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Originally Posted by Danzig188
i always get uncomfortable when there is a comparison made between the u.s. and european countries, some of which are heading towards bankruptcy faster than you can spell the word, due to incredibly liberal welfare--germany for instance, in which new mothers get a year off, new fathers get six months-paid the whole time.
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Danzig, we're not much better off, with the Chinese owning a large portion of our assets. If they ever call in those debts, we'll be in more trouble than the Europeans, pronto.
Again, I fail to understand the conservative insistance that something must be entirely right or entirely wrong, as I think that only happens in a fantasy land. Europe has got some serious trade-offs for their social safety nets- high unemployment and immigration being among them. But they have better literacy, longer life spans, lower child mortality, better child care and their citizens are guaranteed vacation. It comes down to choices- which do you think is more important?
We have low unemployment. We also have a huge gap between rich and poor, a mess of a health care system and no guaranteed child care.
Of course we need to compare ourselves to other systems- if they're doing something better, maybe we can figure out a way to do it, too, and if they're doing it worse, then we can avoid their mistakes. But, we're a young country, and, like a lot of young folks, awfully stubborn.
