Posted on 01/07/2010 6:29:34 AM PST by edpc
Ah..yes.. a UN driven poll..touting the “advantages” of living in a 1st world country with the highest personal tax rates.....
And I like fondue!
Yep...Switzerland for me!
It is Paradise in Frankistan.
They never take into account cultural differences and always assume cultural superiority for one group.
For example, Brits and Americans work longer than the French, so it is assumed that the French must be happier. It does not take into account the concept that perhaps Americans enjoy working more than the French.
Secondly, the list, necessarily only considers a limited number of factors. The choice of included factors demonstrates a cultural bias of the author more than the relative satisfaction of the public. The French might like tidy gardens, but many Americans would prefer to watch the NFL or baseball on Sundays than tend a garden.
“The French are consuming their seed corn. You can live pretty good for a while doing that.”
And we’re not? Check out our budget deficits. What we’re doing to the generations following ours is immoral.
Check out our trade deficits. Unsustainable.
The magazine publishing this list is just an expat magazine, basically a where’s where for those inclined to emigrate.
The French (and most other Europeans) have been enthusiastically eating their seend corn for 20 or 30 years.
The US has been doing the same, but with the exception of the last two years or so at a much lower level.
The US percentage of the world’s GDP has remained basically the same for the last 30 years. European percentage has dropped by at least 10%.
What About Freedom? IL lists France as being 100% “free” in the sense of liberty — a highly dubious conclusion at best. Indeed, IL only counts liberty and freedom as a mere 10% of its overall 100% country score, giving freedom equal weight with lesser attributes such as “Leisure & Culture” and “Climate.” IL also ducks responsibility and depends instead on Freedom House for an estimate of France’s concern about personal freedoms. Is this a joke? Tending to flower beds and bread purchasing are rated as part of a superior culture? Are these people on crack? How could anybody give France a high score for France on anything, besides backstabbing, rudeness, poverty, Muslim ghettos and collaboration with the tyrant-dictatorships of the world?? Is this the same culture than has many millions in ghetto-no-go zones that are rife with crime and mayhem, where no police dare to venture? A health care system that lets 20,000 people die in three days, during a summer day that is average for any American city, while their doctors spent a month vacation caring nothing for their patients?? The same health care system that is projected to have a $15 billion deficit? The French are the second poorest people in the EU, with 15% of the population making less than $8000 a year! France sucks. These surveys are a joke and are so subjective, even a monkey could have come up with the same #1 results.
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