch.

He likes to argue and fight with himself, and sometimes others. He's got little "deals" with everyone it seems like.

And if this guy could talk, he'd say "Better your head on the block than mine." As any rational person would say.

ha ha

The problem is the way folk view the US. We've convinced them all that we are the best, so in their delusion they believe we have no problems. I like how someone reduced our problems to the common cold while calling the world's problems small pox. We've got our own brand of small pox that we aren't treating. We live in a well developed class system that is maintained by keeping wages low. Millions of Americans are denied a livable wage just to keep this system afloat.

I feel like I've typed this same thing a trillion times, but some of you still don't get it. There is no way for all of them to advance. How is this the "land of opportunity" when millions are shut out because employers are allowed to suck them dry in the name of competition, and no american can compete with slave wages so they end up losing their jobs anyway. Don't talk about ending social programs when more than 24 million AMERICANS live below the poverty line. Without a livable wage a large portion of our society live as though they were in a 3rd world country. This is the major issue confronting us as we allow illegal workers to stay in this country. And as our representatives vote to bring more low wage workers into our country, we send all the middle class and upper middle class jobs away. We have to ask ourselves, what kind of nation do we want to live in?

Do we want to be like South America with dirty shacks two feet away from high rise buildings? Are do we want to keep our system healthy and growing? America first means that this country should work for everyone that means unskilled/skilled union workers and small town farmers, and even business. Globalization is shrinking the line between the haves and the have nots. We have to protect our middle. But, protecting businesses that stay home is only the first step. Eventually we have to pull out of the WTO. We've pulled out of other international institutions for lesser reasons. And, while Europe points the finger and calls us isolationist they subsidize their businesses to bring the cost down effectively making it hard for american products to compete. There is no fair or free trade within the WTO. We have to get out to save our country from going the way of the third world where you are either rich or you are impoverished.

Originally posted by Saphronia



Do we want to be like South America with dirty shacks two feet away from high rise buildings? Are do we want to keep our system healthy and growing? America first means that this country should work for everyone that means unskilled/skilled union workers and small town farmers, and even business. Globalization is shrinking the line between the haves and the have nots. We have to protect our middle. But, protecting businesses that stay home is only the first step. Eventually we have to pull out of the WTO. We've pulled out of other international institutions for lesser reasons. And, while Europe points the finger and calls us isolationist they subsidize their businesses to bring the cost down effectively making it hard for american products to compete. There is no fair or free trade within the WTO. We have to get out to save our country from going the way of the third world where you are either rich or you are impoverished.

Saphronia, you hit the nail right on the head!


The purpose of this thread was to vent my frustrations over the problems in this country. By saying 'America First", I am implying that we need to take care of what is ours. Not that we are better than everyone else. In Chicago, we have a large immigrant population. Many came here seeking milk and honey, then realized, "what, the Americans DO have to work?", " 2 jobs, 3 jobs?", that's almost unheard of in other countries. To have 2 jobs is almost the norm in this country. For most, that is the only way to keep from sinking.

We need to start taking care of each other. I'm not talking about a communist, or even a socialist agenda. Just basic common sense. The future of America is living in poverty; seeking shelter in homeless centers, living in their cars, or just plain starving. This is so wrong.