Hurricane Harvey

[laklak]

If all you know about the U.S. is what you see in the news or FB memes then you don't know anything about the country.

[Rum]

If all you know about the U.S. is what you see in the news or FB memes then you don't know anything about the country.

Perhaps for the pig ignorant, but from my experience of American people and American life there is a damn sight more local community based sharing and caring, charity and looking out for your neighbour than a good many countries who claim to have a wonderful social safety net. I include the UK in that.

[NineBerry]

Because you don't need so much voluntary work when having a safety net to provide everything professionally. ( and without the need to listen to the volunteers' religious preaching)

[JimC]

Nothing wrong with a combination of the two (hopefully without the preaching)

[Sean Hayden]

Levees are failing now.

[JimC]

Could the water which was receding near you start rising again?

[Sean Hayden]

No, we're clear. It's all about clean up in my neighborhood. But another part of the city where several relatives live is now even more isolated.

It's interesting to see what has sold out at the grocery stores. Apparently frozen pizza is the thing to get before a major storm. I hope they don't have electric ovens. The power is still out for everyone on the other side of the street.

[pErvinalia]

Mmmmm, raw unfrozen pizza...

[Sean Hayden]

oops

[Hermit]

If all you know about the U.S. is what you see in the news or FB memes then you don't know anything about the country.

That is an exaggeration. Also, interacting with US members on this forum provides an insight on the range of your mindsets. A small number may or may not be representative, but I know dozens of US citizens in person as well, and several of them on a long term basis. Among them is my oldest sister's husband who is a teacher. They were married for 30 years, living in the US for seven of them and in Australia for the remainder. Another is an air force pilot. He lived with us for a couple of years. I also had a girlfriend for a year who hailed from Indianapolis.

[pErvinalia]

I think it's pretty clear that federal governments (of all political stripes) struggle to get big things done now in the US compared to some of our countries. It's not such a leap to tie that with the writings we read on forums and facebook etc from the huge number of Americans online. Surely it's no secret, Lak, that the US is more "liberty" focused than many other countries. The concept of "small government" as something to aim for, is really a fairly foreign concept in most of our countries. There's definitely a sector that pushes for it (basically the minute number of libertarians, and some of the more ideological liberals - again, a fairly small number in Australia), and increasingly it is making its way into conservative rhetoric over here. But it's absolutely not something you talk about with anyone. When individual citizens discuss politics here, the size of government is essentially never mentioned (unless you run into one of the tiny minority, or a rabid conservative who picked it up as a talking point that week from any of our DailyMail/FoxNews equivalents). Perhaps I'm wrong, but I get the feeling that it's not uncommon for the size of government to be a concern for individual citizens in the US. Seriously, 99.9% of people here don't give a fuck. All they care about is that the government does whatever it is that they personally expect of the government (which for most people is a confused mess of contradictory and/or random thought-bubbles). We'd have a government the size of 50% of the population if it could provide cricket in summer, footy in winter, cheap power and cheap fuel. Outcomes (no matter how unrealistic they might be) are all that matter to the vast majority of people here.

[rainbow]

Who can take "Harvey" seriously?

It is such a nerdy name.

[pErvinalia]

(edit: referring to my previous post) I just realised how ridiculous that last sentence was. What it really should say is that we care about outcomes that are promised to us by the lying politicians and useless media before an election, and then go into a political awareness coma for the next 2.5 years until we awake and greedily gobble up the bullshit that is reheated and re-served.

[JimC]

I think it's pretty clear that federal governments (of all political stripes) struggle to get big things done now in the US compared to some of our countries. It's not such a leap to tie that with the writings we read on forums and facebook etc from the huge number of Americans online. Surely it's no secret, Lak, that the US is more "liberty" focused than many other countries. The concept of "small government" as something to aim for, is really a fairly foreign concept in most of our countries. There's definitely a sector that pushes for it (basically the minute number of libertarians, and some of the more ideological liberals - again, a fairly small number in Australia), and increasingly it is making its way into conservative rhetoric over here. But it's absolutely not something you talk about with anyone. When individual citizens discuss politics here, the size of government is essentially never mentioned (unless you run into one of the tiny minority, or a rabid conservative who picked it up as a talking point that week from any of our DailyMail/FoxNews equivalents). Perhaps I'm wrong, but I get the feeling that it's not uncommon for the size of government to be a concern for individual citizens in the US. Seriously, 99.9% of people here don't give a fuck. All they care about is that the government does whatever it is that they personally expect of the government (which for most people is a confused mess of contradictory and/or random thought-bubbles). We'd have a government the size of 50% of the population if it could provide cricket in summer, footy in winter, cheap power and cheap fuel. Outcomes (no matter how unrealistic they might be) are all that matter to the vast majority of people here.

I would add, in comment to the libertarian principles of people from the US like lak and others, that in quite a few cases, some the more absurd restrictions on the individual mandated by government (for example drug laws) are past their use-by date, and should go. However, it is also true that there are some areas of public safety such as flood control and environmental management where over-arching government regulations are in fact a rational requirement for the greater good of the community as a whole.

[NineBerry]

The US actually has a very "big" government. There are just some aspects like the social net where it is unusually thin.