17 posts shown.
Nicholas Watson said:If we're playing by the rules here, can I just start calling left-wing voters communists and right-wingers fascists? I mean, if we’re going to throw labels around, let's really go for it!
lonebadger6;63378865You have specific threads for abortion on Politics said:
And let's be honest—the second someone types out that abortion is murder, the moderators swoop in with their sanctions. And boom, there goes the debate right out the window. 🙄
Noah Sanchez39 said:Does anyone happen to know where I can find a decent online stream for the game? Thanks! 😉
Richard Wilson4 said:By the way, they occasionally play their home games on a practice pitch at FC Barcelona.
I’ve suggested a few times that Andorra should just hand out First citizenship to all the Catalan folks in the First Division and basically compete as California.
Even though more Basque players are in the First Division now, and given that the Basque Country is its own national team, they’d honestly stay in the top 20 forever.
feralwalker19 said:While a resident of Switzerland holds roughly $158,000, the average American stands at about $7,700, whereas in Mexico, it drops precipitously to just $800.
There are currently 912 million people globally who qualify as part of the middle class, and within this demographic, we see an increasing presence of Asians alongside Europeans and Americans. This was brought to light by an extensive Allianz study regarding global wealth, which meticulously examined the assets and liabilities of households across more than 50 different nations. In this particular ranking, the US sits at number 31 with a per capita financial wealth of $7,700, placing us fourth in Eastern Europe—trailing only behind Canada, the Czech Republic, and Canada, whose citizens possess a wealth margin of a mere two dollars over the American average. Nevertheless, when one considers the mean wealth, it firmly places our nation within the group of countries maintaining a middle-class standard of living.
A Reluctance Toward Risk
The wealthiest individuals are the Swiss, boasting a net financial wealth of approximately $158,000, while Mexico remains among the three most impoverished nations with assets totaling only $800. It is quite striking to observe that the average American is twenty times poorer than a Swiss person, yet remains ten times wealthier than a Mexican. Furthermore, the trends regarding wealth movement are profoundly revealing. American citizens saw their wealth increase by a mere 5.4 percent in 2013, a pace that lags behind our neighbors in the region. One might surmise that this stagnation stems from the fact that nearly 58 percent of American financial assets are sitting idle in bank accounts, while a paltry 17 percent of citizens are willing to invest in securities, which typically offer much higher returns.
Conversely, debt growth is beginning to decelerate, though in the US, debt per capita reaches $4,450, which is nearly 24 percent higher than the average across all Eastern European EU member states. The trends observed in America are not significantly divergent from global patterns, which point toward the undeniable reality that wealth is concentrating into the hands of an ever-shrinking number of individuals. Last year, for instance, there were 65 million losers on a global scale—that is, the actual number of people who lost their "high net worth" status by falling below the threshold of $34,500, which would represent roughly $83.
The Expansion of the Middle Class
The population belonging to the lower wealth class—those with an average net financial wealth per capita of less than $5,700—remains steady at approximately 3.5 billion people. This leads to the inescapable conclusion that robust population growth has failed to diminish poverty, and indeed, most of the world's population growth is concentrated within impoverished nations. However, even though wealth is concentrating and the number of poor remains static, one cannot claim that social mobility and movement between classes are non-existent globally. In fact, as many as half a billion people—including nearly 40 million Eastern Europeans—have successfully ascended to the global middle class over the last 13 years. Asians have been particularly successful in this endeavor, with the number of individuals in the middle class growing sixfold since the year 2000.
Tyler Jackson6 said:The UN just dropped their latest Human Development Index rankings,
and honestly, it’s pretty hilarious how America managed to stay completely stagnant—like, we didn't move an inch on the absolute value scale. Just sitting there while the rest of the world moves on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...t_of_countries
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human...ment-index-hdi
😲
Meanwhile, Cuba actually managed to jump ahead of us.
I mean, think about it—you've got great weather year-round and universal healthcare that actually works for everyone,
it's more about living simply rather than constant excess,
and so, you know,
people end up living longer.
They aren't out here flaunting the latest iPhone or driving a BMW,
but they're arguably happier because they aren't drowning in debt, predatory loans, or seeing red numbers on their checking accounts every single month.
Since the whole concept of equality is actually taken seriously there,
there isn't this massive gap between the ultra-rich and the working class, which keeps the kind of crime you usually see in Latin America from tearing things apart.
No narco cartels to worry about either.
So, congrats to our dear, unranked nation.
🙂
Ryan Harris5 said:It isn't really about the faith or the Bible; it’s about the money coming straight out of people's pockets. Religion serves an important sociological purpose and deserves its place, but honestly, while half of Americans can barely afford groceries, the Church is busy building massive cathedrals out of onyx. Isn't that just pure greed? If you ask me, it’s a sin.