Do we have a chance?
- Thread starter sobester
- Start date
We lack the homogeneity and when they grow older and informed and pay bills they’ll become pubs. Rinse repeat.
Americans are never satisfied with where we are. We buy a BMW and are happy until our neighbor buys a Ferrari. Our 75 inch TV is great, until we have a friend with a 100 inch. We really require an overhaul.
I had a buddy wonder why people get so angry when they find out a coworker makes more. He suggested if we were happy with our pay before finding out someone makes more, why should that make us suddenly unhappy with our pay. Our pay hasn't changed. He suggested we should be happy for the other person.
We need to learn to be happier with where we are. I've listened to some conversations about the younger generation. One was by a Libertarian about how the job market is changing, many youth work for 6-8 months in a gig economy, then quit for a month or two and travel the world and then get another gig job. That may well be a more mentally healthy way of doing it as I'm not sure the rat race really works for our mental health.
The materialism in the U.S. is a problem. It goes hand in hand with our apparent need to hoard wealth.
I think the homogeneity plays a role. They're not nearly as divided as we are. We're not so much a melting pot anymore. but rather an increasingly balkanized society.
A buddy married a Swede, and they moved back about 8-10 years ago. It's an entirely different ball game there, according to him.
This thread reminds me of that debate moment. You almost got there Tim.
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Not relevant at all. Scandinavian countries are very competitive about things like that. Watch the Tour de France. They just don’t see status symbols as victory.
it's the Amish problem isn't it? Finland doesn't have any Amish mafia presence.
definitely. i have a close buddy lives in sweden. played soccer in college then went to work for schering-plough in europe
What does it mean to be an American?
We lost that somewhere. I used to know, now i don't. Our homegeniety should be based on common ideals about freedom, liberty, and being able to work your way up the socio-economic ladder. A lot of people have helped to kill this:
-Corportations by moving jobs
-SJWs by driving division
-Nativists by responding to the SJWs and creating slogans like America First (but really just the white ones)
- and on and on
Personal freedom and individual responsibility are what I've considered the cornerstones of what it means to be an American, but they're long gone in large swaths of the population.
I'd throw community in there. Which requires assimilation. Which seems to be taboo these days. Sigh.
Good list. Add these:
- the Forever Wars
- open borders and unfettered immigration
- greed in corporations, individuals
- clever disguising of Marxist groups grifting and destroying
- terrible politicians
Would bet not all Scandinavians are happy (assuming they know what happiness should feel like).
Same goes for Americans who have the resources to do whatever whenever they want (personal freedom).
Am thinking happiness is a state mind over which I have control. Given this, I refuse to believe I am not happy.
Occasionally I sense some gloom creeping in. Friends and Happy Hour soon restore my happy state of mind. My wife's Swedish relatives taught me this when visiting Sweden over 60 years ago.
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