Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich (Texas has it right)

[Heracles 417]

Perhaps you should become a travel agent BY.

I have traveled a lot. Hence why when I say that on average the US is the most run down countries I have been too, I am talking out of experience. Considering all of the money they collect in tax, where does this money go? Certainly doesn't go into infrastructure or improving the country. There are roads in the middle of the desert in Australia that are in better condition than the roads around the whitehouse.

Google Streeview is also a great tool for anyone who questions Europe etc and the relevance of paying taxes to improve your city and town can do for people. I was bored and thought I'd look at London, since I haven't seen much of it and was amazed at how nice the suburbs are. The suburbs of Amsterdam are just awesome. Yet when I looked all of the US, the theme was the same. From North to South East to West. I randomly clicked on towns and cities only to see the same shitty rundown streets, lack of side walks, lack of streets lights, lack of curbs, lack of reflectors, roads that looked like they had not been paved or marked in a good 20 years, old buildings etc etc etc. it obvious that over the last 20 years the country has spent so much time on rights issues as well as with their head in the sand they are blinded to reality. Some people need a newsflash, saying you are the best by no means actually means you are good at something or even close to being good.

I think it's time people get over this ingrained bull sh-t they learn from a young age that America is the best. They also need to compare their streets to that of Australia etc rather than some third world country. Does Australia have its fault, of course. But in terms of living standards, you know the thing that affects most of us here, the absolutely destroy the US. And I say that living and working in the two richest counties in the United States of America.

[mawilson 2,133]

Furthermore, we technically pay less tax in Australia. All while receiving more value for money out of our government.

Well DUH. You don't have to spend one trillion dollars a year to maintain an overseas empire.

The military budget alone is $600 billion dollars and change.

Maybe it would help if the USA didn't start a war in Iraq to help a certain private corporation make millions of dollars.......you would think the money could have been better spent somewhere else like say on giving its own people a better standard of living?

Sure, but the war in Iraq didn't cost THAT much - certainly not enough to pay for something like universal healthcare.

Less than a trillion dollars over 6 years (since 2003).

Obama's new budget for 2010 alone is 3.8 trillion dollars!

[Heracles 417]

Furthermore, we technically pay less tax in Australia. All while receiving more value for money out of our government.

Well DUH. You don't have to spend one trillion dollars a year to maintain an overseas empire.

The military budget alone is $600 billion dollars and change.

Maybe it would help if the USA didn't start a war in Iraq to help a certain private corporation make millions of dollars.......you would think the money could have been better spent somewhere else like say on giving its own people a better standard of living?

The US won't have a better standard of living because the average Joe doesn't realize just how bad it is here. I actually speak to people in small town who think Australia is some sort of crocodile dundee ish place. When in reality for a country of 21 million it has cities that would absolutely crush American cities. Heck it has two of the tallest apartment buildings in the world.

And I'm not dissing the country but how can anyone improve when in their mind they are the best. Same thing happened to the US auto industry.

Edited May 21, 2009 by Constellation

[mawilson 2,133]

The US won't have a better standard of living because the average Joe doesn't realize just how bad it is here. I actually speak to people in small town who think Australia is some sort of crocodile dundee ish place. When in reality for a country of 21 million it has cities that would absolutely crush American cities. Heck it has two of the tallest apartment buildings in the world.

And I'm not dissing the country but how can anyone improve when in their mind they are the best. Same thing happened to the US auto industry.

How can the US improve when the Federal budget looks like this:

[Peikko 1,575]

That's an awful lot of money to ensure we get enough High Fructose Corn Syrup on our diet...

[JimandChristy 1,689]

Furthermore, we technically pay less tax in Australia. All while receiving more value for money out of our government.

Well DUH. You don't have to spend one trillion dollars a year to maintain an overseas empire.

The military budget alone is $600 billion dollars and change.

Maybe it would help if the USA didn't start a war in Iraq to help a certain private corporation make millions of dollars.......you would think the money could have been better spent somewhere else like say on giving its own people a better standard of living?

The US won't have a better standard of living because the average Joe doesn't realize just how bad it is here. I actually speak to people in small town who think Australia is some sort of crocodile dundee ish place. When in reality for a country of 21 million it has cities that would absolutely crush American cities. Heck it has two of the tallest apartment buildings in the world.

And I'm not dissing the country but how can anyone improve when in their mind they are the best. Same thing happened to the US auto industry.

I think the USA is a great country as well, I've been over five times already and its people are joy to talk to, however I have seen things that really have shocked me. As a kid all you heard about the USA is how great a place it is and how everyone wants to go to but when I saw and learnt about how the health care industry worked I was appalled. I was thinking how can a country like the USA not have a universal health care system, it's the richest in the world for crying out loud! You'd think with 300million people living there, there would be enough money in the coffers to achieve that.

There are some Americans out there who actually believe they do get the best of everything, its in their psyche for some reason, so when someone comes along a brings in an idea, they switch into autopilot and go into the mode of Oh No Big Government, Oh no Socialism, Oh no universal health care it will be the death to us all! Some of them honestly believe the way the system is now, is the way it is meant to be because they think it is the best way. I find what they call very far right "Republicans" are the worst for that.

[Heracles 417]

Yeah that needs to be cut. It is just ridiculously high. I know for a fact there are people who win contracts from the military who don't even bother working on the project, because they know they won't check on it.

As you said a while back, even cutting it to half is more than enough and much more than what anyone else is spending.

Edited May 21, 2009 by Constellation

[JimandChristy 1,689]

The US won't have a better standard of living because the average Joe doesn't realize just how bad it is here. I actually speak to people in small town who think Australia is some sort of crocodile dundee ish place. When in reality for a country of 21 million it has cities that would absolutely crush American cities. Heck it has two of the tallest apartment buildings in the world.

And I'm not dissing the country but how can anyone improve when in their mind they are the best. Same thing happened to the US auto industry.

How can the US improve when the Federal budget looks like this:

Blimey! Nearly 50% of its budget is on defence, that's way too much surely? Think of all the extra money that could be shifted down into other more meaningful resources such as Health, Transport, Education etc etc.

[Heracles 417]

I think the USA is a great country as well, I've been over five times already and its people are joy to talk to, however I have seen things that really have shocked me. As a kid all you heard about the USA is how great a place it is and how everyone wants to go to but when I saw and learnt about how the health care industry worked I was appalled. I was thinking how can a country like the USA not have a universal health care system, it's the richest in the world for crying out loud! You'd think with 300million people living there, there would be enough money in the coffers to achieve that.

There are some Americans out there who actually believe they do get the best of everything, its in their psyche for some reason, so when someone comes along a brings in an idea, they switch into autopilot and go into the mode of Oh No Big Government, Oh no Socialism, Oh no universal health care it will be the death to us all! Some of them honestly believe the way the system is now, is the way it is meant to be because they think it is the best way. I find what they call very far right "Republicans" are the worst for that.

My sister recently visited the States. It was her first time to the US. She is the opposite to me a. Completely different interests, zero interest in politics, not judgmental and so of. Yet she couldn't believe how run down things are. We took the DC METRO, first time I took it too, and we where both shocked at how old and poorly maintained the trains and stations were. Our tries are private in Melbourne and run by Connex and they are just phenomenal.

LAX is is another example of an old rundown airport with nothing to do in it. This is the first point of entry into this grand country but it looks like #######. Dulles is also boring and has nothing to do in it. Whereas go to Melbourne or Sydney and you will find shops, restaurants, etc. As well as the fact that they are brand new or recently renovated. This applies to a range of airports around the world.

We can even consider streets, they are just not clean. Trash everywhere and the roads are dirty. Fair enough if it was some sort of country (rural) town but inner cities have no excuse. Our streets back in AUS are cleaned (swept) weekly.

Melbourne has cafe's, restaurants etc. DC, boring as hell. The national mall is run down. Not only does this affect tourism but it affects our standard of living. Something clearly people miss.

As you said earlier, try suggesting anything to anyone and they cry murder or throw out my favorite, so leave then. When in reality they need to accept your not the best anymore and this isn't the 80's when you were the best, brightest and so on.

Here is an example of cities. For anyone who has not traveled, they would think those Europeans are poofs.

Phili:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=39....2,79.92,,0,2.16

St Louis US:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=38....297.76,,0,10.19

Middle of Desert Aus:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-23...,204.72,,0,0.29

Melbourne:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-37...336.4,,0,-12.86

Sydney:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-33...280.38,,0,-0.88

London:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=51....256.09,,0,-8.85

Paris:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=48....,186.65,,0,0.36

Amsterdam:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=52....12,196.2,,0,9.5

Edited May 21, 2009 by Constellation

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

LAX is a shitty airport? Its no better or worse than most aiports (better actually than Heathrow of Gatwick).

Newark airport is shitty.

Edited May 21, 2009 by Private Pike

[AlHayatZween 2]

LAX is a shitty airport? Its no better or worse than most aiports (better actually than Heathrow of Gatwick).

Newark airport is shitty.

Blasphemy... Newark airport is great!

Okay, fine... you are right, it's shitty...

But who hangs out in airports anyway...?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

LAX is a shitty airport? Its no better or worse than most aiports (better actually than Heathrow of Gatwick).

Newark airport is shitty.

Blasphemy... Newark airport is great!

Okay, fine... you are right, it's shitty...

But who hangs out in airports anyway...?

Good point.

I don't really like airports much at all actually.

[Heracles 417]

LAX is a shitty airport? Its no better or worse than most aiports (better actually than Heathrow of Gatwick).

Newark airport is shitty.

Europe has some really nice airports, as does Asia. The other thing about their airports, apart from being clean and modern, is that there is a lot to do and see while waiting. Almost like mini-malls.

It's just a shame considering the country has so much potential but has fallen behind and still stuck on whether the government should be using their taxes or not. As a Right wing conservative, I will answer that for them. Yes they bloody well should! Country first should mean the actual (physical) country and its people first. Not a select few mega-wealthy and military contractors. You would think that is a no-brainer as it is everywhere else. Texans seem to get it with those mega roads. The North East actually makes me sick to look at. I cringe going to NYC and seeing all of the dilapidated dull buildings. And the various cities lack of landscaping or character. The NE part of America, spanning from Richmond, VA to Boston, MA is stuck in the 30's and prior. Color people get some freakin color. Also bulldoze those dog-ugly 30'sish buildings and start paving the streets.

PS I do like Chicago and Dallas's airport.

Okay, fine... you are right, it's shitty...

But who hangs out in airports anyway...?[/font][/color]

When you are waiting for a plane, dropping people off, picking people up etc. Airports here are embarrassing.

Edited May 21, 2009 by Constellation

[JimandChristy 1,689]

LAX is a shitty airport? Its no better or worse than most aiports (better actually than Heathrow of Gatwick).

Newark airport is shitty.

Somehow I've been lucky not to go through an east coast airport well not yet!

Out of the major airports I've been through LAX, ORD and ATL......from my personal experience Atlanta was the best, its so structured, its logical, you couldn't get lost while you were in there. While going through O'Hare, don't know what it is was but I'd had a sense of trying to get out of this airport ASAP.

[Peikko 1,575]

Methinks BY doth see carbuncles!

Rundown towns are not funny for anyone mind you.