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Most of that list is the result of having a pretty homogeneous society. It's similar to why the Scandinavians always outrank us too. The US has demographic groups that significantly drop our scores in things like health, economics and crime.
Exactly. Also, many of these countries have access to large amounts of primary resources (Denmark is excluded) which turns them into a net exporter. Small population + resource wealth + low military spending = well-funded social safety net.
Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
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Originally Posted by markjames68
It's better to look at cities, rather than states. A state can be "red" with most of the murders in larger cities, which tend to be blue.
For 2013, where the latest complete stats are available, here are the top cities over 100,000.
#1 - Chicago - 183 - Deep Blue, strict handgun laws which were overturned in 2013
#2 - New York - 155 - Deep Blue, strict handgun laws
#3 - Detroit - 154 - Deep Blue, not as strict ("shall carry" in MI)
#4 - Los Angeles - 134 - Deep Blue, strict handgun laws
#5 - Philadelphia - 116 - Deep Blue, PA is "shall carry"
#6 - Baltimore - 115 - Deep Blue, stricter laws passed in 2013
#7 - Memphis - 62 - Blue to Purple
#8 - Kansas City - 61 - Purple
#9 - Las Vegas - 50 - Purple
#10 - St. Louis - 49 - Blue
It doesn't make much sense to compare cities, since there are very few red cities, even in the Bible Belt. Both criminals (who don't usually vote) and the well-educated, compassionate, decent blue folks who usually do vote are drawn to cities for the greater opportunities. Because of their better educations, blue voters are less likely to adopt an "us against them" or "dog eat dog" mentality, and in general are less likely to listen to radio with its rightwing extremists foaming at the mouth about liberals, commies, and how the Muslim Kenyan Obama is going to snatch all our guns and set himself up as dictator (of course lately they've been shifting their focus to Hillary).
Location: where you sip the tea of the breasts of the spinsters of Utica
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Originally Posted by markjames68
I would consider myself to be fiscally conservative. I have no issue with raising the minimum wage to a point where it's on par at its highest buying power (late 1960's I believe) and then indexing it to inflation.
However, as a business person, I can't see the justification for paying a burger flipper $15 an hour. All that does is inflate other wages (do you think that the manager, who makes $15 an hour now will be content?)
Food stamps and welfare are a necessary evil. If you don't have guaranteed employment you will always have people who need help. I do think it needs appropriate oversight, and there are many cases of corruption and misuse.
The problem in my eyes is that if you make things more generous, it encourages more illegal immigration. While the federal government says that illegals aren't eligible for SNAP and Section 8, anchor babies are eligible for assistance as they are citizens.
Countries with even more generous plans than Canada - like Sweden - have strict immigration policies with cultural and language requirements. Where the US has failed is in doing what Canada did - establish official language(s). But because you have to speak, read and write English to become a Citizen, the government will provide services in a ton of other languages but it discourages people to assimilate and then pursue citizenship.
You're really not a conservative, you're a centrist. At least in the US.
Medical Doctors are at the top of Canada's recruitment list for Immigration...........BUT we do insist that those who come here are FULLY fluent in either English, or French, at a University level of reading, writing and SPEAKING
It's similar in the USA, except for anyone who wants to enter from the South. Then there are no rules...
the well-educated, compassionate, decent blue folks who usually do vote are drawn to cities for the greater opportunities. Because of their better educations, blue voters
Are you talking about Democratic elitists or all people in large cities? There is no city I'm aware of where the majority of the population has a four-year college degree; the closest is the DC metro area.
I had also read an article that stated that 80% of NYC high school grads lacked the critical skills necessary for college. Are these the "better educated" that you speak of?
Inner-city people tend to vote Democrat because the message caters to them more. "Tax the rich". Have them "pay their fair share" - in other words, take from them and give to me. Even in California with the campaigns for Proposition this and Proposition that it's usually about one group demanding that another pay more - but not themselves. Are these "decent blue folks"?
Finally, people generally tend to be liberal when young and then become more conservative as they age. You mentioned in the other post that I would be called a centrist in the US. When I voted in Canada over 20 years ago I usually split between the Liberals and the NDP. From a Canadian perspective I'm pretty hard right now.
My wife and I would love to move to Canada, but so far it seems pretty impossible for us to secure jobs or work sponsorship.....
So I guess we are still stuck here.
On the flip side, there are ALWAYS pros and cons to any place you live. I'm sure you can come up with a list of 99 reasons why Canada is worse to live in than the US as well if you wanted.
My wife and I would love to move to Canada, but so far it seems pretty impossible for us to secure jobs or work sponsorship.....
So I guess we are still stuck here.
On the flip side, there are ALWAYS pros and cons to any place you live. I'm sure you can come up with a list of 99 reasons why Canada is worse to live in than the US as well if you wanted.
It's all subjective. Plus, unless one has a real problem with US as a country there are many different places to choose from. Want cold? Alaska. Want hot and dry? Arizona. Want high tech? Silicon Valley. Best surfing? Hawaii.
The downside of Canada (and the reason there are so many snowbirds spending time in the US) is that you have your choice of cold, colder, coldest and somewhat temperate (Southern Ontario and parts of BC).
If you want to nitpick and call those two states blue states, then go ahead and, yes, D.C. is blue, but it still doesn't take away from the fact that the VAST MAJORITY of the states with the highest amount of gun violence are undoubtedly RED. And even though they went blue for the presidential election, Nevada and New Mexico are still mostly conservative. Every state has long term running politicians from both sides as even the bluest states have pockets of conservatives and the reddest have pockets of liberals. That does not change or take away the fact the overall state is one way or the other.
So go ahead a take away those two states and one city, that still leaves 18 red states in the top for gun violence.
You can't compare states when looking at gun violence. To be accurate, you must break it down to large cities with large ghettos. The Ghettos are responsible for the bulk of the gun violence stats. Some states have multiple large cities, and some states have only one. It's not accurate to compare states.
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