Subsidized everything

[tedteague]

*yawns*

"More like Europe" is a null term. Europe consists of over two dozen countries, all of which have different governments, laws and ways of doing business.

But if what you mean is that every worker gets SIX WEEKS OF PAID VACATION, with the accompanying loss of stress and early heart attacks and strokes that involves, then SIGN ME UP FOR THE FUCKING EUROPEAN UNION!!!

EVERY European nation has higher taxes than the US, but then nearly every nation on earth has higher taxes than the US. But what's REALLY interesting is that nearly every other nation in the world has a lower incidence of heart attacks than the United States.

Frankly, if it comes to a choice between paying half (or even more) of my wages in taxes and getting six weeks of vacation every year, with government paid healthcare and retirement that beats the FUCK out of social security, or lower taxes, I'll gladly pay the higher taxes. You CAN NOT place a price on health and peace of mind.

And for those of you who don't want to pay those horrible taxes for your "economic freedom," please remember that even in the Land of the (not so economically) Free, you STILL did nothing but work for taxes this year until April 9, you got no vacation until you'd been working at least a year, very likely got no or very little health insurance, and probably still believe in the tooth fairy.

Here's the thing: if you believe your government is going to protect you without cost, you're living in a fantasy world. If you understand that government protection costs but STILL don't want to pay for those costs, then you're one of the deluded millions who believes, despite all evidence to the contrary, that you're going to be a millionaire someday and you've got to protect yourself against that vague and highly unlikely possibility.

Get over it. You're NOT going to be a millionaire someday. And if, by some miracle, you are, you'll be able to afford the taxes on your millions without feeling the pinch that the poor fucker working for minimum wage feels every week. The Rethuglicans rely on your belief that you'll someday be where they are, even though you never will.

false, europe is not a collection of different countries all with their own way of doing things. it is a UNION. and while local governments may be elected on their own, western europe is much more like the US, the nation is europe, the state/province/territories are italy, france, ect al

[fetishdj]

false, europe is not a collection of different countries all with their own way of doing things. it is a UNION. and while local governments may be elected on their own, western europe is much more like the US, the nation is europe, the state/province/territories are italy, france, ect al

Not at all. The EU is actually less formal than that. The nation is not Europe at all as each of the member states still see themselves as 'nations'. It is more of a tight alliance. The 'president' of the EU, for example, is not even elected nor do they have any real power other than as a figurehead. Instead, the heads of state (or the Prime Minister in the case of UK, as the PM is not the head of state he is only the representative of the head of state) of EU members rotate the presidential seat amongst themselves.

The move is more towards a federal state system but, beyond a common currency (which at least one member does not currently follow and several member states are now regretting joining due to the massive economical problems it has caused because of the initial massive differences in the values of the original currencies) and some EU laws and regulations (mainly linked to environmental issues, trade agreements and weights and measures) the countries are still largely independent. We don't pay taxes to the EU directly (though each member pays for the upkeep of the bureaucracy of the system), many countries conveniently ignore some of the laws of the EU (which makes them unlike the federal laws of the US which are stringently enforced) and there is a lot of squabbling between countries. I suspect that this is because, unlike the the US, we have had neither a war of independence nor a civil war to unify us under one banner (cos there is nothing like a common external threat to make even warring neighbours band together in the long term...) plus the EU has not been around as long as the US and was initially a set of trade agreements established post WWII with no formal unification until much later.