fiksal wrote:So let's see,
I was paid unemployment when I was looking for work; my grandma is getting small financial health; I almost entirely paid for college with government grants alone (and scholarships). And that just what directly affected me.
I like American socialism
Exactly. When my family first come here, I was suprised at the welfare system in the US, it was much more comprehensive than even in countries where they claim socialism. Living here for over ten years, we still believe American actually are a lot more "socialism" than a lot of other places.
- We got 3 months of welfare when we came here, than my dad started working.
- My mother had a surgery and medicaid help paid the lion share of it.
- After 8 years of working, my father got laid off, and he was given 18 months of unemployment benefit.
- I got my bachelor with government grant and scholarship.
- Even now as I'm working on my 2nd master, I still haven't used up my life time education tax credit yet, so I recover about 2/3 of my cost a year.
But the point is, we were happy with the help we got, but we didn't take it for granted. We strike out and try to achieve things on our own end at the same time being frugal and effective. But, I have seen people who came here were on welfare for a whole year and still whine about something like "America so rich but they didn't do enough for me", welp, I guess those people would have a different opinion about "capitalist" America
It is with great shame that I must admit I know far too many of my countrymen who came here and abuse American's hosbitality while sitting on the arse whining about they're not being given enough. Sometime I told them to **** right off back to our country if they complain so much. None of them ever did go back, because then no one would give them housing, free food, and FASA back home. Of course this does not exclude native citizen, but then again when people are born into privilege, they sometime are not aware of how good they have it.
mrbadger wrote:
Too many people (not just Americans) don't bother to think beyond the sensationalised news they get fed, or whatever they hear that justifies some opinion they want to hold.
Oh common, the same thing can be said about you really. Something about riding the stereotype on the narrative that is fed for you while knowing nothing about the context. It's like joining a reddit thread without participating in the discussion and just post the most trendy answer.
Remember the US is a Federal of 50 states with the size of Europe, if anything, the general "American" are probably much better informed in their definitions comparing to a European citizen from a specific country. After all, despite what you may believe, our country have almost every facet there is in existence. You have the Nany state like California, and you also have state with minimum welfare like Texas. They both have large economy, large population, and they're both American, and among the 50 states you can find everything in between. So really, if you think American don't have a good perspective ... well, you're free to believe whatever you want to believe I guess.
BUT, Society Safety net =/= Socialism. The former is good, the latter is bad. Help and assistance from others are a privilege and a favor, it should not be never something taken for granted as an entitlement. I do believe America has a lot of good will (and this comes from an Asian immigrant), but alas they're no damn socialist (thank God!).
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