And it's not just European countries getting better things for the taxes but also across Muslim countries like Tunisia. These countries get free college, free day care, at least 4 weeks paid vacation for all citizens, a higher wage structure and even school food that does not resemble the literally prison food we give out kids. They get sex ed, which lowers their teen pregnancy rate far lower than ours, have lots of free time for family and out of work activities, and have the kind of job security we have none of here.
It is true that industrialists world wide are trying to get rid of these programs, calling them "too expensive" and blaming the working man for asking and getting too much, thus the declining economy. This is the same crap they pull here far more successfully but the Europeans are having none of it. The last housing crisis is still being blamed on poor people who took houses they couldn't afford even though reality showed it was greedy banks hiding their losses to keep pulling in record profits which was way worse.
There is no reason we couldn't have the same things the Europeans want except for the fact that this country has lost it's appetite for protests. When we do protest, we could not do it worse. OWS died a painful death because they refused to have any demands that could propel the movement until it devolved into a drum circle with a message. BLM will suffer the same fate for a marketing issue and again, having no realistic demands. Wanting to get rid of institutionalized racism is a great idea, but that has to be followed up worth HOW to do that, which they have none. And as they have excluded all other races who are also being killed by cops, they have already marginalized themselves to a small minority. Here's one simple idea. Demand that all cops nationwide have cameras on them by the end of next year. It's simple, direct and will definitively cut down on black people, and other races, being gunned down. This appears NOWHERE in their manifesto. As a matter of fact, their homepage has ZERO ideas how to affect any change. You can't fix something with no ideas. That's Trump territory and look how well that went this week.
In Belgium, a free college decided to go for a small payment fee and the students went nuts. After weeks of protests, the board stepped down and the college stayed free. Here, tuition hikes are met with apathy and a resignment to pay. No protests at all. Instead, they are busy fighting about safe spaces and words like "American," "straight," and "male." Nothing says idiot quicker than fighting about something that matters so little when the world is falling apart around you.
The right is constantly telling us how high the European taxes are and how everyone hates it there. It's also a total lie. Are some unhappy? That's life as there are malcontents everywhere. But 90% are happy there. The worst part is that their taxes are only slightly higher than ours and they get something for theirs. We get a powerful military and the richest thieves on Earth.
We should be demanding the same things Europe has, all ideas they got from us in days when we actually cared about each other. We can easily afford all the same things they have if we started doing things like taxing corporations at any rate above the zero, or less, that so many don't pay today. Same goes for the super rich who could stand to lose a few billion. The 99% have given up so much. Now it's their turn.
This is also why Bernie Sanders is the last hope for humanity. Otherwise it is a quick death with Trump or a slow painful one with Hillary. Either way we lose. And while Europe may be fading fast due to their greedy 1% screwing them blue, at least their citizens will have free health care to get them through it while we pay through the nose for our disastrous system.
Watch this movie and see how the other side lives. We could have all of it too. But we are going to have to get off our lazy asses and do something about it. We won't, but I can dream.
Five stars out of five stars.
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