On 09/08/2011 04:14 AM, turquoiseb wrote: > The US political season is upon us again. Non-US residents are bracing > themselves for a year and a half of non-stop political bickering and > posturing clogging most of the bandwidth of the Internet, much of it (on > the part of both the politicians and the people dissing them or > supporting them) consisting of complaining. Americans these days seem to > view their own politics as a kind of James Bond-like 007 License To > Complain. So I'm going to take advantage of my American status (expat > though it may be) and complain about that. :-) > > Watching American politics play themselves out (at least on the > Internet, which is my primary portal into them), is for me a lot like > watching "Spartacus: Blood And Sand." It's a gladiatorial sport. > Perrycus strides out onto the political sands to do battle with > Obamacus, and the crowd gets hard (or wet) with anticipation, because > blood is in the air. And from the crowd's point of view, the bloodier > the combat the better. They've got their stadium snacks and wine and > they just want the combat to begin so that they can cheer for their > favorites and boo the bad guys. > > When it comes to "bread and circuses," these days you can't do much > better IMO than American politics, and the discussions of them on the > Internet. > > If you're going to inflict another year and a half of this on the rest > of us on Fairfield Life, can you PLEASE do us a favor this season and > occasionally throw in something that is positive, and not a complaint? > For those who don't know the difference, complaining is bitching about > what or who you think are the "causes" of what you're bitching about > and/or trying to blame them for it. Positive is suggesting some way to > fix it.
So how is economic inequality in the Netherlands these days? How is unemployment there? I've suggested ways to fix things but some folks here didn't like them. :-D
