So, it has been awhile since I blogged here. Things on the health care front have calmed somewhat, for now. At this point there is nothing much that I can do or contribute and it's out of my control. Hell, it's out of all our controls and in the hands of the elected officials we put in office. I will say that I will be paying close attention to who votes for what and I will make my opinion known the only way I know how (that is writing strongly worded letters and , of course, at the polls).
But, I do still engage in political discussions at the city-data.com website. And, I'm still amazed at what trolls actually troll post there. They still go on about Socialism, Fascism and all that other nonsense. It blows my mind that they seem completely ignorant to the fact that we indeed have many socialistic principles in practice in our society.
Here is something from Wikipedia about the elements of a mixed economy, which is what the U.S is defined as:
The elements of a mixed economy typically include a variety of freedoms:
- to possess means of production (farms, factories, stores, etc.)
- to participate in managerial decisions (cooperative and participatory economics)
- to travel (needed to transport all the items in commerce, to make deals in person, for workers and owners to go to where needed)
- to buy (items for personal use, for resale; buy whole enterprises to make the organization that creates wealth a form of wealth itself)
- to sell (same as buy)
- to hire (to create organizations that create wealth)
- to fire (to maintain organizations that create wealth)
- to organize (private enterprise for profit, labor unions, workers' and professional associations, non-profit groups, religions, etc.)
- to communicate (free speech, newspapers, books, advertisements, make deals, create business partners, create markets)
- to protest peacefully (marches, petitions, sue the government, make laws friendly to profit making and workers alike, remove pointless inefficiencies to maximize wealth creation)
with tax-funded, subsidized, or state-owned factors of production, infrastructure, and services:
As you can clearly see, that is exactly what our economy is. It is exactly what the UK , France and Germany are as well. As a matter of fact the industrialized free world all operate under the same mixed economy ideals. And, the fact that they all have socialized medicine does not make them anything else but what they already are. Nor would it make us anything different.
Which now brings me to the title of my post the Ugly American. Here is the definition
Ugly American is an epithet used to refer to perceptions of loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless and ethnocentric behavior of American citizens mainly abroad, but also at home.
And boy,have I come across many of them on City-data.com in the politics forum. Obviously the "loud" portion does not apply but, the arrogant and ethnocentric portions just bleeds through the screen.
I was having a discussion on a thread topic entitled "Do We Love Socialism". My post basically said that anything in it's pure form is not a good thing and that included both capitalism and socialism. There needs to be a balance in anything you do in life . Just look at nature. Nature is all about balance. Therefore our lives and how we govern it should also be about balance. I simply said that no, we do not love socialism, but indeed we love the balance of having socialism mixed with free market principles and ideas in a way that has helped shape and form this great country of ours.
This tool, yes he is a tool says this about Europe because they have a socialized system of medicine;
Euros are sheep,they don't mind gov control,
for them the terms "government","public sector ","welfare " are...positive.
Ah.. yes, here is where the ugly comes in. He obviously knows little or understands little about Europeans. For one, we are the most "sheeple" of societies. Just look at how we are controlled by corporations, commercialism etc.
Europeans are always aware of their surroundings. Guaranteed they know more about what goes on with American politics and government than we do, as we are too busy worried about Britney Spears next breakdown or following the exploits of Jon & Kate and Octomom. That's not a put down of American culture because I do enjoy all those things, but to turn around and claim that Europeans are "sheeple" and suggest that they are in essence "drones" is , well extremely stupid and yes arrogant.
We are the ONLY industrialized free nation in the world that has not yet adapted a system of health care that takes care of all of it's citizens. It is completely stupid and reckless to believe that in the entire world WE are the only ones that are "right" and everyone else is wrong. It's not about trying to gain favor in the world, but there is a point when you have to look at yourself and your nation and say, hmm.. what can I learn from the rest of the world? Same is true in our personal lives and some of the most successful people in the world will tell you that they became successful because they knew when to look to someone else to help them in areas in which they did not excel. Rather than think they are the best and know the best they instead had enough humility to know their short comings and learn from someone else who excelled in those areas. So , why is it that we as a nation can not do the same?
It's our arrogance..that Ugly American persona that rings so true in so many aspects that is going to drag this country down and, we'll soon find ourselves falling from the 'top' as the most powerful nation in the world. I for one , do not want to see that happen. We are the greatest country in the world, but we will only remain that way if we practice some humility and realize that we could learn something from other nations.
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