<p>Obviously a victim of the one child per family fiasco</p>
<p>I’m from Western Europe (Italy/Netherlands), and I personally disagree that Western Europe is a better place to live than America. My personal reasons for thiking like it:</p>
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<li>lack of something like 1st ammendment, granting almost absolute free-speech rights</li>
<li>weak and lax immigration policies</li>
<li>higher cost-of-living (suburban houses cost a fortune here, 5-7 times what they cost in a medium class suburb of Houston or Denver for the same area and features, for instance)</li>
<li>dumb anti-car lobby (i.e., expensive parking (US$ 400/month common in medium cities) and gas (US$ 8-10/gallon), subsidized trams/subways - which I oppose)</li>
<li>greater resistance to cultural changes</li>
<li>less integration of people coming from different backgrounds</li>
<li>decreased collective willingness to work your -ss out (no 24/7 business in many countries, too powerful unions)</li>
<li>resistance to the idea of the individual (not families, not communities, just the individual) as the ultimate responsible for its own fate and destiny.</li>
<li>lack of willingnes to tackle on terrorism (we just leave the jobs for Americans and Britons to a certain extent, as they’re willing to do it)</li>
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<p>On the drawbacks of America in regard of Western Europe, I’d say:
- higher crime rates
- (extremely) more expensive higher education
- more expensive health-care
- lack of some (not too much) regulation on advertising, sue-for-anything industry, etc.
- harsh and irrational anti-crime policies (death penalty, for instance)
- too many guns own by too many people stored in too many places</p>
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<p>I hate it that Europe-the land of BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Volvo, Porsche, and the Autobahn-has such a hostile attitude towards personal vehicles. I lived in Germany for three years back in the late 90’s, and gas prices even back then were ridiculous.</p>
<p>hahah…okay then OP. Sorry you’re jealous :)</p>
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<p>LOLwat…?</p>
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<p>Not really. Sounds like you’re just buying into the crap that your media tells you.</p>
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<p>Who actually enjoys sitting in traffic though? That’s the alternative. Top Gear did a race through London’s morning traffic and the car was dead last behind the subway, a bike, and a boat.</p>
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<p>I think all NATO countries have some troops in Afghanistan.</p>
<p>I think you misunderstood me. Most of America is a better place to live than Europe, but there are quite a few places in America with high crime rates and terrible schools that just aren’t very livable.</p>
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<p>Buses have to sit in traffic too, and most cities in the United States don’t have subways and boats for public transit. Our infrastructure is completely different here-cars are a necessity.</p>
<p>London has bus lanes which are a bad idea, they make traffic worse on everyone else and pretty much no one takes the bus.</p>
<p>Cars aren’t a necessity everywhere in the United States. For example, I have a 20 minute commute by car that would be 2 hours if I took public transportation because the trains and buses run so infrequently.</p>
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<p>Of course cars aren’t a necessity everywhere here, but I’d say that they are pretty important in about 90% of the country. Aside from the major cities (New York, LA, San Fran, etc) you need a car pretty much everywhere, and even most people in major cities live in suburbs where personal vehicles are still needed to be productive.</p>
<p>In Detroit, public transportation doesn’t exist. Period.</p>
<p>I think we kind of agree. Public transportation is underfunded so 90% of the US has to sit in traffic every day. I’d consider that a negative of the US though, even if it might not be better in Europe.</p>
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<p>I think you’re equating driving to sitting in traffic though, which typically doesn’t happen too much outside of our major cities. I don’t consider driving to be an inconvenience at all-I actually enjoy it, and think many other people feel the same way.</p>
<p>I like driving too, and I happen to have a reverse rush hour commute, so that works out fine for me. I can’t imagine that most Americans would prefer their daily commute to public transportation though.</p>
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<p>I don’t know. Public transportation doesn’t really exist for most parts of this country at the moment, and it would take many years of development and investment to make it a viable alternative in most places.</p>
<p>“Most of America is a better place to live than Europe”
opinion, much?</p>
<p>this debate has turned into a debate of opinions, ya bunch of loonies.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I tried to give some evidence. Of course, how one weights each of mentioned items is a matter of personal taste. For instance, I’d strongly preffer a place without public transportation except for the very poor, disabled, impaired etc. Car predomiance foster a model of life I preffer (bigger and cheaper houses, access to outdoors, convenience to live far, far away from workplace etc.)</p>
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<p>I prefer to live in the swamps of south africa</p>
<p>I just moved someplace with public transportation for the first time after 20 years without and I am in love. It is so hard to live in an area where you HAVE to have a car. I can’t afford to buy, insure, and fuel a car so I can’t get a job to earn money to pay for a car because I can’t get to work! UGH. No thank you. I love having a bus to take.</p>
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<p>London buses tend to be jam-packed during rush hour.</p>