American Exceptionalism

[rwh11385]

Very good post!

I have been overseas for 3 years. And there have been times where I've seen Americans act like dumb asses. But at the same time, I see quite a few (the majority) of Americans embracing the culture. Military members are taught customs and basic language skills when they arrive to other countries. These are things I wont ever forget, and use them whenever I can. One example was yesterday when I went to a Korean restaurant here in Germany. I spoke the little Korean that I knew, and our waitress smiled ear to ear.

Anyways, we're not hated everywhere. And the best advice I can give to everyone when traveling is to be one of the good guys, an ambassador for our country.

When I was over in Germany, we were on the way back from the bars and lost, asking for directions. They asked if we were Americans in a negative attitude, so my friend said he was aussie in an accent.

Their main thing against Americans was "too much flag", i.e. pride and arrogance that they find annoying.

[NC325iC]

hypothetical, 100% will never happen and i understand that

[joshh]

America WAS once a great nation.
Unfortunately we have made some very unwise choices in regards to our politics and foreign affairs. Which almost always stems from the horrible attitude of "America first".

[MattE30]

well who the hell cares what the wto has to say about it. our priorities should be with our own businesses first

Ignorance is bliss, I guess.

[etxxz]

^^ you are right on target!

and that is what the average american doesnt understand. their perception of the rest of the world is REAAALY far from reality and have trouble (wanting to) understanding how things really work.

[Ral]

well who the hell cares what the wto has to say about it. our priorities should be with our own businesses first

the problem with saying "fuck them, gotta take care of ourselves first" is that taking care of ourselves relies on being friends with other countries. Particularly now, each country leans on a lot of other countries to support itself. It's kinda like a fucked-up game of pick-up sticks. We might be the biggest stick, but because of that we also touch/lean on the most other sticks, even though they might be smaller. And now there's a lot of other sticks (China, Russia's coming back, India, some countries in South America such as Brazil, etc) that are getting bigger, and as that happens they all rely on one another to help support themselves.

This is why the "I'm american, I gotta look out for me first" philosophy doesn't work. And if the stick pile (read- developed world) ever gets violently disrupted there's a good chance some of the biggest "sticks" won't like where they end up.

[Ral]

The WTO trade regime is set up to specifically bar this. We put a tariff on steel imports in the early 2000s to help ailing U.S. Steel producers, and dropped it at the end of the "grace period" specified by the WTO.

Placing tariffs does nothing except inhibit a globalized, free-market economy for all actors.

tell the chinese that.

[NC325iC]

well who the hell cares what the wto has to say about it. our priorities should be with our own businesses first

[MattE30]

all i was saying is that you dont know what you have until its gone, and if the us cut the world off (and by this i only mean that we raise our prices ridiculously high for exports, and place high tarriffs on all imports)

The WTO trade regime is set up to specifically bar this. We put a tariff on steel imports in the early 2000s to help ailing U.S. Steel producers, and dropped it at the end of the "grace period" specified by the WTO.

Placing tariffs does nothing except inhibit a globalized, free-market economy for all actors.

[etxxz]

its cool i wouln't have called you anything. but this country runs on oil. how do you pretend we to "do" w/o it? illegal immigration should be the least of your worries; some its actually good for you. cheap labor. would you be able to survive on $50/day? what about $5/day?

as for the hydrogen comment, it might be the only thing i agree with you on. I actually work for a fuel cells company and we are mostly about hydrogen generation and fuel cell systems integration. Look us up ~ Ener1 (Enerfuel is where i am) the feasability of this technology on large scale will be very difficult as there is no (really small) infrastructure for a hydrogen economy. In the years to come you will see more and more hybrids, plug in FC/battery hybrids and eventually purely plug-in batteries running off nuclear power plants who knows....we might be entering the f.c./battery hybrid stage.

honda has already begun. when will GM/FORD/D.Chrysler? do you see what i mean? breaking ties with the rest of the world is nearly impossible.... and "nearly" just because maybe 150years from know everything will be a different story....nobody will have oil....maybe venezuela and some eastern countries...we have the largest oil reserve in the world even though "official" numbers suggest otherwise (we are actually north of 300billion barrels)


...i can't tell you.

and that is if lack of energy, food, water and wars dont kill us first but now i'm just talking theoretically-/out of my ass.

[NC325iC]

jeez it appears hypothetical itll never happen scenarios are taken as serious suggestions now

and you are the kind of ignorant ... that thinks that USA so great that you don't need the rest of the world...

look at the very first line in my post, its says in parentheses (yes i know we need them too) im not an idiot please do not call me one

all i was saying is that you dont know what you have until its gone, and if the us cut the world off (and by this i only mean that we raise our prices ridiculously high for exports, and place high tarriffs on all imports) and pull all of our troops abroad back home, we would be able to focus more on ourselves and leave all the america hating bastards to there own devices. we could crack down on illegal immigration with all of our military forces back in the country. people that want to give to charity can donate their money to the many homeless we have right here in our own country. and i dont think it would kill our economy i believe smokn has it right we might have to do without some things (oil) but for the most part i think many of the goods made in foreign countries are made there just because of the cheap labor. i also believe that doing this would bring back the small businesses as there prices would be competitive with the highly tarriffed walmarts of the country. as far as fuel goes (as this is a car forum) biodiesel can be had, waste vegetable oil. i dont know the condition of the alaskan oil but thats america too. then theres hydrogen which in my eyes is the best of all the new fuel sources as it surely will be able to be adapted into existing internal combustion engines. and if you absolutely need something from another country you can get it, itll just cost you alot more. and i know this will never happen but its something to think about isnt it.

[etxxz]

^^ indeed jaja

i kind of like this idea. +1



you shop at walmart i bet. i think if the US produced more of its own goods it would be better for the economy via more jobs being taken back/created here as opposed to overseas. let the world cut the US off, we have more than enough technology and a unemployed work force to produce our own goods and survive. let the world cut us off, its time we put money back into our OWN economy and not some other countries.

on topic: Ted do you think that maybe a change of scenery/cities might expose yourself to other points of views besides eugene's? i understand you travel a bit, have you noticed the same attitudes everywhere? or just in town down there? are you generalizing the views of general media i.e. magazines, TV? Im curious as to where these opinions, comments come from that you gather this view on.

i don't do walmart. i'm rich (lol j/k)...i don't shop in general :-|
but believe it or not, gov has been trying to make this happen for the longest time. invest in ourselves but there are so many godam business people that go offshore to "make" (more like move) the quick buck....they too have to feed their families so like i said. this country is like a ginormous service/trade center. india and china are growing so much from supplying the rest of the world that even a recent raise in the standard of living (more consumption) has created a food scarcity problem

i'm an engineer not an economics person so i don't have the solution...atleast i recognize the problem.

i think we went offtopic this is no longer a usa tribute thread but i'm glad there arent so many people on here that make comments like "cut them off" etc... + how could any us say that, we'll probably own e30's for the rest of our lives!!

[z31maniac]

I totally agree with everything you've said, Ted. But I did want to touch on this.

I've always said you should never be "proud" to be an American. You should be happy, and feel lucky and fortunate that you are an American. If you were born in this country, you were born here by nothing more than a stroke of cosmic chance. Yes, your parents live here and that's why you were born here, but that's part of it. Pride does nothing more than create arrogance (not saying you are) and bigger problems, and you can't take pride in something that you more or less "happened" into.

Do I love this country? Yes. Does my government piss me off on a daily basis? Oh yes. But I thank my lucky stars every day that I was fortunate enough to win a cosmic lottery, if you will, and be born in this country.

Ahh yes. A George Carlin fan.

[smonkbmw]

america should go into anti social mode for a couple of years just to show everyone what it would be like without america. put crazy tarriffs on foreign goods and go into self sustaining mode. I think it would be a wake up call to the world.

i kind of like this idea. +1

...hehe look around you right now, your computer/desk. what % of things are made here in usa...i mean not just the manufacturing, but material. your car, what do you think it runs on? your food. who do you think picks it and allows it to be so (relatively speaking) cheap? i see usa as a big customer service center seriously. be careful in this kind of thinking, what if the rest of the world cuts YOU off?

you shop at walmart i bet. i think if the US produced more of its own goods it would be better for the economy via more jobs being taken back/created here as opposed to overseas. let the world cut the US off, we have more than enough technology and a unemployed work force to produce our own goods and survive. let the world cut us off, its time we put money back into our OWN economy and not some other countries.

on topic: Ted do you think that maybe a change of scenery/cities might expose yourself to other points of views besides eugene's? i understand you travel a bit, have you noticed the same attitudes everywhere? or just in town down there? are you generalizing the views of general media i.e. magazines, TV? Im curious as to where these opinions, comments come from that you gather this view on.

[project86]

Thanks for another personal attack. Typical liberals.

Don't wear you're beliefs on your sleeve in the middle of the firing range if you don't want to be attacked. You are the one martyring yourself fighting for the conservative right, no one asked you to do that, you volunteered to argue passionately and then call foul at the first sign of disagreement. It would be courteous of you to not take everything in such a defensive manner so that maybe this discussion did not have to resort to who has the bigger gun, figuratively. Thats how closed minded people settle debates, thats not fun.