Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USA: hegemon or empire? Prove that it is untrue. Has there ever been an overall economic expansion in this country accompnied by a decrease in the living standard of the poor? I'm not saying that it isn't true that the poor do not improve as much as the rich, but they do improve. If there is an economic downturn the real negative effect on the lives of the poor will be much greater than the effect on the rich. OK lets do that. You are correct that the infant mortality rate in France is 4 while it is 7 in the United States. But if you look at the number of deaths before age 5 the us number only goes up by one to 8 while the French goes up by 2. So if a child survives birth it is more likely to survive to age 5 in the U.S. than it is in France. In general these numbers are so low by historical standards that it is rediculous to use them as some kind of bench mark of the level of care available. At these low levels they could be a rsult of other factors. How many more American babies die at birth because there mother used drugs during their pregnancy in the U.S. compared to France? [/B][/QUOTE] I don't deny that there is. I agree, this is a real problem, but we must at least do two things: (1) Provide every person adequeate health care and (2) take care of children who are COMPLETELY helpless. [/B][/QUOTE] You seem to equate heath insurance with health care. While it may be inefficient to treat people in the emergency room instead of them going to a primary care physician, it is still health care. Last I looked there weren't people begging at the doors of hospitals for money so that they could go in and get the immediate medical care they need. Of course we all want everyone to get sufficient health care. Could the current system in the U.S. be improved? Yes. Do we need to be leary about the negative consequences of socializing health care? Yes. The problem with 2 is, obviously the preferred option is for parents to provide for their children. In this country we also respect the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, and often parents are simply irresponsible.
Yep. There are other ways we undercount, too. One way is that we don't count our massive jail population. I wish I could find an online link to the study I'd read that shows that the supposed great disparities in unemployment between different regions rougly evens out when all distorting factors, including the self-employed, are accounted for. I'll resume Googling for it later when I have time. If it helps Matt's sense of wounded pride, the Japanese are by far the biggest first world cheaters regarding official employment statistics. One of their favorite tricks is to force their firms to keep on unneeded workers who then count as "employed" when in fact they don't really do anything except collect a paycheck. Granted, that's probably more humane than just jailing them once they become destitute and homeless, but I'm not sure I want to open the can of worms regarding the costs/benefits of our spectacularly misnamed "social Darwinism", which isn't terribly social and is based on a misunderstanding of Darwin's ideas.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USA: hegemon or empire? I am not sure 50 % is the right number but the administrative costs of a single payer type system would reduce health care expeditures by at least 20 %. Uninsured people still get care. But they often get it late and not as intensively as the insured. To calculate the costs of insuring the unisured, one simply can't multiply 50 million by the average expenditure per person by age. Much of the costs of taking care of these 50 million uninsured is being borne by the system already. Free care exists at every hospital. Many doctors write-off all or 90 % of their bills for people without insurance. It really is criminal that our government has not been able to move to a system that extends health care benefits to all.
Nicephoras, believe what you want. PNAC is who makes the most of your foreign policies in the bush admin. The bush doctrine is just the PNAC doctrine a bit "euphemized". You should look at the ppl who signed the PNAC statement of principles. It wasn't referred to you personally though you also tend to sometimes. Wasn't it some kind of UFO stuff? national pride, a pity italians and most of europeans don't like to overmasturbate with it anymore. We had had bad experiences as a result of it. That kind of stuff makes you grow. Greek culture was far more influent and "important" than roman. You are overestimating your influence, believe me, my friend. No problem if you give us quality movies or series. "Friends" is not one of them btw. And culture is not only movies and tv series. Are you thinking that I get angry because of Bob Dylan, Talking Heads or movies like "apocalypse now"? i am grateful (as i am towards any other good artist of whatever nationality). While stuff like "independence day"... I must say though that italians tend to listen to and appreciate more british music (second to italian music of course). I see you're starting again to cut my messages into little pieces and preparing to sail the seas of tangential arguments. believe what you want i said my opinion. p.s. [edit] I am one of those many europeans Joe Pakovits was talking about those who can distinguish between a government and an individual.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USA: hegemon or empi About 50% was from my friend's estimate from his practice. Question - If most of the costs for giving the uninsured health care is already being borne by the system, why do so many people on these boards and Sen. Kerry try to play word games to convey a completely different picture. Saying, "50 MILLION PEOPLE IN THIS COUNTRY ARE DENIED ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE" conjures up a picture of beggars at the gates of the castle as the wood block is put into place to keep the doors closed. Our system has enough defects in it without having to resort to these tactics. No wonder issues can't be discussed intelligently.
Just asking a simple question asshole. No case of wounded pride here. Do the French really count their prision population as unemployed? Where did you learn that?
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USA: hegemon or empi hmmm.... not so much export as foist upon us. It's not as if Europeans were gagging for some 'real' football action of their own. It was dumped into Europe as a marketing tool. Actually the NFL is a good example to cite against those who indignantly claim that America is guilty of 'cultural imperialism'. McDonalds has been so succesful because, just like in America, it stormed into a gap in the market. It's not as if there were loads of Ma & Pa hamburger places over here that McDonalds forced out of business - it really had no competition. Outside of the big cities, there was nowhere to buy a pizza before Pizza Hut came along. Ditto Starbucks - yet interestingly in Scandanavia, where there were already chains of coffee shops, starbucks completely failed to make an impression over the local product. The idea that locals are shunning local products because they are drawn by the lure of Americana is just wrong. They are just taking up things they don't have in their own country. We have our sports, which is why we don't care about yours. We do watch friends (well not me personally - I think it's a perfect barometer for letting you know which people are not worth talking to) but in Britain at least it's hardly a major show. It's record rating pulled in 3.8 million viewers (of a possible 58 million). What may seem odd is that in mainland Europe, even among those who speak perfect English, they still rather watch shows such as Friends after they've been dubbed into their own language - which can be very crudely done as well. I've been to Estonia and seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer dubbed into Russian (25% of Estonians are Russians who don't speak Estonian) and they don't even dub it properly. They just has one male actor and one female actress translating the lines of each character spontaneously as the tape played - you could still hear the English sound. So no, America isn't an empire, even if some of those who advise the president would like it to be.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USA: hegemon or The other question is that if much of the health care costs of the 50 million uninsured are already factored into the equation, why not just expand Medicare to include the uninsured ? Sure it would take a chunk of change to make it happen initially, but my guess is that after a period of fluctuations, real health care expendures would not be much higher per capita than they are now.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USA: hegemon or That's hard to say because there is always a good % of potential viewers that don't speak English fluently. I've seen a lot of English language shows sub-titled. As for the sports discussion, the USA hasn't had a great deal of success exporting sports, especially to Europe. Baseball has done well in parts of Asia and the Americas, but the only major success is basketball. "American" football has been pretty much a failure.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USA: hegemon or Mea culpa, and poor phrasing on my part. Um, thus the smiley. I never said that British people prefer McDonalds to their own unique brand of, um,food. They do like many of the things the US exports to them, though. This certainly is a form of cultural imperialism, even if we can't dent the Scandinavian coffee shop market. Just because we're not replacing local the McDonalds doesn't mean we're not selling our ideas and products abroad in mass quantities. Especially in the entertainment medium. That you can get Buffy the Vampire Slayer in Estonia while not being able to see the Office in most of the US says something. How did we get to this point in the discussion again?
Which has been in office for 3 years. And you haven't really shown any proof they're seeking global hegemony. Bush has no doctrine. Show me where. Yep. So how are we going to be the world's hegemon if not with alien technology? I'm not "overmasturbating" it, I'm stating a fact. And that fact is that, like it or not, the US has been incredibly important in the world, for good and ill, over the past 80 years. I say the same thing about the Roman Empire long ago, and I'm certainly not Italian. As for your problems with nationalism - spare me. My references to the power of the Unted States had nothing to do with any nationalistic credo you're busily constructing for me. No, not really. Greek philosophy was, yes. But most culture that we consider Greek was filtered through Rome, and the success Greece had with spreading Hellenism to the East ended abruptly in 636 AD at Jarmuk. Rome, as a society, has had a vastly greater influence on the world. Not in terms of intellectual ideas, true. But in practically all other respects. Of all the arguments I'd suggest avoiding, anything dealing with Rome would be at the top of the list. (Before anyone tries - no I am not saying Rome was more philosophically or literarily impressive. There's other stuff to a culture. Plumbing comes to mind.) No, actually I'm not. Why is it that when I travel almost anywhere in the world I can get along in English just fine? Is it because of England? I don't think so, somehow....... What does this have to do with what I posted? I never said you get "angry" over it. I simply said that as a culture, we are by far the most exported and emulated in the world. And we've had an extroardinary effect on the world in the last 50 years. I'm not really sure what good it is to deny that. The USSR has too, mostly for ill, unfortunately. What does this have to do with the Talking Heads??? This from a person that warns me I shouldn't talk about Rome because Mussolini did too? Apparently not, since you happen to think the PNAC represents 50 years of American diplomacy.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USA: hegemon I wouldn't agree (but then again I'm awkward). I think too many people have a strange hang-up about American products, probably because the only ones that get noticed are the corporate giants. People over here, for some odd reason, throw their hands up in horror as if it spells the start of some cultural decline, while some over there seem to believe that European shops are flooded with American goods, while at the same time completely ignoring how many foriegn products are on their shelves. There really aren't nearly as many American products over here as some might think. Get beyond the huge brands with huge advertising budgets and there isn't that much about - and much of the stuff that is about has been here for so long anyway it pretty much pre-dated any media influence. I don't know about other European countries, but most British shows only have 6 episodes per series. Some may be as long a (gasp) 12 shows, but 6 is normal, certainly for comedy. Very few American networks would run a 6 part series. As there is no reasonable comedy at all produced in Britain for the 'family viewing slot' of 7pm to 9pm (which is about as constrained in terms of censorship etc as American mainstream TV) there'd be little suitable for any channel other than HBO. I don't think any network would run a dubbed TV show, regarless of length. I'm not sure what ideas America is exporting is mass quantities.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: USA: hegemon The point was that even people who could watch it in English would still rather watch it in their own language. Sub-titles are cheaper. I have a couple of Hungarian friends who both insist that Fawlty Towers is far funnier in Hungarian.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't believe the hype. Especially your own hype. I am on a Uni campus, but I can say that over 90% of the people I've had an extended conversation with that has delved into American politics has known who Chomsky was, and brought him (and most often Michael Moore) up first... Now only if they knew Hightower and West...
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't believe the hype. Especially your own hype. General population Mel. I don't usually vacation on university campuses.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't believe the hype. Especially your own hype. You're right. On my last vacation, instead of wandering about the remains of ancient Rome, I should have spent more time in Stirling discussing Chomsky with Scots. Your opinion has been duly noted.
believe what you want Nicephoras. You should be a bit more thoughtful even when you decide to polemize uselessly. http://www.google.it/search?q="bush+doctrine"&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=it&lr= When you deny that Iraqi war was about hegemony in middle east, for example. If it's not the case, tell me why then. Don't tell me it was because of ugly and dangerous saddam. again, with your human technology. It is pretty good. But I'll tell you again that roman empire had far far more influence in world history. If I remembered well you agreeded. Just because it seems you need it, I am not saying you're not influent otherwise I didn't talk about hegemony. "not in terms of intellectual ideas" you say this as if "intellectual ideas" were something trivial. That's exactly why I say IMHO greek culture was more influent than roman. Overestimating doesn't mean I deny your influence in modern world. it means you're going too far, you're exaggerating it. Now I must understand if you're doing it because you think i should be someway hurted by it or because you actually believe it. maybe the latter. italy it's not the best example of widespread knowledge of english btw. And then again it's a matter of overstating the issue "US culture's impact in the world". I meant "boy i have nothing against american culture" this because I had the (possibly wrong) impression that you are slighlty painting me as an american hater/ conspiracy theories lover because I stated the obvious about US foreign policies. That "you" was plural. We are the descendants of romans and yet we don't use to refer to them often as you do. it's just our history, back in the distant past. i noticed it not only in this board but in political articles, analysis etc. It could be a wong impression though I am supposing it has to do with "national pride" that is why I mentioned Mussolini he did it for the same reason. No, you got me wrong. I think PNAC is your foreign policy now.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't believe the hype. Especially your own hype. What hath I wrought? Who'da thunk one tongue-in-cheek throwaway line would cause this kind of trouble.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Don't believe the hype. Especially your own hype. Its not my fault the humor impaired member of the Wu-Tang Clan can't pick up on tongue in cheek comments. Ironically enough, I did actually spend some time at Heidelberg on my last vacation, visiting a friend of mine who was a student there. Chomsky was not mentioned.