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Rob
USA
2615 Posts |
 Posted - 04/20/2012 : 19:44:00
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So where are you?
What do you like about where you live? What don't you like?
Where do wish you were?
Me? I'm in Tampa, FL. I like the warm weather, beaches, no state income taxes. I don't like the cost of insurance (hurricanes), lack of friendly people.
Wish I were in Belize or New Zealand...the culture (or lack thereof), work focus, and complete lack of care about society and what it means to be human in the good ol' U.S.A. is leaving a sour taste in my mouth. |
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beholder
60 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2012 : 05:55:56
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you sound almost non-American there, as most US and A loves the way they live and they are not very willing to change it. Seems like you are keen for improvement.
Slovakia here. A debt-ridden country full of post-communist polititians who are currently fully in power. We are pretty much mafia-driven economy with a few multi-nationals using this s-hole for manufacture, like USA does to China. This is called "economical growth" in these parts. A large state and smaller private sector, shrinking middle class, you name it. Our current government was corrupt before and will be corrupt now, as they just came to power, one example for all: we have a private health insurance company (owned from a large part by a financial shark company) which was by law forbidded to achieve profit for owners in past; to work-around this they have made a fraud scheme in 2010 which includes accounting with a "negative goodwill" - 412 million of EUR which they can easily draw out of the insurance company as a completely untaxed profit. And get this: the person who was a head of the company at the time is now a minister of health department in our country, not really keen on resigning either.
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Rob
USA
2615 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2012 : 09:29:07
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| Wow, sounds like I should be a little more grateful for where I live. |
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beholder
60 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2012 : 11:30:14
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Well, you have Goldman Sachs when you look at it through my eyes. And also a government that fundamentally never changes. There is just this show called 'elections' every once in a while where they convince you 'it matters' or that 'you can' or 'change' or whatever.
On the other hand, we ALL (this whole damn planet) have Goldman Sachs.  So we're not winning it either. Please don't kill yourself.
Current fav pr0nstar: Malena Morgan
http://www.artlk.com/2012/04/malena-morgan-sensational-pictures.html
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Cerberus
Netherlands
86 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2012 : 23:52:38
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Beholder, I think America and Slovakia are still pretty great places to live in, despite their problems! And don't you think Slovakia has progressed quite a lot over the past decades? In the long term, I'm sure things will be OK.
I live in Amsterdam, and I like it here (although of course we have our share of problems). The weather is cool, the architecture is superb, and people are very liberal. I might live in another European city for a while, but I prefer to be where my friends are, so I am unlikely to leave for now, unless a very good reason presents itself.
To stay on topic, I see the following as the major problems of our time:
1. Institutions whose boards are accountable to no-one while distributing lots of public money, like schools (mostly funded by the state here), public housing corporations (they are absolutely huge here, very inefficient, and riddled with massive fraud), and others.
2. Too much influence from commercial corporations on government. I am by no means anti-capitalist, but lobbying and fund-raising should be curbed to an absolute minimum. No secret negotiations about copyright treaties, no secret meetings with tobacco lobbyists (happens here), no roundabout of people who hop on and off jobs between banks and the guys who are supposed to regulate banks, etc. A very interesting account of the perversity of fund-raising in American politics can be listened to here (I believe there also is a transcript): http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/461/take-the-money-and-run-for-office
3. Populism.
Otherwise, I think the world is looking towards a bright future. Of course massive nuclear terrorism would be very, very bad—that's the only potential threat I can see in the future, and luckily it is still quite far off. And we'll think of something if and when the time comes, like ubiquitous Geiger counters. |
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Where does everyone live?
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