The plumbing in Japan (at least here) is pretty archaic, too. The duplex we live in is 4 years old and would probably sell for at least $500,000, but it has no garbage disposal or dishwasher (none of the places we looked at had either). Their drain line system is also just…bizarre. On the other hand, they have extremely complex toilet seats. So, hurray for American plumbing!
That, and it works, and has worked more or less unchanged since the late 17th Century. Parliament keeps the Crown in check; the Crown keeps Parliament in check: who’s actually King or Queen - or their and their spouses and offspring’s peccadilloes - doesn’t particularly matter: if they get too, embarrassing, you can always import a German or a Dutchman. The American system, where the Head Of State has executive powers, seems a lot more anachronistic to me: if you ignore the nomenclature and think about how the two systems actually function, Britain has a hereditary presidency and America has an elected monarchy. Hence, of course, crappy movies like Air Force One, where the president is a warrior-king: a movie like that about a British Prime Minister would be laughed off the screen.
Um…are we looking at all of Europe, or just say…the EU?
My impression is that Europeans as a whole are a lot more uncomfortable with darker-skinned people than Americans are.
Some stories from Italy that stick in my brain from recent years are:
An Italian judge ruling that patting a woman on the butt isn’t sexual harassment because no man can resist it.
An Italian judge ruling that a woman wasn’t raped because her jeans were very tight and she had to have helped the man get them off her.
An Italian judge ruling that a lawyer in his thirties should still get substantial financial support from his father because he (the lawyer) had found a job he liked enough yet.
I meant to say ‘hadn’t.’ Hadn’t found a job he liked enough yet.
And while I’m thinking of it, there’s also the Italian tendency for grown men to continue to live at home for decades.
Welfare states in Europe are much more backwards than the U.S. Providing subsidies to people who don’t want to work, incredibly high pensions for the public sector, forced vacations, etc., are a drag on the economy and a drag on government spending.
In some European countries (France and Germany, I’m looking at you in particular), there is a sense that any changes to this system is a violation of some sort of fundamental human right to be lazy. At least we haven’t gone quite as far down that road here in the U.S.
What part of Europe you’ve been in, Romania?
In European rich countries with sunny weather, dryers are seen as energy drains, so not very popular. The garbage disposal is incompatible with our recicling systems. Everything else, we’ve had it in Spain for a while; a/c is still seen as “somewhat optional” but more and more common. Please take into account that some parts of Europe are not more “backwards”: they simply happen to be poorer, which is a different animal altogether.
That’s just an ideological opinion, I’m afraid. Essentially you’re saying “left wing = backwards, right wing = progress”.
Well, everything here is about opinion. Hence, “In My Humble Opinion.”
Not necessarily. I’m saying that moving away from government control and mandates on individuals and businesses is progress. Heavy-handed government regulations are the sign of a backwards country.
Furthermore, destoying your economy with these regulations and imposing unsustainable costs on your treasury are certainly not “progressive.”
Still just ideology, being stated as fact.
Again, everything in this thread is some sort of ideology stated as fact.
My ideology is that liberty and individual rights are important. Therefore, I judge
European states that do not similarly recognize liberty and individual rights as being less advanced.
Jokes about French plumbing is ideology?
Whoooooah, slow down there. You’ve jumped from state benefits to “why do you hate freedom, son” rather suddenly.
The Unabomber would certainly think so. The idea that technological advancement=progress is just as much an ideology as freedom=progress.
No, it’s all part of the same thing. Raising taxes to pay for these state benefits reduces freedom. Forcing one group of people to give mandatory vacations to another group of people reduces freedom.
In the 1920s, American Intellectuals looked to Europe for enlightenment. That changed of course. This sort of thing swings one way to another. I am big fan of the US, not that I want to live there. (On the other hand there are lots of nice things about Europe too.)
In Germany, and other countries, people pay Church Tax.
People in France go live in the UK becasue British taxes are lower than the French ones! (Let that roll around in your heads.)
The UK is now one of the most-‘suveiled’ countries on earth with police cameras everywhere. The Metropolitan (London) Police say these is no public space in The City not covered by cameras.
The National Front in France is still going strong. Can you think of an American counterpart?
You can’t buy Chilean Champagne anywhere in Europe.
Nope, if I had to live one place or another, I would go for the US in a heartbeat.
Whatever you think of such policies, “backward” is the wrong word to describe them. It’s not like countries started out with huge government intervention in the economy, with the US heroically progressing out of this primitive state. It’s the other way round - most of the major European countries have allowed the state’s role to grow more than it has in the US.
No, I think backwards is exactly right. Historically, government has been very involved in all areas of a person’s life in Europe going back to the Roman Empire. Sure, governments have progressed and lessened their burden on the people, and in some countries (such as Britain during the nineteenth century) the goverment was quite a bit smaller.
The trend in the last century was to enlarge governmental power at the expense of the individual, but I do not view that as “progress.” It is much more accurate to describe this as a regression towards the larger government we saw in Europe before the nineteenth century. Sure, there are a lot of differences between the governments now and back then, but there are also quite a few similarities in terms of high taxes and reductions in individual freedom.
Progress, to me, means more freedom, not less. Europe has this backwards, as it increases its government it reduces the freedom of its citizens.
Europe’s funding of universities at higher level education and research institutions is “backward” in this way: that it’s contribution to the global advancement of science and the promotion of learning is in decline -as are by and large the University and research there. Europe spends half as much as much on (research and graduate level) knowledge, its transmission to students, and its acquisition, than does the U.S.
The loss of the great (non-UK) European University is a loss not just for Europe - but for the world. And it is “backward” as crap IMHO - almost the very definition of backward to me
It’s not obligatory - it’s only applicable to members of the religious body being collected for. (Don’t know about other countries, though.)
Yes you can, but it can’t be labelled as such.
Nonsense.
Yup, keep on banging out the ‘freedom’ mantra. Fine, you feel ‘freer’ because you pay less tax. Doesn’t prove much.
Are you kidding me? Have you read anything about European history? The state was intimately involved in a person’s life from Roman times onwards. Its level of intervention ebbed and flowed depending on how strong the government was and where you lived, but the state tightly controlled the economy of most of Europe up until the nineteenth century.
It’s not only that the government is taking less money from me (which leaves me freer to do things that I want to do) but I also have more freedom in seeking a job that meets my needs and desires, in buying proucts and services that I want, and in speaking and publishing.