by pedalling_faster » Sun 06 Jul 2008, 20:09:55
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('anagami', 'T')hanks. I think the base of this arrogant ideas and jokes comes from the ignorance of dividing the world in "undeveloped" and "developed".
Costa Rica has a better public services, in general, than USA. From potable water (although this days there was a failure) to medical services. Also, it has more than 80% of electrical generation and doesn't delude itself with the God of War (as the USA).
America's technology development is quite stunning. thinking specifically about computer graphics technology, from the first Pillsbury Doughman commercial (for whom a man named Carl Rosendahl gets the credit) to the present state, where everybody who is so inclined can animate their own Doughman, and give him realistic looking hair. so leaves you with the feeling, this society has some pretty cool things.
doesn't delude itself with the God of War (as the USA) <== that's the clincher. it permeates American society. i am a semi-retired War Toy Boy (weapons designer, i worked mostly on microwave radios and their digital successors, as just another cog in the machine.) i'd go out to lunch with my co-workers and catch a little flak for being pro-union. heaven help me if i express anti-war sentiment.
actually, the day after 9-11 somebody in the lunch room tossed me the question, "OK, smartypants liberal, what's your suggestion ?" i said, "conduct foreign policy in a way that doesn't make enemies". that, other people found quite entertaining.
what the God of War, as you say, costs America and Americans, i can not quite say. i guess to do that, it might help to live outside the United States, or in an Amish community.
just to be clear, i'm not drawing a connection between the lunch-room at a defense contractor and the verbal jousting that goes on here, which i think is more like American fraternity mates razzing each other.
as far as health care, i don't want to say, this sucks and this sucks and that sucks, which i would end up doing if i talk about American health care. i can compare it to Canadian health care.
if you are in Costa Rica, and you need to be treated for a badly cut foot, a simple slightly-low-thyroid condition, a fairly straightforward chronic pain condition, and a request for a sleeping pill that isn't stupefying - how would it work ?
in Canada, you would go to a clinic, where a doctor has an office. pay $35 for the office visit, there's a lab down the hall that does the blood test for the thyroid. so i was describing a market basket of things that i went to a clinic in San Francisco for. 4 office visits, $140, in Canada.
when i took those 4 things to an appointment at a clinic in San Francisco about a year ago, as an example - the image that stays in my mind - the whole clinic administration staff stops and confers for about 5 minutes because i asked a question. Then one of them went and got a doctor. i was amazed to see so many people working so hard answering a simple question.