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All too often many threads and posters come up with some of the weirdest misconceptions of Western Europe.
* Many (especially those on the Right) believe that Western Europe is overrun by muslims that control everything.
* Western European is on the verge of communism.
* European crime rates are higher than America.
* More and more people in Western Europe don't work and stay at home to get their government handout.
* The European healthcare system allows people to go without treatment, sometimes until they die.
Some opinions are obviously uninformed and hilarious. I wonder where these people get their information about Europe?
One of the biggest misconceptions is that there economy is going well and their political system is one to emulate!
Generalization, depends on what country you are talking about. Germany's economic situation is fine, and spain and greece not so much. Sweden's Proportional representation although create a lot of minority governments, it represnts best what the population wants. Which is more then you can say about the wasted votes of first past the post
Generalization, depends on what country you are talking about. Germany's economic situation is fine, and spain and greece not so much. Sweden's Proportional representation although create a lot of minority governments, it represnts best what the population wants. Which is more then you can say about the wasted votes of first past the post
Excuse me but, how does proportional representation represent what the population wants, if multiple parties have to build unstable coalitions? Then you have a mess like Belgium, which how many times had its government dissolved because of disagreements? Multiple parties breed instability. Just like national referendums are not good especially when you have 300 million people living here. Imagine how many parties would be in the Congress if all voters in this country wanted their own party in, chaos I tell you
According to my ultra conservative uncle, Western European nations are beset by hordes of muslim youth gangs, roving the countryside and killing non-muslims indiscriminately, which is not nearly as bad as the power of the nations' respective state apparatuses that go door to door, searching people's homes for their Bibles. Anybody found with one is shot in the streets. The elderly are shot in the streets and the police make their grandchildren pull the triggers. Anyone with as much as a headcold is shot in the streets because it's cheaper than the state buying them Robitussin.
Union-controlled laborers riot everyday. There is no private property in France, the UK, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, etc., etc. because the unions own everything. If you're not in the unions, you're shot in the streets.
A loaf of bread, if you can find one in any W. European country, costs the equivalent of $1.5 million, which no one has, and if you do, the labor unions take it and then you're shot in the streets. Only France, acc. to my uncle, has any food. But there, uppity French waiters waste a lot of it by throwing it on fat American tourists.
My uncle says the beer sucks in European countries. He says it has too much flavor and one gets him tipsy. Anyone caught with flavorless American beers is shot in the streets.
Oh, and the European women, they all have to stand nude in their windows, hoping to lure men to pay them for sex (which is cheaper than a loaf of bread) because it's the only job available to them.
And the European meds are laced with cyanide.
Europeans kill at birth any female children; it's cheaper to do so and many parents, my uncle claims, would rather do that then to watch them grow up to be prostitutes.
Christians are shot in the streets.
Neitzsche's birthday is a state holiday in Europe, and if you don't celebrate it, then you're shot in the streets.
The streets are lined with human blood spilled by the carnage and the only other thing you can find there is all the urine and fecal matter because Western European unions forbade indoor plumbing, so people have to relieve themselves anywhere they can.
Everyone in Europe is gay, my uncle says, and if you're straight, then you're shot in the streets.
I could go on, but these are just some of his views. He goes to Europe routinely on business, so apparently he knows what it is like there.
Excuse me but, how does proportional representation represent what the population wants, if multiple parties have to build unstable coalitions? Then you have a mess like Belgium, which how many times had its government dissolved because of disagreements? Multiple parties breed instability. Just like national referendums are not good especially when you have 300 million people living here. Imagine how many parties would be in the Congress if all voters in this country wanted their own party in, chaos I tell you
Because the people get who they voted for, not just a concentrated group. I use again Sweden which has had many stable coalition government. Multi party is a better democracy as described by many texts, because it allows more options and ways to express your opinion. And in first past the post you get an elected government not based on majority.
1000 voters
400 voted for red
300 voted for blue
300 voted for green
Red wins, and that leaves 600 people unrepresented. oops
My British girlfriend tells me that in the UK, you can be sued in court, and can you can be charged with a hate crime if you even mildly make a crude joke. No joke. I read it on a British newspaper too, a co-worker in England made a joke to a close friend of his (who is black) and they laughed at it, but someone else overheard it, told management, and the management called the police and sacked the employee, now he is facing criminal charges under their hate crimes bill
My British girlfriend tells me that in the UK, you can be sued in court, and can you can be charged with a hate crime if you even mildly make a crude joke. No joke. I read it on a British newspaper too, a co-worker in England made a joke to a close friend of his (who is black) and they laughed at it, but someone else overheard it, told management, and the management called the police and sacked the employee, now he is facing criminal charges under their hate crimes bill
True, there is are hate crime laws (same in Canada) but, it is not like you described. You will not be sued for telling a joke, or anything like that. It is for those people go out and and abuse someone based on race, religion, or orientation.
True, there is are hate crime laws (same in Canada) but, it is not like you described. You will not be sued for telling a joke, or anything like that. It is for those people go out and and abuse someone based on race, religion, or orientation.
In Canada? Or the UK? Yeah but do you see how those laws can be severely abused based on technicalities?
I think that they get helthcare and other progrmas for free which is hardly the case.They will learn that the result is fewer employees and passing on those cost with the new plan coming in 2014.Nothing is free really.
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