More truth coming out about Obama.

[Eric]

Yes. I have lived there, and I have lived better there. Are there trade offs. Yes. There are things you can do and get here that you can not in Europe, but that applies the other way around as well.

You are wholly forgetting just how much a German citizen is taxed. Nevermind the 19% VAT on EVERYTHING purchased, but if you make 50,000 euro or more (decent wage for a university grad) you are taxed 24-42% of your income! Imagine nearly 1/2 your paycheck going to income tax! Plus you have to add the up to 5.5% Solidaritätszuschlag tax.

If you make enough money, then don't forget the 25% capital gains tax + the 5.5% Solidaritätszuschlag tax on top of that as well.

In Germany I can go to school for free through college and get a GREAT education and not just an ok one.

This is a 1/2 truth. For a German student to enter university, he must have an Abitur to guarantee entrance. Those who do not do well on the final exams enter into apprenticeships. And those who do horrible do not get apprenticeships, but do mundane jobs.

I can severely injure my self or get cancer with out having to worry that the hospital bills will put me and my family on the street.

This again is a 1/2 truth. While every German citizen is given health care, it is the very very basic health care. Within the German health care system, there are very distinct levels of what you are provided. Private room, or rooming with 5 others? ultrasound every preggo checkup or once at 20 weeks? flight for life helicoptor or regular ambulance? All of these small things change with your level of health care.

I can get three months of payed vacation every year so that I can spend some time with my family.

It's six weeks, not 3 months.

If I loose my job the government will set me up with a job, even if it is not the one I want to do I know I will have a roof over my head.

Sounds like a great plan!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1482371/If-you-dont-take-a-job-as-a-prostitute-we-can-stop-your-benefits.html

[z31maniac]

Wait, someone misrepresenting the benefits of Socialism!

I'm shocked!

[LBJefferies]

Wait, someone misrepresenting the benefits of Socialism!

I'm shocked!

I find it incredibly puzzling how so many highly educated people could fall for such a violation of logic and reality that is socialist philosophy. And they are really vocal about it too!

I have been there I guess, but that was before I hit my 20's and I have grown out of it. Some people just never do.

[Eric]

I find it incredibly puzzling how so many highly educated people could fall for such a violation of logic and reality that is socialist philosophy. And they are really vocal about it too!

I have been there I guess, but that was before I hit my 20's and I have grown out of it. Some people just never do.

"Not to be a republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head." - Francois Guisot

[gwb72tii]

you impress me h0lmes

[LBJefferies]

This isn't mine. It was a comment left on a youtube video of Noam Chomsky. But I think it couldn't be put better.

"When decisions are centralized and individual incentives are diminished, the nature of the political system pushes losses/liabilities to the collective. Everyone is de-facto responsible for everyone else and not directly responsible for themselves. It distorts human behavior and markets. I don't doubt the good intentions, but the end result is what's most important. In the short term socialism can provide many benefits, but from historical precedent the long term consequences are much much worse."

[Morrison]

Be that as it may - that is exactly what we have, and have had for a while - like over 200 years.

Both "parties" strongly believe in the redistribution of wealth. They just tend to disagree on who the wealth should come from and where it should go. Aside from that, the difference between the parties is very slight. Do you think its any coincidence that both parties unanimously supported the bank bailouts just a few years ago. The was one of the biggest redistributions of wealth ever. Since re-distribution of wealth is one of the key elements of socialism, in that sense poth parties practice what I will call "socialistic" behavior.

Please don't confuse socialistic policies with outright communism. Both of our parties fully support private ownership of capital and the "means of production" being wholly owned by the monopoly corporations.

For example, one party may wish to re-distribute your money to build taller fences on the Mexican border and tax deductions for big oil, while the other may wish to re-distribute your money to middle and lower class earners and loans to alterative energy pioneering firms.

[Farbin Kaiber]

"Not to be a republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head." - Francois Guisot

I really love this quote, and to be honest, I was all Earth Day as a kid, all sorts of pro-Michael Moore films as a teen, all sorts of anti-Bush in the early 2000's, but then I got out from under the roof of my parents, and out into the real world, and was responsible for myself, and the change got hold of me, much like h0lmes/LBJeffries.

Now that I'm in that over 30 group, sure I'd love for things to work the way I thought they should as an idealist kid, but as an adult, I know those things are downright unrealistic.

[Morrison]

I guess I came from the other direction. I grew up idolizing characters like Alex Keaton. I was stoked when I was in college and found out I'd be graduating under George W. Bush with a republican controlled congress as I figured that would make the job market for me stronger than ever. It didn't. At my lowest point while looking for work with a fresh mechanical engineering degree, I was selling plasma for food twice a week, and racking up credit card debt to pay for rent. I lived out in the real world and met people facing real word problems. I discovered that democrats weren't the luny left that I thought they were and soon came to find them much more pragmatic than the republican party that we know today.

9-9-9 Plan, Moon Colony, health care reform that only works in one certain state? Very realistic.

[z31maniac]

Whose a member of the GOP?

[Eric]

Be that as it may - that is exactly what we have, and have had for a while - like over 200 years.

Both "parties" strongly believe in the redistribution of wealth. They just tend to disagree on who the wealth should come from and where it should go. Aside from that, the difference between the parties is very slight. Do you think its any coincidence that both parties unanimously supported the bank bailouts just a few years ago. The was one of the biggest redistributions of wealth ever. Since re-distribution of wealth is one of the key elements of socialism, in that sense poth parties practice what I will call "socialistic" behavior.

Please don't confuse socialistic policies with outright communism. Both of our parties fully support private ownership of capital and the "means of production" being wholly owned by the monopoly corporations.

For example, one party may wish to re-distribute your money to build taller fences on the Mexican border and tax deductions for big oil, while the other may wish to re-distribute your money to middle and lower class earners and loans to alterative energy pioneering firms.

Most level headed realistic post in politics and religion section I've ever seen. Well said good sir.

I really love this quote, and to be honest, I was all Earth Day as a kid, all sorts of pro-Michael Moore films as a teen, all sorts of anti-Bush in the early 2000's, but then I got out from under the roof of my parents, and out into the real world, and was responsible for myself, and the change got hold of me, much like h0lmes/LBJeffries.

Now that I'm in that over 30 group, sure I'd love for things to work the way I thought they should as an idealist kid, but as an adult, I know those things are downright unrealistic.

I can thank Gray Davis for my political views. When he was royally screwing california over, I was getting out on my own, and I didn't like what he was doing.

[LBJefferies]

And things aren't as easily changed as the bleeding hearts think they are.

http://youtu.be/zI5hrcwU7Dk