patrick.net

Wether life is "better" in a western European country, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or the United States is really a matter of tastes and preferences. All these nations provide free public education and job/career/life opportunities for those who put forth the efforts to take advantage of them. The "luck", I suppose, (since very few in any nation are born upper class) comes from having parents who push for doing well in school and push other habits for success in a modern society. The opportunity for a comfortable material existence is available for all who work for it. Plus, given the dole programs available in all the above named countries, many who do not/cannot work fare rather well also.

It does not matter that "Americans are working harder," you can choose to work less. So what if the majority of your neighbors have both spouses working to pay for the huge house, cable, and SUV? You can choose to live in the smaller home, drive a midsize Chevy, and take vacations while working no overtime. The same concept applies to those who overconsume and run up credit card debt. You can enjoy parks (fishing, canoeing, baseball, basketball, hiking), cycling, over-the-air TV, home cooked meals from scratch, and other free activities while banking some of your salary. Just because others run up debts and pay interest does preclude you from putting away savings and earning interest.

"They even have good South Indian seafood dishes"

Peter, you haven't had the best sea food until you have tried fresh Chesapeake Bay she-crab soup.

Peter, you haven’t had the best sea food until you have tried fresh Chesapeake Bay she-crab soup.

I have heard about it. I can imagine the taste. Yum! :)

I love she-crabs. The coral is the best!

Peter P, what is south-indian seafood? Could you expand on that a bit. Not that I have tasted any of it, but I am just curious.

There are more North Indians in London and South Indians over here (especially in the bay area) so if you better south indian food in London, that is a surprise to me.

Sriram, my knowledge of Indian cuisine is still very shallow. However, they have prawns and fish cooked with young mango, which was quite interesting.

Again, I do not know much about true Indian food. I am still exploring.

The purpose of human culture is to take chance out of the equation.

Then I afraid human culture is doomed to failure. Moreover, I believe luck can be changed.

Ah, the joy of uncensored conversation.

Anyhow, sorry about the website outages this morning. My ISP messed up. If anyone has ISP recommendations please let me know: p@patrick.net

When did I ever "tolerate" or argue in favor of protectionism anywhere, including India? If anyone ever needed proof that OB lives in a fantasy world of his own, there it is.

I am not responsible or answerable for your dumb assumptions.

BTW, I don't know what neoliberalism is. I am probably more of a libertarian than Peter P, who I see as more of a conservative with strong libertarian leaning. Maybe not.

What does men being equal have to do with luck being present in daily life?

Ah, the joy of non-sequitur-filled, nonsensical loser rants.

PermaRenter,

Nice parody there with the pithy one-liners :-)

>youre not really in the position to be even discussing economics at all.

Says you. Who made you the authority on who can discuss economics and who cannot?

I will keep posting here and so will Peter P. You can fume all you want.

Actually, discussions like ours are very relevant to this site since the housing bubble is obviously an economic event and the free market point of view is a major point of view in that argument. Most people here agree that government actions caused it and current government actions and the proposed ones only make it worse.

Obviously it is perfectly fine to disagree and debate in a civil manner about the economics involved. Many people do that. HARM, for instance, makes some very interesting arguments so does Randy.

What DOESN'T add to the debate and scares people off the site is morons like you screaming "all indians/asians are evil" and whining "I got fired from my overpaid job and replaced by someone from a different race". You have made worse comments including one where you suggested physically hurting children of a particular race. I remember the admin had to step in and remove that.

I know losers like you have no other choice but to whine and be xenophobic, so you keep doing what you do. Who gives a rat's behind what you think?

OB is an idiot. He is also a xenophobe and a racist but he pre-empts that accusation by accusing people of calling him that even before they do! Wow, what a strategy!

Indian PM's daughter? WTF does that have to do with anything? Some more non-sequiturs for everyone to enjoy? Please remember to take your meds, dude.

The fact that you are racist doesn't bother me. Racism is just one of the many wrong, stupid opinions held by you :) I won't be upset every time some random moron has a wrong opinion.

At the beginning of this thread, you accused me (so, for the record, you started it) of supporting protectionism in India? You have anything to back that up?

Or is that just some more random baseless crap you threw out there?

Oh, great master, I also had a question in my previous that you conveniently ignored. I challenge you to put up or shut up. I repeat:

At the beginning of this thread, you accused me (so, for the record, you started it) of supporting protectionism in India? You have anything to back that up?

Hey OB, be accountable for what you say at least once.

At the beginning of this thread, you accused me (so, for the record, you started it) of supporting protectionism in India? You have anything to back that up?

Or are you just like one of those raving lunatics rambling on to themselves and yelling at everybody at street corners?

HA HA HA.

You are a big joke, OB. Seriously, how do you live with yourself?

If you won't answer me because you have no respect for me, why the frick did you bring my name in the first place? Go back up and read and find out who talked about whom first.

Let me see how long you can go without actually talking about the one you have no respect for.

Now that OB has promised to shut up about me, could the rest of us (the sane ones) get back to real estate and the economy?

Peter P, where are you? I agree with you that, right now, America is freer and therefore, better than Europe. However, do you think it will stay this way for long?

However, do you think it will stay this way for long?

I think it will stay this way because Americans are generally more enterprising.

It is fine to appreciate what we already have, but complacency would be ill-advised.

We always want more. And this drive will keep us ahead.

Peter P, I tend to agree with you overall, but I think there has been a bit of a shift in terms of American public wanting more.

Previously, Americans used to want more and were willing to work for it (because the system was relatively free and that was the only way to get something) but nowadays, people still want more but feel entitled to getting it without working for it. There is always credit, there is always lobbying to get entitlements and so on.

people still want more but feel entitled to getting it without working for it

People always *feel* entitled. This is why there exists plastic junk to satisfy their need for affordable luxury. :)

Don't worry, one way or the other, there are business opportunities for those who care to venture.

>> Peter P, I tend to agree with you

I totally agree with The Original Bankster ......

Europeans Protest Fuel Taxes But Accept High Prices
Rising Cost of Gas Ignites Little Ire;
'Dumb Acceptance'
By GUY CHAZAN in London and MARCUS WALKER in Berlin
May 28, 2008; Page A8

With gasoline costing upward of $9 a gallon in parts of Europe, protests are putting governments under pressure to cut the taxes that make up much of the price of fuel.

Hundreds of truck drivers converged on London Tuesday, jamming a major road and forcing police to divert motorists. In France, fishermen continued to block ports and oil depots, while their counterparts in Spain and Italy signaled they would join the protest. French President Nicolas Sarkozy responded by calling for a Europe-wide cap on fuel sales tax.

So far, however, the real puzzle is that the soaring fuel costs -- which make U.S. pump prices look cheap by comparison -- haven't caught fire as a major political issue in Europe. The reasons for that, analysts say, range from simple fatalism to a growing green consciousness that makes some Europeans feel they should be cutting back on car travel anyhow.

Elsewhere, rising fuel prices have provoked outbursts of public anger. In Indonesia, fuel prices shot up by more than a quarter last weekend as authorities cut subsidies that were costing the state budget billions of dollars. Students and fishermen took to the streets, clashing with police and blocking roads. Malaysia sought to defend its heavy subsidies this week by banning drivers of foreign-registered vehicles from buying gas near its borders with Thailand and Singapore, where fuel can cost twice as much.

In the U.S., record-high pump prices are now front and center of the political debate. Presidential contenders Sens. Hillary Clinton and John McCain have called for a gas-tax holiday over the summer to cushion the impact for consumers. Lawmakers have proposed revoking billions of dollars in tax breaks to big oil companies and slapping a 25% tax on their windfall profits.

The government, however, may be able to tough out the protests, which are so far relatively low key. "There was a lot of public anger back in 2000, but I don't detect that level of sympathy for the truck drivers now," said Geoff Dossetter, a spokesman for the Freight Transport Association. "Now there's just this dumb acceptance of the price of fuel."

That is mirrored in other European countries. In Germany, only a few percent of voters see fuel prices as a major political issue, says Manfred Güllner, head of opinion-polling institute Forsa. That is partly because of fatalism, but also because of the big role green issues play in German politics and society, some Germans believe.

"The environmental awareness has become so entrenched here that people think it's better to reduce fuel consumption" than to protest, says Asmus Kurig, a schoolteacher from Karlsruhe in southern Germany. The German government has been able to reject repeated calls by opposition politicians to cut fuel taxes, saying there is no scope in the budget. But in a concession to motorists, Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet has postponed a planned overhaul of the annual car tax that would have hit owners of older cars.

Officials at the European Commission in Brussels said they were perplexed by Mr. Sarkozy's call on French radio Tuesday for a Europe-wide cut in fuel taxes, because it would need agreement from all 27 European Union states to waive rules that put a floor under sales taxes. They also said it would be a bad idea. "We would be saying that [oil producers] can raise prices and this will be paid for by the taxes of Europeans," said a Commission spokesman.

Today, I happpened to catch this discussion on CNBC involving the topic of whether homes are priced to buy. I found the video on their webstie, so I thought I'd post it. Sorry, this is off topic, but I think you'll enjoy it.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=755464553&play=1

Environmental awareness? I agree.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/208338,czech-president-klaus-ready-to-debate-gore-on-climate-change.html

Czech President Vaclav Klaus said Tuesday he is ready to debate Al Gore about global warming, as he presented the English version of his latest book that argues environmentalism poses a threat to basic human freedoms.

Looks like the Czech president is absolutely right on the issue.

Klaus said a free market should be used to address environmental concerns and said he opposed as unrealistic regulations or greenhouse gas capping systems designed to reduce the impact of climate change.

People care about the environment enough on their own. And, as caring people who want to live in clean and unpolluted surroundings, they will do the right thing.

Considering that we still have commons, I am reluctantly OK with government stepping to prevent pollution of common areas like lakes, rivers etc. but the global warming crowd seems to have a deeper, more sinister agenda.

Their main objective seems to be power and control over other people's lives and to take people's freedoms away in the name of "saving the planet." I admire Klaus for a being a politician and still taking a counter-current stance. I don't buy Gore's messiah act one bit. I am totally cereal :)

I just don't know why Europeans are so scared about the environment. In Paris, I have seen four "Smart" cars in formation. Was that a Smug Pride Parade?

I am reluctantly OK with government stepping to prevent pollution of common areas like lakes, rivers etc.

I agree, so long as the regulations are reasonable. For example, polluters can be charged a clean-up fee.

Which car would you rather be in? Smart or S-class?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02eghIfyHP0

(Crash test video)

Don't mention pig, I immediately thought of Iberiberico ham. And I am hungry.

Joking or not, it is irrelevant. The human civilization is a farce.

The original bankster is environmentally unfriendly because:

(a) he consumes oxygen and releases carbon dioxide and
(b) he is full of hot air which aggravates the global warming problem.

full of hot air which aggravates the global warming problem

LOL

Perhaps we are proud to be selfish.

With Free Market, self-serving individuals collectively produce the greatest good for all. This is paradoxical yet reasonable.

Consumption is not wrong. Besides, Nature does not care about equality. It just operates.

What you said did not bother me a bit. Humanity has been a tragedy from day one.

And don't lecture us on world hunger.

Environmentalism is just a form of "I've got mine so screw you" to developing countries.

Why all the hate toward Peter P? You don't have to agree with him, but why the insults? Peter's never rude and he isn't a troll. He's been a regular here longer than anyone and he's never been anything but a gentleman.

He has a lot of valid points to make. Personally, I think insults are the last resort of someone who doesn't have a real argument.

A must read on this topic about the Conservative Nanny State of the U.S.

http://tinyurl.com/3onn3o

SQT, thanks for your support. How are you doing lately?

There are several types of conservatives. I have no doubt that some believe in the Nanny State.

I wonder what TOB is doing about world hunger.

Bap has always been an ally. :) Thanks!

Sriram too!

Yep, if we had sticked with what we *needed*, we would still be cavemen.

Humanity is about wants, not needs. We must grow beyond ourselves. That is our motivation to exist.