Things Wrong With [Insert Nation Here]

[SuperHemisphere]

Things Wrong With Turkey:

-It's like any other Middle East country but it's secular on paper. The Prime Minister is even trying to make the offical religion Islam and stuff like that.

'nuff said.

[Mao II]

My mind/body/emotions/brain/entire being literally stopped maturing around 12-14, and someone I know stopped maturing sooner than that. Kids can't be tortured because those "kids" are tough adults who haven't yet reached Earth's physical adult development stage. Kids can be shot at home (they can be in the military and fight), but they're hurt by it a lot less than adults because of a protective layer that recedes inward as people age, so it's strongest in kids. Even then they'd have people taking care of them pretty much immediately. On Earth, people have eaten other people, but that would never happen in the real world. It would be physically impossible to even lose a part of your body. Last year, I had a vision where my Earth life had ended and a person dressed like a doctor was transferring my soul from my Earth body back to my real one.

That's as much detail as I'll go into here about this, because I don't want to drag the thread off-topic + I have 0 warning points. If you want to respond, you can PM me.

This is a few notches above Scientology. Please make a thread discussing this crazy

[NickCrash]

The same could be said about Greece, I'm not aware of everything besides the obvious garbage economy.

The purpose of the thread was for each of us to post some things about their own country, and not some other they dislike

That said,

Things wrong with Greece:

- The political parties that went into power the frustrating past 8 years never tried to fix the problems but were corrupt on a whole different level

- The educational system doesn't allow people to pursue their personal interests, and is targeted more at memorizing huge chunks of information, a great part of which is redundant or repeated through the years (like teaching the same history in elementary and high school)

- The voting system (that's applied everywhere) aka "first past the post" is fundamentally flawed and causes polarization, which means people tend to vote more against the party they like less, rather support the candidates they like more.

- Bureaucracy

- We lost in football from the Faroe Islands

- We eat, smoke, an drink too much.

- The church is not taxed

- We may curse our state, our people, our friends, our political and other parties daily, but when strangers criticize us we suddenly lose our shit.

[Jacobliterator]

We don't want you dead...

One thing that is wrong with Australia is that our prime minister is an idiot who doesn't believe in climate change

Too right m8! But in all fairness, its not like we have a better choice.

[Chase]

Things Wrong With Turkey:

-It's like any other Middle East country but it's secular on paper. The Prime Minister is even trying to make the offical religion Islam and stuff like that.

'nuff said.

That my friends, is a pious leader.

[Eviora]

Hm. I have varying opinions on the things listed so far in this thread. Why not add a few of my own to the mix? *conjures flame shield* I live in the US, but these apply to any country in the same situations.

• We spend too much of our lives working.
• Individuals can own gigantic amounts of wealth.
• We spend tons of money on making weapons but won't pay for the health care of our citizens.
• Law enforcement/judicial workers are held to lower standards under the law than the average citizen rather than higher.

I'm sure I can dig up some more of my controversial opinions. Maybe another time. =p

[Jelly]

"controversial" lol to who, fox news???

Edited July 22, 2015 by Jelly

[Omega_Ra1der]

Hm. I have varying opinions on the things listed so far in this thread. why not add a few of my own to the mix? *conjures flame shield* I live in the US, but these apply to any country in the same situations.

• We spend too much of our lives working.
• Individuals can own gigantic amounts of wealth.
• We spend tons of money on making weapons but won't pay for the health care of our citizens.
• Law enforcement/judicial workers are held to lower standards under the law than the average citizen rather than higher.

I'm sure I can dig up some more of my controversial opinions. Maybe another time. =p

In Canada, complete opposite but more strategic in exchange.

[Eviora]

"controversial" lol to who, fox news???

Maybe I've underestimated just how tired people are of the nasty side of capitalism. =p

[Neo]

Maybe I've underestimated just how tired people are of the nasty side of capitalism. =p

You read the rest of this thread? You left field from the rest of the us-based opinions. (I agree w/ you tho)

[Maelstrom]

In Canada they probably have 500 troops at the most and half of them came to the base I was stationed at last year for training. As far as 'tactical' goes, the Canadian attitude is to let the U.S. handle it. And as a taxpayer and a former U.S. Infantry soldier, I am not amused.

[Chase]

As a proponent of capitalism, I'm not going to be one that is blinded to the evils of it. Unfortunately, there is always going to be a lust and thirst to be something greater than the ones around them. Be it that wealth does turn a man into a monster, I do have to admit that capitalism allows for a man to work his way up. That's an ideal that should be preserved above enforcing that everyone be the same.

With regards to firearms, there's no denying the evils of allowing your citizens to bear them, but the premise this country allowed those firearms to be owned on is still relevant. The firearm industry in the United States exists to arm citizens against the possibility of a corrupt government. The Second Amendment allows the citizens the ability to defend their right to decide the direction of their country. Rather than being in place so that men could hunt for food, or even to defend their families, the premise of owning a firearm is based upon the precedents set by the Colonial Militia. Guns are used to defend the country's way of life. It is theoretically possible for citizens to revolt against their established government and their military even today - while the odds may be not in their favor.

The horror of the matter in this case is, people own guns under the belief that their targets are other people. Arguably something "wrong" with the country. Arguably a necessity in the defense of "Freedom."

On the contrary to people having wealth being the issue, the thing that is wrong with this country is that people can become wealthy without genuine effort. We're not dealing with established "old-money" alone either. Some of our highest-paid occupations are those of athletes, actors, and musicians. Mind you, it's still the freedom they have to accumulate wealth just like those jobs that merit higher pay-grades and it's a by-product of the so-called "American Dream", where one could do what they want to be happy.

- Hedonism is a philosophy that praised over true community.

- Material wealth can be the lifeblood of a man if he so lets it.

- Our enemies are often those around us - at least hypothetically.

[Eviora]

Be it that wealth does turn a man into a monster, I do have to admit that capitalism allows for a man to work his way up. That's an ideal that should be preserved above enforcing that everyone be the same.

Why?

Also, let's note that two individuals who have equal economic standings are not "the same". I also never suggested that everyone should be equally wealthy. What I do suggest, however, is that there's no reason an individual needs to own hundreds of millions of dollars. It's quite cynical to put a person's "right" to be rich beyond their wildest dreams above the need of many to eat, have a decent place to live, etc.

As for the whole gun thing, it's a bit silly to suggest people with firearms could overcome our military and the WMDs it has at its disposal. Our country is already so corrupt that elected officials put their own ambitions about the needs of their constituents, and no one even bats an eye at it because it is simply expected - instilling blind respect for authority in a people is quite the insidious weapon. However, I wasn't talking about firearms - I was talking about our military budget.

[Kiroen]

Things wrong with Spain:

• Even when literally everyone knows that the highest faces in the ruling party have been receiving illegal payments for decades, so many millions of people pretend to keep voting them that they may win elections again this year.
• Even though mostly everyone is aware of the media's interests to lie, the vast majority still believes in everyday's forged news.
• Even though we had a very competent system of public colleges, there has been almost no investment in high technology during the last decades, which has forced hundreds of thousands of very intelligent and prepared young people to emigrate.
• Instead of creating a productive system that gives jobs to those people, the government is actually dismounting and selling the public colleges (*clap, clap*).
• 22% unemployment rate is high enough for you?
• Our educative system is though to produce workers and technicians, not critical persons.
• A new party gathers up most people's demands to the point of almost being able to win the elections - then proceeds to kill itself by not hearing the 15M movement demands of direct democracy and forms an elitist, rigid direction, falls in all the polls and we are doomed to four more years of being ruled by egoist and incompetent butlers chosen by the banks.
• Every ruined and starving dog and his mother thinks of themselves as 'Medium-High middle class', even after their familiar business were shut down.
• The most decent people our country had 2/3 generations ago was systematically assassinated by the extreme right wing during 1936-1940 - millions of Spanish people living today have their grandparents or great grandparents buried in mass graves next to the streets, and yet the majority of the population doesn't know it or doesn't care.
• Following up the previous point, Spain is the second country of the world with more mass graves in the world, only after Cambodia.
• While Germany had the decency of banning the apology of nazism and fascism, millions of Spanish people worship Francisco Franco today.

I'll keep rambling another day.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Kiroen

[laggless01]

I just watch LastWeekTonight to know what goes wrong in America...
I'm not saying my country is walhalla (not by a long shot).

Things wrong with Belgium:
*Prisons are so overcrowded, that we were critizised by Human Rights Watch. We simply don't have enough prisons, nor treat prisoners well enough. (things have improved, but we haven't heard of it lately, so I'm not sure bu how much)
*Concerning our government, we have everything two- or threefold, some with overlapping roles, an as such sometimes everyone has to agree to enact something. Result: expensive, (immensly) complicated government that has a hard time to make significant changes.
*Did I mention the social flemish party acts anti-social?
*The rather okay/poor public transport, and by consequence the MASSIVE traffic jams on our highways.
*The roads are not always in a good state. For example: if you drive from the Netherlands to Belgium, you can FEEL when you crossed the border.
*Racism, although America somehow outclasses Belgium on that point, is prevalent, although masked. It feels like there's some kind of implicit segregation according to race***...I hardly encounter people from other etnicities, so there's not much that gives a different look than the most apparent people of every group/race: the ones that aren't shining examples of humanity.
***take the wording with a bit of salt
Obs there's a lot more, but these are the first things that come to mind.

Just read Hilda's post, theis post is already long enough as it is.

I agree that capitalism is (probably) the best economic system we've ever had, and it can become even better than it is now.
Also, based on what catches my ears from America, I agree that gun ownership is often condoned as protection against other people.(..with guns...)
However, I do disagree with some other things.

Firstly, the notion of people being able to work themselves up is rather limited in reality. There are a lot of people that hardly able/unable to do so, due to inability (like a handicap, for example) or lack of opportunity (for example, during a crisis. Lack of education strikes both). These things are regularly unfair, since not everyone is personally responsible for his own situation regarding these things.
Even if you would leave that out, both of those things are hardly dispersed in a balanced way. It takes significantly more effort for poorer people to get richer than for rich people, because money makes money.
Over time, if unattended, this leads to enormous wealth inequality, and depending on how much goverment agency you country suffices, possibly an even bigger inequality in life standard, which in some cases is quite unfair. (An apparent example is American Health Care)
As a consequence, this causes tensions, most notably expressed in higher crime rates (if you factor out the natural decline of crime in general). Increasing wealth inequality also causes the economy to slow, suprisingly, because the majority of people have increasingly less to spend in comparison to the total wealth of the populace.
Capitalism isn't inhumane, though. Neither is it inhumane. It has its own rules, void of opinion. To allign the goals of capitalism with ethics and general welfare, that's on of the roles a government should fulfill, along with its people demanding for it to do so.

Secondly, about firearms. You say that owning a firearm is based upon the precedents set by the Colonial Militia. Wasn't that roughly 250 years ago? The world has changed dramatically in that time, so making that argument neglects all social and technological advancements made in that period.
Added to that, firearms would hardly be effective against modern military, which the American army possesses. In particular, they wouldn't work against drones, because they're too far off to hit or even to see well when deployed for people on the ground. (Military drones =/= 'commercial' drones, like the ones amazon wanted to use) America uses lots of them, and they already caused many civilian casualties in the Middle-East, probably more than the terrorist targets they're supposed to hit.
I don't think it should be forbidden to own a gun, but I rather would argue for a mandatory permit that isn't too easy to require for every gun.
Besides that, no, the firearms industry doesn't exist to arm citizens against the possibility of a corrupted government. It is an industry, it tries to make a profit. American weaponry is sold in other countries besides America, which renders this patriotic argument invalid.

Lastly, you put three statements at the end to make a rebuttal.
1. What is wrong with hedonism itself? Pleasure is a key to life to sustain itself. Fully chastizing the pursuit of it could be considered equally wrong. I'm not condoning a lifestyle centered around it, because I think that would leave oneself hollow, making life void of meaning we could fill in. But one should at least enjoy life a little. To be fair, blindly following only what you hear around you isn't a good thing, so people should be able to apply critical thought on living such a life. But if they decide to engage in that pursuit after that, I'm not going to stop them unless they cause significant harm to themselves or others. Even then, I might only advise them to consider making some changes. Not everyone needs a community, different people have different needs.
2. It can be if he decides, yes.
3. That's a bit awkwardly phrased, it can be interpreted completely opposite of what you mean.

Those are my thoughts on that subject. Please, correct me if I made any errors, or argument any points I made if you want to.

(Whew, that's the second time I typed this...the first time everything got deleted because the site logged me out due to inactivity...I really need some sleep now.)

Edited August 5, 2015 by laggless01

[Kiroen]

I agree that capitalism is (probably) the best economic system we've ever had, and it can become even better than it is now.

(...)

Firstly, the notion of people being able to work themselves up is rather limited in reality. There are a lot of people that hardly able/unable to do so, due to inability (like a handicap, for example) or lack of opportunity (for example, during a crisis. Lack of education strikes both). These things are regularly unfair, since not everyone is personally responsible for his own situation regarding these things.

Even if you would leave that out, both of those things are hardly dispersed in a balanced way. It takes significantly more effort for poorer people to get richer than for rich people, because money makes money.

Over time, if unattended, this leads to enormous wealth inequality, and depending on how much goverment agency you country suffices, possibly an even bigger inequality in life standard, which in some cases is quite unfair. (An apparent example is American Health Care)

As a consequence, this causes tensions, most notably expressed in higher crime rates (if you factor out the natural decline of crime in general). Increasing wealth inequality also causes the economy to slow, suprisingly, because the majority of people have increasingly less to spend in comparison to the total wealth of the populace.

Capitalism isn't inhumane, though. Neither is it inhumane. It has its own rules, void of opinion. To allign the goals of capitalism with ethics and general welfare, that's on of the roles a government should fulfill, along with its people demanding for it to do so.

Given that you're well aware of many of the troubles capitalism causes (you're probably aware of even more, but w4ll5 0f t3xt), I have curiosity to know what makes you so convinced that it's possible to tame it. But since I suspect that debate could take us enough for a book or too, maybe we should open another thread, If you too want to discuss it.

[laggless01]

Given that you're well aware of many of the troubles capitalism causes (you're probably aware of even more, but w4ll5 0f t3xt), I have curiosity to know what makes you so convinced that it's possible to tame it. But since I suspect that debate could take us enough for a book or too, maybe we should open another thread, If you too want to discuss it.

Well, I wouldn't mind...I hope there is enough to say, though.

Anyway, perhaps something else wrong with Belgium:

Most Flemish people kinda hate Dutch people, although Flemish people wouldn't find that wrong...

[Steelloverbecca]

Let's see things wrong with America

Piece of shit abstinence only sex education in most of the country.

One of a very small handful of countries that doesn't have paid maternity leave (or paternity leave for that matter)

hell most people don't even get a paid sick leave.

The healthcare still costs too damn much.

A college student can literally live in a different country and get a college degree for half the price of college tuition in america.

Many people end up in debtdue to health care and college.

The men's soccer team is shit but they get paid four times more than the women's team, who has won the world cup multiple times.