for all of you who don’t know what i’m saying about trains, let me tell you a story:
union pacific was going to build a system just like tokyo in houston many years ago. the then mayor was all buddied up with the construction people who build highways. he cut down the train thing, and now houston is 6 lanes and getting wider.
look, i’ve lived in japan. there’s no comparison between japan’s system and white trash amtrak!!
america could learn a lot from taiwan and japan, but they won’t because they won’t last another century, as leader anyway. look at history. even dynasties in china barely made a few hundred years. 200 year democracy? blink of an eye in history, i’m sorry to say.
[quote=“MiakaW”][quote=“rantheman”]
WHY CAN’T America HAVE BULLET TRAINS?
WHY CAN’T WE DO HEALTH CARE?
I love my country and want to know why we can’t open up and be great.[/quote]
beside the point, there is bullet train from SJ to SF and vice versa, its awasome, tons of commuter use this!
We do have health care in US… beside the point, eh?! 
[/quote]
Not to hijack ran’s thread again, but what’s the point of a bullet train that doesn’t even leave the coastline, let alone cross the state line? Health care? Yeah, like being sued by the hospital that treated me for cancer because my mother lost her minimal health insurance provided by her job when she was fired for having to take off too often…to drive me to my chemotherapy sessions. Or the time I had to drive my mother to the hospital after she had heart palpitations without me having more than a driver’s permit because she knew she couldn’t afford an ambulance to take her. So he was wrong. We do have health care in the US and probably the highest concentration of excellence in that area, but affordable health care? I’ll let the bill collectors call you and let you know their opinion.
I love my family and I do miss the States and a lot of the comforts that I had living there, but I simply cannot ignore the trends that it has taken on, especially in wake of 9/11. It’s like family…you can rag on the habits of your relatives and still know that there’s good in them (except maybe in my creepy Uncle Darryl) and that you love them.
Not knowing how good it is outside your own little world, isn’t exclusive to teens. Just look at the consumer comsumption in America. Or even in Taiwan. After my last summer in China, I would love to tell these kids here, how good they have it…You don’t have to leave the US to show teens how kids struggle thru manual labor, sexual slaver,etc. It’s right there in our own backyard, just gotta get your head out of the world you’re in to see it…
[quote=“ImaniOU”][quote=“MiakaW”][quote=“rantheman”]
WHY CAN’T America HAVE BULLET TRAINS?
WHY CAN’T WE DO HEALTH CARE?
I love my country and want to know why we can’t open up and be great.[/quote]
beside the point, there is bullet train from SJ to SF and vice versa, its awasome, tons of commuter use this!
We do have health care in US… beside the point, eh?! [/quote]
Not to hijack ran’s thread again, but what’s the point of a bullet train that doesn’t even leave the coastline, let alone cross the state line? Health care? Yeah, like being sued by the hospital that treated me for cancer because my mother lost her minimal health insurance provided by her job when she was fired for having to take off too often…to drive me to my chemotherapy sessions. Or the time I had to drive my mother to the hospital after she had heart palpitations without me having more than a driver’s permit because she knew she couldn’t afford an ambulance to take her. So he was wrong. We do have health care in the US and probably the highest concentration of excellence in that area, but affordable health care? I’ll let the bill collectors call you and let you know their opinion.[/quote]
No, I totally understand where you are coming from in regards to health insurance. My mom went to the emergency room once and we didn’t have insurance cuz she is a PT chinese school teacher and my dad is tooooo cheap to have insurance. He believes that taking all sort of vitamines prevent him from getting sick. anywayz, it cost us $2000 + for a ride in the mbulance (3 mins.), short visit to the doctor (5 min.) a long A$$ wait in the emergency room (3 hours) and 3 day supplies of medication. Took me a few pay checks to pay those off.
I guess my point is that we should just be happy that some of us have insurance and good health care. Comparing to 3rd world countries, I feel like I am lucky even though I have to pay for my own insurance.
I understand rantheman’s point of view and agree with that US can do so much better in certain areas, but unless you are going to do something about it, just be glad.
my humble opinion.
rtcid I know where your coming from and its OK with me.
But when ran posts he transends the crap that also exists in America. He’s part of its poetic soul. If the States were an orchestra that guy is the bell ringing.
He reminds me of that Jimmy Buffet song that Jack Johnson has done a cover of in “The September Sessions” and I just think Wow. I know where he’s coming from too.
[quote]A Pirate Looks at 40
Mother, mother ocean, I have heard you call
Wanted to sail upon your waters since I was three feet tall
You’ve seen it all, you’ve seen it all
Watched the men who rode you switch from sails to steam
And in your belly you hold the treasure that few have ever seen
Most of them dreams, most of them dreams
Yes, I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannons don’t thunder, there’s nothin’ to plunder
I’m an over forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late
I’ve done a bit of smugglin’, I’ve run my share of grass
I made enough money to buy Miami, but I pissed it away so fast
Never meant to last, never meant to last
I have been drunk now for over two weeks,
I passed out and I rallied and I sprung a few leaks,
But I’ve got stop wishin’, got to go fishin’
I’m down to rock bottom again
Just a few friends, just a few friends
I go for younger women, lived with several awhile
And though I ran away, they’ll come back one day
And I still can manage a smile
It just takes a while, just takes a while
Mother, mother ocean, after all these years I’ve found
My occupational hazard being my occupation’s just not around
I feel like I’ve drowned, gonna head uptown[/quote]
i go to the doctor here and wait no more than 5 minutes. in the states i have waited nearly an hour and one time in the ER for 5 hours with my daughter! this is america the great??
did you know that people in urawa live there and work in tokyo everyday(look at the map- it’s damn far but convenient thanks to japan’s near perfect rail system).live in beaumont and work in houston? impossible. is this america the great?
i get my medicine from my doc here. i pay only 150NT. in the states i pay 50Us to the doc and 50 to the pharmacy. is this america the great?
i wait 5 minutes for the bus here. in houston it’s 45 minutes. is this america the great?
i can go the distance of Taipei to kaohsiung (houston to dallas) for 500NT by bus, 1500NT by plane. in the US, try over 100US dollars plus a fucking 3 hour wait. is this america the great?
i can get a hotel for 500NT here that’s sleepable. in houston it’s 60US plus the hotel tax which equals 80.
i can get off the plane at CKS with 300NT in my pocket and survive a whole weekend!!
do that in america?
I can having a craving for Taco Bell at 1am in US, can we do that in Taiwan the Great?
RTM everyone country has its ups and downs, has anyone ever found a perfect place yet? Try moving to…say Italy…and down the road i’d bet you would be bashing Taiwan compared to them.
I think Taiwan is great and I enjoy living here, but no matter how much I love my house, it will never be my home.
Relax, don’t get your panties all up in a bunch. I’m not from the UK, although I’ve been to London, and it ain’t that clean.
FYI, west coast N.America with time spent in Boston, NY, etc. In all these places, I’ve yet to see a nice, clean bus, or train, ok maybe 1 or 2.
So it’s really not “your islands”.
on the other hand i haven’t seen san francisco and seattle yet. they might be good. but i can’t live in KILT shitkicker radio country. just can’t. that’s a real station by the way.
gimme greek food, italian, chinese, thai, japanese, mexican, but no truck stop food!!! and i need a good smoky jazz club, not a hick shitkicker bar. the only place in the south for me is the Big Easy.
southeast texas and SW louisiana are nothing but flat land, filling stations and overweight totally un -you know whatable- women.
[quote=“Namahottie”][quote=“Jack Burton”]
My own personal pet peeve in America is that people, especially teenagers, have no idea how good life in America generally is. While children in other parts of the world struggle to survive either through manual labor, forced sexual slavery, etc, many kids in the US (and other countries too of course) bitch too much, or are selfish, or have this entitlement attitude “I want”.
[/quote]
Not knowing how good it is outside your own little world, isn’t exclusive to teens. Just look at the consumer comsumption in America. Or even in Taiwan. After my last summer in China, I would love to tell these kids here, how good they have it…You don’t have to leave the US to show teens how kids struggle through manual labor, sexual slaver,etc. It’s right there in our own backyard, just gotta get your head out of the world you’re in to see it…[/quote]
You’re right. bad shit does exist in the US. but is it as systematic and pervasive as in some other places?
[quote=“rantheman”]I go to the doctor here and wait no more than 5 minutes. in the states I have waited nearly an hour and one time in the ER for 5 hours with my daughter! this is America the great??
did you know that people in urawa live there and work in Tokyo everyday(look at the map- it’s damn far but convenient thanks to Japan’s near perfect rail system).live in beaumont and work in Houston? impossible. is this America the great?
I get my medicine from my doc here. i pay only 150NT. in the states i pay 50Us to the doc and 50 to the pharmacy. is this America the great?
i wait 5 minutes for the bus here. in Houston it’s 45 minutes. is this America the great?
I can go the distance of Taipei to kaohsiung (Houston to dallas) for 500NT by bus, 1500NT by plane. in the US, try over 100US dollars plus a f***ing 3 hour wait. is this America the great?
I can get a hotel for 500NT here that’s sleepable. in Houston it’s 60US plus the hotel tax which equals 80.
I can get off the plane at CKS with 300NT in my pocket and survive a whole weekend!!
do that in America?[/quote]
On the one hand, you decry rampant consumerism and materialism, and on the other hand, you rant on about how much stuff costs. Your complaint is that the U.S. is more expensive than Taiwan. Well, people get paid a lot more in the U.S., too. Care to work 80 NT (=$2.60) an hour? There’s a reason lots of stuff in Taiwan is so cheap. There’s an excess of human labour, same as in all the Asian countries bar Japan, and so you can get people to slave away for you for next to nothing. The high prices you pay in the U.S. support the high wages of the workers. The same principle works in Western Europe, where expenses for many things are even higher.
You sound like a spoiled brat who wants it all and is pounding his fist when he doesn’t get what he wants. In other words, a typical American. Gimme gimme gimme!
[quote=“rantheman”]I go to the doctor here and wait no more than 5 minutes. in the states I have waited nearly an hour and one time in the ER for 5 hours with my daughter! this is America the great??
[/quote]
Yeah, but even with an hour’s wait, I’d still rather see a doctor in the US.
Yet my gf says she’d wait at least 40 minutes for a bus when she was in Taiwan. Here, she waits a maximum of 20 minutes.
Why do I get the feeling you’re just making this up? I have below average medical insurance, and I pay nothing to the doctor and have only a $10US co-pay to my pharmacy.
It’s like you’re culling together the most extreme, unlikely examples in American and comparing them the best case scenario in Taiwan… I guess there’s no guarantee that a poetic soul has any connection to reality, huh Fox?
dan,
the bus wait in taipei ain’t that long. there are lots of buses. doctors in america, a lot of them are incompetent.
[quote=“Jack Burton”]
You’re right. bad shit does exist in the US. but is it as systematic and pervasive as in some other places?[/quote]
Oh yea it is…Watch CSPAN to see how those nitwits on the Hill systematicly cut down bills that would give the middle class good tax cuts to send their kids to college, or how they cut down social programs that would help kids break out of poverty and expose themselves to something other than what’s negative around them…
You’re right. My family has received some horrible medical care here. Then again, a lot of doctors everywhere are incompetent. In the US, at least, the patient standing behind you in line doesn’t get to overhear your misdiagnosis. I agree that the healt care system in the US needs improvement, but disagree that the standard of care is worse than in other countries.
let’s not compare but improve. take what is useful. discard what is not. if every country could embrace this philosophy they’d be a lot better off. but nationalistic blindness is the agenda now. let’s be american/chinese,etc no matter if it’s not the best way. let’s do it our way no matter if another country has a better plan.
One very easy, highly practical thing the U.S. could do to improve is convert to the metric system, to bring it in synch with the rest of the world. The fact that it failed back in the '70s is a tribute to American stubbornness.
no joke. america does a lot of stuff that’s out of sync like that. the cell phone service isn’t even as good as here. i think if most americans knew how convenient asia is, they’d scream “i want it too”. and i want them to have the conveniences that i’ve experienced over here in TW and japan.