Quote: Originally Posted by nasum Perhaps by the standards of the USA from 1990-2000 we may be in the crapper, but compared to the rest of the world I think we're still doing alright. We don't have wide spread famine, you don't see people falling over dead in the street due to some mystery illness, we don't have a foreign army in our land blowing stuff up, there's still enough money floating around that you don't need to barter a chicken for a lap dance, the NHL season is starting, we don't have bread lines, idle entertainment is still being made in vast quantaties, etc... When it really boils down to it, there isn't all that much to complain about short of minor policy issues here and there.

Well its not widespread where it counts but its still there in a lot of places. County not to far from me has a lot of families trading stuff they grow because they cant afford to buy a lot of things at the grocery. Like 3 nights a week people go to this church parking lot to trade, no money or anything just trade this for that and donated food by other people is passed out there. Its not a small county either or one filled with trailer parks, its actually a nice place to live just a lot of people in it cant get by.

I dont know of any place that has people falling over dead mysteriously at any kind of regular rate.

We dont have a foriegn army blowing up our land because of our military strength, its the only thing that makes us relevant to the rest of the world. If we didnt have it we wouldnt be noticed by anyone else really. We dont export anything, all we do is borrow money from other countries and we cant even take care of ourselves but we have a huge military budget.

We have plenty of breadlines and welfare and unemployment offices are the exact same thing and they are packed to the gills with people.

And if idle entertainment like shitty big budget movies, bad reality tv, right wing talk radio, pop music, silly bands, and all that other useless crap is the good thing then Id hate to see what the bad is. I would trade those for better ecnomics and free healthcare in a heartbeat and never look back.

The reason why you dont hear about how shitty things are is because no one can tell that story. Everyone wants everyone to think everything is just fine and dandy, things are getting better and rainbows will come out of all our asses (but still remind us of the truth enough to keep us showing up to our shitty jobs). Because you know what would happen if the news actually told the truth? People would get scared and scared people do really, really, really stupid things. When they get scared they panic and then you have real problems on your hands. And the more people grouped together that are scared and paniced the worse it gets. So of course you dont hear about all this shit because if we did then it would get even worse because the american populace is stupid. People as individuals are smart, but in large groups they are dumb and dangerous.

Quote: Originally Posted by UncleBob Only $11,000! There are entire villages full of people with a total net value of less than that. In comparison to the rest of the world, we're doing pretty good.

Thats very true but what will 11,000 a year get you in america? Not a whole hell of a lot. Especially if you have a child.

Our dollars dont go very far. Thats like saying everyone in america is rich compared to people in mexico. Well yeah we make more than a lot of them but our money doesnt go as far. Hell maybe everyone in america should go to mexico and let all the mexicans come here and we will all be happy. Least our money would be worth something there.