really jarring coming back to the US after traveling to Asia for the last three weeks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you never heard of the coffin homes in Hong Kong or Guryong Village in S Korea? You were a tourist in a series of small countries and now you think you are worldly enough to criticize the place that gave you the opportunities and privilege to visit those countries to begin with?

Is so crazy how stupid Americans have a knee jerk reaction to any criticism. Take your blinders off, gun loving dolts.

The rest of the world will figure it out the day Americans stop having access to guns. It has kept the western world free. The American government can only do so much to control and armed populace and who is in charge of policing the rest of the world? America. We have paid a high price for gun ownership but I imagine the alternative is only worse.

[Anonymous]

Hahahahahahahaha look at the great US infrastructure:


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-flights-grounded-faa-outage-rcna65243

What a perfectly timed post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And seeing how horrendous our infrastructure is. How does America have the largest GDP in the world, yet it seems like we.have given up on development of the country since the 70s? America's development post-WW2 seems to have stalled out a long time ago. As soon as I get back to the US, it took almost 75 miites to get through customs and to get our bags on a well outdated carousel at JFK. In Asia, they have the entire process already automated in many countries, where you are in and through customs in a matter of minutes. Bags are rapidly delivered to the carousel. As soon as we leave JFK via air tram, there were homeless people everywhere in the station, and the trains everywhere were late. Piles of trash were everywhere near the rail lines once we got on Amtrak, and there were shanty towns and boarded up buildings everywhere along the way going south from NY to DC. Contrast that to South Korea or Japan where trains are super clean, there are basically zero homeless people anywhere, and it truly feels like you're in a modern country with 21st century development and infrastructure. Hell, something as basic as cell phone service and wifi works anywhere you go on a train in South Korea and even if you're in a tunnel, because because of how well connected the country is. As soon as we left Penn Station, cell phone service stops working in multiple spots because of lack of reception in some tunnels. It is just super jarring to come back home and see just how horrendously behind we are with the rest of t developed world. America just seems to have given up on improving itself for a long time now. But at least we got a $1T fighter jet program I guess?

This is exactly what Trump said, yet everyone criticized him for it. He said he would fix it, but unfortunately he didn’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you never heard of the coffin homes in Hong Kong or Guryong Village in S Korea? You were a tourist in a series of small countries and now you think you are worldly enough to criticize the place that gave you the opportunities and privilege to visit those countries to begin with?

Is so crazy how stupid Americans have a knee jerk reaction to any criticism. Take your blinders off, gun loving dolts.

The rest of the world will figure it out the day Americans stop having access to guns. It has kept the western world free. The American government can only do so much to control and armed populace and who is in charge of policing the rest of the world? America. We have paid a high price for gun ownership but I imagine the alternative is only worse.

What?
First of all, define “free”.
Second, how does it help, say Finland, if Americans own a lot of guns. It’s not like America’s private gun owners are lined up at the border to Russia and are the only thing keeping the Russian army from invading.

[Anonymous]

I lived in China for 2 years. OP has no damn idea what s/he is talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And seeing how horrendous our infrastructure is. How does America have the largest GDP in the world, yet it seems like we.have given up on development of the country since the 70s? America's development post-WW2 seems to have stalled out a long time ago. As soon as I get back to the US, it took almost 75 miites to get through customs and to get our bags on a well outdated carousel at JFK. In Asia, they have the entire process already automated in many countries, where you are in and through customs in a matter of minutes. Bags are rapidly delivered to the carousel. As soon as we leave JFK via air tram, there were homeless people everywhere in the station, and the trains everywhere were late. Piles of trash were everywhere near the rail lines once we got on Amtrak, and there were shanty towns and boarded up buildings everywhere along the way going south from NY to DC. Contrast that to South Korea or Japan where trains are super clean, there are basically zero homeless people anywhere, and it truly feels like you're in a modern country with 21st century development and infrastructure. Hell, something as basic as cell phone service and wifi works anywhere you go on a train in South Korea and even if you're in a tunnel, because because of how well connected the country is. As soon as we left Penn Station, cell phone service stops working in multiple spots because of lack of reception in some tunnels. It is just super jarring to come back home and see just how horrendously behind we are with the rest of t developed world. America just seems to have given up on improving itself for a long time now. But at least we got a $1T fighter jet program I guess?

Because the GOP abdicated any interest in the public good around the 70s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you never heard of the coffin homes in Hong Kong or Guryong Village in S Korea? You were a tourist in a series of small countries and now you think you are worldly enough to criticize the place that gave you the opportunities and privilege to visit those countries to begin with?

Is so crazy how stupid Americans have a knee jerk reaction to any criticism. Take your blinders off, gun loving dolts.

The rest of the world will figure it out the day Americans stop having access to guns. It has kept the western world free. The American government can only do so much to control and armed populace and who is in charge of policing the rest of the world? America. We have paid a high price for gun ownership but I imagine the alternative is only worse.

What?
First of all, define “free”.
Second, how does it help, say Finland, if Americans own a lot of guns. It’s not like America’s private gun owners are lined up at the border to Russia and are the only thing keeping the Russian army from invading.

They keep the American government in check who keeps other governments in check.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived in China for 2 years. OP has no damn idea what s/he is talking about.

OP is talking about developed countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you never heard of the coffin homes in Hong Kong or Guryong Village in S Korea? You were a tourist in a series of small countries and now you think you are worldly enough to criticize the place that gave you the opportunities and privilege to visit those countries to begin with?

Is so crazy how stupid Americans have a knee jerk reaction to any criticism. Take your blinders off, gun loving dolts.

The rest of the world will figure it out the day Americans stop having access to guns. It has kept the western world free. The American government can only do so much to control and armed populace and who is in charge of policing the rest of the world? America. We have paid a high price for gun ownership but I imagine the alternative is only worse.

What?
First of all, define “free”.
Second, how does it help, say Finland, if Americans own a lot of guns. It’s not like America’s private gun owners are lined up at the border to Russia and are the only thing keeping the Russian army from invading.

Doesn't Finland have an extremely high rate of civilian gun ownership? And Switzerland? (it is actually universal there). And Israel?

The PP you responded to seems to be the real dolt here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hahahahahahahaha look at the great US infrastructure:


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/us-flights-grounded-faa-outage-rcna65243

What a perfectly timed post.

But its been weeks since any bridge collapses!

[Anonymous]

No direct evidence of a cyber attack today. Sorry, flight delays were simply due once again to crappy US infrastructure that's crumbling evrywhere. Outdated systems decades old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just back from the UK and I completely agree, it’s embarrassing. An hour in line at customs at Dulles, entering the UK at Heathrow took 2 minutes.

There was a train strike happening but we were still able to travel quickly via the underground all throughout London.

I was also just in the UK and the locals there were all talking about how ashamed they were of the shambles their country was in….train strikes, border force strikes (which necessitated bringing in the British armed forces to step in at Heathrow) baggage handlers strikes, bus strikes, ambulance driver strikes, and nurses strikes all taking place simultaneously last month.

In Frankfurt, Germany where we flew on to it was taking on average over 2 hours to clear customs at the airport during the holiday period.

That’s great that you anecdotally had a smooth experience, but to universalize as if Europe isn’t also subject to extreme (and in my experience far more frequent) travel disruptions is ludicrous.

I flew into Munich for Christmas and it took 15 minutes to clear the customs. Everything was organized and running smoothly. What did you do, went to the EU citizens' booths?

Frankfurt airport is a completely different beast than Munich. The US consulate sent out advisories warning of the extremely long waits throughout the holiday period. And yes even at Frankfurt of course there were times of day when the wait was much shorter but at peak times it was averaging two hours.

I can throw out plenty of anecdotes of having cleared customs at Dulles in just a few minutes.

If it takes you hours to clear customs in the US, it’s because you aren’t taking advantage of programs and technology the government has made available for your convenience. I have Global Entry, and never wait, but I’ve heard the passport app works just as well. And, yes, I’ve missed connections because of delays at customs in Frankfurt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m just back from the UK and I completely agree, it’s embarrassing. An hour in line at customs at Dulles, entering the UK at Heathrow took 2 minutes.

There was a train strike happening but we were still able to travel quickly via the underground all throughout London.

I was also just in the UK and the locals there were all talking about how ashamed they were of the shambles their country was in….train strikes, border force strikes (which necessitated bringing in the British armed forces to step in at Heathrow) baggage handlers strikes, bus strikes, ambulance driver strikes, and nurses strikes all taking place simultaneously last month.

In Frankfurt, Germany where we flew on to it was taking on average over 2 hours to clear customs at the airport during the holiday period.

That’s great that you anecdotally had a smooth experience, but to universalize as if Europe isn’t also subject to extreme (and in my experience far more frequent) travel disruptions is ludicrous.

I flew into Munich for Christmas and it took 15 minutes to clear the customs. Everything was organized and running smoothly. What did you do, went to the EU citizens' booths?

Frankfurt airport is a completely different beast than Munich. The US consulate sent out advisories warning of the extremely long waits throughout the holiday period. And yes even at Frankfurt of course there were times of day when the wait was much shorter but at peak times it was averaging two hours.

I can throw out plenty of anecdotes of having cleared customs at Dulles in just a few minutes.

If it takes you hours to clear customs in the US, it’s because you aren’t taking advantage of programs and technology the government has made available for your convenience. I have Global Entry, and never wait, but I’ve heard the passport app works just as well. And, yes, I’ve missed connections because of delays at customs in Frankfurt.

Global entry has fees and requires all sorts of PITA paperwork.

It is free to basically everyone who enters from specific countries with zero paperwork. Go travel to Singapore. You land and go through completely automated systems like global entry without any special fees or paperwork. Same happened in Japan.

[Anonymous]

The American poor is feral and horrifically behaved to an extent that goes way beyond what is present in other countries.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but where do those other countries stand when it comes to delivering shareholder value? Keep your eye on what matters.

We have plenty of wealth.