Ah, America.

[pyat]

Currently occupying two foreign nations, dealing with ongoing violence in both, with a worrisome economy, a major port city still crippled by natural disaster, more than 1 in 100 adults currently in prison, tax rolls supporting a defense budget larger than that all the other nations of the world combined, spending more per capita of state money on healthcare than any other nation yet no socialized healthcare and a declining life expectancy, serious questions about the conduct of the military and CIA, the perpetrator of 9/11 basically forgotten, and there's an election in a few months.

And of course, the most important topics in that election are gay marriage and abortion.

Comments

[catsarah.livejournal.com]

seriously? 1% of it's citizens in prison. wow.

how does canada stack up to that any idea?

[conjurdude.livejournal.com]

Yes, the "And so in conclus-OH MY GOD! What's that behind the rosebush?!" school of politics...

[pyat.livejournal.com]

0.107% of the population in 2006, sez Google.

[pyat.livejournal.com]

Good lord! Is that a gay man aborting a fetus with a WMD?

[conjurdude.livejournal.com]

Yes, and reading Harry Potter whilst doing so!

[relee.livejournal.com]

I worry about my American friends all the time. Will they die of a common illness? Will they be crushed by the secret police? Will they get shot in one of their tens of thousands of random murders?

So far only two of them have. One to a semi-common illness, one with questions of conspiracy and possible murder. But what about the rest? Are they going to be next? They tell me about their lives and they seem so emperiled, but casual. It's so natural for them to be in danger, they don't realize that things don't have to be that way.

[used_songs]

I am embarrassed to be from the US. I hate this place. We (at least collectively) are stupid sheep.

[kianir.livejournal.com]

I realize it doesn't have to be this way. But escape is only feasible for the well-heeled -- who are those least needing to do so.

I don't have health insurance, or savings, nor do I make anything close to a living wage, and I'm supporting two + pets. Yet I know there are much worse off. Hell, I have coworkers who are much worse off. Easily half of them are on foodstamps, while working n+1 jobs to keep their homes.

I find myself wishing, at times, that McCain gets elected, because the further into this abyss we descend, the more people will realize it's kinda dark down here. I don't, honestly, know what will make the US citizenry wake up, if not their empty stomachs and the lack of a roof over their head.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

That's 1% of _adult residents_, for 2.3 million. 1% of all citizens of all ages would be about 2.9 million.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

You know, we hear more news about China down here than we ever do about Canada. It's like you're all right next door, and no one notices. Unless it's buying meds.

We can't really help where we were born you know... There's no place else will take us either.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

It's not that bad in most places, but the US is so large and heterogeneous that you can't broadly generalize and the worst places tend to be very bad so they drag down the average for everyone. Montana, for example, is very tranquil but there's less than a million people there.

[archai.livejournal.com]

That's not just us. Everywhere in the world right now, you can look around, and see stupid sheep. One might successfully argue that in parts of the UK right now, the sheep are even dumber.

No, we just have particularly twisted shepherds.

[relee.livejournal.com]

*shakes her head* The way I see it, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. A president isn't going to change that.

The situation may be pathetic but the people are satisfied. They won't change things untill it becomes unbearable. Untill then, while bearable, it will be painful. And when it becomes unbearable, there will be horror and pain and death and all those terrible things that come as a part of change. Then... who knows what will happen?

As long as the dog is satisfied, he doesn't mind the leash or the cheap food, and he can even endure the cruel master's whip. But no matter if he is satisfied, I feel sorry for the abused dog.

[relee.livejournal.com]

Mostly I'm worried about my friends. There's a limited scope I can handle at once. The world is huge, and full of both joy and suffering, but only a small fraction of it is 'my world'. My friends suffer in some of the worst places in the states, and even the ones in some of the nicer parts are emperiled.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

*shakes her head* The way I see it, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. A president isn't going to change that.

The right president, on their own could make things better to some degree. The right president with the right congress and the right senate could to a heck of a lot of good, especially if they have 8+ years to do it in (that would be at least two right presidents btw, not saying you should extend your maximum term limits or anything).

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of the American establishment is a bit embarrassed at how well Canada manages to do, in spite of the fact that we're doing everything wrong according to their wisdom. We don't routinely carry guns, we regulate (some of) our markets, we have a fair number of unions and other protections for labour, we have socialized acute and routine health care, we let gay people marry and we pay moms to stay home with their babies - so many things that many Americans see as the End of the World as We Know It, and they've worked pretty well, next door to them, for a long time. It's embarrassing, so they only talk about Canada when they can point out how one of those things we do isn't working perfectly.

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Well, the seniors crossing into Canada to buy meds is an *assault* on the rights of drug companies to gouge our elders. So that's something you're doing too well but that *hurts* our economy.

[relee.livejournal.com]

They're not my term limits. ^.^;;

I feel really awkward about the whole thing because on a whole other level I don't feel it's my right to tell another country how they should do things. They have their own ideas of what's right and wrong...

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

Consider it payback for the softwood lumber tax. *chuckle*

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

"One might successfully argue that in parts of the UK right now, the sheep are even dumber."

I just came back from nearly four years of teaching over there; don't tempt me! *chuckle*

[kianir.livejournal.com]

Your labor laws are pretty awful.

But I'd still move to Ontario in a New York (or is that Toronto?) minute.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

To put this in perspective, the City of Toronto has a population of 2.48 million.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Do you mean Canada's or the States'?

[kianir.livejournal.com]

Canada's. Labor for non-government jobs is regulated on a provincial level, and they're pretty minimal. I was looking at Nova Scotia's not long ago, and they say over 48 hours is overtime (in the States it's 40 hours) and some tiny number of total consecutive hours off per week. Nothing preventing swing shifts, and a ton of exceptions for unionized employees, which to my eyes is a great gaping hole for abuse through company unions.

I started looking at Ontario's, but didn't get all the way through it, so I don't rightly recall what theirs is like, other than a 48-hour workweek also.

[anidada.livejournal.com]

Where are you getting your info? I'm in Ontario and overtime here is over 44 hours/week. Granted, much depends on the industry you're in. There are different rules for different professions.

Frankly, having worked at a Canadian branch of an American company (dealing daily with issues regarding HR and labour regulations), and having to constantly educate bosses who thought they could get away with treating their (non-unionized) Canadian staff as badly as they treated their staff at home, I think we've got it pretty damn good up here. :)