MrSinatra;357686 Wrote: > that may be the case in germany, i have no idea. > > its certainly not the case here historically. libs never met an > entitlement they didn't like. > > the problem is, the bush republicans joined them. i think their > handling of spending and the economy is why they got crushed so badly. > > i can only hope they return to their roots, altho after this asskicking > i think they shall.
Well, then let me share my outsider's view: When I first visited the US, back in 91, what I saw was a run-down country. I'd been in eastern Europe a bit the years before (Poland, Eastern Germany, Hungaria, then Czechoslovakia) and what I saw in the US in terms of public infrastructure was worse in many places. You could see a lot of homeless people in the street and the public perception of security was, well, just bad. My next visit was in 96 and it was hard to believe for me how much had changed. I had a few more visits and from 98 on the pleasure to work for a US company which brought me regular visits. It will amaze me forever how this country managed to change that dramatically in only 7 years! Compare that to what we've achieved in eastern Germany. The US did have a balanced budget, good mood, good infrastructure, a running economy, in simple words: a strong country. That was during the Clinton days, a Democrat, wasn't he? Compare that to what you see today. My last visit to the US was 4 months ago, and I have to say, it was still light years away from the state of '91. Still a powerful, energetic country. But the mood was different from the heydays of the late '90s and if I look at the pricing structure, I felt that if I hadn't had the chance to buy $$ cheaply with my (then much higher values as today) Euros, I would have found a lot of convenience items and services hard to afford - a clear sign of inflation only compensated by cheap clothing and cheap electronics (both probably imported from China). So, I can't tell how all this feels from the inside, but from an outsider's perspective the last 8 years have been a huge step back while the 8 years before that had been the most astonishing transformation I have ever seen. Just my 2cts. -- pippin --- see iPeng at penguinlovesmusic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ pippin's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13777 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=54678 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
