America in Decline: Why Germans Think We're Insane

[mudplanet]

"The European Union has a larger economy and more people than America does. Though it spends less -- right around 9 percent of GNP on medical, whereas we in the U.S. spend close to between 15 to 16 percent of GNP on medical -- the EU pretty much insures 100 percent of its population.

The U.S. has 59 million people medically uninsured; 132 million without dental insurance; 60 million without paid sick leave; 40 million on food stamps. Everybody in the European Union has cradle-to-grave access to universal medical and a dental plan by law. The law also requires paid sick leave; paid annual leave; paid maternity leave. When you realize all of that, it becomes easy to understand why many Europeans think America has gone insane."

form Alternet http://www.alternet.org/story/149324/america_in_decline%3A_why_germans_think_we%27re_insane

[elleng]

1. Because we are (insane,)

due to takeover by corporate media.

[lovuian]

32. we are FOOLS

and America's Congress is a bunch of corrupt idiots

[grahamhgreen]

89. Or, were fooled.... again.

[msongs]

2. Germany doesnt hyave Obama and our congress and our worker-hating corporations nt

[MadMaddie]

6. President Obama didn't create this problem

This problem started when for profit medical was allowed to exist and that was in the 50's. Until Hospitals and medical care becom non-profit we will always have this issue.

The other issue is Germany and other countries do not let their critical manufacturing leave their country. The U.S started down this path with Reagen and we are reaping the pain from it now.

[galloglas]

12. Source, please

you stated "for profit medical was allowed to exist and that was in the 50's".

To the best of my recall, the first corporate hospitals were under HCA. IOW, the old Sen. Bill Frist legacy. I think these started in 1981 or '82 under Reagan. But I may be totally off.

Help, please?

[MadMaddie]

54. Per your Request

I have actually found better articles but I am not at my own computer today.

The rise of Health Insurance in America
http://www.neurosurgical.com/medical_history_and_ethics/history/history_of_health_insurance.htm

When Did Health Care Become For Profit?

http://boundrationality.blogspot.com/2009/09/when-did-health-care-become-for-profit.html
<snip>
Until the 1940s, health care was considered a national social obligation, not something that generated profits for the private sector. “Making money off of health care is a recent historical phenomenon, and it’s something that many historians still find very, very odd,” Rosner says.
<snip>

Here is a nice paper on hospital history and how for profits complained they were at a disadvantage compared to non-profits.
<snip>
Health care, which had been dominated by proprietary and government
providers, became largely nonprofit by the 1960s – cont...

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/hauser/PDF_XLS/workingpapers/workingpaper_14.pdf

I will see if I have the data that I originally found when I get back to my own computer.

I do see the 1980's data you are referring to.

:hi:

[NewJeffCT]

71. For profit insurance started in the 1930s

when large life insurance companies got into the business. During World War 2, there were wage & price freezes starting in 1939, and one way for a company to attract new employees was to provide a better benefits package, i.e., health insurance. When Medicare & Medicaid were started in the 60s, for profit private insurance covered 75% of Americans. However, by the 90s, that number was only half of all Americans.

Earlier in the 30s, Blue Cross was founded (non profit at the time) as a way to reduce price competition among hospitals.

http://www.neurosurgical.com/medical_history_and_ethics/history/history_of_health_insurance.htm

Interestingly, before that (circa 1919), a lot of insurance companies/corporations did not want to get into health insurance at all, considering health to not be an insurable commodity due to moral hazards and other potential risks.

Insurance Companies Initially Unwilling to Offer Health Insurance Policies

The low demand for health insurance at the time was matched by the unwillingness of commercial insurance companies to offer private health insurance policies. Commercial insurance companies did not believe that health was an insurable commodity because of the high potential for adverse selection and moral hazard. They felt that they lacked the information to accurately calculate risks and write premiums accordingly. For example, people in poor health may claim they to be healthy and then sign up for health insurance. A problem with moral hazard may arise if people change their behavior -- perhaps engaging in more risky activities -- after they purchase health insurance. According to The Insurance Monitor, "the opportunities for fraud upset all statistical calculations.... Health and sickness are vague terms open to endless construction. Death is clearly defined, but to say what shall constitute such loss of health as will justify insurance compensation is no easy task" (July 1919, vol. 67 (7), p. 38).

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/thomasson.insurance.health.us

[WhiteTara]

13. I thought Nixon brought in for profit medicine

with HMOs.

[NewJeffCT]

72. No, it started in the late 30s

see my link above. When Medicare came into being in the mid 60s, 75% of Americans were covered by some form of private insurance.

[stevenleser]

79. The Germans like Obama. n/t

[siligut]

80. Germany recognizes Nazi doctrine enough to not allow it in their medical system

Our government brought the Nazi scientists to the US after WWll, ostensibly to prevent other countries from obtaining their knowledge. This Nazi mentality has invaded our weapons program, space program and medical system. There is an underlying attitude in western medicine that focuses more on the money than the patients, do-gooders are slowly incorporated. The AMA polices its own, they have more power than one entity should be allowed. This is one of the major reasons they are so against government intervention in medicine, they do not want the scrutiny.

[hlthe2b]

3. So do I....

Will they adopt me?

[Cleita]

4. We aren't insane but we were taken over by

a stealth coup in 2000 when George W. Bush was crowned King, er President. He moved in his loyalists in all parts of our government and now they are running their corporate, global oil, fascist agenda exactly like the PNAC plans mapped them out.

[stockholmer]

55. before the wicked Bush, there was the 1990's, as well

NAFTA, the repeal of Glass-Steagall, and the legalization of derivatives, all under your president Clinton, was where the speed of globalism and fascistic corporatism really gained speed, only to further explode under the delusional puppet Bush and now the feckless puppet Obama

2 sides, same coin, the powers are the banks, both here in the EU and in the USA, we all are doomed to lives of serfdom till we cast off the blood-takers from our respective polities' necks

in the USA they only have to buy off 2 parties, due to an absense of proportional representation in your government

cheers from Sweden

[AlbertCat]

68. before the wicked Bush, and the 1990's, there was Reagan

Remember the conservation Carter espoused?

Then Reagan told everyone that greed was good and they believed it.

Reagan was the 1st cardboard cutout, PR president. Elected to send a message while others (unelected) governed. "Government is the problem" ( a strange thing for someone in government to say!) And thus the era of major deregulation began. Deregulation is really the problem. Clinton just continued the trend.

[stockholmer]

69. to really go back far and systemically deep....

some of the true modern roots of the problem occurred under Theodore Roosevelt and the so-called Progressive movements, which were actually the robber barons using Government to enforce their dominance. Read Gabriel Kolko "The Triumph of Conservatism: A Reinterpretation of American History, 1900-1916" for a New Left reinterpretation.


http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/78-politics/1114-the-progressive-era

the other huge problem was the formation of the US Federal Reserve under Woodrow Wilson, who later called it the largest mistake of his life, as it allowed the Anglo-American banking alliance to take over the fiscal control of the USA, and has led to 100 years of global empiric wars

[Cleita]

75. Clinton made mistakes, however, the country

wouldn't have fallen off the cliff if Al Gore had taken his rightful and elected place as our President. It was the illegitimate Bush Presidency that brought us to where we are and we the ordinary American could do nothing about it once he was sworn in.

[stockholmer]

82. Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama

different flavours, same corporatist poison

in some terms, certain people's oxes got gored,(pardon the pun), in other terms the other so-called side took one for the team

then there is "change election", but nothing really changes, just diffrent parts of the overall process are exploited, in juxtaposition to whatever dominant theme that presidency expouses

Kennedy took on the Federal Reserve and the CIA, and received lead to the brain for his troubles

at end of the day, the rich have consolidated wealth utterly vertically, and hollowed out the country, this has exploded under puppet Obama, even faster than puppet Bush

the top 1 percent in the USA now have over 50 percent all the wealth ( in 1965, the top 5 percent <or 5 times as many> had only 19 percent) so the richest 1 percent have increased their share 13 times, and the top .1 percent (just 300,000 people) have increased their share over 100 times all in just 45 years

the bottom 20 percent of Americans had 5 percent of the wealth in 1965

now, the BOTTOM 40 percent (over 130 million people) have only 0.3 percent of the wealth

the bottom 40 percent of the USA have had their share DECREASED 30-fold in last 40 years



and this following report is from 2006, before the crash

By international standards, the United States has an unusually low level of intergenerational mobility: our parents’ income is highly predictive of our incomes as adults. Intergenerational mobility in the United States is lower than in France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Norway and Denmark. Among high-income countries for which comparable estimates are available, only the United Kingdom had a lower rate of mobility than the United States.

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2006/04/b1579981.html

[Cleita]

88. Nixon was more progressive than Obama.

So was Eisenhower if you are going to lump them all together. Yes, we have been fed a "capitalism is the only way to govern" mantra and our leaders reflect that. However, Bush was unelected and he perpetrated the most evil. To lump all those Presidents into what is happening today, with the crazy people entering politics and all is disingenuous. Most of our Presidents up to Reagan were a mixed bag of good done and a lot of triangulation ending up with failed and failing policies, but none were as destructive or psychopathic as Bush.

[stockholmer]

91. Cheney was an epicenter of evil, along with Rumsfeld

Obama, whilst not on a demonic level with those cutthroats, is doing quite well serving his neo-pharoah masters

Im sorely afraid that the control system globally will never allow a great humnitarian leader to emerge for decades, if ever, until it is overthrown

[Cleita]

96. Cheney and Rumsfeld are a couple

of white collar criminals who essentially got power illegally through the illegally appointed Bush. Comparing Obama to them is unfair. Obama is legitimately elected and he is making some mistakes by distancing himself from liberals by calling himself a New Democrat, but he's also accomplishing a few things in spite of that fact. It's just that he believes Americans really want all this conservative, business takes care of the economy policies. I think he will realize soon that he is wrong or more accurately that his advisors who are telling him this are wrong and will change course. If he doesn't, then he's not the brilliant person people imagine him to be.

[tabasco]

95. That's the stupidest fucking thing I've read in awhile.

Congrats.

[seabeyond]

5. germany has a lot of protectionism going on, dont they? nt

[Violet_Crumble]

11. Nowhere near as much as the US does n/t

[seabeyond]

18. i think you are wrong. i think one of u.s. huge problem is they do NOT have fair trade

germany protects itself and its industries. the u.s. gives it away for corporate greed.

[pampango]

21. Germany has the same WTO-tariff structure that the US has and trades mostly

with other European countries with no tariffs at all. Germany trades much more than the US does and tariff-free trade is a much larger part of their economy.

[MattSh]

42. What would you expect?

Germany, an EU country, trading with mostly other EU countries. No tariffs.

That's very similar in concept to one US state trading with other US states. Also no tariffs.

[pampango]

45. European countries haven't always had no tariffs with each other. Progressives there chose

that arrangement after WWII to further peace and prosperity on the continent. It has worked wonders for Europeans in both regards-no wars and shared prosperity.

There are right wing movements in most European countries now that want to reinstate intra-European tariffs and border controls in the name of national "sovereignty" and keeping out "others" and their products.

You are right, though. Once the EU countries chose the no-tariffs path their trade with each other now resembles interstate trade in the US. We will see if they can fight off conservative efforts to change this.

[Violet_Crumble]

22. I know I'm right. The US is far more protectionist than the EU is n/t

[mudplanet]

36. You know you're right? How do you know this?

What is the European equivalent of NAFTA?

How are trade policies regarding neighboring countries with roughly equivalent labor and living standards similar or equivalent to trade policies between a developed nation and third world nations?

For example, does German trade policy allow most or all of the components of automobiles be manufactured in an undeveloped third world country by the equivalent of slave labor but then the car assembled in Germany? This is standard industrial practice in the US and tens of thousands of small businesses all over the Midwest have been destroyed by it.

[Violet_Crumble]

41. It takes only a bit of knowledge of both the US and the EU to know...

I'm also very aware of the protectionism of the US that has a really bad affect on farmers here. While they can and do export to the EU, the US is a whole different matter.

[pampango]

44. "What is the European equivalent of NAFTA?" - The EU (continent-wide "free trade")

The US has "free trade" with its continental neighbors Canada and Mexico under NAFTA. Germany has "free trade" with all of its neighbors-a total of 30 countries on the continent.

In addition, Germany (and all EU countries) has "free trade" agreements with Mexico, South Korea, and Chile. They are negotiating similar agreements with South Africa, India, Canada, the MERCOSUR group (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Venezuela and Uruguay) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates).

"How are trade policies regarding neighboring countries with roughly equivalent labor and living standards similar or equivalent to trade policies between a developed nation and third world nations?"

Romania and Bulgaria (the EU's newest members are poorer than Mexico). In addition, the EU has "free trade" agreements with Mexico, Chile and South Korea and is negotiating with India and other "Third World" countries.

The EU also provides "preferential access" to imports from the Third World.

"The EU's Generalised System of Preferences is a trade arrangement through which the EU provides preferential access to the EU market to 176 developing countries and territories, in the form of reduced tariffs for their goods when entering the EU market. There is no expectation or requirement that this access be reciprocated."

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/wider-agenda/development/generalised-system-of-preferences/

[mudplanet]

57. thank you for the link

[stockholmer]

58. the big point is that Germany still has huge industrial production

free trade was designed to operate from the basis of comparative advantage, with a nation state protecting the means of production

since 1965, the USA has off-shored over 85 percent of its industrial production, this is known as absolute advantage, simply the chase for lower and lower production costs on a global basis, irregardless of quality or the effect on the national economy in terms of domestic impact

over 80 percent of the industrial innovation occurs in the scaling-up process, from design, to factory floor

this entire culture has been ripped asunder from the US workforce, and will take at least one or 2 full generations to bring back

you literally will have to recreate the entire educational infrastructure of high-tech trade schools, as well change the spending and saving habits of 310,000,000 citizens, as 70 plus percent of the USA economy is based on internal consumption, with the vast bulk of all goods consumed coming from imports

[liberation]

62. "What is the European equivalent of NAFTA?"

You are seriously asking that question? "European Union" Hellloooooooo ;-)

[RaleighNCDUer]

27. America's protection is only for the owners, not the workers. nt

[sabrina 1]

7. They don't have the military budget we have eating up so much

of our resources.

[Mudoria]

19. Of course not

they know we'll defend them without them having to spend much of their money. Or blood.

[sabrina 1]

20. Are you serious? Defend them from what? WE are the ones

creating enemies. And the U.S. is considered to be the biggest threat to World Peace today.

Americans really are living in a world of delusion, not just on the right apparently.

[mudplanet]

37. Defend them from what?

[liberation]

67. From Iraq and Afghanistan, of course!

You know we're an Empire, when there are plenty of Americans who think we have bases overseas to protect the "natives." You know, just like the old European empires thought of themselves as actually doing the "natives" a favor by "civilizing" and protecting them from themselves.

[CLANG]

77. European blood is being spilled in Afghanistan

By treaty they are helping fight in a war started by the good ol' USA!

[Kennah]

8. Key To The Insanity

"Some social scientists think that making sure large-scale crime or fascism never takes root in Europe again requires a taxpayer investment in a strong social safety net."

Germany has some historical perspective here from which we should learn.

[ieoeja]

56. I always use that argument.

The United States today is going through the same experience which Europe has already experienced. They fought two world wars and experimented with facism and communism before settling on a solution that seems to be working rather well.

Are we going to have to experiment with extremist ideologies and warfare to learn the same damn thing? Sadly, it appears so.

[MannyGoldstein]

9. Why do you want the Palin to be President?

This kind of talk will just get Republicans elected.

[stockholmer]

60. no, denial of the underlying fundamentals will destroy your nation

Obama simply has continued the corporatist agenda, and actually expanded the American wars of empire

meanwhile, the false left-right paradigm ensures that most Americans simply fight over issues that divide severely but are actually inconsequential to the monetary systems raping of birthright of liberty at myriad nd nebulous multivariate levels

what does gay marriage matter if the honeymoon home is a tent in a 50,000 person homeless shantytown?

what good does a state legalizing drugs do, if the federal government simply steps in and locks up all inside of private, for-profit prisons?

the same can be said of many many issues that the so-called right wing holds dear to their cold little hearts

most wedge issues are designed to divide and conquer thru the obscuring of the underlying massive systemic changes that are choking off all citizens, irregardless of which of the 2 parties they support

follow the money, and you will find that both parties heel their corporate masters, as well as almost never undoing the agenda of the previous government, even on hated things (Patriot Act, War in Iraq, Afghanistan, tax cuts for billionaires anyone?)

[lark]

94. So, what, you want us to pretend that hope is still alive

when ye all know it died long ago? We should blindly and 100% support the corporatist shill because he's less bad than the more extreme Repug corporatist shills? That's what has brought us to this mess, settling for crumbs when the whole pie was up for grabs. We need to call out craziness where ever we see it, not just when it comes directly from the Repugs, but also when it comes from someone supposedly Democratic.

Obama acting like a Repug is the only thing that could cause the Repugs to win, and so far he's playing his bit just fine - giving them everything single thing they care about and picking up crumbs for his payment.

[jwirr]

10. They look at is as taking care of people - we look at it as a jobs

program for the insurance companies.

[Gregorian]

14. I just spent $80,000 on my teeth!

I'm happy to have a way of eating. But I'm furious that medical and dental are considered to worlds, when they are in fact one. Let alone the fact that I didn't have dental insurance. Fortunately I can handle the price. But so many Americans are going without dental quality. I have now started talking with people and discovering the number who have inadequate mouths. Pathetic. Absolutely stupid. Our values are B1 bomber parts. Yet our lives suffer.

[mudplanet]

15. Wow. Good dental work is worth what you pay for it, but 80K!

I'm trying to put together $5K so I can go to Mexico and get few crowns and an implant.

[reggie the dog]

16. all things that would cost me a maximum of 50 euros

with probably between 40 and 49 of those paid back by the public insurance and my co op complementary insurance

[Michigan-Arizona]

33. Mexico Dentist

I just took my daughter's friend down there. The dentist did 17 teeth, a deep cleaning, Porcelain & not sure if she had any pulled, all for $4,500. She started with an appt. on Monday, appt. on Wed.(her temps put in) & the final appt. (perm. ones on Saturday. Took only 3 appts; all total. She had this same work priced in Michigan at $24,000.

[COLGATE4]

59. And I'm willing to bet that the work was as good as (or better) than

what she would have gotten in MI.

[Michigan-Arizona]

86. Yes it was!

She loves her new porcelain teeth & at a fraction of the cost. I also had mine down there & I love mine & the work he did. A good friend of mine who was born & raised in Nogales, Mexico was the one that recommended him to me, he was her dentist while growing up down there. I just find it amazing as to how fast they get it all done as well. I sent hubby's partial in for repair's year's ago & it took forever to get it back.

[delightfulstar]

93. I've thought about doing this too...

I live in Phoenix, so it wouldn't be a very long trip to Nogales. I'm currently looking at $10K-15K+ of dental work (numerous crowns), and insurance only covers 60%, so if I ended up paying closer $2K in Mexico, it would work out really well.

[Michigan-Arizona]

101. Wow 10 to 15K

I'm at the north end of Tucson & it didn't all to long to get down there. We parked on the USA side & walked across the border. Do you have a passport? I renewed mine this year & got a cheap one, I can only use it to walk across the border, no flying anywhere with this kind. The only thing I would suggest is making sure you use a dentist that someone you know has used or is very familiar with. I doubt you'd have to make more than 3 trips down there to get it all done. The people of Nogales, Mexico have always been very nice & I do love going down there. Good luck if you do decide to go down there & you can always message me if you have any question's that I may be able to answer.

[delightfulstar]

104. How they got to that estimate...

I have bad genetics when it comes to teeth (both of my parents ended up with full sets of dentures, and all of my siblings have terrible teeth too). The dentist I went to when I lived in Chicago turned out to not be so great - he did a lot of "patch and fill" type work that didn't hold up. I also had a nasty Mountain Dew/Pepsi habit which didn't help matters (the acids and carbonation are very bad for one's teeth), but have given up the soda. :) And I have 20 year-old bonding that is starting to fail. It turns out that the best long-term solution to solve this is to do crowns across the upper apparatus, so that will be 8-10 of them, which is in the $8,000 range; I also need two root canals in the back, and crowns there, too, and two bridges. I also would like the other teeth laser whitened to match. So that's where the astronomical price tag comes from. I have very little evidence of perio disease, and I'm in my 30s, so I see it as something that should hopefully last me the rest of my life.

My passport expired about 5 years ago, so I need to get a new one. I'm hoping to get all of this dental work completely done by the end of 2011. I'm bookmarking this thread, and when I'm ready to schedule, I may PM you with any questions I have about doing this. Thank you so much! :)

[eridani]

43. My husband had an emergency root canal in the Netherlands in 1996

We were told before finding a dentist that being foreigners, we'd need cash up front. We needlessly cashed out all of our travelers' checks. Turned out to cost 100 guilders, or about $25 American.

[taught_me_patience]

31. You should have gone to Thailand

It probably would have cost 1/10 that. Medical tourism is superb there and I would completely trust Thai doctors with nearly every procedure.

[stockholmer]

65. but yet the work is not being done on sacred land(sarcasm off)

most Americans have no qualms about letting a medical provider work on them who is from a nation that they would NEVER dream of traveling to, simply because the work is done on American soil

given the fact that doctor-caused deaths occurring there amount to a couple of hundred thousand a year
http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/Ldoctordeath.htm

and that the price of travel to a great medical tourism country such as Singapore or one in the EU is dwarfed by the increased price of the American procedure, one really has to begin the decision-making skills of the US populace

[russspeakeasy]

73. Is your comma in the right place?

[indepat]

17. America has not gone insane: it's only bearing the fruits and joys of a RW agenda brought into

our society with much forethought by the three major branches of government, propagandized 24-7 by the likes of FOX, and eaten up by tens of millions of Americans. :shrug:

[janet118]

76. Exactly . . .

Americans become stupid when words like "socialism" or "welfare" are used. They are also myopic - they don't see the big picture, but they pretend to know about it because they listen to the propaganda machine. I would say lazy, not crazy.

[indepat]

103. Absolutely!

;)

[RegieRocker]

23. What is wrong with this country

Is a mirror image of what is wrong with it's people. Greed, corruption, law breakers etc.

[valerief]

24. Jesus told us to vote Republican. Are you saying Jesus is insane?

:rofl:

[old mark]

25. No, but he has been dead for quite some time.....nt

[valerief]

26. Ha! He's always been dead to me. nt

[RaleighNCDUer]

29. No, but anybody who thinks Jesus is talking to them is. nt

[valerief]

40. Damn, I knew I should have put that sarcasm tag on there!

:eyes:

[liberation]

63. Probably those taking advice from a Jewish zombie are the insane ones?

LOL ;-)

[Q3JR4]

28. It's true, but until I find a European boyfriend,

I try not to think about it.

Q3JR4.
_{One of the previously mentioned uninsured Americans.}

[DFW]

48. My daughter did that, come to think of it

But since she's European, too, it didn't make a lot of difference in her health care insurance.

[quaker bill]

30. Perhaps, "never became sane" would be more apt

It is not like we gave away this stuff, we never had it and don't believe we can "afford" it. Very nice con job that was, most effective.

[live love laugh]

34. "... 132 million without dental insurance..."

Remember when we laughed at the Brits' bad teeth? Whose laughing now? Literally.

[leveymg]

35. We're just an occupied country, acting like an occupied country.

We have the option of rebellion and eventually winning the war. The Germans did.

Time to rebel.

[mudplanet]

38. Sometimes I feel like I'm living it the movie "The Live"

[stevenleser]

84. The Germans like Obama and would be surprised and appalled if we rebelled against him. n/t

[Swamp Rat]

39. Why are they picking on poor, little Glenn Beck?

:cry:

[sirthomas66]

46. We are disgusting beyond belief. And though Obama did not start it,

he has continued it and even extended it. It is now past the rubicon.

[Xicano]

47. Reminds me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YawagQ6lLrA

[mdmc]

49. r

[hay rick]

50. K&R

[Bragi]

51. Most people in developed countries think this way

The recognition that the U.S has lost it is not just a German thing.

[peacetalksforall]

52. We are not the insane ones, the lobbyists, corporations, politicians, insurance co's, hospitals,

some of the doctors, the think tanks, and the Bilderburg Group who rule us are insane. It is all in the plan for us. Who else would put themselves on the elite pedestal? This is the state of christianity and judaism in this country - the two dominant religions based on who is at the top.

The only surprise is that they are not using television to tell us how great it is for us.

[lark]

97. Subliminally, that's exactly what they are doing

Where's the wall to wall coverage of the death panels in AZ and the horror of the unnecessary death's it's causing? All the coverage is on taxes, nothing on what the taxes are supposed to be paying, nothing about all the money going to the ultra-profitable oil companies, nothing about the hackable voting machines - we just get the pablum to make the masses think everything's basically OK - if we just cut taxes a little more for the very rich. After all, there's a 1 in 10,000,000,000 chance that rich person will create a job!

[ooglymoogly]

100. In short, the Republicans. nt

[Bosso 63]

53. Germans don't realize that US is exceptional!

God likes us best, so rules of logic don't apply.

[Overseas]

61. I thought the Bush Crash would have given my Democrats the courage

to return to our roots and give us a 21st Century FDR rebalancing of our economy.

Medicare for All because so many of us had lost so much in the crash and were being evicted from our homes.

They could even have done the "bipartisan" thing by pointing out that they were bipartisan with what Republicans claimed to be--

Republicans say they are fiscally responsible-- our major industrial competitors have the government handling medical costs, we should too. Let's finally get on an equal footing with them.

Republicans say they are strong on defense-- but they allowed war profiteering and reckless conduct by military contractors, so we need to undo that. Brutal bombing wars have created more enemies for our country, we need to undo that. We will focus on intelligence and seduction-- building schools and hospitals and encouraging small business.

Republicans say they are strong on defense-- so many of our wars were focused on securing access to oil, so by putting our desperate people back to work on infrastructure projects that included as much green technology as possible, we could reduce our country's use of oil, thus stretching the remaining supplies for use by the private sector, and catching up with the rest of the world in green technology markets. We would have more oil left for our children to enjoy petroleum based goods if we could make our shared infrastructure as green as possible. We could have some options in case restricting oil supplies was used as a threat against us in the future. That's a much smarter defense of our country and its future.

Republicans say they are fiscally responsible, so we will be bipartisan with that ideal and let the tax cuts for the top 2% expire on schedule. But since we all can see the data that tax cuts for the middle and lower classes are spent immediately, which stimulates local economies that need it desperately after the Bush Crash, we will keep the middle class tax cuts.

We could have even done that bipartisan thing if my Democrats had banded together behind that sort of plan. Bipartisan with Republican myths about themselves. Fiscal responsibility-- check. Stronger on defense-- we can do that too.

I really thought we would do that. Especially because we had a "practical, pragmatic" new president and those moves would have been the most practical to rebuild our country after the Bush crash and ensure its long term health.

[russspeakeasy]

74. We vote for sound bites, not ideas.

[NorthCarolina]

92. We vote for who the media tells us are the "likely candidates"

which, just coincidentally, are the corporate approved candidates. Anyone falling outside that circle of "corporate approved" candidates is maligned, demeaned, ridiculed, laughed at, and then ignored by the beltway media.

[felix_numinous]

64. The corporatatocracy

system is insane, and it serves them to export all the news on the insanity of the citizenry, just to justify cracking down on us. We deserve it you know, and must pay for their crimes. I

[barbtries]

66. i think i agree

with many Europeans.

[Iggo]

70. Is it because we're insane? (n/t)

[pansypoo53219]

78. zombie mccarthyism.

commi-socialism. fucking bootstrap mentality. handouts destroy character. oh wait, zombie PURITANISM.

[MedicalAdmin]

81. The real reason that germans think we are insane.

Is that most of us are still here rather than leaving.

The US is done like dinner and the oligarchs are sticking a big fork up our...

[earcandle]

83. We are insane...

Let us do Something Different

to avoid Crashing Into The Future

as a result of the Census

[bobthedrummer]

85. Yep, they recognize a culture of death from their own historic experience n/t

[JDPriestly]

87. Having lived in Germany (had a baby while living there) as well

as some other European countries, I think we are insane too. All health insurance should be non-profit, or better yet government funded out of tax payments.

For-profit health care is a failure. I say that based on comparing my experience in Europe and my experience in the US.

[mckara]

90. The Entire West is in Decline! Read Oswald Spengler

[Nye Bevan]

98. Everybody in the European Union has a dental plan?

I guess that explains why British people have such good teeth?

[elias7]

99. EU has 500 million population, US 300 million

[stuntcat]

102. too late to rec

We work lots more days of the year & more hours of the week. (My husband got a few days off for Christmas but for the solid month before that he worked SEVEN days a week, and now that we're home he's back to it.)

cause ain't you heard? Being a hard working go-getter is so essential to being a good American!! Don't expect the rich government with the most weapons in the world to help you out with health, much less give your lazy ass a couple weeks vacation :eyes:

And don't count on them to do anything about the cheapest food being the stuff that makes you fat and sick. Just marvel at the concern the powerful rich old men have for the masses and for the future :eyes: