dtwest

Healthcare is not irrelevant, that is a ridiculous statement. Perhaps you mean healthcare spending, but even that is only supported by a few outliers like the US.

Lifespan statistics are heavily influenced by early deaths. Drugs and violence take many more lives in the Western Hemisphere than in Singapore. This is enough to explain a large portion of it. Especially during this opioid epidemic.

I'd argue that diet is significantly worse throughout the Western Hemisphere as well, but nutrition is a difficult science.

As someone from the Rust Belt, the "San Francisco is awful" mentality is puzzling to me. Awful compared to what? Seattle? Some other world class city? If it's so bad why don't you move somewhere cheap like Cleveland? Oh wait, you don't want to, because Cleveland is worse. For the record, I like Cleveland, I grew up there, real estate is affordable, it has a lake, but it is no San Francisco. That said, I'd still never call Cleveland awful, it's better than where most of the world lives. Have some perspective.

Since when does Arizona have no hills? Most states in the US are flatter than Arizona.

That's kind of a weird point to make since the NSA spies on Americans and Europeans too.

The article presents DC's park and ride station as "a perfect example of WHAT NOT TO DO". But it's really all they can do if they must force a train system into an area without the right kind of density.

I very much agree we need a new approach to planning an zoning. We need to focus on that first. It could take longer than a generation to transition away from the suburban model.

The US is designed differently than the other heavily developed areas of the world. It's not about being "too big" or "not dense enough", it is more complicated than that.

The Northeast US has a similar statistical density as areas of Europe but looks so much physically different. Take some time on Google Earth and check it out. There is a nonstop blob of suburbs that go almost all the way from DC to Boston. In a proposed train network, most of the population has a long trip to the central station before they can take the train to the other city. They still need a car, and need somewhere to park it. In Europe or Asia cities are more concentrated, and the countrysides are less populated.

Building a center-city to center-city train network in the US is not impossible, but it simply wouldn't be as efficient as it would be in Europe or Asia because of the way the cities are designed.

This is a good point. As a former LIC resident, I lived there because of the transit situation to other areas of the city. If I was working in LIC rather than Manhattan, I could easily live somewhere like Flushing or Greenpoint instead.

Apartment prices have been dropping in LIC for a few years because of all the new development. I can't imagine Amazon's announcement will slow the development pace, so I wouldn't be surprised if LIC rents do not rise at all.

Free speech is an extremely popular cultural ideal in America. However, there is a distinction the courts have made over the years that prohibits a call to action for a violent act:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imminent_lawless_action

ISIS recruitment obviously violates this. If the right wing propaganda violates this, it is also illegal.

I also don't think America has (or believes it has) a right-wing terrorism problem. Sure, any bit of terrorism is a problem, but there seems to be about 20 murders a year attributed to right-wing terrorism in a country of 300+ million people. (If you live in a country of 15 million, that would be like 1 person/year). For comparison, cities like Chicago will have 20 people murdered in one week in the summer.

My point is just that you can't ask the American people to part ways with one of their most cherished political ideals, to fight a problem which is not viewed as much of a threat.

The pie is growing slower than it ever has. Per capita GDP growth in the US has been close to 1% over the past 20 years. The majority of GDP growth has come from population growth rather than increased personal wealth. The purchasing power gains made by US consumers, as cited in the article you linked, have been a result of an unsustainable current account deficit and growing national debt. Dollar strength is great for people who have a bunch of dollars, but for the working class it can be difficult because it hurts the competitiveness of US exports (and eventually domestic employment opportunities).

The rich are consuming an increasingly large percentage of a very slowly growing pie, so while you are technically correct, you seem to be unfairly dismissing a real issue here.

I did not say that for the record

I find it hilarious that you praise your own critical thinking skills while citing the first Google result that you didn't read. You sound like one of these hypothetical Americans that never criticize themselves! The biggest problem in your country is lederhosen and Mozart in your opinion? And they say Germans can't be funny...

It makes sense to me that you didn't read your source though, you didn't read my post either. I didn't say America doesn't have problems, we have lots of them! I just said that we are aware of them, and often criticize them. For example, you just listed off a bunch of grievances that the majority of New Yorkers would agree with. (I currently live in New York and the people here are also somewhat disconnected with the realities of middle America)

I really like and respect Germany, and I especially agree with you that the news there is better than in the US. But isn't that the point? Many Europeans watch American news and get sensationalized opinions of what is going on here. It is also worth noting that your country is extremely homogeneous by American standards (partially due to your own country's racist history), and you seem to be assuming America has one unified opinion when that is not the case. We are constantly arguing with ourselves on a much wider range of issues than what Germany must consider.

You are clearly not immune to bullshit media, because you have just exaggerated every stereotype that Europeans have about Americans and stated it as a fact.

What specific negatives about America get 'treated with "C'est la vie"'? Americans and the American media are extremely self critical.

To counter your anecdote, when I talk to many Europeans there is this imagination that American cities now have gun-wielding criminals "running wild, riots in the streets" when in reality things "were pretty much the same".

People who don't know much about places outside their home often fall victim to sensationalist media. And Americans tend to be very inward focused so they are vulnerable to this. However, to say Americans ignore their own problems is blatantly false.

The post said 20 uncorrelated income streams, not random stocks. Random stocks often have high correlations to each other.

Should be fixed now. Thanks.

The registration description was inaccurate, you don't need to sign up for Stripe right away to look around the members area, thanks for pointing that out. Also, I agree with the free demo comment, I'll change the button to "Sign Up".

The add to cart functionality on the sample menu should work, what browser are you using?

Exactly. Thanks for sharing that one

Menucamp - Online ordering for restaurants (https://menucamp.com)

Restaurants pay way too much for bad online ordering systems. Menucamp is a simple, inexpensive system that gets the job done.