Swedish study bashes European standard of living

Gambling is legal in the state of Nevada, which is well-noted for the city of Las Vegas, almost entirely built up on the money people lose to casinos. There are other states, but I don’t know all of them.

Interestingly, the world’s biggest casino is in Los Angeles, California. Gambling is not permitted in much of California, but they were able to build this huge casino with the claim “poker is not gambling, it is a game of skill.”

In North Carolina we have casinos in the mountains. I think they are on Indian reservations like aneflan mentions, but you wouldn’t notice it. It’s just on a regular busy street like no other here in the US. It’s not like it’s surrounded by tee-pees :lol:

South Carolina has a state lottery that provides many different games that can be played, and profits go to the schools. I’m not sure if SC has any casinos.

Lotto - is a state sponsored game in many states which includes: various keno type games and scratch off tickets.

Nevada is the only state that I can think of where casinos are legal. Other states have casinos as well but, they are located on Indian reservations ( which to an extent is exempt from state bans )

However, while the laws governing gambling and prostitution in Nevada are lax, they do not mess around where it comes to drugs. From what I saw on tv it is a felony to be in possession of even one marijuana seed.

Yeah, marijuana seed is really really dangerous to your health compared to stuff like 500 NUCLEAR EXPLOSION CRATERS. And their fallout…

Sorry too much discovery channel lately. :smile:

No, this is not true, they have to SEE the drug… because you can smell like marijuana hours after having any in posession, etc… they could be smelling “something else” etc… they might use it as reason to insist that they search you, but you can always say no and unless they see you with it I really don’t think they can force a search.

My friends car got tagged by a drug dog once, and STILL, they had to ask him for a search, they concluded he must have ridden with a guy who was smoking recently, nothing happened to him.

I mean, then my other friend had a machete in his car (i’m not sure if they saw it or not) and they still had to ask him, if he said no they’d have to get a warrant, but I’m sure they wouldn’t have let him near his car until they were done with him.

He really got screwed over on that one… not that he should have one on school grounds but I mean, I understand feeling the need to keep something in your car for protection, I really should… especially because it’s probably okay to have a weapon in the car at college, at least, a bladed one… I’ll have to check that out.

Now, here are the shitty things about America.

Our rights are disappearing daily.

You have to be 21 to drink, but you can SMOKE (horrible for you, no high, highly addictive) at 18. Tobacco and Alcohol, kill more people combined (millions) than marijuana (0) yet marijuana is considered a “hard drug” with “no therapuetic value” and “highly addictive, dangerous and prone to abuse” … the scheduling system makes no sense, theoretically alcohol and tobacco need to be schedule one.

LSD is schedule one, WHO ABUSES ACID? Please? Who abuses acid? Maybe people that are already insane to begin with… if you abuse acid you probably won’t ever touch it again.

Crack cocaine, I heard, actually is very rarely used more than a few times due to it being one of the most harsh ups/downs available to you, yet you get more jail time for crack cocaine than PURE cocaine.

50% of our federal prison system is made up of drug dealers. Marijuana is our nations largest cash crop, hello, do you guys want to legalize it and tax it? It makes common sense… no, you let the mafia and black markets reap tons of cash.

Most often drug lords are never busted, just small and poor street dealers.

You can get life in jail for growing marijuana, any amount… 10 years to LIFE.

LIFE… do you hear that?

Seig heil! I mean, our drug laws are, I believe, as bad as Nazi Germany’s was, at least we don’t GAS PEOPLE TO DEATH for smoking pot, but it’s pretty close.

In fact, many many states are trying to make manufacturing meth a VIOLENT CRIME… okay? How wrong is that? It gets worse, under the Patriot Act a man has been charged with manufacturing chemical weapons for COOKING METH… okay?

People hate prohibition, they’d go mad if their precious beer was taken away, but what they fail to realize is PROHIBITION WAS NEVER ABOLISHED AND IS TO THIS DAY RUNNING RAMPANT.

Our penalties for drugs almost equal those of all facist regimes that happened to hate drugs, we just stop short of death, torture, and whacking off limbs.

We are modern day Nazis… nationalism is running rampant, anyone who questions the government is dubbed a terrorist lover and anti-American, all our rights are disappearing because of one act of terrorism that is HIGHLY suspicious.
www.letsroll911.org read about the controlled demolitions, the owner of the WTC admitted to having the lesser buildings demolished, it calculates the termperature needed to completely melt all supports in the WTC, and jet fuel can’t even begin to meet those temperatures, yet both towers fell at the SPEED OF GRAVITY, meaning, the support structure all was destroyed at once allowing all floors to fall at the same time.

Impossible, or damn near close to it. This thing WAS designed to withstand being hit by a plane. People on the floors that were hit described mild heat and made it out, yet… the steel was melted?

None of it adds up… it’s that damn Hitler started fire type thing… using terrorists as a reason to take away freedoms and wage pre-emptive wars.

We are Nazi Germany… no one can know how bad it is, maybe there are good explanations, but what we know is the government is hiding the truth and lying to us, so we just have to try and make our own assumptions… in the best scenario Bush is an idiot and doesn’t know what he is doing and believes he’s “right” in the worst case scenario he or someone in the government had this stuff planned.

We’re really bad.

Some college kid was charged fo rmaking a bomb threat by protesting the abu ghraib scandal… he was wearing a hood and had stereo cables attached to him, to an empty crate yeah… an invisible bomb.

wow holy reality! Is this really the place to vent out all of those controversial opinions? There are about 10 whole threads in that 1 reply :bored:

What a dumb college kid. Only an idiot would strap a look-a-like bomb to their body and step out into public in modern day times. Passing cars and people don’t have time to examine “empty crates.” People just see a “contraption” around his neck. He also intended it to look like a bomb. The kid is lucky some guy didn’t whoop his ass for scaring his wife or kids, or some “hero” didn’t break his neck.
That idiot should get charges. Imitating suicide bombers is not a peaceful protest!

and “Nazi Germany” … please? some people that actually lived in Nazi Germany would probably be offended by that comment. You just don’t know how good you have it, do you? I’m sure we are both too young to imagine what it was like then, but Nazi Germany was never able to speak out against their government like you do.

posting 9-11 URL’s to propaganda again I see. I suppose Bush and our government is responsible for the terror attacks to Madrid’s trains, and the USS Cole from years back also?
We may not know the full true story of what happened before/during/after 9-11, but there is little doubt that terrorist are attacking western culture. The western culture is what dominates and fuels our global humanity, and the terrorist want to change that.

Cooking meth is not a chemical weapon? Don’t you know meth lab explosions have been known to blow up houses, and have also taken out neighbors houses. :eh:
It may not be intended as a weapon, but it sure has the potential!

Our drug laws the last 10 years have been greatly reformed. I suggest you check norml.org/ for daily news about efforts towards reforming America’s drug laws.
“life in jail for growing marijuana” :lmao: Please tell me what state this is? Because the worst law I could find was in South Carolina it is a mandatory minimum sentence of 25years … if you are growing >100 plants. :lol: that is like a farm! Not “any amount” like you claim.

Where do you get your statistics?

Ok, you obviously have never meet or do not know a crackhead. heh. Where did you learn that?

21 to drink, 18 to smoke sounds reasonable to me. Smoking doesn’t usually make you lose your balance, become violent, lose control of yourself, forget things, or become unconscious. A certain amount of responsiblity is required when drinking, more so than smoking.

Yes, this is true in many states.
What state do you live in again?
In many states the smell of marijuana is enough for “probable cause,” but like Milod mentions refusing consent to these searches will most likely cause the charge to be thrown out. Listen to me on this one, I’m speaking from experience here. :tongue:

Sure it is. It depend’s on the situation and the state you live in. If an officer smells what he believe to be marijuana the officer would likely have probable cause to search your car. ( this does not mean the search cannot be challenged in court later.) Of course the officer is going to ask or pressure you to consent to the search. If you consent then, you cannot challenge the search later. ( at least it is harder to)

I am strongly pro free speech, the right to assemble and the right to protest. However, as the supreme court ruled “ yelling fire in a crowded theater does not constitute free speech” Now I do not know the facts surrounding the case you mentioned. The police may have been right to arrest the person in this case or maybe not. Personally, I find the method he used to protest to be offensive and in extremely poor taste. :down:

I don’t think so. I believe that we live in one of the greatest countries in the world. I agree we need to make some changes. Hopefully, a great many things will change come November.

I think comparing the US to Nazi Germany is absurd. I agree that in the aftermath of 9/11 congress enacted some laws that many ( even republicans ) regret. Hopefully those laws will just expire at the end of the year.

The Swedish Guantanamo prisoner was released 2 days ago. At least he got to fly home in style:

https://www.airliners.net/open.file/565770/M/

Yes, that is the swedish “Air Force One” that normally only the king and the ministers use. He could have flown 10x cheaper and just as comfortably on a first class ticket, but our prime minister (i guess) wanted to pull off a movie-like gesture. I wonder if Bush even heard of it.

I wonder what he would say if we snatched a random american somewhere in the world where we have UN troops and placed him in a cage on the Gotland regiment to rot for two years…

To be honest, I think Bush would thank Sweden for its cooperation and support in the war on terror, particularly if that American were arrested while with a group of Al Qaida fighters retreating from the battle in the Tora Bora mountains in Afghanistan, like the Swedish man was.

I wonder what kind of excuse he would have for hanging out with a bunch of these guys in a remote Afghani battleground? “Just passing through, don’t mind me.”

I think to hold anyone for 2 years without due process ( meaning a trial or at least a hearing ) is not good policy. That completely contradicts our beliefs in the United States. I understand the need for security but, if we give up our freedom in the name of security then “they”win. To be honest I do not know anything about the above case. Since he was released one can only assume the government felt that they could not prove any wrongdoing in that case.

I think to hold anyone for 2 years without due process ( meaning a trial or at least a hearing ) is not good policy. That completely contradicts our beliefs in the united states. I understand the need for security but, if we give up our freedom in the name of security then “they”win. To be honest I do not know anything about the above case. Since he was released one can only assume the government felt that they could not prove any wrongdoing in that case.

Anyway to get back on topic:

The debate was about the quality of life in the US v.s. Europe.

We have had a few people talk about what life in the US is like but, how about Europeans? How would you describe your quality of life?

I agree except for POW’s.

yes but was the swedish guy arrested during the “war on terror” or the war with afghanistan (or more correctly the talibans) ?
To me, “the war on terror” feels like the endless war used to justify certain behaviour…

Generally I would say I feel very safe in Sweden with all the “social safety nets” . So safe it’s almost boring :smile:
I go to college and work. Even get paid to go to college :content: (student grant, around $320 a month while studying) which is a huge contrast to the US where I get the impression that people have to work and save money for college ?

What I don’t like about Sweden is that authorities and politicians are a bit old fashion and not very open minded to new ideas.

The swedish way of living is basically:
Go to your work, pay your taxes and we’ll help you if you have any problems. But don’t stand out too much.

The climate in europe is a huge reason for so few having A.C… Most people in north europe dont need any A.C, cause the climate/summer season is just too cold/short, so many people see it as a waste of money.

There is also a difference between poor americans and swedes… In sweden you have a right to have a house, no matter how poor you are, while in US these same people will have to live out on the street. Also you have free health care in most eu countries, so the living standard for the poor is better than a poor person in america.

The summer in scandinavia only last for 3 months usually, which is june, jule and august, and even then the temps are quite chilly compared to warm countries… Like this years summer has been absolutely horrible, not even been over 20c in july where i live… “middle of norway”
Right now the temp is a whole 13c here :sad:
A warm day is considered 20c and upwards, but it is quite rare the temps raise much over 30s. The southern europe is quite hot though 30-40s, and most people do have aircondition there.

I find that quite sick aswell :sad: I also heard that you must have a house to work legally aswell, which means you will be in a endless bad circle… You cannot afford a home without a job, and you cannot get a job without a home

Afghanistan.

I agree the “war on terror” is very ambiguous and open-ended. It reminds me of the “cold war” which people probably thought would last forever also.

Mmm just read your topic monitor199A :smile:

Well it could be true, why not, but remember all things are often from what angle u look at it.
Take me for example i have cystic fybrosis and need expensive medication.
Also hospital bills…in usa my insurance would kick me unless i would have a good income with is with this decease not so easy. My lungs always go down in time more and more. Here in the netherlands the goverment pays for most of that, in usa lol i would died. Witch hospital would take me or witch insurance would pay for my medications or for a cystic fybrosis specialist. Every plus has also a minus and visa versa :smile:

So for the ppl at the wrong side of the coin usa isnt so good as for me here in the netherlands. Often there is no just one side to truth but it has more sides then just one to look at it. And all those sides are part of the total picture. Usa also has some advantages like lower taxes etc.
There is no system at this moment in the world that only has advantages to others.

Jeff

Look, this is the UN’s new report. I knwo the UN is kind of left-wing. But this comparison is at least from a real study:

hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004 … 04_HDI.pdf

Human development index:

  1. Norway
  2. Sweden
  3. Australia
  4. Canada
  5. Netherlands
  6. United States
  7. Japan
  8. Niger
  9. Sierra Leone

The life expectancy in Sierra Leone is 34 years. It’s probably because of HIV.

Monitor199a: We will probably never know what the swede was doing. His story is he travelled with a travel companion in Pakistan, and was convinced to follow him into Afghanistan. When he understood how dangerous it was he left and went back into Pakistan where he was captured by pakistanis who sold him for money to the Pakistani police, who in turn gave him to the americans.

The abvious question is what the hell he was doing going into a country at war. I doubt he will ever answer that question. He is hiding now because of threats fro people over his luxurious transport back to sweden…

Tomas

I am not sure but, I do not think it works quite that way. I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong. The way I believe it works is, if you are homeless then the government will provide you with a place to live. An actual apartment, not just stuff you into an over crowded and under funded shelter ( like we do)where all sorts of bad things happen to people. There fore there is not an endless cycle like you mentioned

Anyway, lets say someone had an income of $1,370.00 (US) per month after taxes in any of the European countries. How well could that person live off that income. Would they be able to afford shelter, food, transportation, etc. and still have anything left to save.

I just thought I would resurrect this old thread because I have talked with Q a lot about moving to the US. It seems that a lot of people from the Netherlands want to move to the US and lots of people from the US want to move to the Netherlands. Yet the cost of living in both places seems to be the same.