Views on America

Onesnap

My ancestors came from Ireland mostly. Who am I to bash on immigrants or complain if their children need an education? Better than having 500 children who aren't getting an education in your community!

I'm the great grand child if immigrants.

My point is...yes, they are getting an education paid for by my tax dollars. Who is to say their parents are paying into the system? My great-grandparents came here, worked and paid taxes. Their kids went to school and worked in the legit family business. I would not make a comparison to 1920s America to 2012 America.

boomboom011

wait all the non-americans have left this thread and now the americans are fighting amongst themselves.

STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no more!

Wait, isn't this what always goes on... Shoot if I believed everything I saw on TV, I would think we were in a Civil war (part Deux... or maybe that Dos down here in Tejas)... right now.

Did you just say Dos Equis? Mas cervesas por favor. wait, wrong thread. but Dos Equis is muy delicioso!

Kelekat

I agree as well. I began my college career as a Musical Theatre major. MUSICAL THEATRE. Somebody, ANYBODY please tell me what kind of job you can get with that degree. Most of the friends I had that graduated with that degree are waiters, bartenders, or work in retail. No thanks, those are the jobs I had when I was IN college. I quickly changed my major to Marketing and Advertising, a degree that got me the great job I have now.

My mom worked her butt off to put herself not only through undergrad, but graduate school as well. She has ZERO student loan debt and nobody handed her the money for her education. She got scholarships and paid for both herself by getting jobs and grants and what not. It can be done, but I think the problem is that so many of us feel entitled to it that we're not willing to put in the hard work it takes to achieve our goals. I'm glad I busted my *kitten* to get scholarships and to get the job I have now. It makes me insane every time somebody tells me they're a philosophy major or something and then cry about how worthless their undergrad degree is.

Again, missing the point. Education is great, the more people who have one the better. But not having an education does not make you disposable people, undeserving of a decent standard of living. Plenty of people work all their lives and have nothing, they can't retire, can't afford their medication, can't save money for their own children. Why? Because America is a country where if you aren't smart enough or rich enough, you apparently don't deserve to live and should be grateful to be allowed to exist at all.

This is wrong. It's a sickness in our society that this view is so accepted. There is also a blind spot in our society that allows educational opportunities to be an excuse for not having universal healthcare and a living wage even though there aren't enough good jobs to go around for the graduates that we do have.

I'm sorry but you are flat out wrong. There is no caste system here in the US as you paint it to be. Many millionaires and independently wealthy people come from nothing. America is the ONE PLACE that anyone can succeed. Nobody is actively barring you from becoming rich or famous. Nobody is stopping anyone from getting an education. And for those that can work their entire lives and have nothing to show for it...well that's life, sometimes that happens.

I see no place in America where people are barred by race, religion, sex, sexual preference, nor any other list of items from becoming wealthy, and if there are, guess what, you have the freedom to move to a different state and succeed there.

The ONLY people that we should be helping, protecting and caring for are those that are actually too disabled to work. The mentally handicapped, physically handicapped and children. Too many people in America are in it for "me" looking for a handout and don't work even though they are able bodied. The liberal system has ingrained this in them. Why work when you don't have to, we'll just take the money from someone else that is working so you don't have to.

I know people like this. I friend of mine's brother has been on welfare for years. He's still young, but hasn't worked since he was 18. There is nothing wrong with him. And somehow between his welfare checks and live in girlfriend he has more than I have after busting my hump for years in shcool, the military and pushing to get ahead in my career, and that's just not right.

This post right here! ^^^^

k8blujay2

Except I (and others) do... without listening to the opinion of a biased filmmaker... I don't need to watch a documentary to have my thoughts provoked or to be compelled to think critically... It's the same reason I don't watch Cable News of any stretch.

Please don't compare a news broadcast to a documentary.

There were some mighty fine documentaries that really changed the way people think.

Food, Inc. anyone?

Forks over Knives?

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead?

---

Just have a well rounded education on the topics you are passionate about.

Don't dismiss one film just because you don't like the filmmaker. Watch and read everything.

I might agree with you in most instances... but it's hard to forget that Michael Moore (whom I view as a hypocrite) had a LOT to do with his films because you see his face all over it... I am not opposed to reading things from all sides... that's not my issue... but I cannot take an opinion of a very biased person seriously....

LizKurz

Extremist. That's how the united states are viewed. In everything that is seen and heard about americans here, there are no social/cultural norms. Everything is either very sexualised, or very prudish. Very wealthy or suprisingly poor. The entire culture is viewed as terribly over-indulgent and having an every-man-for-himself mentality. I have been to your country and i know that there are many normal people who live the same as i do and have a good head on their shoulders, but as whole it is not represented as such.

I don't have much room to speak though, everyone thinks i live in an igloo and say 'eh' a lot.

Make sure not to come to the USA on vacation. Sheesh.

Yes, let's prove how right they are, by telling them they're not welcome. That's the way to go about it.

/sarcasm

Onesnap

Extremist. That's how the united states are viewed. In everything that is seen and heard about americans here, there are no social/cultural norms. Everything is either very sexualised, or very prudish. Very wealthy or suprisingly poor. The entire culture is viewed as terribly over-indulgent and having an every-man-for-himself mentality. I have been to your country and i know that there are many normal people who live the same as i do and have a good head on their shoulders, but as whole it is not represented as such.

I don't have much room to speak though, everyone thinks i live in an igloo and say 'eh' a lot.

Make sure not to come to the USA on vacation. Sheesh.

Yes, let's prove how right they are, by telling them they're not welcome. That's the way to go about it.

/sarcasm

You clearly missed my point.

/sarcasm back at you.

LizKurz

Wow... just skimming the current pages there are so many misconceptions that I don't even know where to start... *sigh* and health care CAN be affordable if one learns how to navigate the system.

Exactly. People confuse halthcare with insurance.
Insurance is what I have incase I need to go to the
ER. Healtcare is what I receive when I give my DR
$60. ($100 for a full Physical) Healthcare is quite
affordable when you eliminate the middle man.
That, and our health savings account (pretaxed)
we do just fine.

Heck, I had to have out patient surgery done on
my face, and it was $400 cash. I paid $100 that
day, and $100 per month. In 3 months it was
paid off. (that included the biopsy)

The only people that come between and my
doctor, are the people they have working at
the front desk, and the RN.

And that's the way it should be. No insurance companies, no government involvement.

Anyone that's been in the military or worked for the US government can tell you that government mandated healthcare will be a total and complete flaming train wreck.

government run healthcare seems to work for other countries... but we would manage to screw it up (ie- military/ us government workers)

But it doesn't actually work for other countries well. The standard of care is something in the toilet compared to US medicine. Trust me I know, I spent time in a hospital in Germany. They are butchers, they don't care about patients, and it shows. It's a nice idea, but it's not practical nor sustainable at the level that we are accustomed to in this country.

Just wait until you are on a waiting list for simple routine procedures for months and see how that goes.

My brother had the complete opposite experience in Germany. He had been bit in the face by a dog when we lived there and the US military doctors wanted to do a simple sew up procedure and then put him on a list for plastic surgery when he got older. The German doctor presented a different procedure that would not require plastic surgery at all. My mother, being an RN, decided to go with the German doctor and you can only tell if what happened if you knew the story.

I also had the complete opposite experience while living in Germany. I even had a baby over there, so have plenty of experience with how it works

In fact, my time spent living in Germany is why I'm a socialist today.

k8blujay2

Nope, actually I don't... as a retired military brat I still have connections to people that know more about what's going on in this country than PBS does... and if they tell me to not worry, I'm not going to worry.... if they tell me to prepare, then I'm going to prepare... no questions asked. By the way, I don't know what you learned in school... but I learned to read between the lines.

Please don't criticize my education. I also learned to read between the lines.

I'm sorry... it was hard not to, when it seems like you (and I could be wrong and if I am I apologize) to take a filmmakers word as gospel truth....