Turquoise wrote:
That's a pretty arrogant way of looking at it.
Yes, I didn't take the time to reword it. Despite your opinion of me I think you would be surprised how many posts would turn out like that if I didn't rephrase them lawl.
Turquoise wrote:
Ultimately, it's a balance. In America, we're very individualistic and consumerist. The benefits to this are that we have more freedoms than most people, and our freedoms are more explicitly protected by the Constitution than rights of other citizens are protected by their doctrines of government. That's really the best thing about America.
A close second in terms of our advantages is that we have relatively low taxes for a First World country, so we can spend most of our income however we see fit.
In most of Europe, things are more collectivist. The interests of society as a whole are given more of an emphasis, which results in better infrastructures regarding things like education (most of the time) and better access to basic healthcare (again, most of the time). It's a different mindset, but it's not inferior or superior. It's just different.
We can point to our own ability to spend things how we want to and boast, while they can point to their usually much lower crime rates and boast.
Either way though, it's ultimately just a dick measuring contest.
I didn't start out talking about government systems at all, and that's still not the focus of the thread. While my views are no secret, they really have nothing to do with my statement.
This should not be a surprise to anyone. People have money to buy gas for vehicles that use a lot of gas, and people like those vehicles, so people will now start buying those vehicles again. Anyone who thinks that true morality comes across the mind of anyone when buying a car or anything else, inside the U.S. or not, is supremely naive. In the U.S. these basic human traits are emphasized, so we get smacked over the head with words like greed all the time. It's true, but it's ironic that the people doing the smearing are no different from us.
Turquoise wrote:
I know you find this hard to believe, Flaming, but some people actually do prefer the higher taxes thing. They see it as reinvestment.
If your hypothesis was correct, then no one in America would want higher taxes ever, but some actually do. Some people actually do advocate raising taxes (usually on the rich), in order to fund things like education more.
I'm not saying I necessarily agree with this mindset, but it does exist. It just happens to be much more prevalent in Europe and in Australia than here.
People are so absurdly deprived of the information to make a valid choice it doesn't really make a difference what they think. People try to vote for what they think will benefit them the most, but when it comes down to it they are voting in extreme ignorance. No one person can grasp the complexity of what has made economies do this or that over the centuries, and to have a solid stance on economics is just silly.
Who in America agrees with higher taxes in general? Who gets shafted when it comes to education? Who wouldn't be taxed any higher on the plans they champion?
