Posted on 07/05/2010 12:00:48 PM PDT by Nachum
As America this weekend celebrates the birth of its liberty, in much of the rest of the world freedom and democracy are in retreat.
Over the past decade, authoritarian rulers have refined their techniques to stay in power, learning from each other and thinking two steps ahead of democratic forces. Unprepared for this systematic reply to the advance of democracy from the 1970s through the 1990s, democratic governments have yet to formulate a coherent response.
"A global political recession" is how Tom Melia describes the current state of affairs. Melia is deputy director of Freedom House, a nonprofit that annually measures the state of liberty in every nation -- and that has found "more countries seeing declines in overall freedom than gains" in recent years, Melia said last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The global communist and Marxist parties are on a roll right now thanks to Georgie Soros. I can’t believe how many of those maggots are living in this country. Unreal.
in much of the rest of the world freedom and democracy are in retreat.
Even CNN has begun to notice the death of our First Amendment rights: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=203
Europe is widely regarded as less free than the US, and its citizens less happy than ours. It’s the high-tax Socialist nature of European nations that lead to this conclusion. What country do you live in? How do you view America’s freedoms and relatively low taxes (compared to Europe’s) from where you are?
Sorry but can you put a source for this claim?
Did you read the article?
Did you read the article?
Possible sleeper troll at #3 and #6
Europe is widely regarded as less free than the US, and its citizens less happy than ours. It’s the high-tax Socialist nature of European nations that lead to this conclusion. What country do you live in? How do you view America’s freedoms and relatively low taxes (compared to Europe’s) from where you are?
What country do you live in? How do you view America’s freedoms and relatively low taxes (compared to Europe’s) from where you are?
I love this country and the people!
My girlfriend from the Us loves it too.
Is it the best country in this world?
I guess not (because i never visited every country in this world) But is it a country where she and me would love to abodon an american citizenship? Then definietlly yes.
Because “we” found each other and i love her as she does me so why again i should have to ask again?
I don’t necessarily believe that Europeans are unhappy with their tax levels. Your statement confirms the story I read on the Marketwatch site that people in heavily taxed countries like Norway, Sweden, Canada, Australia, and Switzerland were happier than Americans.http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-happiest-places-on-earth-are-heavily-taxed
The argument was made that people there are happier because they have social services and a social safety net not found in the US. Theoretically, it made for a nation where people believed that they all had some kind of social obligation to each other. One thing you never hear discussed in the US media is that Europeans might be HAPPIER with their higher tax levels! I do not think most Americans would believe you. Taxing the wealthy is called “class warfare” here.
Here in the US, the argument is made that taxes are the reason people are unhappy, and that social programs are both unaffordable and encourage laziness. Even unemployment benefits extension are being condemned as creating a “welfare mentality.” How do you answer that sort of criticism?
Yes, most of Europe is a democracy - but aren’t you afraid that Austria will go the way of Greece, because its tax levels punish the hardest-working ones who make the most money? Don’t high taxes punish success? How do Austrians (in general, since you can’t speak for all) regard taxes, especially if they are wealthy?
But then again what makes you think that america is the “only” free country? And that it has the right to spread “their” fews on other onces?
Wow. What on earth are you talking about? All I said was, did you read the article?
Democracy and freedom are not the same things. Democracies can be tyrannical, as we are seeing here. Too bad we seem to have lost our republic.
No i´m arn´t afraid because austria is one of the most rich countries in europe. And yes we are heavily taxed. This is true but i´m not aware that there are many (because in every socitey you will find someone who is unhappy) people
who would want to live everywhere else. Live is ok here even we pay a ot of taxes. Is it perfekt? Hell No! But then again most people here don´t have a problem to pay more tax
than the “average joe” as long as they have more money at the end.
Well sorry to say but the “welfare thing and the so called socialiced medicine”) is something i really don´t get here.
Because as stupid as it sounds there are 2 sides in america. And every side trys to pick up only what fits their needs. So one side says socialiced medicine is the hell on earth (picking up the worst of all european countries) the other side says yes we do need this picking up only the positive sides.
Just for example I ám a resident of a so called western european yountry which has socialiced health care.
Does this mean that the service is crap?
Does this mean that i´m forced to join this system?
Hell NO!
I for example have a private insurance and no one wants
to change me.
Why because here socialiced medicine only means that every citizen has acess to basic medical service no matter how much money you have. ( And this is a good thing).
For the rest of “us” you are free to enter a private clinic all you want (if you can pay it). No one is forcing you to do everything.
You whant a private insurance? Who cares? juist do it.
All the state cares is that if you may found yourself in a situation where you can´t afford this. they will enshure
that you are still able to get the medical treatment you would need.
This is not a bad thing!
Europe is widely regarded as less free than the US, and its citizens less happy than ours. It’s the high-tax Socialist nature of European nations that lead to this conclusion. What country do you live in? How do you view America’s freedoms and relatively low taxes (compared to Europe’s) from where you are.
Thank you for your replies. You are portraying a system very different from what we have here. Some people on FR might say you are a troll because your testimony isn’t what they are used to thinking.
But I do appreciate it. It sounds like you think the system you have in Austria is preferable in some ways to that in the US - health care, for instance.
It is an excellent thing for people from all across the world to inform each other about the way they live. Thank you again.
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