Is the US a shitty place to live?

Illuminati Confirmed! said:
The sad thing is, I can't think of anything that makes America different from other western countries anymore. The only thing that comes to mind is the freedom to own guns, and I don't know how long that one will last. Everything else already seems to have become the same oppressive hyper-regulated mess as everywhere else.
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I would go with the separation of church and state, which is directly written into the Constitution. But GUNNNS it is.
Wouldn't also pick regulation as the problem.

I'd have picked lack of regulation on banks and the housing crisis. Citizens United. Patriot Act. American military adventurism. Deteriorating standards and rising expense of education and healthcare. A complete lack of bipartisanship in our politics. Our political discourse degenerating to the point that clowns like Trump even get a chance of taken seriously. A feeling of unfounded exceptionalism despite all-of-the-above.

But hey, the real problem is the old saw about bigger government.
 
Capitalism has become a religion, since well a long time ago. The advantage? You don't have to understand it anymore. Just to believe in it.

Poeple like Trump - or well most politicans - are simply the preachers of said religion.
 
DVL said:
I would go with the separation of church and state, which is directly written into the Constitution. But GUNNNS it is.
Wouldn't also pick regulation as the problem.

I'd have picked lack of regulation on banks and the housing crisis. Citizens United. Patriot Act. American military adventurism. Deteriorating standards and rising expense of education and healthcare. A complete lack of bipartisanship in our politics. Our political discourse degenerating to the point that clowns like Trump even get a chance of taken seriously. A feeling of unfounded exceptionalism despite all-of-the-above.

But hey, the real problem is the old saw about bigger government.
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Pretty much all western countries have separation of church and state written into their constitutions. I know for a fact that Croatia does, and we ain't exactly what you'd call a shining beacon of western civilization. Everything else you mentioned minus the lack of regulation on banks and military adventurism is also present pretty much all over Europe (the exceptionalism being more present in the east).

The funny thing is that you just counted a load of bad things brought about by big government and went on to complain that people view bigger government as a problem.

Don't worry, the Donald will make you great again.
 
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Well, California is a nice place to live, even better than a lot of European countries I've been to. It has mountains, rivers, lakes, deserts, redwood forests, snow, and the pacific ocean, not to mention the great food, wine, craft beers, and culture that exists here.

This changes rather quickly the more east you go. I've been all over the world, and California is truly the best place to be in my opinion. :)

A couple things -- In-N-Out, Racer 5 IPA, LA Kings, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area. North of us is the great state of Oregon with the Portland Rose Festival, and above that is Washington, which is a good state in it's own right. Over on this side, we just want to live and let live.
 
This article written by man from Chicago made me doubt that I would have been living happily in the U.S.:
http://www.52insk.com/2012/1950/
After spending some time here in Slovakia, he's comparing our country to the U.S. as it looked in 1950's there. Let me assure you that everything he wrote about our country, pleasing to me or not, is incredibly accurate, hats off to this man! (Long article though, I can't blame anyone skipping it. I think that any Slovak or American reader would find it very interesting anyway.)
 
TheRippaMan said:
Well, California is a nice place to live, even better than a lot of European countries I've been to. It has mountains, rivers, lakes, deserts, redwood forests, snow, and the pacific ocean, not to mention the great food, wine, craft beers, and culture that exists here.

This changes rather quickly the more east you go. I've been all over the world, and California is truly the best place to be in my opinion. :)

A couple things -- In-N-Out, Racer 5 IPA, LA Kings, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area. North of us is the great state of Oregon with the Portland Rose Festival, and above that is Washington, which is a good state in it's own right. Over on this side, we just want to live and let live.
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Southern California is a shit hole. Fuck that place. Northern California, from the East Bay up, is much better.
 
I live in Mississippi, so as you can imagine I get jabs about living in a trailer park while chewing tobacco whilst simultaneously spouting racial slurs and drinking beer in my spare time a lot. But I do none of these things. I live in the suburbs of a nice American town surrounded by a lot of old people whose yards I cut for money.

The humidity during spring and summer is terrible, and during the winter, thanks to constant shifts between warm weather and freeze-your-ass-off weather, houses end up damaged due to this causing the wood to contrast and expand repeatedly.

Honestly though I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. For all its flaws I love my country, I love my state, I love my city. I love being a Southerner with a thick accent and I love my land's culture + history. My area of the Deep South is a very nice place to live, damn anyone else who says otherwise.
 
Ragemage said:
I get jabs about living in a trailer park while chewing tobacco whilst simultaneously spouting racial slurs and drinking beer in my spare time a lot. But I do none of these things.
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As a Georgian, I know that feeling.
Ragemage said:
Honestly though I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. For all its flaws I love my country, I love my state, I love my city. I love being a Southerner with a thick accent and I love my land's culture + history. My area of the Deep South is a very nice place to live, damn anyone else who says otherwise.
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As a Georgian, I know this feeling as well.
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Ragemage said:
I live in Mississippi, so as you can imagine I get jabs about living in a trailer park while chewing tobacco whilst simultaneously spouting racial slurs and drinking beer in my spare time a lot.
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Let's be clear though, you haven't denied that you've got a Skynyrd tattoo.
 
I have a relative who lived in Texas during the Clinton era and when Dubya was elected things become too difficult economically and politically that she felt that she had to leave the country. In the States taxes are low but there's also a lot of costs, you need to have a car etc. Plus other costs. My relative was a small entreprenour and that became difficult too under Bush. Was strange hearing about the death penalty being used quite a lot over there and stuff and cops stopping you for walking on the street etc.

Edit. Hmm I'd already posted basically the same thing earlier. D'oh! Oh well.

Question for Americans, have you guys ever visited outside the US and where would you want to live if not in the States?
 
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As for California, it looks really nice on postcards and stuff. I've read about some nasty experiments committed on civil population after the WWII though, such as injecting radioactive materials, or military ships spraying coastal cities in California with bacteria in order to observe the speed and progress of infection. Many folks died from pneumonia due to this. (It has been documented in The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War written by American author.)
 
MutantScalper said:
Question for Americans, have you guys ever visited outside the US and where would you want to live if not in the States?
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Yeah, I worked in Tokyo for many years and go back frequently, traveled other parts of E. Asia.

Of all the places outside the US I'd live, I've always flirted with the idea of Bermuda.
 
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