[Non-member submission]
>Brian Atkins
>I thought it would be possible to nail down certain reasons in common
>that was keeping more people from coming to the US. And I wanted to
>see if that reason might be that the people had gotten addicted to their
>government even if it might be more rational to move to somewhere that
>could result in the development of more personal power. That didn't happen.
Well how about (of the top of my head):
- Having a family, friends and a house that you like around you?
- 40 Hour actual work weeks, giving time for a life outside work?
- Social and medical security
- Being able to (mostly) do the work you want to allready
- Having a nice paying job in a civilised part of the world. (And we all
know that our own country is the most civilised in the world. Don't we?)
My government bugs me too, but it doesn't seem that you in the US are any
less bugged about yours. The government is just the "ecosystem" in which you
live. Once you get used to it it doesn't really matter that much. Only when
thinking about it can it make my blood boil, but in my everyday living I
don't really care.
I belive that my personal power is greater or at least as great as it would
be in the US. (We had legal porn and gay marriages first i.e. ;-) )
If i wanted to start a new company, it might be more difficult than in the
US, but if I go bankrupt I would not end out on the street. The government
would give me and my family a 5 room appartment to live in. (Though not in
that great a neighbourhood).
Probably what most US citisens miss about europe is the point that a any
given culture / government / civilisation is a package. One cannot look at
the high tax rate in isolation and say that becuse of that we are less free
than in the US.
Some things seem restrictive and other seems nice.
High tax vs. free education for everyone, free health care, pension, social
security, free infrastructure, inexpensive public transportation ... etc.
I am not saying that i think it should be this way, with cost completely
decoupled from the services, but it is just not very black and white. Our
system is different than yours, and I don't belive that you really
understand it any more than we really understand yours.
The freedom is probably the same all things being equal.
The US isn't really that much of a goal from my point of view. What would be
nice though would be someplace warm to live in the vinter like: Spain,
Southern France, Florida, Australia or the like.
Max M Rasmussen (Denmark)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:34:19 MDT