How Many More Times Does It Have to Be Spelled Out To You People?

[sirs]

Reading for comprehension issues again, Xo?     Try re-reading what I wrote.  Ask Plane or Ami, if you need some help.
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I thought you meant that you were from NY and therefore you think that if NY were a separate country, it would contain the happiest people.

Ummm, not even in the same ballpark.  Try applying a little common sense
- Brass says we (America) are not tops in perceived happiness
- sirs comically applies if we remove NY, we could get to #1
- ergo, the implication is NY is not a very "happy place"

I remember some line in some movie, might have been Ghostbusters, where the mayor was proclaiming how it's NY, so of course everyone's gonna be miserable.  Somethong along the lines that it was their God given right, to be angry   

[Brassmask]

The point is not about racing to more happiness with Denmark but that societies tend to be better off when they work collectively for common goals like health care for all, education for all and the like.

[Xavier_Onassis]

I think that your original statement was vague and ambiguous. Now I know what you actually meant. And you know what I know. So leave it there and adderss the actual issue (or don't).

Not everyone is bound to understand you all the time, after all.
How would I know that you are not from NY?
How would I know about what you remember from Ghostbusters?
I stil think that NJ would come out less happy than NY, because half of Jersey would move to NY in  a NJ minute if they could afford it, or that is the impression I get.

[BT]

he point is not about racing to more happiness with Denmark but that societies tend to be better off when they work collectively for common goals like health care for all, education for all and the like.

Again happiness is relative. Scandinavian countries also have high alcoholism and suicide rates, hardly indicators of happiness.

If you want universal health coverage make sure everybody pays. If you want universal higher education make sure everybody pays. Pay for it at the point of sale via a sales tax, capture the underground economy while you are at it. 

[sirs]

I think that your original statement was vague and ambiguous. Now I know what you actually meant.

Actually, it was pretty concise to begin with, though I'm glad you're finally squared away

And you know what I know.

Actually I don't.  Unlike yourself, I'm not in the business of deciding what other people are obviously thinking

So leave it there and adderss the actual issue (or don't).

I did, which is why this tangent is nothing more than a comical reprieve, complete with smiley face.  If you want to address the actual issue, best stop replying to this tangent, and go back to my 1st response.  Gads talk about someone with no sense of humor   

[Xavier_Onassis]

Again happiness is relative. Scandinavian countries also have high alcoholism and suicide rates, hardly indicators of happiness.

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The suicide rate is probably not a significant figure when compared with the US. Suicide has never had a social stigma attached to it in Scandinavia. Vikings frequently committed suicide and this was seen as an honorable way to go, as in Japan. Hungary has by far a higher suicide rate than Sweden or Denmark.

In the US there is a social stigma against suicide (especially among Catholics), as well as the likelihood that an insurance policy will not pay out if the holder offs himself. So many deaths that are reported as accidents (people driving cars into walls, off bridges, people diving off bridges and walking into the ocean, etc.) are reported as accidents rather than suicides. There is less a financial burden to be paid in Scandinavia upon death as well. Expensive funerals are considered essential by many Americans and rather a dumb waste of money by Swedes and Danes.

Swedes in particular consider all ostentatious consumption to be vulgar. There is the tradition called "Royal Swedish Envy" and there is a specific word that describes bozo who try to appear superior to their fellows that I can't recall at the moment.

[The_Professor]

if he really believed it he'd move to Denmark!
"studies" can show anything they want
more socialist dribble to push a fraud agenda
dogs are happy too, eat, sex, and sleep
no thanks, i don't want be a shitzu

The only thing about that is that I bet Denmark is smart about emigration and so they wouldn't just take any old anybody.

Dangit! After you and JS talking it up, I really wanted to go, too!

[Rich]

It's not a matter of love it or leave it. Brass hates America. He hates it with a passion. This thread was started to point out, once again, how shitty America is and how much better some semi-communist country is. If you hate America so much, and Denmark is so wonderful, pack up your Ron Paul signs and get the hell out. Do YOURSELF a favor and take your family to the wonderful country of Denmark.

Best of luck.

[sirs]

But Rich...........it takes a village.  And we need folks like Brass, & Js, and Tee, and Lanya to tell us how we're to be, act, and be happy.  We just can't do it without them         

[Brassmask]

Don't know what your problem is, Brass......I'm American & I'm happy     

After thinking about this for a while, I realize how this all boils down and that sirs has no compunctions with not only admitting it but flaunting of his "ideals".

On the one hand, there's the idea that we all care for our fellow citizens but while it is my understanding and supposition that my own person caring is unconditional and growing, sirs' caring is tenuous, arbitrary and wholly on his terms no matter what.

On the other hand, it appears that while I want what I want for myself and everyone else, I have no need for assurances that someone else is NOT getting something for nothing or more than me while it appears that sirs only wants what he wants and screw everyone else for any number of reasons.

It just seems to me that it makes more sense to buy in bulk if you get a better price.  If you know you're going to be buying toilet paper for the next several months and you can get a case for a lower price than what you'd pay just buying the rolls one at a time over the next several months.  Buying bulk is better.

If my friends and I want to get together and buy a boat together because none of us can afford to buy one on our own but we all want one, why not do that?

If a nation of people has a health care system and 1/6th of them can't have access to it unless they are in danger of dying in the next few minutes or be saddled with a lifetime of debt and the other 5/6ths of the nation is paying an absolutely outrageous premium for that health care, why not join together and demand better health care for all?

It seems to me that sirs and other like him who reject the idea of social medicine feel it is better to make sure that they can pay that outrageous premium in favor of some rigid ideological and ridiculously stupid stance than forego that stance in favor of not paying the outrageous premium and allowing lots of people who, for whatever reason, can't afford simple doctors visits for low maintenance or preventative care which would prevent the need for expensive procedures for indigent folk that the taxpayer winds up footing the bill for anyway!

What it boils down to is pure radically ideological, selfish stupidity.  It's semantics that involves the words mine, ours, yours, free, etc and its immature and retarded.

[sirs]

Don't know what your problem is, Brass......I'm American & I'm happy     

After thinking about this for a while, I realize how this all boils down and that sirs has no compunctions with not only admitting it but flaunting of his "ideals".  On the one hand, there's the idea that we all care for our fellow citizens but while it is my understanding and supposition that my own person caring is unconditional and growing, sirs' caring is tenuous, arbitrary and wholly on his terms no matter what.

With 1 almighty significant caveat......they only pertain to myself, and don't obligate anyone else to "see it my way" or adopt MY VIEW of happieness.  His "ideals" as such obligate/mandates everyone to follow-suit, based on HIS VIEW of happiness.  A not so subtle distinction, in Brass's efforts to paint anyone that doesn't believe in his social utopia, as simply greedy in-it-for-themeselves capitalist bastards

[Brassmask]

It's not a matter of love it or leave it. Brass hates America. He hates it with a passion. This thread was started to point out, once again, how shitty America is and how much better some semi-communist country is. If you hate America so much, and Denmark is so wonderful, pack up your Ron Paul signs and get the hell out. Do YOURSELF a favor and take your family to the wonderful country of Denmark.

Best of luck.

Oh, I do not hate America.  I do hate some of the things that America does and lately it has been nothing worth liking.  When America is run by ideological retards like the neo=cons then, yeah, I get pissed.

I hate Ron Paul. Other than his apparent understanding of how we're hated around the world and that's why we were attacked on 9.11, the guy is a typical hatemongering rightwinger like you.

In a sense, you are right.  I could give two figs for the idea of "America" in that it is a parcel of land that is somehow greater and more desirable than other parcels of lands.  I could give two figs for the idea that the People of America are somehow more desirable having been born on this parcel of land or past a test that proves they are somehow worthy of being called Americans.

There are Saudi Arabians, Iraqis, Danes, Canadians, Australians, Brits, French people, I have got to believe that I would save on a sinking ship that are entirely more desirable to have breathing air in comparison to the likes of you.

It is my opinion that America is being led down to the path of destruction by like-minded individuals who don't care if America is around or not and they are, supposedly, Americans!  These alleged Americans only care about their own wealth and well-being.

So, sorry, I won't be running away like you conservative white-flighter types who simply move away from problem areas thus condemning that area to utter disolution like some predator that kills and eats all the prey in an area and leaves for lusher grounds.

[Brassmask]

With 1 almighty significant caveat......they only pertain to myself, and don't obligate anyone else to "see it my way" or adopt MY VIEW of happieness.  His "ideals" as such obligate/mandates everyone to follow-suit, based on HIS VIEW of happiness.  A not so subtle distinction, in Brass's efforts to paint anyone that doesn't believe in his social utopia, as simply greedy in-it-for-themeselves capitalist bastards

Then if you feel so deeply about not needing to have others see it your way then don't stand in the way of those of us who feel that social medicine is the way to go.  Why must you make us see it your way?

What really drives me mad is that you won't even acknowledge the rational reasons (ie my explanation of greater buying power as god damned consumers which acknowledges that you are a greedy in-it-for-yourself capitalist piece of shit bastard) for going to social medicine.  You only answer with vague, ideological bullshit.

When you go glib, it usually indicates you have no real answer to the intelligence of your opponents position.

[Plane]

Danish youths riot for 7th night, several arrested
Reuters India, India - Feb 17, 2008
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Bands of youths set fire to cars, buses and schools in Denmark on Saturday, the seventh night of rioting and vandalism in the capital ...
Danish arrests after youth riots BBC News
Danish youths riot for sixth night Sydney Morning Herald
Danish imam urges Muslim youths to stop rioting Hindu
United Press International
all 131 news articles ?

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I just bet these are happy riots.

[Christians4LessGvt]

So, sorry, I won't be running away like you conservative white-flighter types who simply move away from problem areas

Oh do you and your child live in the inner city slums so you can be "close to the people" where you can
try to have an impact or are you just the typical liberal that talks the shit but lives in the middle class neighborhoods
near a Best Buy and a Starbucks?