Not sure. Incarceration rate is almost directly tied to rhe level of inequality in the society, so even if USA takes away these laws, will change, but dramatically.
hmm..Not sure. 35K in 1980 were a lot bigger money :).
Superior by the way because of globalization - which created
better (?) material supply, but made jobs in USA horrible trash.
Bad behaviors often have a reason behind them: stress.
Stress is often created by poorly run, evil, cruel, egotistic societies. Improve social capital - the problems will decrease by themself.
Why you think US is the country with highest incarceration rate? And let's say Norway - much smaller?
I think, his parenting rights has to be taken back.
He buys toys for kids used - which is very unhealthy.
And he will not be able to buy cutting edge or very good stuff this way. No new books kids - Nope! Dad knows better.
No new dress - nope! Dad has THE idea!
In case of emergency he will not be able to pay for care for kids, unless he depend on government provided healthcare (do not get me wrong, I am "socialist" myself and I am pro-government-run-care), which unreliable, and does not cover many things.
My opinion - yes you have to try to live cheap life, but
not by buying used stuff - somebody else, with not really cheap life bought it first, but buying inexpensive stuff and using as long as possible, till it falls apart.
Ok, but they have free healthcare (at least 400$/month worth), live in miserable living conditions (3 roommates in a basement), and have 0 savings. And, apparently they walk naked.
Do not forget to add taxes. And waterbill. And trashbill.
And phonebill.
My observations are in total correspondence with Daniel Kanemann's research: For good life in USA you need $60K/year - more will not make you happier, less will make you unhappy.
Read the article.
Visited link to Wikipedia article?
Daymit, how you can SURVIVE on 35K a year in USA???
Maybe somewhere in Mississippi, but not in North USA.
Still, you'll have to eat random crap from 7-11 and macdonalds...
I think hidden biological mechanisms related to overpopulation have kicked in. Perhaps, subconsciously, when we see a lot more really old people living around, something switches on suggesting that reproduction can wait. Maybe informational explosion make us wait longer to acquire necessary amount of knowledge, necessary for decent life.
Also, stupid TV and internet entertainment, combined with lack of opportunity in USA contributes to this problem. ...
Every time I switch on American TV, I want to throw up.
Toilet paper. May contain excrements of the previous user,
source of bacteria and diseases.
Cars. May have been dropped, neglected, may have bacteria and mites inside. Besides it usually has used tires and used car seats.
Tell it to pharma-corps and medical establishment that refuses to sell medicines without prescription.
Trust me Cato, being right wing institution would come up with reasons why it is not good.
Yes, beacause it is nice to parasite on free/subsidized education of Europe/Asia. And native borns should compete, compete, compete, pay off education loans, compete, compete, compete...
Well... they are all bad.
Modern industry is not green yet.
So, even though I am a green guy, but I would still
choose on basis of device's functionality.
Surprisingly, but the same IMHO is true for the
industry. No teenager prodigies in garage can change modern landscape, owned by big corps an research establishments.
Well, the friend with COMPANY, may have NO REAL positions
open. And you may be ALREADY very experienced in technology.
So to break through bureaucracies of job agencies/HR departments, you need to apply some grease.
Yes it is deception, I know, but it is benign and important one. Your politicians deceive you every second, but keep them, do not you?.
Bernanke is a sly fox.
He talked a lot of richness,
richer-country->more services->better wealth and so on,
but he refused to speak about inequality.
USA is as unequal as many african countries,
have very high incarceration rate and so on (and it is not the richest country in per capita terms - Norway is richer).
Well, inequality creates concentration of power in the hands of a small group of people, creates feeling of unfairness in society ("the rigged towards rich fat cats"), increase overall stress on people. Did mr Bernanke ask regular folks - bus drivers, sales clerks, janitors - are they happy? or happier that 40 years ago?
Do you know that people of former GDR, well 56 % of them say that they want wall back??? Even though it was a quite poor country compared to West Germany???
Hugo is interesting person. Totally unclear where exatcly he is: on the left or on the right. I have impression that he has nothing to do with socialism, yet interesting to watch them anyway.