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"Of course, housing prices aren't everything....people coming here from Germany would have to pay for health care, pay for a car instead of using the outstanding German transit and rail systems, and so on."
They also see the poor quality construction of our cardboard houses, high crime, a disintegrating society and less freedom and privacy than they enjoy in Germany.
Hmmm....You are from Germany, I sense a bias towards America.
Look at the size of Germany compared to the USA. Germany is the size of ONE of our states, for instance, Montana is about the size of Germany. Try and develop a "rail system" or transportation system for a size of country that would equal 49 Germany's combined.
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Last edited by katzenfreund; 07-26-2008 at 07:43 AM..
Reason: off topic
London is seeing a housing implosion very similar to what's happening in the US...arguably even worse. And Tokyo real estate, though still crazy expensive, has been declining in value for like 12 years now. They suffer from the Law of the Five Pound Bag there (you can only fit five pounds of s*** in a five pound bag).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike from back east
I am surprised that more Europeans aren't scarfing up some of the homes here, especially the way the Germans LOVE Florida and the wide open spaces.
I think today that's being counteracted by the prospect of the high price to get back and forth to enjoy that cheap (in every sense of the word) American house.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike from back east
We've seen the big Belgian brewer recently buy Anheuser-Busch brewery
And if it means American beer will someday taste like Belgian beer, it could be the best thing to happen to the USA this year since Billary Clinton conceded the democratic primary!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike from back east
Of course, housing prices aren't everything....people coming here from Germany would have to pay for health care, pay for a car instead of using the outstanding German transit and rail systems, and so on.
When I lived in Germany, only the big-city dwellers didn't tend to own cars...just like New Yorkers in the US. And a fair number of Germans and other europeans with socialized medicine end up coming over here for health care because they don't want to wait a year for their system to get around to their urgent but non-emergent health care needs. And, like in the US, the German public transportation system isn't so hot outside the cities. But of course the country is so overpopulated, much of the country is in a city.
.... Look at the size of Germany compared to the USA. Germany is the size of ONE of our states, for instance, Montana is about the size of Germany. Try and develop a "rail system" or transportation system for a size of country that would equal 49 Germany's combined.
Strategic rail corridors are what we need, i.e., federal funding to grow them wider as most of the major ones are near capacity. Real issue is local transit, it seemed excellent when I was in Germany, with TWO levels of trains under Frankfurt airport, one for local trains and one for inter-city trains.
I see a need for serious Federal infrastructure investments along the main corridors like Boston to Miami, Great Lakes to New Orleans, Seattle to San Diego, and a couple cross country ones like East Coast to Minneapolis via Chicago, and across the lower tier from Florida to San Diego. Of course, with our government, the auto/road/oil lobbys, and our deficits, there is no way this will ever happen.
True that the day of rail passenger service to small mountain towns will never come back, but we do have crowded corridors that would allow the kind of density we see in Germany and much of Europe, where rail is very big.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bob from down south
London is seeing a housing implosion very similar to what's happening in the US...arguably even worse. And Tokyo real estate, though still crazy expensive, has been declining in value for like 12 years now. They suffer from the Law of the Five Pound Bag there (you can only fit five pounds of s*** in a five pound bag).
The term for that is the well known "BLIVIT" of Army fame, of trying to cram ten pounds of poo in a five pound bag.
You're damned right I'm nostalgic. I'm nostalgic for a time when borrowers behaved responsibly--borrowed money that they had some hope of repaying. I'm nostalgic for a time when every personal or corporate business decision was not based solely on greed, and ethics and honesty in business dealings was considered a positive quality. I'm nostalgic for a time when people lived within their means, and normal working people did not have to amass a balloon of debt to live an "acceptable lifestyle." I'm nostalgic for a responsible government that did not saddle unborn generations with a yoke of debt that they can not possibly bear. I'm nostalgic for a country that actually produced things of tangible value while conserving its irreplaceable natural and financial resources in a prudent manner. I'm nostalgic for a country where citizens took responsibility for their well-being, and the well-being of their neighbors, and where there was no perverse sense of entitlement and "It's all about me." I'm nostalgic for a country where that which nature created was revered and protected instead of destroyed at every turn just so we can "have a little more."
If wanting to see those things is "living in the wrong place and time" and "hoping things will revert back to the way they were," you're darned right I wish I could be living in the "right" place and time, or that things would revert back to the way they were. The sooner the better--the path we are on now has no future.
Hey jazz, all of those things you are nostalgic about seem like good things to me too, and I'd actualy prefer living in that kind of world. However, rather than wasting my energy pining for the past, wishing things would be like they once were and making myself miserable in the process, I'm doing my best to make the most of what is. Since I've been redirecting my efforts along this line, I've been happier than I was when I was all wrapped up in the nostalgia game. Been there, done that! I guarantee you that it is a recipe for frustration, and bitterness. It's not worth it. Life is too short.
Last edited by CosmicWizard; 07-26-2008 at 05:32 PM..
Hey jazz, all of those things you are nostalgic about seem like good things to me too, and I'd actualy prefer living in that kind of world. However, rather than wasting my energy pining for the past, wishing things would be like they once were and making myself miserable in the process, I'm doing my best to make the most of what is. Since I've been redirecting my efforts along this line, I've been happier than I was when I was all wrapped up in the nostalgia game. Been there, done that! I guarantee you that it is a recipe for frustration, and bitterness. It's not worth it. Life is too short.
Well, we can be happy passengers on a train passing "Bridge Out" signs at high speed, or we can try and get up front and do something about it.
I don't think it's a waste of energy to try and shape the future and the path to it. If we don't, then we have no right to look surprised at the size of the wreck...
Frustration and bitterness are often the roots of motivation. If the preferred means of dealing with a situation we don't like is to just take another bong hit, sit back, and accept everything, then we're pretty much already screwed as a society.
We can be happy passengers AND do something about it! Acceptance and action are not mutually exclusive as you seem to imply. Being nostalgic is not exactly shaping the future. Frustration and bitterness are NOT requirements for motivation, however, ACCEPATNCE is indeed required. You cannot get from point A to point B without accepting that you are currently at point A. Placing blame on the idiots who caused this mess and whining about it ad infinitum is not a solution either.
We can be happy passengers AND do something about it! Acceptance and action are not mutually exclusive as you seem to imply. Being nostalgic is not exactly shaping the future. Frustration and bitterness are NOT requirements for motivation, however, ACCEPATNCE is indeed required. You cannot get from point A to point B without accepting that you are currently at point A. Placing blame on the idiots who caused this mess and whining about it ad infinitum is not a solution either.
This so-called nostalgia serves me as a frame of reference as we move along. I don't think it serves a purpose to be content with being in an unacceptable bad place.
Frustration and bitterness may not be required to motivate...but that is quite often what underlies somebody breaking out of the bubble of lazy complacency, getting mad as hell, and deciding not to take it anymore.
Oh really? Then lets just let the irresponsible parents reward the spoiled, unruly **** kid running amock in the restaurant by asking it what it would like for desert, too.
Last edited by katzenfreund; 07-28-2008 at 08:06 AM..
Reason: language
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