I'm glad you Americans enjoy living your way of life, keep it that way. That doesn't rule out the fact the OP
is right in its global opinion,
if you consider global statistics and the opinion of most people living outside the US.
Please don't read it as an attack or an attempt to piss you off. It's merely a comparison between American life standards and your perception of it,
versus foreign life standards and foreign perception of yours. MaxBlack (12th post in this topic) describes it rather accurate, I think.
Originally posted by Subjective Truth
I would rather live here then in Europe. I can shoot my gun and I dont have sensors on my garbage and I dont have government run media. The
progressive movement that has swept Europe will come to a end it is only a matter of time.
And I would rather stay here in Europe - so we both are where we supposed to be, not? Compared to the freedom we enjoy here, the US looks like a
zero-tolerance police state (but so does the UK and Italy).
I'm also glad you're not shooting your gun anywhere near me without having a licence to do so.
Murders with firearms - global statistics
I don't have sensors on my garbage either, and don't expect those anywhere soon
I especially love the fact we have public broadcasting (next to commercial), it makes me better informed on important issues, more critical and yes,
smarter than when I would live in a society where television is mainly commercially based (although let's not minimize the influence of decent
education).
Check out this study, it was released just a couple of weeks ago:
James Curran -
Mediasystems
An excerpt:
We address the implications of the movement towards entertainment-centred, market- driven media by comparing what is reported and what the public
knows in four countries with different media systems. The different systems are public service (Denmark and Finland), a ‘dual’ model (United
Kingdom) and the market model (United States).
The comparison shows that public service television devotes more attention to public affairs and international news, and fosters greater knowledge in
these areas, than the market model.
Public service television also gives greater prominence to news, encourages higher levels of news consumption, and contributes to a smaller
within-nation knowledge gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged...
As for the progressive movement: in the last 150 years they gave me voting rights, better work- and life conditions, equal treatment of men and women,
the right to strike, decent and affordable healthcare, a secular society, quality education, freedom of speech, less oppression, more equality ...
But hey, this is just my perception - it's ok to differ.