How do foreigners view US politics? - Page 26

On November 05 2010 05:50 VanGarde wrote:
Well... It is always dangerous to start generalizing between communities and I can't speak for the entire world but I can tell what factors differ between Europeans and Americans in general when it comes to politics and thus results in very I guess polarized views on american politics.

First of all Europe is in practice way way more secularized than America. We have way way more unbelievers and of those who follow a faith, they are way more toned down than most american Christians. I think there are quite obvious historical psychological reasons for why it turned out this way.

The US was founded on the basis of freedom of religion, to a large extent, the people who came to america were people who were persecuted for their religious beliefs elsewhere and found refuge to practice their faith in america. For that reason religion has always had a positive connotation in america and that is why presidential candidates apparently need to utter stuff like "god bless america" to gain the favor of the people.

But because of this fact america has always had a plethora of religious groups who kind of all cancel each other out in the sense that no one group gets any real influence over politics, at least not until recently. Thus a society, historically with freedom of religion.

Europe on the other hand have experienced something that the United States so far and for these reasons have not had to deal with. That is Europe has experienced a society where one religion gains dominance and eventual influence over politics. Traditionally the people of Europe were suppressed by a religious elite of the kings and the church and the people were eventually able to liberate themselves from the church. For that reason any religion that starts to become a bit too vocal tends to make Europeans way more uncomfortable, especially the further north and the further west you are in Europe.

If the swedish prime minister were to end a speech with "god bless sweden", then that would for most people bring on an uneasy feeling comparable to if he had said "sieg heil".

I don't pretend to speak for everyone but I think this is the majority situation at the very least in Scandinavia, and then obviously when you watch american politics and see this constant influx of religion into politics in america it creates the same feeling of unease as if you are watching a theocracy in the making.

I think that at the very core, social differences are not the biggest factor but rather that Americans are more interested in defending their freedom of religion, while Europeans are very passionate about defending their freedom from religion. And this core leads to all the different and usually negative views on the other sides politics.

On November 05 2010 06:09 trainRiderJ wrote:

That's another good issue for debate regarding our current healthcare system. Much of what we call "insurance" is more like a "health club".

Insurance is by definition a risk-mitigating service for unexpected events that you might not be able to afford to pay for out of pocket. Insurance companies pool everyone's money, run risk tables to see how much they should expect to pay out, and then charge extra for some profit as they run a high-demand business.

Obviously, yearly wellness exams and eyeglasses are not exactly "unexpected events". Why is there even a need to include the insurance companies in the mix?

On November 05 2010 05:24 PacketOverflow wrote:
I find it pretty funny that Europeans are about as dumb as Americans...
...it really demonstrates a lack of understanding of our political system, our history, and the nation itself.
America has a LOT of different demographics and is no where near as homogeneous as Europe or Canada.

and is no where near as homogeneous as Europe or Canada

near as homogeneous as Europe or Canada

as homogeneous as Europe

On November 05 2010 06:05 AkatjaN wrote:


atm, the United States growth stay at 2% because of the debt.
If China decide to ask the money back, it change everything,
And it can appened in 5 or 10 years, (when China wont need american consumption anymore)

On November 05 2010 06:05 AkatjaN wrote:


atm, the United States growth stay at 2% because of the debt.
If China decide to ask the money back, it change everything,
And it can appened in 5 or 10 years, (when China wont need american consumption anymore)

On November 05 2010 06:14 skurj wrote:


Government regulation makes this worse and Obamacare will exacerbate it. They force health insurance policies to cover certain items so you will have to buy expensive and comprehensive insurance even if you don't want it. This will cause people to consume more health services that they don't need and increase health care price inflation.