Why Do Euros/Lazy Liberals Think 60 hours a week is a big deal?

Our friend Murri doesn't need the internet to make stupid generalizations about places he knows nothing about either. But it comes in handy as long as you use your cherry picker carefully!

 

1. Calm yourself down bro.

2. Everyone who trades Eurodollars, or any product for that matter, knows Europe is in a lot of trouble. It's just a matter of time, and people are waiting to pounce on the short side when your eco goes to hell again

 

BTW, the countries I pointed out consist of the vast majority of "Western" Europe. You're in the (*)(*)(*)(*)ter, except for Germany, which is an awesome country.

BTW, our college system is superior to yours for the upper tiers of our students. Calm down bro, you're just mad at your present situation.

BTW, no I wouldn't go "oh durp GE is investing in the EU don't buy GE" or whatever that rant was. That's ridiculous. However if someone said they want to invest long term in EU stocks (say 10 years+?) I'd go ooooookay good luck with that. The situation in Europe is brewing for the worse again bro, traders know it and they can't wait for the turmoil to start. Your laziness will be your downfall, it's happening in the here and now and it's all very exciting!

 

Their society is faring better than ours, seems to me. They're more financially responsible. They have to be, because their fiat money isn't a de facto global reserve.

 

First off, the EU never even exceeded America in terms of wealth per person. Second, Western Europe didn't either. Get your facts straight.

Third, look at the pretty graphs of how well Euro socialism has been treating them for 10+ years. It's decadence by definition.

4th, I'm not going to verify this because I don't care enough, but everyone is waiting for Europe's turmoils to start again. It's going to be an epic opportunity. Hell Mario Draghi is trying to stem the coming tide but I bet even he doesn't think he can stop it, just mitigate it

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How did I cherry pick? I just showed that over half the population in Western Europe is in a stagnant if not recessive environment for 10 years+. That's quite the track record! On quite a large scale!

Edit: Germany rocks though, I must admit that.

 

More financially responsible?

....

.

 

Right now it's austerity instead of utterly ridiculous amounts of new borrowing. They're not completely debasing the Euro.

 

Any guesses where the recession started? Yep, in the good ol' hopelessly inept and fiscally incompetent/corrupt/reckless Wall Street. Any guesses where the last global depression of 1929 onwards started? You don't learn much from history.
Yes, Europe has problems-we inherited them from America. "When America sneezes, Europe catches a cold".

BTW, remind us again what America's national debt is. Is it 16 or 17 trillion dollars? Yes, it's easy to forget how awesomely well your debt is growing. I guess, in your educated opinion, a jawdroppingly huge debt is a positive thing...to me 17 trillion in the red says "broke".

 

Thanks. See? You're in decadence. You can't even blame yourself for your problems, that's indicative of your problem lol!

 

It's conservatives who support the end to the estate tax, allowing lazy relatives of the wealthy to live lives of luxury without ever working.

 

In which case I'll ask you again; where did our financial problems stem from?

Here, I'll help you out with some bedtime reading matter; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Recession

 

Common sense would say to take some blame for your own actions?

"Wahhhhhh it's someone else's fault, not our chronic high unemployment (due to us being lazy), our disdain for personal wealth, or our general lack of competitiveness on the world market (besides Germany, they're awesome)"

Decadence folks, right here

 

Again, until it sinks in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Recession

 

It's not my fault, it's the big bully's fault!

 

I'm still waiting for you to tell us about the "exponential rewards" your support staff, or anyone else not involved in upper management in financial services are enjoying.

If putting in time were the measure of wealth, as you continue to insist, I would be a lot richer than I am, and so would a lot of other people around here.

The EU's GDP did surpass the US during one year in the early 2000's.

Several EU countries have higher per capita income, and nearly all of them have much higher percentages of college educated people.

In addition, there are various forms of single payer health care which produce the same or better results than the US system for less than half the cost.

Families don't have to worry about the cost of education, can even get help starting a business, and don't have to worry about long term care for their old age. They also get six weeks vacation.

Virtually every country in the EU has higher rates of social mobility than the US does, and a much more even distribution of weath. Moreover, the rapidly opening disparity between "haves and have nots" that is widening in the US, is not happening elsewhere.

It's a truism in the EU today, that if you want to live the American dream, move to Finland!

Finally, if you think the average American is so much better off than the average EU citizen, I invite you to stay in a tourist hotel in Manhattan during the Christmas holidays, go to Disney, or any US National Park in the Summer.

You'll find that you may be the only American in the hotel other than the staff, and our monuments are full of visitors from Europe and China. Far more than the other way around.

 

Let's wreck some illusions real quick.

1. The EU's GDP per capita hasn't been close to that of the US. The Western countries in Europe haven't matched it either in the 2000s. So shazam, bye to that falsity.

2. Healthcare and college % of grads. Umm hi. Let's look at the aggregate. Yes, they have better healthcare I agree. But it comes at a cost. The cost is less $ to spend on other things. This is simple, even you can understand it. If they have less income per person than us (which they do) then they are wasting $ elsewhere outside of their healthcare system. So by to that argument.

As to a higher % of college grads, great! You'd think with all those extra college grads they'd be better off than we are. But the stats say they're worse off. Maybe the education system sucks (just kidding it doesn't but this is how you seem to make conclusions so I'll just do the same).

3. "Families don't have to worry about the cost of education, can even get help starting a business.." - oh, so because the family doesn't pay for it personally it's magically free!!!! Lol, just kidding, only you would think like that. The fact is someone pays for college, they pay for college through government, the government pays for college through higher taxation! See? Magic doesn't actually exist Tom!

As to the "they can even get help starting a business" note, wow that's as arbitrary as you can get, I won't even bother responding to it.

4. "Higher social mobility." No (*)(*)(*)(*), so did the USSR lol. Social mobility (more evenly distributed wealth being the major determinant) is of course going to go up when your economy sucks more than ours. This is a general principle; if you want to even out the wealth, it comes at the cost of net wealth. Wow! You are so smart!

5. Yes, let's all move to Finland. With a population under 10 million, they are very comparable to the US!

6. Arbitrary statement about staying at a hotel in Manhattan, not worth responding to.

Conclusion: Your post is now nominated for worst post of the month, hopefully it can be put to a vote sometime.

 

So you have nothing but circularity, assumption and sematic wriggling. What a surprise from the bowels of the great recession.

 

Herp derp useless comment derp!

 

Short of not bothering at all, you could have condensed your OP as above and saved us all a lot of time wasted in responding.

 

"1. The EU's GDP per capita hasn't been close to that of the US. The Western countries in Europe haven't matched it either in the 2000s. So shazam, bye to that falsity."

It hasn't ????



http://www.asymptosis.com/europe-vs-us-whos-winning.html

"2. Healthcare and college % of grads. Umm hi. Let's look at the aggregate. Yes, they have better healthcare I agree. But it comes at a cost. The cost is less $ to spend on other things. This is simple, even you can understand it. If they have less income per person than us (which they do) then they are wasting $ elsewhere outside of their healthcare system. So by to that argument"

Sorry, but the United States spends twice as much of its per capita GDP on health care as any other country on earth. So, when you say "it comes at at cost", you're the one paying the high cost. So, to coin a phrase, by(e) (sic), to that argument!

"As to a higher % of college grads, great! You'd think with all those extra college grads they'd be better off than we are. But the stats say they're worse off. Maybe the education system sucks (just kidding it doesn't but this is how you seem to make conclusions so I'll just do the same)."

Not so, as I have already documented.

"3. "Families don't have to worry about the cost of education, can even get help starting a business.." - oh, so because the family doesn't pay for it personally it's magically free!!!! Lol, just kidding, only you would think like that. The fact is someone pays for college, they pay for college through government, the government pays for college through higher taxation! See? Magic doesn't actually exist Tom!"

Of course! I never said it was free. That was you putting words in my mouth. Taxes are much higher, because they pay for a lot more than Americans pay for. The point is that middle class families don't have to borrow or save to pay tuition. They pay for it every time they pay taxes. Same with health care.

Evidently you liked the idea that the US is the only country in the civilized world where people go broke and lose everything over health care costs. And if you think its an anomoly (as many wingnuts do), it's the leading cause of bankrupcy in the US.

"As to the "they can even get help starting a business" note, wow that's as arbitrary as you can get, I won't even bother responding to it."

It's true. I know a Swede who owned two windmills. He got his seed money and loan guarantees through the government. He sold that business for a profit and then went into distance learning. Here again, local economic development offices helped him get started. Government paid subsities for his entry level workers to gain experience and training.

"4. "Higher social mobility." No (*)(*)(*)(*), so did the USSR lol. Social mobility (more evenly distributed wealth being the major determinant) is of course going to go up when your economy sucks more than ours. This is a general principle; if you want to even out the wealth, it comes at the cost of net wealth. Wow! You are so smart!"

The USSR never had social mobility. There is no evidence whatsoever to support your bogus claim that social mobility goes up in a recession. In fact, historically, the opposite happens. Moreover, the trend toward reduced social mobility in the US has been ongoing for over 30 years, and is not simply the product of the current recession as you falsely portray.

"5. Yes, let's all move to Finland. With a population under 10 million, they are very comparable to the US!"

They have higher per capita incomes, better educated people, are far better connected to the web than we are, and healthier.

"6. Arbitrary statement about staying at a hotel in Manhattan, not worth responding to."

Sorry, just an observation based on my own personal experience. But you don't have to take my word for it either!

http://www.businessweek.com/stories...siness-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

"Conclusion: Your post is now nominated for worst post of the month, hopefully it can be put to a vote sometime. "

Well, since I was able to document all of my point, and you failed to refute a single one of them with anything looking like a fact, I'd say the shoe might be on the other foot!!!!

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What is that???? Someone's idea of wit????????????

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It was quite a display of parochial xenophobia!

 

1. Oh christ.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ee.html

Look at the graph over time of EU GDP per capita. Christ....

2. Again, if Euros are so intelligent and so many are so much more educated in the aggregate, why are they less wealthy than us? The only conclusion is that their education (secondary level) isn't as good, otherwise all those extra college grads would be owning us and we wouldn't be as prosperous as the EU. It's a very simple concept.

3. Finland has 10 million people. You don't compare a region of 300 million+ to 10 million people. It's very straightforward, it's statistics.

4. The EU has more social mobility, but they are less wealthy. Both are indisputable. You can see this relation all over the place. Our extreme level of wealth over such a vast population in the US comes at the cost of income disparity. That's capitalism, cry about that, don't cry about facts that I give you.

edit: 5. Spare me your anecdotes lol, I don't care about you friend's windmill business

 

"2. Again, if Euros are so intelligent and so many are so much more educated in the aggregate, why are they less wealthy than us? The only conclusion is that their education (secondary level) isn't as good, otherwise all those extra college grads would be owning us and we wouldn't be as prosperous as the EU. It's a very simple concept."

I don't suppose that the fact that their lands were in ruins 60 years ago, whereas our entire industry and infrastructure was entirely in tact had anything to do with it.

"3. Finland has 10 million people. You don't compare a region of 300 million+ to 10 million people. It's very straightforward, it's statistics."

No, but you do look at what works in an industrialized country.

Finland is the most connected country in the world, and amongst the most educated. They made the decisions that made those two things happen as a matter of national priority,.

Not so in teh US, which lacks even a national education policy, and where we leave connectivity up to cable and telephone monopolies. (and we pay high premiums for the privilege).

"4. The EU has more social mobility, but they are less wealthy. Both are indisputable. You can see this relation all over the place. Our extreme level of wealth over such a vast population in the US comes at the cost of income disparity. That's capitalism, cry about that, don't cry about facts that I give you."

You offered no facts at all regarding social mobility. Social mobility used to be much higher in the US than it is now. It's been in decline since the middle of the 1970's when conservatives and Republican governments championed tax and government policies that encouraged wealth to flow to the very top. The US now looks like it did in 1925, when it comes to social mobility.

Yet, rather than decry the fact that it is demonstrably harder for an average person to improve their standing in life in the US than it is in nearly every EU country, you defend the inequality, and make excuses for it.

"edit: 5. Spare me your anecdotes lol, I don't care about you friend's windmill business "

Sorry, I illustrated my point with an example. You can't even do that.

 

If you put yourself up to get shot at don't complain when you get some flak.

I lived next door to a farm for eight years. The farmer worked very hard indeed. He was the hardest working person I know.

This doesn't change the reality that the productivity of farming is driven by investment and not hard work. Chinese farmers work very hard. Their productivity will be way down on that of European or American farmers.

Working smart is what smart capitalists and farmers do. Ever heard the phrase "busy fools"? I heard it first in America so I know that most American managers don't follow this 'work until you drop" bollocks.

 

This just gives the lie to your claim to work in the upper echelons of Finance. Nobody talks about "Eurodollars" in Finance as they don't exist. There is no such currency.

Carry on fantasizing.

 

Ivy League schools are good. Their graduates don't post drivelly OPs like the one here.

Your example again lest you down. You are in the upper echelons of Finance and you find yourself giving advice about ten year windows? I deal with investment funds daily. "Long" funds operate on a three to five year window.

Any analyst who recommended against investment in a stock because it was European would soon find himself out of a job.

Keep digging.