I Love This Country

rachellucas.com ^ | Rachel Lucas

[virgil283]

"One of the most startling revelations of moving back to the U.S. is the ubiquitous friendliness and I’m rolling around in it like a dog in fresh grass....none of which could really explain this truly awesome bit of reverse culture shock for me.

It’s not that Europeans are exactly un-friendly, especially Italians, who are in fact very polite and kind to strangers, and warm to friends and family, but I lived in Texas for 15 years before moving to Europe and being openly friendly to complete strangers was (is) deeply part of my personality,....

[virgil283]

"Anyway, now I’m back in Texas, and OH MY GOD. I am drunk on the smiles and the “hey how’s it going?”‘s from complete strangers everywhere I go. ....the gigantic blooming rosebush that is a country with things like SuperTarget and Lowe’s and Costco and five trillion different kinds of restaurants all in the same two-block radius. ... do you have any idea of the sheer wealth of choice we have here? It overwhelms me. I wandered around Lowe’s with my mom the other day ... and literally could not comprehend what I was seeing. ALL THE THINGS. RIGHT THERE ON SHELVES. ...Oh and I hear folks bitching about the $3.59/gallon gas. Y’all. I know that sucks and I know we have to drive a lot more here but still. My husband back in Italy is paying the equivalent of more than $10/gallon. And don’t even get me started on the difference in food prices over here – for $55, I bought the same amount of food yesterday for myself and my parents that I buy for myself and my husband back in Italy, where that particular grocery list cost me 80 euro every time (about $105). HALF!! What sorcery is this?!?....All I know is I am pretty damn impressed with America right now. ..."...H/T maggiesfarm

[Gaffer]

Now think back four decades or so ago in a war nobody in this country wanted, especially the Bill Clintons, the Hillary Rodhams (before they were famous), the Bill Ayers, the Bernadine Dohrns (when they were famous - for bomb throwing and not being ‘professors’) and think about spending almost 7 consecutive years in different places all over the world, and then you’d really see how much one can miss everything here.

I once had the pleasure to get a training class back in the states at Griffis AFB NY for three days. Do you want to know what everyone wanted me to bring back to our little island? Take a guess....

Can you imagine trying to board a C-130 with eight paper grocery bags of Wonder Bread?

[miss marmelstein]

Nice to have you back in the good ole USA!

[iacovatx]

Cheaper, better, faster-—let freedom ring!

Let’s never give up our love of winning. Let’s never lose the American culture of Davy Crockett, living 24/7 hard work/hard play, and our happy, confident, good nature. That’s what stocks those shelves and makes America a great place to be. It’s what makes Americans fun to be around and inspiring to the world’s people.

I believe it was a Soviet premier who traveled to meet Ronald Reagan and was viewed by the Soviet people on TV. Those people were awe-inspired by the confidence, friendliness, and good power of Ronald Reagan, who represented American culture to the world. Reagan could show the world what it meant to be an American by just greeting someone.

[Windflier]

I’ve experienced that same reverse culture shock a few times in this life, when coming home to the U.S. It can almost be overwhelming to someone who’s been away for a number of years.

[353FMG]

And don’t forget the ultimate Texas friendliness — you can easily get a CHL.

[dragnet2]

Wow...A China Walmart and Muslim owned greedymart on every corner, with cheap foreign and Communist Chinese products jammed to the ceiling...

As our food costs and everything else except wages continue to skyrocket and our dollar becomes worth less and less, you fly around like singing like tinkerbell...

Ya come a long way America

[reformedliberal]

And you crawl around like Grumpy Cat.

Walmart is at this very moment reviving the Made In America stock. It is not Walmart that has caused American manufacturing to decrease. It is the Federal Government and if you aren’t aware of all the ways this is accomplished you read FR with your eyes closed.

Indians and other East Asians own the convenience stores and the small rural motels because they have a financial plan and everyone in the family contributes to it by working hard. I’ve stayed in some of those motels and watched this dynamic in action. I’m willing to bet that the younger Asians all have university degrees in hard sciences, too or at least in economics. There is an intelligence about them and an intensity lacking in many young Americans.

While our food costs rise, the rise is way worse in Europe and other members of the AngloSphere. My experience is years out of date and is from Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific islands and parts of the Caribbean, but I agree that we have more choice, more variety and better prices relative to income and taxes than do the Pacific democracies.

The longest I have ever been gone from America was 3 months. I literally kissed the ground when I returned. Not just the people, the choices and the goods, but the openness of the landscape and the orderliness.

None of us are happy with the present state of affairs, but this is God’s Country. You only know what you have when it’s gone.

[Caliban]

Homeland Security. NSA spying. IRS bullying. Drone attacks. Military detention. Who needs it? It’s hard to imagine that this is really the pinnacle of civilization you love so much.

Most of us have been bred to believe that where we come from, where we were born and raised, is “the best”. Of course, very little objective evidence conclusively supports this assertion.

Perhaps if you gauge a nation’s merit in Starbucks, bombs, or public debt per capita, the Western world might really have something.

[antidisestablishment]

The worst culture shock I ever had was coming home after a three year tour. We walked in to a supersized grocery store in SoCal and I had to leave. After shopping in our little commissary for so long, the choices truly overwhelmed me. Most people have no idea how blessed we are.

[dragnet2]

Oh yeah, Walmart is reviving America!

And those high paying jobs!

I personally look for products made in Communist Chinese sweat shops, Pakistan and Jackassastan.

And all these businesses owned by foreigners and Muslims are a great thing for America...The devalued dollar is also very attractive as is our lawless violent borders, which bring in lots of desirable low wage labor...Unlike lazy white Americans....Best of all, your corrupt controlling government at every level is most reassuring and key to a wonderful future.

It's like living in fantasyland Mr. reformed liberal!

[reformedliberal]

It’s Mrs. reformedliberal, thanx.

I didn’t say “reviving America”. I said “reviving their policy of stocking Made in America. There is a difference.

In my rural area, about 15% of my husband’s clients work at Walmart. Most have worked there for years. They like it. They advance into management if they are capable and want to. Some only want to work part time. They patronize us, so we reciprocate. Going to Walmart often results in appointments for him. The nice thing about our Walmart is the progressive hippies hate it and only shop there late at night. Many of the employees are conservatives.

I know people who have designed products they sell in America and they choose to make them in Pakistan. I don’t, but then, my product takes some skill and I am loathe to open up the proprietary production process or to accept a 3% rate of seconds. Selling to Walmart is a choice. I don’t, because I just hate all the ever changing hoop jumping they require. But then, those manufacturers pay US taxes, buy stuff here, etc, etc., so what goes around, comes around.

Your sarcasm is misplaced. I hate all the things about present day America that you list. But, I haven’t found anywhere else I want to live and I am over 70, so I guess I am stuck with it until it changes.

I actually live in reality. I know where I am, I know what it is like and I know every wart and wattle. I also have some experience in other parts of the country and other parts of the world and Mr. reformedliberal and I have decided that, at our age, we are best off here.

YMMV.

[dragnet2]

But, I haven’t found anywhere else I want to live

Where you want to live or where you've been is not the issue to me.

Our country is in decline...There is no debate here. Those who walk around thinking everything is dreamy and peachy are either on government pensions or just naive to the core.

[reformedliberal]

It sux.

Tell me where in the world it IS different? I have spent an inordinate amount of time reading about other places to live, none of which would have me for a citizen and the citizens of which have less personal individual liberty than we do here. They often also have much less personal security, much less ability to control that security and the layers of nannydom start in the neighborhood block and extend all the way up to their national levels.

People abroad may like individual Americans, but to them, we are all Yanks. They have Starbucks or something like it, nuclear bombs, VAT as well as property and income taxes, all of it higher than ours for what they receive. All have public debt, fuel poverty, horrid death panel national health services and national governments working hard to replace the native born with immigrants of all sorts.

I can’t buy land in many of those places, only lease it and the terms can be changed at whim overnight. This is how business is conducted in many other places, as well. In some island nations, one person controls each imported commodity and if they wake up in a mood, there is suddenly none to be had. These are places where my idea of comfort food can be impossible to find or can be priced at about 5-6x what it is here, while I can go to several stores, even out here in Flyover Country, and buy imported food items for about what the people pay in its native place and sometimes for less.

I am not making an argument for Nirvana or Utopia. I am simply saying there is no other place I’d rather live and it can be as bad or worse, elsewhere.

It is disturbing to read, day after day, FReepers declaring they won’t shop somewhere because some CEO is a prog. Or they won’t watch a film, read a book,purchase a product or service, etc, etc. I imagine these folks committing suicide when they realize that some water companies, some toll roads, some power companies, some food conglomerates are owned, staffed and managed by foreign liberals. Having always been a minority or having been mistaken for a minority of one sort or another, it seems pretty futile, to me.

I am an American. This is where I have spent over 7 decades. I have a fairly nice life as do my friends and family. I have traveled. I am always happy to come home.

[reformedliberal]

Not dreamy. Not peachy. No government pensions here and I am far from naive.

The entirety of Western Civilization is in decline and it has been for over 50 years, maybe more.

I simply refuse to ruin whatever is left of my life being consumed with anger over things I cannot control. I have been badly hurt financially by this decline. I have seen the effect of this culture on my own children. I am sorry for the younger people who will bear the brunt of whatever future is in store, but they tell me that they like it this way, this is what they voted for and this is what they will continue voting for.

I have analyzed my situation and taken into account all the alternatives available to me. I have made my own plans accordingly. I no longer have the extra energy to fritter away in futile angst. I have decided to accept the reality in which I find myself and to make the best of it.

Flame away. It may help you to vent your spleen, but it actually changes nothing.

[dragnet2]

I have decided to accept the reality

Good luck with that.

[Caliban]

I live in Nicaragua, own a beach house and an 8 acre farm with house.
Unlike Mexico or Honduras you OWN land here, it s not a 99 year lease.

My spouse and I live on 1000.00 a month for everything.

My property taxes on each house was 300.00

Less BS here...my advice to people bitching about the USA and are approaching retirement, there are many very affordable options overseas...don’t kid yourself thinking that medical is supreme in the USA...it isn’t what is was and is only going to get worst.

Many USA doctors are moving overseas to get in on the medical vacation boon.

Many countries in this hemisphere are getting very modern hospitals to meet this demand.

Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Chile are all booming countries and offer quite a bit for the retiree dollar.

Better think outside the box, because the USA is crumbling and they have NO PLANS in having aging baby boomers around any longer the they have too.

ObamaCare will gauge a retirees finances to determine if keeping you alive to milk out more taxes or heather you are too much of a burden of social services.

Get out, live on your SS in a country where the money still has buying power and enjoy your nestveggbif you had saved one.

[Windflier]

Most people have no idea how blessed we are.

Indeed. It's why the poor of the world have beaten a path to our door. Funny thing is that most of them appreciate what we have, far more than the average American.

Even living in Europe for a while will make you appreciate the good ole USA.

[antidisestablishment]

There’s no doubt of that. Experience is a great teacher. Every naturalized citizen that I have known is very conservative. They also know more American history than we do. Many Eastern block immigrants warn against accepting gifts from government.

[Windflier]

Most of us have been bred to believe that where we come from, where we were born and raised, is “the best”. Of course, very little objective evidence conclusively supports this assertion.

Ahem.....from your home page:

"Living in Nicaragua, as a retired expat...watching the politics from afar..."

Uh huh. So, you're another one of those expats who ran off to some imagined Shangrila, and now looks down his nose at the rubes back stateside. We've got a few of your type here.

spit...