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View Poll Results: Proud & happy of being American?
Yes 110 84.62%
No 20 15.38%
Voters: 130. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 02-09-2007, 11:15 PM
 
Location: In NJ, for better or worse...
170 posts, read 960,199 times
Reputation: 70

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Quote:
Originally Posted by HBJohn View Post
Does anybody ever think about the fact that Europeans are on vacation like 4 months out of the year and we here in the ol' USA are working 40 to 60 hours a week and possibly with one week vacation. And to top that off I still can't afford to buy the least expensive barrio house in Orange County Calif.
Is it possible that we've been brainwashed so much through schooling here to believe that we are the worlds greatest everything.
Just a simple example and I have to be honest about this I really don't know the numbers I just remember reading something like this. If we are such the greatest country in the world why is our infant mortality rate something like 15th in the world. Why do we have so much higher rates of cancer than many other countries. Why do we force our children to have 15,000 vaccinations that many European country do not have. What about education. Shouldn't we be number one? Why are our high school students testing so much lower than so many other countries?
You know I could go on and on.
I don't hate the USA at all I just sometimes think that we are force fed how great we are and we are never told the truth about many things.
You do realize, though, about 20% of people under 30 are unemployed in France? Unemployment is rampant in Germany as well. As for longer work hours, the US GDP growth for last quarter was 3.5% - in Germany they were jumping up and down for 2.1% for the YEAR. There is no such thing as a socialist utopia.
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Old 02-11-2007, 07:51 PM
 
Location: Haddington, E. Lothian, Scotland
753 posts, read 754,365 times
Reputation: 175
Quote:
Originally Posted by royceb View Post
You do realize, though, about 20% of people under 30 are unemployed in France? Unemployment is rampant in Germany as well. As for longer work hours, the US GDP growth for last quarter was 3.5% - in Germany they were jumping up and down for 2.1% for the YEAR. There is no such thing as a socialist utopia.
There's no such thing as a utopia, period.

And US GDP growth was 3.5% *annualized*. There's no way the US is on track for 14% growth for the year!
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Old 02-13-2007, 07:17 AM
 
Location: NJ/SC
4,343 posts, read 14,735,396 times
Reputation: 2729
I'm not only happy but feel extremely lucky and I don't take it for granted. People are risking their lives to get into this country and all I did was be born here.
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Old 02-14-2007, 01:32 AM
 
Location: Atlanta
702 posts, read 2,519,804 times
Reputation: 291
I bet you there's a Utopia, Kansas....or maybe Utah...
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Old 02-14-2007, 02:18 AM
 
Location: Earth
17,440 posts, read 28,468,000 times
Reputation: 7472
I'm proud to be American and consider myself to be patriotic but am not xenophobic by any means. I am glad that my ancestors came to the US and made a good life for themselves, although I realize they could have done the same in Canada or Australia as well. I'm not too happy about how the US has moved away from its committment to civil liberties under Bush nor am I happy about his foreign policy (and the lack of a National Health and insufficient public transport in much of the US is a disgrace) but the US still does have its good aspects. I could easily live in Canada, Australia, the UK, New Zealand, or Ireland - and I also could live in most continental Western European countries and some Central European countries either. As far as Latin America goes, I wouldn't mind living in Argentina ; I admit that other Latin American countries have many good decent people living in them but either the governments are really screwed up and/or social problems are far too severe even if the government's actually trying to help. I don't think there's a contradiction between being proud of one's own country and realizing that other countries have good aspects (and not just Anglosphere nations either)
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Old 02-15-2007, 06:14 PM
 
2,141 posts, read 6,884,466 times
Reputation: 595
TO ALL THE KIDS
WHO SURVIVED the
1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!


First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, and tuna from a can.


Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.


We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.


We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.


We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because .


WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!


We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.


No one was able to reach us all day.


And we were OK.


We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down
the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound, WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!


We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.


We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.


We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,

made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang
the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!


Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!


The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.


They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!


The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.


We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned


HOW TO

DEAL WITH IT ALL!


If YOU are one of them . . CONGRATULATIONS!


You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as
kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good


And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.
!


Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
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Old 02-15-2007, 07:17 PM
 
Location: Santa Barbara, CA
1,153 posts, read 4,540,119 times
Reputation: 741
I think our President is an embarassment, but otherwise I'm content. So yes.
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Old 02-15-2007, 09:48 PM
 
7,138 posts, read 14,592,511 times
Reputation: 2397
Yes, am very proud to be an American. Would never entertain living anywhere else on earth, and more specifically nowhere but Texas.

I would be very willing to help pay boat fare to wherever for those who do not love and respect this country and who are not grateful for the abundance and blessings here. Bye bye...
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Old 02-24-2007, 07:55 PM
 
8 posts, read 27,882 times
Reputation: 14
Well it wasn't my choice. But I am glad to be American. I would live in Canada as a back-up. Nice and close to the U.S.A
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Old 02-24-2007, 09:43 PM
 
9,871 posts, read 10,771,214 times
Reputation: 3103
I am extremly proud to be an American and happy iwas born in this greatest nation in the world. God Bless America
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