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Obama doesn't know the meaning of compromise. The Republicans were blamed when Bush compromised with the democrats . Barney Frank and Maxine Waters blocked the investigation of the mortgage industry testifying that all was well with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack. Bush compromised with them and now the democrats have the nerve to blame him for what the democrats were responsible for-- the mortgage meltdown.
The democrats don't compromise. They are so far left they are now socialists and proud of it. The republicans have compromised and are now so moderate they are as the democratic party was in the past.
The new reborn Republican party are now the tea party which is the grass roots of 'By the People and For the People:" for small federal government, more power to the states and lowering the tax burden and keeping energy cheap, morality and family values and upholding the Constitution.
Obama calls the Constitution a flawed document.
.........and you don't know the meaning of socialist.
Why aren't people in the usa as happy as people in some of the other countries? They're fed-up with the America-haters who do nothing but work hard every day trying to make our country fail. Cheer-leading for us to fail. Something the wing-nuts are so very proud of.
Honestly, this has so much to do with our consumerist lifestyle here, and how we just want bigger and bigger everything, as if to fill that "hole" inside of us where happiness should be, yet in the end, we as Americans only get more spoiled with our endless goods and money, that we end up worse off than before.
The real question is, why aren't Americans happy? To answer the question, you need to figure out why exactly those other countries are happy. Furthermore, if "socialism" made you happy. Then aren't there plenty of socialist countries which should be happier? I mean, practically all Asian nations are to some extent "socialist", and many are "rich". Yet, the highest ranking Asian country is Singapore at #30. The next happiest country is Thailand at #36, with a GDP per capita of a whopping $5,674.
The countries most people associate Asia are China(#93), Japan(#43), South Korea(#41), and Hong Kong(#64).
Even more importantly, why are Mexico, Costa Rica, and Panama happier than America? I mean, aren't the people living in those countries illegally immigrating to America by the millions? Panama's GDP per-capita is $10,838, Mexico is $10,609, and Costa Rica is only $10,432. But they are happier than us?
The report cherry picks statistics for instance, high levels of divorce and family break up, but surely it is better to actually be free to break up and happily start your life again than be forced to endure an unhappy relationship.
Another is that people who are self employed are happier therefore the more self employed people in a nation the happier it will be. Again this is making a big assumption and this puts countries where people tend plots of land for a living in order to survive on a higher scale than industrialised countries. The report is also biased against cities in a number of ways.
Any one can cherry pick statistics to prove some skewed ideal, and in terms of the UN with the HDI and now Happiness Report, it seems to have an agenda. Furthermore a lot of critics have simply cited such reports as a waste of money and resources.
Honestly, this has so much to do with our consumerist lifestyle here, and how we just want bigger and bigger everything, as if to fill that "hole" inside of us where happiness should be, yet in the end, we as Americans only get more spoiled with our endless goods and money, that we end up worse off than before.
I would agree. I think people have this weird obsession with associating money or consumption with happiness. When in reality, money has practically nothing to do with happiness.
I know I know, people will roll out studies that show that wealthy people tend to be happier. Thus they will confidently state "money does make you happy". The problem with such a statement, is that those studies always make the assumption that it is the wealth that makes people happy, rather than making the opposite assumption, that happy people tend to end up wealthy.
Look at it like this. People who win the lottery don't become any happier after they win than before they won. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that someone "increasing" their wealth causes them to become happier.
First, one of the problems with these studies, is that they ignore the fact that as we get older, we get happier. This doesn't appear to be based on income or other environmental factors. It appears to actually be biological.
I remember there was a study a long time ago that was talking about how the function of our memories actually changes when we get older. Basically, when you get older, it seems to be more difficult to hang on to "bad memories" and easier to hang on to "good memories". But when you are younger, it tends to be the opposite.
The point is, if we get happier as we get older, then countries with older populations would tend to be happier than countries with younger populations.
Secondly, as you get older, you tend to have a higher income and more wealth than when you are young. If we understand that you get happier as you get older, and you also tend to earn more money as you get older. Then the correlations between happiness and wealth end up being pretty useless.
And all of this ignores the bigger question. What effect does happiness have on your income anyway? I mean, doesn't being happy tend to make you more optimistic? Doesn't being happy tend to make you more cooperative, easier to get along with, and more likely to be working to begin with?
I mean, aren't happy people the ones most likely to get jobs and promotions? Aren't happy people more likely to have friends, which leads to more and better employment opportunities?
I haven't found any evidence whatsoever to prove the hypothesis that money equals happiness. For instance, America is no happier today than 50 years ago. And America is considerably richer today than 50 years ago.
The report cherry picks statistics for instance, high levels of divorce and family break up, but surely it is better to actually be free to break up and happily start your life again than be forced to endure an unhappy relationship.
Another is that people who are self employed are happier therefore the more self employed people in a nation the happier it will be. Again this is making a big assumption and this puts countries where people tend plots of land for a living in order to survive on a higher scale than industrialised countries. The report is also biased against cities in a number of ways.
Any one can cherry pick statistics to prove some skewed ideal, and in terms of the UN with the HDI and now Happiness Report, it seems to have an agenda. Furthermore a lot of critics have simply cited such reports as a waste of money and resources.
True, the report could have just as easily said that watching sports makes one happy and then given the US high marks for doing well in the Olympics, making it to the World Cup and having many televised leagues at the pro and college level.
True, the report could have just as easily said that watching sports makes one happy and then given the US high marks for doing well in the Olympics, making it to the World Cup and having many televised leagues at the pro and college level.
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