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America Changed Me and Europe Was Wrong [video](youtube.com)
8 points by keepamovin 13 hours ago | 12 comments
bottle_roket 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

We really just need to figure out the paying for healthcare thing, and then get money out of politics, then America is undeniably the best place in the world to live.

A few more trains would be nice too.

MarkusQ 9 hours ago | parent [-]

The trick for paying for healthcare is simple, though no one likes it: we need to start paying for healthcare.

By building a huge byzantine bureaucracy around everyone trying to get someone else to pay for it, we've driven up the cost (now we're paying for the health care plus all sorts of insurance administration and all their lobbyists and so on). By hiding the costs we've deprived ourselves of the ability to comparison shop. By opening the door to third parties we've taken a simple transaction between doctor and patient and added lawyers, private equity, government and who knows who else, and each and every one of them is taking their cut of the money.

I agree trains are cool.

throwawayqqq11 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes, trains are cool, until you realize, they cost money too instead of generating profit. Huge problem in some EU countries rn.

> By hiding the costs

It's also called externalization of cost(!) and a systemic problem under capitalism. Im afraid there is no quick fix to this like removing directly involved third parties from health care processes, because like in any economy, the upstream suppliers to the healthcare sector are as profit driven as your current adminstrational layer. You would just push the sympthom around.

From a german perspective, the US has speedrun a process, most of the EU countries are in too, just boiling the frogs slower. You have increasing cost and/or degrading services while budget considerations are always at the front of it. (Behind that is imo top-down fiscal pressure coming from our monetary/banking systems more aligned with the profit seekers.) If germany would reinvent its health care system from scratch in todays neoliberal climate, we'd end up with something very similar to the US, if at all. But since the german public has adopted price expectations, our services get cut to death a million times instead of moon pricing.

EDIT: The video is too shallow to touch broader systemic explanations, so it cant see similarities aswell.

doydoy 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

He says America, he means the United States. He says Europe, he means Germany. I wonder what else is he being "accidentally vague" about.

villish 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Everyone knows he was talking about The United States of America. It's the only country with America in its name.

Also, "United States" would be just as ambiguous by your logic considering there has been multiple countries with it in their official name.

thisisnotauser 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As an American, I always see this kind of "cautious" foreign culture he talks about in shows and anime and I always thought it was meant to be a commentary of specific characters in the show, but everyone is like that? That's... kinda sad. I can only hope our good vibes here stateside become more contagious over time =]

zhoBEENG 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Everyone I know who has immigrated to America talks some version of this.

Guestmodinfo 12 hours ago | parent [-]

'emigrated to'.

Sorry for correcting grammar. But being from one of the previous colonies, one desires to be a master of English and help others also to master it.

We emigrate to a country from our own country.

And other people immigrate into our country from some outside country.

dlcarrier 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It looks like "immigrated to" is now more popular in American English (https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=immigrated+to%...), but not in British English (https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=immigrated+to%...).

keepamovin 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I prefer 'migrated' for exactly that reason - strips all the annoying modifying prefixes that can trip you up. More flexible word, less radicals! ;)

It's funny to me people are only discovering this about America now whereas a whole generation of 1st gen parents of current Americans discovered it in earlier waves, the tech waves, etc.

ButlerianJihad 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

No idea where you got those definitions.

An immigrant is one who arrives and moves into a place or country.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/immigrate

An emigrant is one who leaves and moves out of a place.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/emigrate

This distinction is very clear and has really never been a problem for people who understand language. The English Wikipedia has somehow managed to fuck it up beyond all recognition, so congratulations! You're one of Today's Lucky 10,000!

archonis 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I wonder if rural farm town to Miami is the real story here vs. any sort of national culture clash.