| TheRealMafoo said: Well, it's been a few months since I posted. I took a trip to New Zealand looking for a new home. I found it just north of Wellington, along the cost. 45 minute electric train ride into town and on an amazing beach, not bad at all. Anyway, for those that know me (or don't know me), the reason I am leaving the US, is it's broken and can't be fixed. I am a problem solver at heart. I worked in a think tank for the US military for 7 years, with the sole purpose of solving technical problems that the rest of the organization I worked for could not. So it's just something I naturally do. About 3 years ago I started looking into the problem of the US decline. Trying to figure it out. I finally did. The real problem with America, is the mindset of the it's people. I asked this simple question on many forums, including this one: If you could rate human quality of life on a scale of 1 to 100. 1 being the worst, and 100 being the best, would you rather live in a world where the best was 100, and the worst was 60, or the best was 45 and the worst was 40? Shockingly, more people picked the second option. People care less about there absolute position in life, and care more about there relative postion compared to everyone else. This then justifies the redistribution of wealth, and the root of our problems. The wrong people are not in office. They are the people a majority want ruling, and are doing what a majority of the people want them to do. All the polls showing unhappiness are more upset that these philosophies are not working. No one is upset that we steal from the rich. They are just upset with the results of such actions. When you steal from the rich, everyone losses. What's happening is exactly what I have predicted will happen (along with every other economic conservative). Next year, we are going to start stealing a lot more from the rich, and thus the consequences we see from those actions will continue to grow. We are heading into a deeper depression, and our leaders are sending us there. They are sending us there by doing what a majority of the voters want them to do. We are moving more from the first option of my question, to the second. We are doing so, because we are getting exactly what we as a people think we want.
To fix the problem of a failing US government, you first have to fix the mindset of the people electing our leaders. Sadly, this takes at least a generation of time to do, and I don't wish to wait that long. Plus, I don't think the US will survive that long, at least not as the US I grew up in. So, time for me to leave. New Zealand was everything I imagined and more. We are on a plan to move in the summer of 2011. First and formost, is we have to sell our house. Not the best time to be selling it, but we will do what we can. Take care everyone :) |
Steals from the rich? Every year, the rich get richer. So is your problem the rate at which they get richer? It should be faster? They should be allowed to be flush with cash, and not required to keep it invested?
Aside from which - are internet forums really where you think you'll get a fair assessment of the average citizen? Near as I can tell, you're targettin ga very specific demographic. a relatively small percentage of people actually visit and regularly post in forums, particularly people who respond to random questions like that one.
Aside from which, the question is a weird one - what determines "quality of life"? Everything is relative. Today we have 100x the technology and luxuries that people had 60 years ago, but in the US, the average quality of life was actually higher in the 50's. Your question seems to indicate a single, static standard, but the fact is, if everyone's quality of life were roughly equal, then everyone's quality of life is improved. The more people have, and the more people around them have, the more they want. When everyone's a 45, in essence everyone's a 100.
Fact is, from an absolute viewpoint, that's illogical, but that's how humans work. If noone has more than you, you're far likely to be content with what you have. It's possible these people were short-sighted and selfish with their response - but perhaps a few of them have more insight into human reasoning than you give them credit for?
(Actually, since it's an internet forum... unlikely)
