Posts by Sandra Johnson58

wiredfalcon2 said:Nobody ever claimed it was some kind of paradise. But here’s the thing—modern white Christians in America love to brush stuff under the rug. They act like these massive historical issues are just "marginal topics" that we can deal with once the economy stabilizes or whatever. It's a joke. Throughout history, those exact same problems were front and center. And the kicker? People dealt with them even when the economy was a total dumpster fire compared to now. Problem solved. Period.

Look, most Americans have a roof over their heads today. Nobody’s out there starving. We've got clean water running from the tap, almost every household has a car sitting in the driveway, and the number of people with college degrees just keeps climbing every year—back in the old days, serving in the military was basically how a lot of guys first learned how to actually read and write. But no, apparently we can't move an inch until we fix GDP growth first. You know, that little economic metric cooked up at the Bretton Woods conference back in '44 by a bunch of suits. Everything has to be about that number before we can even start talking about anything else. Beat those faggots. Or something like that. Whatever.

The logic here is basically at the level of an enzyme—and I'm talking about one of those favorite punching bags, like restlesssurfer97.

Look, I’m definitely no anthropology expert—honestly, I don't even pretend to be. That stuff isn't really my lane. I'm way more into tech, cars, and engineering. I guess I just don't get why certain cultures back in the day were totally fine with things that we'd find absolutely insane today. Like, take how some behaviors that we now recognize as predatory were somehow considered okay in ancient times, or even the whole concept of treating people like property, which honestly dragged on for ages. I don't know, maybe I just don't bother stressing over why societies acted the way they did thousands of years ago. Everything has changed so much since then that I just don't see the point in dwelling on it, at least not for me.
I mean, what I know for sure is that how we see wealth, death, and basically everything we think we should get out of life has shifted so much over the years. Looking back from where we are now, people living in ancient Mesoamerica probably looked pretty broke to us, but I don't know... maybe it wasn't actually bad given their era and everything going on around them. It’s totally possible they felt like they were doing alright back then, you know? Like, if you had your own farm and a few animals to your name, that might have been plenty.
I mean, if I had to take a guess, back in the day, the odds of some outside culture messing with deeply rooted traditions were super low. It wasn't like people even knew there was anything better out there than what they already had... at least until those explorers showed up, right? But now? Everything is just one big global village. Even folks living totally off the grid know there’s a bigger world out there. And honestly, even if outside influences aren't necessarily better in every single way, they just spread so much faster these days. It's crazy how much easier it is for everything to mix now.
I mean, looking at things today... I guess it feels like the wealthier, more stable countries tend to be the ones that are actually free. And they usually seem to care way more about protecting minority rights too, at least from what I can see.

James Anderson5 said:Germany was never really a major player in the colonial game. Honestly, even the British were probably losing money on North America. I'm curious though, what data are you using to claim that most colonies were unprofitable?

The reality is that being a modern economic powerhouse is incredibly lucrative if you look at the margins foreign banks and telecom giants pull in compared to their initial investments...

It definitely wasn't a waste of money. I mean, the UK probably would've gone totally broke during both World Wars if they didn't have all those colonies packed with resources, both human and natural.

James Anderson5 said:I won't even mention the riots with gas canisters on main streets or the clashes with police, nor the intense protests down by the waterfront. It's not that Americans aren't peaceful; it's just that this more aggressive segment of the population finds these chaotic situations useful for their own interests...

From what I recall, mountainous regions weren't considered part of those feudal estates, so plenty of people chose to live out in the Rockies or similar areas just to escape that whole peasant lifestyle...

We have to be extremely careful with healthcare, though, so we don't end up with an American model where those with money get treated while everyone else suffers in silence at home😁. We shouldn't change things that work; healthcare should maintain its social foundation, but we need to purge the corruption and politics and implement smart management instead...

I haven't really noticed education getting better just because of private business schools; it feels like it just resulted in more useless degrees being handed out...

Actually, their healthcare isn't even that bad—like, it's not bad at all, really. They probably have the most cutting-edge treatments and do way more medical research than anyone else, and honestly, it's pretty convincing how much work goes into it here in the States. If you actually take a second to look into it, it’s not even that crazy expensive because you can find decent insurance plans for totally reasonable prices. A lot of people over here don't have coverage just because, well, if you aren't working, you can't pay for it, but also a bunch of people just choose not to have it since they have that option. But unlike back home where people might help you out even if you're uninsured, it's a bit more of a headache here. You basically have to hit up a free clinic or somewhere that has a budget for those pro bono treatments or surgeries. And honestly, almost every major hospital in a big city has a massive amount of money set aside for stuff like that from donations. When I say massive, I mean like, astronomical numbers, especially in huge cities like New York or Los Angeles. I think I read somewhere that Cedars-Sinai had like 300 million in donations specifically for pro bono care and surgeries. The biggest issues with the system are just how insanely complicated everything is, the way insurance companies treat people like they're nothing—which is a regulation issue—and the fact that your insurance might not cover you if you're out of state, which is a legal mess. People back in my old country often don't even realize how much they're paying for health coverage. For me, they used to take $667 out of my check every single month, and I still ended up having to pay for heart checkups privately because I couldn't wait as long as they wanted me to—it was like, over four months of waiting. When I look back at the kind of service I got from the American system for the money I handed over... man, it honestly makes me want to cry.

restlesssurfer97 said:I’m totally on board with that, though I’d argue that all those other topics actually become even more important when you have a solid economy, rather than becoming irrelevant.
Because look, when people are actually thriving and living well, they don't give a damn about identity politics or whether someone is Black, gay, a punk, or a trans woman—all that stuff just fades into the background when everyone's got food on the table and money in the bank.

Maybe I phrased that a little weirdly. I mean, I agree that in places with a crappy economy—and usually a super inefficient government too—those issues are probably a lot more pressing than in rich, developed countries. In those spots, minority groups barely have any rights or protection, so they're usually the first ones getting screwed over when things go south because, well, they're minorities. What I was trying to say is... I guess people only really start worrying about marginalized rights once they're comfortable. Once people are doing okay, then having the freedom to be themselves and do whatever becomes a massive topic in society. That’s usually when those big social movements start popping up to fight for them. But on the flip side, in countries where you're just worried about surviving until tomorrow? Man, you don't care about those rights. You might even just join the mob and stone those people because they feel fake or just... I don't know, they just annoy you.😁.

Justin James10 said:But let’s be honest, we weren't exactly special when it came to abolishing feudalism; almost every country across the West was moving in that same direction during that era.

To top it off, if you look at places like the coastal regions of the South, classic feudalism never even truly took root there.

So, really, that just isn't a valid excuse.

I guess some countries ditched it earlier, but whatever. It didn't exist in those coastal areas because they were under the influence of the Venetian Republic—and honestly, just the name tells you everything you need to know about how they ran things. But even under them, people were being exploited like crazy; it just had a different name, I suppose.
European nations used to have slavery too, they just mostly kept it tucked away in their colonies, kind of like how today we use all this nasty industry that pollutes and trashes developing nations. It's basically out of sight, out of mind. I'm not saying we're any better or worse than anyone else, really... just that we're pretty much just like every other country in the West.

Justin James10 said:Sure, let’s be honest—most private colleges in this country feel like a total joke. But does that actually matter in the real world? Not really. Once you hit the job market, people find out pretty quickly who actually has the skills and who was just coasting. It's the performance that counts! However, when you're dealing with massive government bureaucracies, that's a different story entirely. In those huge institutions, what you actually learned often takes a backseat to whether or not you have a piece of paper to check a box. Isn't it frustrating how much it comes down to just having the right credentials to land a government gig?

I mean, maybe they are, or maybe they aren't. I guess you could argue that high schools in America are kind of useless too... like, my sister and younger brother didn't even want to deal with them because they couldn't stand the early mornings and the commute, so they ended up doing night school instead. She finished business school, and he did engineering, and both crushed it with great grades despite being surrounded by kids who were way ahead of them from those fancy prep schools. Now, they're both working in Germany making serious money. Basically, everything just comes down to the person, you know? Like, how much you're willing to grind and sacrifice, plus a little bit of luck, I suppose. So, realistically, you could graduate from a random community college and become a total boss, or you could totally fail—and honestly, the same goes for getting an economics degree from a big state university.

Justin James10 said:Zz: We aren't talking about slavery here; we're talking about feudalism. And if you want to get technical about the timeline, even in the States, those old structures weren't truly dismantled until the latter half of the 19th century—whereas in China, they didn't really vanish until well into the 20th.

But man, it still exists in China today.☕

brightpilot6 said:Well, I was just sitting here waiting for the inevitable "ivory tower" argument to surface.

God, these battle-hardened capitalists and seasoned practitioners think they know it all, 🙏🙏 as if they’re all running massive conglomerates in some idealized version of the American Dream.

If you tell them eight times in a row that nobody wants more government interference, they’ll still act shocked the ninth time someone suggests it. One has to wonder if people with that kind of cognitive flexibility are actually in demand in the job market.🙏🙏

By the way, we didn't even officially abolish slavery here in the States until the 19th century.

Look, the truth is that feudalism ended back in 1848, and regardless of how people spin it, that was basically just another version of slavery. Plus, debt bondage has been a thing in Europe since Rome fell. Let's be real, we probably would've been slave owners too if we had the power, but we didn't, so we were the ones being enslaved instead. Regarding this whole debate, I think there's definitely some major miscommunication happening here.😁 Anyway, slaves wouldn't exactly agree that Americans are peaceful; it's more like we're passive until you actually force us to move. Americans were known as dangerous soldiers during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and various other conflicts. We've also been a huge factor in suppressing uprisings in places like Italy or Canada. And yeah, we have to mention the darkest chapters of our history, because let's face it, even our own side during certain eras wasn't exactly composed of saints😁. We aren't really that different from any other nations in Europe, just like they aren't that different from us. Ken made a great point about how companies from those "perfect" places where there's zero corruption can adapt to the cheating and shady dealings over here in a heartbeat. I know this firsthand because I worked with foreign contractors on railroad projects in the US, and man, they adjusted to dealing with the local scammers incredibly fast. Honestly, you just have to look at what companies from those "moral strongholds" in Europe do in Africa to see the pattern clearly.

ruggedjackal46 said:Oh, come on now, 🤣

First off, ecology doesn't give a damn about national borders. The causes of environmental disasters aren't tied to whatever specific country they happen in, and nature isn't particularly concerned with the political system of the community it’s about to ruin. Glaciers don't melt just because someone at the North Pole is being messy; it’s not localized to just the polar regions.

And if we want to talk about strictly local environmental conditions, things are usually at their worst where capitalist manufacturing has been kicked out of the neighborhood. It’s pretty easy for Germany to enjoy crisp, clean air when all their heavy industry was outsourced to China.

I used to worry about the environment a bit, I guess, but then I had this realization... basically, who cares about ecology as long as things don't go totally south while I'm still breathing? After that, honestly, the planet can go straight to hell for all I care. Even if most people think differently—and hey, they probably wouldn't act the way they do if they didn't think that way—whatever.
Our grandparents felt the same way, though I guess they were more eco-conscious since they’d occasionally give their bodies back to Mother Earth as much biological material as she needed. Anyway, you made a good point at the end, except even in Germany, they're breathing dirty air. They're arguably one of the biggest polluters in Europe and huge globally too. The only thing they're actually good at when it comes to the environment is talking big.
Their plans to cut down emissions always seem to fall apart because they'll probably see an increase again this year. Plus, I don't really get what they'd achieve by cutting back if developing nations just make up for it tenfold. Developing countries aren't gonna slow down their growth just because they're worried about how much gas they're pumping into the atmosphere.
It's just these pressures being pushed on them by developed nations that are massive polluters themselves. I've noticed that the biggest polluters are usually the biggest hypocrites, except maybe for the US under Trump, who just openly says what everyone else is thinking: he just doesn't give a crap.
When I hear Chinese officials talking about how much they're investing in green tech, and there's all this debate over how much money is actually going into it and how much they "care" about the future, I just want to start screaming.🤣 They say they care, but they're planning to ramp up emissions through 2030. Honestly, it's kind of funny hearing these "green" types talk about how humans are going to save the planet. Such arrogance, right? Like the planet needs our help to survive. It's been through way worse than us, and if we try to lecture it, it'll just shake us off like a dog shakes off fleas. We "saving the planet"? If a massive asteroid heads our way, the only thing we could do is pray.

wiredfalcon2 said:Look, isn't that really the whole point of living? Just figuring out if someone's a crook or not. Honestly, I’d give anything to live in a society where nobody gives a damn about my business. Like, if I'm gay, or a lesbian, or had an abortion, or if I'm single without kids... who cares? If I rock a mohawk and spend my days on a skateboard, let people stare. It shouldn't matter. At the end of the day, the economy is maybe a fifth of what actually makes up a social life, if it's even that much. Everything else is just noise.

Maybe economics is even less than a fifth of social life, but... I don't know, without a solid economy, all those other topics kind of become irrelevant. It's only because we live in these economically prosperous societies that we can even afford to debate these things as major issues instead of just passing comments.
Besides, the kind of perfect society you're dreaming of doesn't exist anywhere.☕ Even in places like Scandinavia, there are people who aren't fans of gay folks or who look at abortion or, you know, "freaks" with total disgust. Sure, the percentage is lower, but I think I read recently that in Sweden, like, a quarter of the population thinks abortion is immoral—they wouldn't ban it, obviously, but they clearly don't view it positively. And honestly, I doubt anyone's gonna stare at a woman after an abortion mostly because, let's be real, hardly any woman is gonna brag about something that’s probably pretty traumatic. Personally, I think women who have abortions are being stupid—not because of the act itself, but because they let themselves get into a situation where they have to risk their health with such an aggressive process that leaves lasting effects. And for those who do go through it, I'd almost say they shouldn't reproduce so they don't pollute the gene pool with their stupidity. I mean, imagine being in the 21st century in a Western country having multiple abortions when you have access to every single type of birth control out there. As for everything else... most people don't give a damn, but there will always be those little groups of people who judge you and throw shade, so I guess my advice is just to get used to it. People used to give me crap because I'm tall, stocky, and have red hair, but I just laugh it off and move on. Like that old saying goes: it doesn't matter what's said, it matters who's saying it. My sister actually lives and works in Germany, and she has this coworker there who constantly asks her when she's getting married since she has a boyfriend. Just to be clear, the coworker is German.

wiredfalcon2 said:The real reason America is lagging behind other major players is this constant legal instability. It’s a mess—corrupt laws, overlapping regulations where you’re basically breaking the law just by existing, and rules that change every five minutes. If you could actually settle a lawsuit in a reasonable timeframe or plan a business strategy for the next five or ten years without the floor dropping out from under you, the economy would actually take off. Honestly, tax rates aren't even the main issue here, nor is how the government spends the money. On a global scale, we’ll finally see some real growth once we become more like the Americans in places like Seattle, where only about 21% of people are religious.

Look, I’m not really trying to get all deep into the whole religion debate or whatever, but seriously, how exactly is having fewer religious people gonna stop thieves?🤣 Like, do you honestly think guys like some corrupt governors or big-city mayors would suddenly change their ways just because they were surrounded by atheists?🤣

Justin James10 said:But really, who gave anyone the right to decide which books are "worth it" using our own hard-earned money?

Literature, much like film and art in general, has hit rock bottom. Honestly, isn't it any wonder, considering it seems to be driven by a parasitic class just looking to sustain itself?

He’s talking about technical textbooks, though.

Jonathan Barnes5 said:Not every book out there is meant to be a classic of literature. There are highly specialized titles that might never move massive numbers at a bookstore, but their value to society is often immeasurable.
I constantly find myself caught in these exhausting debates where people just take extreme sides without any nuance 😁..It reminds me of attending a conference last fall where someone argued that the entire humanities field was essentially useless 😵..
You end up with a manager who understands the operational mechanics perfectly because they've read all the technical manuals, yet they possess absolutely no empathy or understanding of the people they lead

Smart people☕. Seriously though, there’s plenty of room for most—if not all—humanities subjects. It’s just that in today's world, which is so obsessed with tech and automation, the real question is just how much space they can still hold.

brightpilot6 said:And I have to wonder, what exactly is this "path" they supposedly bypassed?

You can pretty much cross Norway off the list right now, mostly because we're running way too low on oil reserves back home.😁

Paul Sanders5 said:How did women even fall for that stuff? Nobody forced them into marriage at gunpoint. It drives me crazy seeing people constantly looking for accountability in everyone else while dodging it themselves.

It's basically the perfect snapshot of modern Western society.

Signature☕

shadowmarlin22 said:We don't even need to debate local government options—half of them should just be dissolved if they’re pulling 90% of their funding from federal tax dollars anyway. I mean, what is the actual purpose of having all these counties? We have hundreds of tiny municipalities and dozens of counties scattered everywhere; it's nonsensical. We should consolidate everything into larger regions—maybe six or seven major hubs instead of this fragmented mess. Right now, it's nothing but micro-management by the central government where everything grinds to a halt because every little thing has to crawl through a massive federal bureaucracy for six months. By cutting down the number of towns, eliminating the county layer, and creating larger regional authorities with real decision-making power, we could slash red tape and costs. Ultimately, it would make life easier for entrepreneurs through streamlined processes and lower taxes. Lowering the tax burden is the real key to attracting investment and bringing in big corporations.

Sure, you might see unemployment tick up in the short term, but honestly? Long-term, I think it would be a massive win.

Well, look at a place like the UK—they have thousands of local councils, but they don't all act like independent little kingdoms. They group together into districts and then larger regions. It's not about how many you have, it's about how you organize them.

Justin James10 said:Honestly, you can't really expect any kind of specialized expertise from these shipyards. Why would they bother? They aren't driven by profit margins; instead, they're fueled by a desire to maintain the status quo using taxpayer money. Does anyone actually care about turning a profit or being efficient? Not at all! It’s a glaring, textbook example of how a state-run corporation can completely fail to deliver.

I mean, yeah, the ones that actually went private are moving some cash around, which is better than nothing, I guess. Though, I think I saw something about the government still handing out subsidies even after privatization... but honestly, I'm not even sure if that's actually true or if I just misread it.

Justin James10 said:And who actually said that government intervention is a good thing in certain cases over in the West? Not a single soul, apparently.

It’s a good thing you brought up the shipyards. Those places are nothing but bottomless money pits whose peak achievement is churning out a basic tanker. And wouldn't you know it, it's never profitable because China and Korea can pump them out for pennies. So what’s the solution? Just throw more cash into that black hole without changing a single thing? 🙏 All these shipyards, petrochemical plants, steel mills, and the like are chronic losers; most went bankrupt back in the early 80s and remain a gaping wound in the American economy. Take certain chemical plants, for example. Have they ever actually turned a profit? It would probably be cheaper to just hit them with a tank of gasoline and light them up—it would cause less damage overall.☕

Look, I wasn't saying it was actually good. I was just pointing out that the kind of capitalism you're dreaming about doesn't even exist anywhere—except maybe in China, which I guess is basically every capitalist's pipe dream.
Look, regarding those companies mentioned above... I mean, they totally could've been turning a massive profit. Honestly, it’s just like those old-school American industrial giants that went bust because they didn't pivot or specialize when they had the chance. Sure, they wouldn't be these massive behemoths like they used to be, but you know, money would still be moving around and people would actually have jobs. That's way better than just having some group of elites burn everything down for a quick payday. The real issue—and it's the same now as it ever was—is that the people in charge always seem to have this exact same mindset. They have zero vision, zero actual ideas on how to run a business. It's just a bunch of crooks who can ruin something others spent decades building, all just to line their own pockets without breaking a sweat. And shipbuilding? Man, that industry is huge if you play it right. If we hadn't messed up, guys from Scandinavia wouldn't be sticking their noses in our business like that. But like I said, you've gotta specialize. We aren't going to win against the big players in massive ship construction, but maybe, I don't know, we could actually compete in smaller, niche markets.

ironpanther5 said:Why don't we just follow the lead of Ireland, Estonia (like shadowmarlin22 suggested), or even the Czech Republic? 🙂

Phil, nobody is actually suggesting we go out and deregulate the entire banking sector overnight. In our neck of the woods, just having transparent management of funds would be a massive leap forward. We’d start by cleaning out the cronies and all that redundant bloat, then move toward deregulation and cutting through the red tape—you know, so I don't have to worry about whether my hypothetical hair salon needs three specific steps or if the last step has to be exactly 25 to 58 centimeters away from the restroom just to satisfy some bureaucrat.
People are basically screaming for easier ways to run small and medium businesses, lower taxes, and an actual decent climate for investment.
Just look at how much good some of those independent local movements have done in smaller towns; they actually stepped up to stop the usual political vultures from bleeding the budget dry and forced everyone to spend money more rationally.
Honestly, I don't see any reason for county governments to even exist, let alone with this many of them cluttering things up.

Look, those county setups were basically just a brainchild of Franjo Harmon and his inner circle, and honestly? We can only guess why they even did it that way. But listen, you can't just say regulation equals bureaucracy. The US is actually a perfect example of a country drowning in massive amounts of red tape while having zero actual meaningful regulation, which is exactly why things feel so broken sometimes. My uncle’s buddy runs this pretty solid construction firm with about 50 employees, and I guess... maybe... he hasn't even seen an inspector since 2001. Seriously.🤣 I mean, I honestly doubt he’s the only one pulling stuff like this. And don't even get me started on audits or whatever... because if you just slide some cash into their pockets, they won't find a damn thing, whether we're talking about government agencies or big private corporations.

ruggedjackal46 said:So, what’s the verdict here? Are we destined to follow the path of the USA, or are we heading straight down the drain like Greece? Is there really no middle ground, no third option sitting there waiting for us to grab it?

Non-profits operate one way in America, but let’s be honest—the whole donation ecosystem looks fundamentally different when you're talking about a massive nation of 325 million people versus a much smaller country of only 3.5 million. It’s a completely different scale, isn't it?

Man, you're basically just his mirror image. He'd probably stop funding every single non-profit, while you'd keep the checks rolling for all of them. But hey, like you said above, there actually is a third way—we could audit all these organizations and figure out which ones actually provide value to society. Because let's be real, some of them only exist so people with sketchy degrees can collect a paycheck they think they deserve. I mean, hats off to the groups doing actual good, like those advocating for the blind or specific community needs, but yeah... there are definitely some outfits out there that are about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.

shadowmarlin22 said:Following the US path doesn't mean getting the same results as the US. They are two completely different scales of nation. If you’re going to copy someone's playbook, you should pick countries of a relatively similar size. For crying out loud, look at what a tiny place like Estonia did with its economy—after the mid-90s, they were in a much worse spot than the US was, and now they're miles ahead when it comes to entrepreneurship and being open to foreign investment. Ireland had massive growth too, even though they were already ahead of us. To me, Singapore is a fantastic example of a country with insane economic growth—way better than most Western nations—they have a superior pension system, and it’s all built on incredibly low taxes compared to the rest of the West.

If you want an actual comparison, you need to look at countries with under 10 million people—something comparable to our situation rather than using the US or, as we love to do, Germany. This isn't just about associations; it's a general rule.

Singapore really blew up because of the huge economic explosion in their region and their strategic location. Plus, they're basically a tax haven for wealthy Chinese investors, kind of like how Switzerland works in Europe. It's hard to copy them because of those factors, plus their culture is totally different, which matters a lot too. Maybe the Czech Republic or Slovakia could be better models since we share some similarities.