It is, one of the reasons I moved back to Ohio after 5 years in San Diego and 13 years in Burbank.
I like all 4 seasons.
‘Hippies’ using clothes-lines to save energy are barely backward - isn’t it a modern and progressive trend to consider one’s environmental impact? Maybe not in the land of the ‘free’.
Some mod cons are just that…
You question that? You are seriously saying that the average Roman was more free than the average American today?
Let’s see, I can’t remember the last time any Americans were killed by the state because we worshipped a God besides George Bush. Even if that were the only way the U.S. was more free than the Roman Empire, it would probably tip the scales. But, of course, the Roman Empire also had a variety of economic restrictions, price controls, compulsory military service, etc. And while the U.S. has had all these things in the past, they were never to the extent of the Roman Empire and we are basically free from them today. Furthermore, our leaders are not above the law. The crap that the Roman Emperors inflicted on the citizens due to their whims would not be possible in the U.S. I also don’t seem to recall any mention of a free press in Rome nor any real due process of law.
No, I’m saying the rights of people who own businesses are important. Just because someone owns a business does not mean that he or she should have their rights infringed upon.
That’s confusing privilege with freedom. Bill Gates is no more free than I am, no matter how much money he has. He has the ability to do much more than I do because he has much more money, but my freedom is in no way reduced because I am not as rich as he.
“…what are you, a fucking lizard?”
OK - you’ve lost me. The fact that a senator from a large state might represent more people than the President of a European country proves that … ? The USA is a very big place ? Albeit a big place which has never had a female head of state 
Compared to a US president, less power on a global level I’ll hand you but a US Gov has more power on a national level than the head of state ?
The frequency of government change is arguable - take Thatcher, the frequency of our elections just gave us the chance to re-elect her time after time after time ! Similarly Mary McAleese is now serving her second seven year term as president in Ireland.
Oops mix-up of a lexical items. In the UK we refer to the “hole in the ground” toilets as “French toilets”, the French refer to them as “style turque”. I was indeed arguing that a clean hole in the ground toilet is not necessarily backwards - and to my mind is preferable than a run down “western” one.
We have a winner!
I am saying that the government interfered far less in the lives of Romans than in the lives of Americans, yes. If you want to define ‘free’ in some other way than you did up thread, we can discuss again. And with some more correct information - there was no required military service in Rome, ever. The vast majority in people living in the Roman empire probably never even had their names written down by government officials.
A US Gov would have more real power than a Irish President as the President here is a figure head much like the Queen in the UK. She has no real power and just represents the country and rubber stamps legislation that are put in place by the political boys and girls in the Dail(Parliament). The true power lies in the office of the Taoiseach(Prime Minister). There has never been a female in that position but there has been a female in the position of Tanaiste (Vice-Prime Minister)
Many Americans would say that’s debatable. Just because we have a policy of allowing mass immigration doesn’t make us more progressive. It could merely mean that we won’t address the issues in our labor market that make them so necessary.
I’m not anti-immigrant; I just question that we so urgently need them. Shouldn’t a population as big as ours be able to be self-sustaining?
You can have my clothes dryer when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands. I love not having to care what the weather is like when I do laundry (I do wait until after 7pm on days when the power grid is stressed, but that’s not hard- they’re usually workdays, and I don’t get home till 6:30 most workdays), not having to carry wet laundry around (I’ve thrown my back out hauling dry laundry), and not having to worry about something getting on my laundry or somebody stealing it while it’s drying. The dryer is also nice because it doesn’t matter if I don’t take the laundry out right after it’s done- I suspect the neighbors would complain if I did that with clotheslines.
As yojimbo pointed out, the President of Ireland is more or less a figurehead. Kudos to them for selecting a woman,sure, but she has hwaaay less power than a Governor of a large US State- and even less than Nancy Pelosi will now have. Your list (“Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland (twice), Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the UK,”) does include some with very real power (the PM of the UK for instance) but many who are either figureheads or are leaders of such a tiny nations that few give a damn. If you take the figureheads and leaders of tiny nations with less importance that even decent sized US city (Malta for example) it isn’t so impressive anymore.
The USA now has a woman in what amounts to the #2 position of power (#3 in line, but the VP is generally considered to be less powerful than the Speaker), and being #2 in the USA is more important internationally than the President of Ireland, bless her heart.
In the last 200 years, how many Presidents has France had? How many PM’s has the UK had? Compare that to how many men have occupied the Oval Office during that same time span, eh?
In the last 200 years the UK has had 37 different PM’s. The US has had 41 different Presidents. I’m not sure what your point is.
You are definitely overgeneralizing; probably a much higher number of Americans than you think would move to Europe in a heartbeat, if those pesky details like immigration, working papers, and finding work in your field could be worked out. I lived there, in Germany, for a year back in the Pleistocene Era, and I still miss it–every day.
The fact that Europeans pay higher taxes, IMO, is less important than what the taxes are used for.
Those Americans who move here, like these: http://www.talk.uk-yankee.com/ either fell in love with someone British and followed them, or are so out of sympathy with the political situation in the USA at the moment that they feel more comfortable here
But that is exactly what does happen here. Uninsured people skip the doctor because they can’t afford to go, then get gravely ill and have to taken in by the local county emergency system, which is far more expensive for everyone involved.
Suppose K-12 education were privatized on the same basis as health care. You’d save a boatload of property tax, wouldn’t you? Of course living in a population where the average person doesn’t even finish grade school could conceivably impact the value and enjoyment of your property.
I don’t know. I didn’t say no one would. I live in one of the most Europe friendly households in the U.S. My MIL is English and my wife and FIL own a company that specializing heavily in European imports. They also own a factory in Italy. You could practically start a niche airline taking people I know and love back and forth over the pond. My wife has been over 70 times for example and she is only 33. Other family, friends, and business associates go more than that. The people I am talking about speak several of the languages fluently and so forth and yet none of them have ever seriously considered living there. My wife has a fantasy about living in France for a year and I would be willing to go and that is about it.
Now compare that to the average person in Missouri, Oregon, or even California. How many do you truly believe would leave the U.S. specifically for Europe for the long-term (besides students). My guess is a few hundred thousand out of 300,000,00 total.
The U.S. is very big and you can just get in the car and move 3000 miles on a whim if you want. We also have it drilled into our heads that we are the greatest country in the world because the immigrants really wanted to justify to themselves. Remember all those people, including celebrities, that screamed and threaten to leave the second that Bush won. Where are they now? If anyone could leave if they wanted, it would be them. OTOH, I notice an oddly high number of European celebrities, especially British, that do move to the U.S.
I was thinking in terms of percentages and I don’t think you can really understate the percentage of people in the U.S. that would move to Europe even with incentives.
Well Hollywood is a great attraction for a celeb, and New York is one of the few world cities. We took Madonna and Ruby Wax off your hands though.
Well, we’re arguing about numbers here; I concede that the number of Americans who’d like to move to Europe is a minority, but think it would be more than a few hundred
That was certainly an excellent trade on our part as well. I don’t know who we got for it but it had to be an outstanding deal.