Posted on 02/17/2020 7:09:32 AM PST by SeekAndFind
If you really want to shock leftists, tell them that Europe does not have, and has never had, socialized medicine or, indeed, socialized anything. European nations certainly had government-controlled medicine. They also boasted short work weeks, long vacations, year-long maternity leaves, early retirement, fully-paid-for old-age care, all sorts of other things that made them feel superior to Americans.
However, contrary to Europeans’ self-satisfied faux-socialist vision of themselves, Europeans didn’t fund their so-called “soft socialism.” Instead, for the most part, Americans did. During the Cold War, government collected taxes from Americans to pay Europe’s defense costs, allowing Europeans to spend their tax money on all those little socialist luxuries. Americans, meanwhile, worked 60 hour weeks, got short vacations, and paid for their own medical care, old-age care, and maternity leave.
Meanwhile, even as the Europeans were luxuriating in the lap of America-funded social welfare programs, they constantly criticized America for seeking to have a bigger say in world affairs. As has been the case since WWI, which was the first time America rode to Europe’s rescue, Europeans complained that Americans were unsophisticated bullies lacking in nuance. The general attitude was “pay the money, man the guns, and shut up.”
With the Cold War’s end, American spending dropped in Europe – a drop that coincided Europeans beginning to have problems funding their social services. Trump, however, has taken things to the next level by demanding that Europeans start helping to pay for their own defense. (Indeed, Europeans have long promised to pay for that defense but they consistently failed to fulfill those promises.)
It turns out that Europeans are not pleased to be called out to make good on their promises. In addition, they’re discovering that those gauche, bullying Americans were, in fact, a very useful bulwark against evil in the world
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Yankee Go Home! But Your Money Can Stay!
In the Philippines, a lot of those who were chanting “Yankee Go Home” are now living and working HERE in the USA.
The Philippines newspapers mocked them with this:
“Yankee Go Home! And Take Me With You!”
‘Eff the whole bunch of them. Liberal elitists looking down their nose at Americans, regarding us as stupid, crude, intolerable.
But they’re fine with us defending them.
Europeans?
I’ve never met one!
Back during Pappy Bush’s peace dividend days I recall some German high mucky muck saying we shouldn’t close any of our bases in Germany because of the negative effect it would have on their economy.
Europeans like free stuff at other people’s expense.
And our rebuilding them.
Thru UN world heritage sites .....
“However, contrary to Europeans’ self-satisfied faux-socialist vision of themselves, Europeans didn’t fund their so-called “soft socialism.” Instead, for the most part, Americans did. During the Cold War, government collected taxes from Americans to pay Europe’s defense costs, allowing Europeans to spend their tax money on all those little socialist luxuries. Americans, meanwhile, worked 60 hour weeks, got short vacations, and paid for their own medical care, old-age care, and maternity leave.”
Sorry to break the news but we have not paid for our defense spending either. We have “guns and butter” but we have borrowed piles of money instead of making hard choices. It is easy to criticize Europe but if the easy money dries up here, the wailing will be ear splitting. Our defense spending continues to wane.
I was telling the Yurps exactly this IN THE EARLY 90S! when I first lived over there. We are at least 25 years late in recognizing that the Cold War is over, we no longer need to spend our blood and treasure defending freeloading Yurps and we have no reason to listen to them since they have no interest in shouldering any real burdens when it comes to security.
and no Yurps, you can’t talk your way out of everything. Sorry. There are bad people in the world who only recognize brute force. It was ever thus. If you have no capability to project power and no willingness to project power then you will not be taken seriously.
Its long past time that we brought the boys home from Europe and let them sink or swim on their own. We’ve spent quite enough of our people’s blood and treasure bailing them out in the last century.
They’re right, let’s pull our troops out.
We have you, but please protect us. How about Hell No!!
Then we should leave and take our money with us.
Right-’Old Europe’ (as Rumsfeld called it) is on it’s own.
They are finding out that ‘surrender and peace’ are NOT the same thing.
Europe was
The future is East of Suez.
Rather than withdraw a few thousand troops from Afghanistan, I would consider withdrawing ten thousand from Italy and at least another ten thousand from Germany
They started two effing world wars and both times it took the blood of millions of America’s youth to bail their sorry asses out
Nobody, I mean nobody shows more IN gratitude than those pansy ass Europeans
Add Korea and the PI to the list...
Just the facts. We have troops scattered all over the globe. It’s all built on fear and boogie men. And the military industrialized complex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_deployments
We should just unilaterally pull out all troops, tech, and monetary support and watch the continent burn. Their economies would utterly tank without our spend, and then the Russians would conquer everything west of the Urals without the Allies to stop the advance.
Those who resent what has happened in the Vassal Continent of Europe have only their own leaders to blame.
And the MARSHALL Plan.They would still be picking up bricks in Cologne and Berlin if it wasn't for all our US aid.
The EU thought they could bully Ukraine into a speedy EU-Ukraine association, which was followed by Russian concerns, and Russian actions like the taking of Crimea and occupying a part of Eastern Ukraine, as well as continued internal political turmoil in Ukraine. And now what has the EU done for Ukraine and it’s defense? Nearly squat in military support, tepid sanctions on Russia and expansion of EU dependence on energy supplies from Russia.
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