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Europe has homeless people. They are found in parks and streets.
In America poverty areas can be measured by the square mile.
And who's fault is that? Not mine. That's the government's fault for importing TOO MANY IMMIGRANTS and disastrous Keynesian economic policies that erode the value of our dollar, making stuff unaffordable for the poor.
And who's fault is that? Not mine. That's the government's fault for importing TOO MANY IMMIGRANTS and disastrous Keynesian economic policies that erode the value of our dollar, making stuff unaffordable for the poor.
Does it ever occur to you to listen to them directly?
Homeless in america are more often than not mentally ill and choose to be homeless because they cannot mentally function by society rules or have consciously rejected all structure of civilization.
The employer doesn't pay the 7.4%. Whether YOU were to pay the entire 15% or the EMPLOYER were to pay the entire 15%, or each pays half - ultimately, YOU pay the entirety of the approximately 15% because it is a forced "contribution" that impairs the employer from paying you a higher wage.
Once, in order to give all my employees a raise, I began paying "their share" and the "employer's share" of the Social Security Tax.
I am not sure what you mean. It is the company which gives you 4-6 weeks of vacation over here. And the cost of that is subtracted from the salary so to speak. Companies over here are no welfare institutions, they try to pay as little as possible and gain as much as possible, just like in the States.
Regarding retirement, people pay their monthly contributions for that very purpose. That is why people who have been unemployed or for other reasons not paid their contributions for years usually have to work longer later on in life in order to have sufficient years of contributions to get enough retirement money to survive. Sure, one can retire at 65 or 67 or whatever the age is in each particular country, but usually the minimum one gets is not enough to survive.
When I first began in the IT world, I was a lowly PC tech, but I had done a lot of reading in programming languages on my own. I had done so much, that I often helped our programmers from time to time when they were doing big development projects (I read at a level that was far above simply learning the language and delved into proper planning and development cycles as well as the tools associated with them). One of our main programmers quit and they came to me wanting to know if I wanted to take the job.
I negotiated for it, but they were unwilling to go as high as I believed they should. I took the job anyway, but not until they had given me extra weeks of vacation and a bunch of other perks. I had only been working there for 6 months, but when I started that job, I was the highest paid person in the department and had as much weekend off time as the 20 year veterans.
The point is, they did not benevolently hand me that, I through my skills being sought and my ability to market myself and negotiate, earned myself something better. I as the individual was sought. I was not viewed as any "group" or "collective" where I was seen as equal to everyone else.
In a collective environment, it would be considered unfair for me to receive more than others, even though I could provide more than the others. This is the problem with collective environments. They do not reward the individuals success and ability, in fact, they penalize for it.
When I first began in the IT world, I was a lowly PC tech, but I had done a lot of reading in programming languages on my own. I had done so much, that I often helped our programmers from time to time when they were doing big development projects (I read at a level that was far above simply learning the language and delved into proper planning and development cycles as well as the tools associated with them). One of our main programmers quit and they came to me wanting to know if I wanted to take the job.
I negotiated for it, but they were unwilling to go as high as I believed they should. I took the job anyway, but not until they had given me extra weeks of vacation and a bunch of other perks. I had only been working there for 6 months, but when I started that job, I was the highest paid person in the department and had as much weekend off time as the 20 year veterans.
The point is, they did not benevolently hand me that, I through my skills being sought and my ability to market myself and negotiate, earned myself something better. I as the individual was sought. I was not viewed as any "group" or "collective" where I was seen as equal to everyone else.
In a collective environment, it would be considered unfair for me to receive more than others, even though I could provide more than the others. This is the problem with collective environments. They do not reward the individuals success and ability, in fact, they penalize for it.
That is a philosophical question. There are a lot of people out there who are more skilled or whatever than others, but they don't necessarily try to turn that into privileges or advantages over others. It's a matter of attitude, wisdom, morals, modesty, etc.
Does it ever occur to you to listen to them directly?
Homeless in america are more often than not mentally ill and choose to be homeless because they cannot mentally function by society rules or have consciously rejected all structure of civilization.
Yes, in fact we had a major homeless problem in our home town. I remember going though the park and one of my friends use to bake things and take it to them. Most of those in the park were teens to mid twenties. After a lot of probing about their situation, it turned out that their situation was of choice. That is, they chose to live like that, some of them even bragged about it, about how they didn't have to work, how they could get food easily from the people in town and if they needed money for anything (beer, tobacco, even drugs), they could simply pan handle a bit for the day and have it. In the summers they slept in the park and said it was very nice and comfortable and in the winters where it got a bit cold (but usually not extreme cold), they could go to the homeless shelter and shack up getting free food, a place to sleep and a shower from time to time.
I asked them why they didn't use the shelter and the work programs the shelter provided to progressively move up to a point where they could get an apartment of their own and start making a living. Their response was that they already had a living and had to put much less effort in it than they would if they worked for it.
Sure, not everyone is like such, but I think you would be surprised at how many homeless are such out of a specific choice and comfort to be. That is, they would rather live as they are than put the effort to excel above their situation.
Since we have that discussion going on in the climate thread where it really does not belong, maybe it is better to open a thread on it...
So, some people in the other thread say that unlike the US, Europe is all about collective at the expense of the individual; that in Europe governments can just take your property away, etc.
But is it really that simple?
the details are not, of course, that simple.
but i think the ideologies involved are that simple, yes. Scandinavia, France, some of Central Europe and the Mediterranean, see the progressive redistribution of wealth as a good thing and a high priority. This is similar to California or New England in the U.S., which I don't think constitutes a majority American opinion.
the American south, for example, has a large % of people in poverty, so there is a legitimate fear among the middle class about what sacrifices that "socialism" would really entail. Socialists seem to think that we have high poverty rates because we have this capitalist attitude, but I think this is backwards. Our ideology is a product of our demographics and our economic environment, one which predates both the united states and free market capitalism.
Just look at all the poorer Muslims and Africans and Turks that are emigrating to large European cities, and look at the responses from the white ethnic Dutch and the white ethnic French and the white ethnic Austrians, et cetera. This brand of multiculturalism, rather new to Europe, is what America was built out of.
That is a philosophical question. There are a lot of people out there who are more skilled or whatever than others, but they don't necessarily try to turn that into privileges or advantages over others. It's a matter of attitude, wisdom, morals, modesty, etc.
So they lack in self confidence or as you say, they are content with what they have. Nothing wrong with that when someone takes less for what they provide. A person who consistently gets less for what they produce is either charitable or foolish. Either way, they decide to do such and mandating a standard to receive less than what is produced is an immoral position. In many ways it is a form of slavery.
There used to be an old saying "Honest days work for an honest days wage". This means a person is paid for what they provide. What I did is not turn my situation into an "advantage" or a "privilege" over another. This is where we have issue. I received the level of compensation I was willing to take and that was according to the level of service I provided. That is a honest exchange, no more, no less.
As I said, dictating a standard among all because you personally think it is "taking advantage" is exactly where our cultures collide. You think I am taking advantage of the "group" by excelling and receiving compensation for it and I think you are taking advantage of the individual by restricting them from it.
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