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Topic ClosedWhat are the benefits of living in the USA?
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Atavachron View Drop Down
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Points: 65616 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2015 at 20:27
Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

Yeah as long as you know how to be in a city it's fine.  I probably know the insane dude.
How do you deal with someone who moves in front of your vehicle and won't leave?  Is there a recommended course of action?LOL

The Dude....I was in the McDonalds bathroom on the east side of the park I think.  This guy walks in and tells me to just shut up and mind my own business....i hadn't said anything.....he goes into every stall and grabs all the toilet paper, comes out, grabs the paper towels and tries the soap dispenser but couldn't break it, jamming it all into his coat....and as he walks out he just says....."stay here or I'll f-ck you up". .

Alright then sir, have a great day!LOL

LOL  That MickyDs is notorious.  But Amoeba Records is right there so it's worth it  LOL
"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."   -- John F. Kennedy
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Points: 9319 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2015 at 20:28
Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

Originally posted by TeleStrat TeleStrat wrote:

Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

Gary what part of the MW were you?  I grew up in suburban twin cities

I was born in Springfield, Missouri and moved to California when I was seven.


Never been to Missouri but many times to CA.  Love LA, been to SF, Sequoia, Eureka, Crescent City, SD, Monterey, Orange county....

I live a few miles north of Orange County and I've in this area since 1957.
A lot more people and cars now though.
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Points: 17309 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2015 at 20:44
Yes I could tell quite a difference in the area since my first visit in the 70s to today.  Still, such a beautiful city.  LA has such a vibe.  I know so many people who prefer SD, but I really don't.
...that moment you realize you like "Mob Rules" better than "Heaven and Hell"
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Points: 8856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2015 at 20:45
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

Originally posted by Polymorphia Polymorphia wrote:

What other kind is there? Wink

It's bizarre that you could only find fried and grilled food, though of all the states, Texas would be the one. Near the coasts (including and especially the gulf coast), boiling is especially popular. Baked, sauteed, steamed, and roasted foods are very present as well. You're talking about the country that celebrates Thanksgiving, for which baked or roasted turkey, boiled mashed potatoes, and steamed corn and vegetables are traditional items.
Do you have restaurants that serve roast diners 365 days a year? Wink 

I'm pleased to learn these alternative cooking methods exist in the USA and yep, Texas was not the best place to start looking, however I did have similar issues with the food in California (LA and SF). As I said if I were living in the USA permanently this wouldn't be a problem but when you are staying in a 3-star hotel and living out of a suitcase for three weeks solid then you can only eat in the restaurants in the locale where you're staying... and after two weeks of essentially eating fried/grilled/barbecued/stir-fried meals every day it all got a bit too much for my fay British constitution and I would have crawled across the desert for a steak and ale pie with boiled carrots and mashed potatoes (I don't like pasta so Italian is off the menu and I really don't like curry so that excludes Indian restaurants)
It is true that the cheapest restaurants are mostly fried and grilled. Walmart has roast dinners, as a constant throughout the US. Red lobster (I think), as well. I could name a few local restaurants, as well, but they probably wouldn't ring any bells.

Edited by Polymorphia - October 11 2015 at 20:45
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Points: 65760 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2015 at 21:44
Originally posted by TeleStrat TeleStrat wrote:

Originally posted by A Person A Person wrote:

Originally posted by TeleStrat TeleStrat wrote:

I will go along with Finnforest but I'm older and go a little further back.
In the fifties I was a kid in the Midwest and it was common for every household (that I knew of)
to have a rifle or shotgun.
My Dad had the shotgun that belonged to his Dad and when I was seven I would play with it 
outside (unloaded of course and we lived on six acres). 
Now, this wasn't Mayberry, RFD and there was crime and there were occasional murders but
seldom, if ever, with multiple victims and never anything like the mass killings today.

I grew up (and still live in) similar conditions here. 10 acres in the middle of nowhere, rarely any break-ins or murders (although they do happen).

I envy you. I said earlier that if all of my family wasn't here I would move someplace more rural.

It's definitely nice in a lot of ways, although you give up the comfort of being near things.
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2015 at 22:05
Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

Well I'm telling you something is very different.  We did not have mass casualty events like this.  If you want to call it my perception, fine.  I was there and I'm not alone in what I recall.  Such acts as we see today were so rare that the very notion would have had people looking at you like a space alien.  I can't believe others, even here, didn't have the same experience i did.  No offense but your numbers are not telling the whole story, nor the most important part of the story.  Other kinds of homicides certainly happened but it was not this kind of violence and that is my point.
You betcha those numbers I found in a simple google search didn't tell the whole story, because the whole story is much worse:

While the frequency of (school) rampage killings in the USA was lower in the 60s and 70s, they did happen: 60s (2 events: 20 dead, 34 injured), 70s (3 events: 7 dead, 25 injured), 80s (4 events:15 dead, 55 injured), 90s (10 events: 47 dead, 98 injured), 00s (8 events: 63 dead, 65 injured) and 10s (8 events:64 dead, 36 injured) ... compare that total (36 events, 214 dead, 305 injured) to the UK were we have witnessed only one such event (17 dead, 15 injured) in that entire time period. These figures do not include those events that happened in the workplace or in other public places (for that the total for the UK rises to 5 compared to 136 in the USA). 

However, on average these figures account for only 1% of the total number of gun-related deaths in the USA - half of all murders are firearm related compared to a tenth in the UK. And yes the UK is a violent place but we didn't just swap guns for knives as some pro-gun lobbyists would have you believe, we have around 700 murders a year for a population of 64 million, yet the USA has over 20 times that number for only five times the population. 

Something is very wrong. If you don't think it is gun ownership & controls then what the hell is it and why isn't anybody doing anything about it?
Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

Guns can and were safely used and respected by the families I grew up with. 
And in mine, my grandfather, dad and I all owned guns (shot guns, air rifles and air pistols), my uncle was president of a (police) gun club and his house was a veritable arsenal of firearms of every description (including a pair of revolvers kept in a glass display case in his living room). My father-in-law and brother-in-law owned shot guns and were regularly involved in pheasant shoots. Owning a gun in rural areas was practically the norm back then. And yep, none of us felt the urge to run amok in the local school, college, shopping mall or cinema either.
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Points: 17309 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2015 at 22:11
So you found 5 events in the 60s/70s in the entire US.  We've had that many this year, I believe.  I'd say something has definitely changed besides the gun. 
...that moment you realize you like "Mob Rules" better than "Heaven and Hell"
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Points: 17309 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2015 at 22:14
And no, I don't think it is ownership to answer your direct question.  What is it?  Why is no one doing anything?  Those were my questions to you anyone who wanted to tackle it.  That's the point. 


Edited by Finnforest - October 11 2015 at 22:16
...that moment you realize you like "Mob Rules" better than "Heaven and Hell"
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2015 at 22:24
Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

So you found 5 events in the 60s/70s in the entire US.  We've had that many this year, I believe.  I'd say something has definitely changed besides the gun. 
Five events in twenty years does not count as the rare event you recalled it to be. One event in fifty-five years is one too many. Sure something has changed, so something must change to counter it. In the long term that means resolving whatever are the root causes (and I suspect they are many), but bearing in mind that school massacres are only 36 out of 136 such rampage killings the obvious common factor is the weaponry used and ease in which the perpetrators can obtain them. 
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Points: 18016 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 11 2015 at 22:29
Rural Canadian prairies, everybody still has a gun and gun violence is still unheard of.  There are a lot of differences between the rural and urban areas, unfortunately.
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Points: 65616 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2015 at 01:23
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

So you found 5 events in the 60s/70s in the entire US.  We've had that many this year, I believe.  I'd say something has definitely changed besides the gun. 
Five events in twenty years does not count as the rare event you recalled it to be. One event in fifty-five years is one too many. Sure something has changed, so something must change to counter it. In the long term that means resolving whatever are the root causes (and I suspect they are many), but bearing in mind that school massacres are only 36 out of 136 such rampage killings the obvious common factor is the weaponry used and ease in which the perpetrators can obtain them. 

There other commons like it's always men in their 20s or 30s.

It is all deeply troubling and inexplicable, makes one tend toward buying mind control conspiracy theories.
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Points: 5319 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2015 at 09:56
Children solving problems with guns has become the norm. Mental health plays a big role in each and every one of these shootings. Guns are not the root cause of these shootings. 
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Points: 23104 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2015 at 10:18
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2015 at 10:20
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Points: 21327 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2015 at 10:37
I'm not sure Rattlesnakes are a benefit.
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Points: 4659 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2015 at 11:37
- no smoking in restaurants, elevators, hotels, busses, cabs, subways, pretty much anyplace other human beings might be inclined to breathe.  Most European countries I've been to seem more like the U.S. thirty years ago as far as maturity of public health policies, especially as regards smoking.

- elbow room.  Maybe not in NYC or LA, but pretty much everywhere else.

- roads and garages big enough for the cars that use them. 
 
- being able to drive just about anywhere I want without paying a toll (granted, this is less viable in the Northeast).
 
- air conditioning.
 
- water (and other drinks) with ice in them at restaurants.
 
- diversity.  Other countries may talk a good game but we've been all-in since day one, and have more countries and cultures represented among our citizenship than anywhere else on the planet. 
 
- Fahrenheit, pounds, miles, gallons and acres.  Screw being like everyone else.
 
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Points: 5319 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2015 at 11:44
We do have this
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Points: 29630 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2015 at 11:49
^ I think that pretty much settles it!
Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
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Points: 24429 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2015 at 12:24
Unfortunately, my experience here in the US has been nothing short of soul-crushing. I came here almost seven years ago, full of hope, and now I feel like a shadow of my former self. I'll spare you the details because I don't want to offend any of you who love your country. I tried to go back home on numerous occasions, but it wasn't feasible for a number of reasons, and now I believe I will never be able to return.


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Points: 34550 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 12 2015 at 12:25
There are many benefits in a global sense, but honestly sometimes it's very brutal and not terribly great. 
I am of course grateful to live in a well off, developed country but there are more of those than just the US (though some dont seem to know thisLOL)

Many of my non American friends, including on this forum, have often blasted the huge amount of wealth the US owns, but I always was quick to point out most of that was owned by relatively few, and in fact the middle class here gets worse off each year. 
No one really took it seriously pre 2009 but now at least such things have become mainstream discussion. 


And ya know, we have the $1 trillion in student debt, young people graduating into difficult markets with 10, 20, 30 thousand dollars in debt. 




Edited by JJLehto - October 12 2015 at 13:25
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