The brazilification of America continues

[Anonymous]

The stories of the brazilification of California has been around for a long time. The state does seem to be cleaving into rich versus poor with a dwindling middle class more comparable to what you find in countries like Brazil. And it's a staunchly blue state.

People like to mock the red states but they tend to have less income inequalities than the coastal blue states. Rather interesting when you think about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The stories of the brazilification of California has been around for a long time. The state does seem to be cleaving into rich versus poor with a dwindling middle class more comparable to what you find in countries like Brazil. And it's a staunchly blue state.

People like to mock the red states but they tend to have less income inequalities than the coastal blue states. Rather interesting when you think about it.

All states have poor people, and blue states tend to have higher-earning workers than red states. How is that interesting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know lots of Brazilians, OP. To put down the people in your links you don’t need to resort to tired stereotypes and ignorance about a whole country. It’s ignorant and played out.

Brazil is dangerous AF. Have you even ever been there? OP actually downplayed how dangerous Brazil is, especially at night. Rio and Sao Paolo are very scary places if you don't know where you are going.

Yes but it has a great beach scene. Maybe Somalia would be more apt?

Those darn sh!+hole countries. You sound like Trump.

With the possible exception of Canada, outside of the US -- the whole world is a s'hole.

Large parts of the US are s'holes too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The first link is to a story in Florida. Check with Homer Simpson on what Florida is. Florida politicians are universally shady. You can’t judge America based on Florida! It’s like judging Brazil on the favellas.


Crimes is bad in the US because of the growing inequity in our society. The rich are getting super rich and the poor are getting desperate.

The other link is about California.

Yes my second paragraph discussing crime and inequity is about CA. It’s so bloody expensive there! I was born in SF and while I love SF, you couldn’t pay me enough to live there…and I said this in the 90s when all my friends were moving there for tech startups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know lots of Brazilians, OP. To put down the people in your links you don’t need to resort to tired stereotypes and ignorance about a whole country. It’s ignorant and played out.

Brazil is dangerous AF. Have you even ever been there? OP actually downplayed how dangerous Brazil is, especially at night. Rio and Sao Paolo are very scary places if you don't know where you are going.

So it’s okay to put down all of DC because there are some areas that are dangerous (for a whole host of socioeconomic factors, mind you). Got it.

Spoken entirely like someone who has never set foot in Brazil, let alone Sao Paolo or Rio. You are woefully naive if you think the bad parts of DC are even remotely as scary as Rio and Sao Paolo at night. It is so obvious you've never been there.

This! You haven’t seen Brazilian crime in DC. It’s laughable to suggest!

Also a good friend of mine from Brazil needed more pages in his passport. He proceeded to tell me how many people he had to bribe to get a new passport. We were in graduate school at the time, so do not think he is a criminal or something. He was a wealthy Brazilian who needed a new passport while home in Sao Paolo during winter break. It was a mind blowing tale!

America has problems but not Brazilian problems!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The stories of the brazilification of California has been around for a long time. The state does seem to be cleaving into rich versus poor with a dwindling middle class more comparable to what you find in countries like Brazil. And it's a staunchly blue state.

People like to mock the red states but they tend to have less income inequalities than the coastal blue states. Rather interesting when you think about it.

All states have poor people, and blue states tend to have higher-earning workers than red states. How is that interesting?

The income disparity you see between the very wealthy and mere middle class in places like California and New York is not easily found in Ohio or Indiana or Tennessee. All states do have poor, and all states do have rich people, but California in particular is seeing a remarkable concentration of wealth among its rich that you don't see in most of America. It's not an argument over how big the upper middle class is in a given area but more of how the middle and working classes can afford to live in those areas. It's very hard in California due to the cost of living and extreme inequity in the housing markets. It's less an issue in, say, Texas, where housing remains much more affordable despite plenty of rich people.

It's funny how it's areas where even the UMC start complaining about being priced out of the housing markets are all blue areas - Boston, DC, California, New York..... The more expensive a place is, the harder it is for people to get onto the property ladder, the bluer it is. Makes you think.

[Anonymous]

Op here

Felt that this should be bumped up in the light of what happened in Minnesota.

I think the last 10 years has made it clear that the us is not a “western” country in the tradition of Locke and Hume.

It is a thoroughly a Latinified country.

A country where two Latinos with a badge from a caudillo can gun down a free white man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The first link is to a story in Florida. Check with Homer Simpson on what Florida is. Florida politicians are universally shady. You can’t judge America based on Florida! It’s like judging Brazil on the favellas.


Crimes is bad in the US because of the growing inequity in our society. The rich are getting super rich and the poor are getting desperate.

The other link is about California.

I’m a dem — I’m sorry, California is a DUMP!

I will never ever ever ever understand why liberals have such a hard on for California and never talk about Massachusetts, which is the superior model for liberal living and governance.

I mean I have my theories but I won’t get into them.

Fantastic seafood, world class wine, amazing weather and ocean views. End of.

Fires everywhere

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The first link is to a story in Florida. Check with Homer Simpson on what Florida is. Florida politicians are universally shady. You can’t judge America based on Florida! It’s like judging Brazil on the favellas.


Crimes is bad in the US because of the growing inequity in our society. The rich are getting super rich and the poor are getting desperate.

The other link is about California.

I’m a dem — I’m sorry, California is a DUMP!

I will never ever ever ever understand why liberals have such a hard on for California and never talk about Massachusetts, which is the superior model for liberal living and governance.

I mean I have my theories but I won’t get into them.

Fantastic seafood, world class wine, amazing weather and ocean views. End of.

I spend part of my year in Lisbon. Trying to accelerate that into full time.

You get everything you mentioned in Lisbon without any of the downsides or deviancy

Would it surprise you that people have different tastes? I spent a week in Lisbon and thought the food over-salted and boring, and the city was grubby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The first link is to a story in Florida. Check with Homer Simpson on what Florida is. Florida politicians are universally shady. You can’t judge America based on Florida! It’s like judging Brazil on the favellas.


Crimes is bad in the US because of the growing inequity in our society. The rich are getting super rich and the poor are getting desperate.

The other link is about California.

I’m a dem — I’m sorry, California is a DUMP!

I will never ever ever ever understand why liberals have such a hard on for California and never talk about Massachusetts, which is the superior model for liberal living and governance.

I mean I have my theories but I won’t get into them.

Fantastic seafood, world class wine, amazing weather and ocean views. End of.

I spend part of my year in Lisbon. Trying to accelerate that into full time.

You get everything you mentioned in Lisbon without any of the downsides or deviancy

Would it surprise you that people have different tastes? I spent a week in Lisbon and thought the food over-salted and boring, and the city was grubby.

People have different tastes? Thanks for the deep insight. I didn’t realise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here

Felt that this should be bumped up in the light of what happened in Minnesota.

I think the last 10 years has made it clear that the us is not a “western” country in the tradition of Locke and Hume.

It is a thoroughly a Latinified country.

A country where two Latinos with a badge from a caudillo can gun down a free white man.

Oh you’re a bigot. You have spent zero time around Latinos if you think this is a latinified country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The first link is to a story in Florida. Check with Homer Simpson on what Florida is. Florida politicians are universally shady. You can’t judge America based on Florida! It’s like judging Brazil on the favellas.


Crimes is bad in the US because of the growing inequity in our society. The rich are getting super rich and the poor are getting desperate.

The other link is about California.

I’m a dem — I’m sorry, California is a DUMP!

I will never ever ever ever understand why liberals have such a hard on for California and never talk about Massachusetts, which is the superior model for liberal living and governance.

I mean I have my theories but I won’t get into them.

Is it about race? It's about race, isn't it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Being rich isn't like being working class or middle class. The range of working class is like, what, maybe 40k -80k per year depending on where people live? In any case, the spread is less than 100k from top to bottom of the range. Ditto middle class, maybe no more than a 200k spread between top and bottom.

Being rich is different. You can be $10M net worth rich or billionaire rich. The difference between $10M rich and $100M rich is massive.

To be able to afford to live in Switzerland, you can't be a garden variety DCUM millionaire. Switzerland is one of the most expensive nations in the world. New Zealand and Austria are also both very expensive. And, because the US charges taxes to overseas citizens, you have to pay both the high taxes of those countries AND taxes to the US.

Usually, rich people care about preserving wealth, so taxes factor into location quite heavily. Those countries are not appealing for that reason. And, rich people are pretty insulated from the types of things you linked to. Sure, there's always the possibility of random violence but that is quite unlikely. And if my amazon package is looted, that sucks, but Amazon will replace it.

There is a $130K Foreign earned income exclusion so the first $130K of your income is not subject to US income tax.
There is a foreign tax credit so that any taxes you pay to the jurisdiction in which you earn your income provides a dollar for dollar credit against any taxes you would owe in the USA.
This frequently means a lot of paperwork but little US tax liability.

So taxes should usually not keep you from living overseas except to the extent that overseas taxes are higher than the US.


But violence in some countries means kidnapping becomes so common that mid level executives need bodyguards for their families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know lots of Brazilians, OP. To put down the people in your links you don’t need to resort to tired stereotypes and ignorance about a whole country. It’s ignorant and played out.

Brazil is dangerous AF. Have you even ever been there? OP actually downplayed how dangerous Brazil is, especially at night. Rio and Sao Paolo are very scary places if you don't know where you are going.

So it’s okay to put down all of DC because there are some areas that are dangerous (for a whole host of socioeconomic factors, mind you). Got it.

I'm pretty sure we do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know lots of Brazilians, OP. To put down the people in your links you don’t need to resort to tired stereotypes and ignorance about a whole country. It’s ignorant and played out.

Brazil is dangerous AF. Have you even ever been there? OP actually downplayed how dangerous Brazil is, especially at night. Rio and Sao Paolo are very scary places if you don't know where you are going.

Yes but it has a great beach scene. Maybe Somalia would be more apt?

Those darn sh!+hole countries. You sound like Trump.

With the possible exception of Canada, outside of the US -- the whole world is a s'hole.

Scandinavia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Emirates are all clearly less of a shithole than the USA. I love America but it doesn't have a monopoly on being a good place to live.