On 11 mai, 07:09, TommCatt
cox.net> wrote:>> America v France
>> How the two countries compare
>
> Oh, boy. I love these...
>
>> Population
>> US: 301m. France: 61m
>
> There are probably more than 61m Americans of French descent today. How
> come the French do so much better here than there?
>
>> Life expectancy
>> US: male 75.15 years, female 80.97 years.
>> France: male 77.35 years, female 84 years
>
> So, if you want to live a loooooonnnnnnggggg, miserable life....
>
>> Median age
>> US: 36.6 years. France: 39 years
>
> Yeah, their birth rate is down the toilet. Apparently the fabled French
> romantic culture does not extend to actually making babies.
>
>> Working week
>> US: approx 46 hours. France: usually 35 hours
>
> 46 hours?!? You've got to be kidding me! Do you seriously mean for me to
> believe there are Americans working only 46 hours a week? Where are
> they? Let's go light a fire under their lazy asses.
who? you to them and them to others? wow, some individualism going on
there!
>
> I just started work in the IT department of University of Phoenix --
> yeah, the online school. Everyone is salaried exempt -- for those in Rio
> Linda, that means they get paid the same no matter how much they work. I
> just attended their new-hire orientation yesterday (Wednesday). One of
> the points covered was that management was encouraging employees to
> limit their work week to *no more than* 50 hours. There was actually a
> bullet point on one of the slides: "Go home. Watch TV. Meet your family."
>
> Man, I am going to /love/ working here!
>
>> Population living below the poverty line (for two adults and one
>> child)
>> US: 12%%. France: 6.2%%
>
> Well, yeah. But in France poverty means, well, actually being poor. In
> America, something like 45%% of people living in poverty own their own
> air-conditioned homes, with washing machines and dryers, microwaves,
> color TVs, etc.
>
> Btw, for the past four years, my family was one of those that have been
> "living in poverty." Not saying it's been a cakewalk, mind you, but we
> really haven't been doing without much. We own three cars, all paid off,
> so the mortgage is the only really big bite.
>
> This year, we should be out of poverty and well on our way to becoming
> wealthy.
>
> And, no one here has gotten any form of welfare. The "worst" I've done
> is gotten Sallie-Mae loans to put my daughter thru college.
>
>> Minimum wage
>> US: varies widely from state to state - no such thing in Alabama.
>> France: €8.27
>
> Hey, I've worked long and hard and would have been happy to make minimum
> wage. Now I'm making $25/hr and by the end of the year should be up to
> around $35/hr. Then I'll start making investments and start rebuilding
> my portfolio -- in four years it went from over $60,000 to $946 (we had
> to live on something!). Give me another four years and I'll have it back
> up to over $6ok again.
read it over again.
>
> I keep hearing comments like, "People making minimum wage haven't had a
> raise in over 10 years!" WHAT? Show me the loser that has worked a
> minimum wage job for ten years. Show me the loser that has worked a
> minimum wage job for over a year. If you should happen to show me such a
> person, I will want to know what the hell this guy does when he gets off
> work: does he read? does he attend a local community college? does he
> download one of the millions of free tutorials from the Internet and
> practice learning a skill? Or does he pop open a cold one and plant
> himself in front of the television?
>
> Ask me how sorry I feel for him. Go ahead, just ask.
>
>> Usual retirement age
>> US: 65-67. France: 60
>
> Come on. Who wants to retire? I'm 55 years old and am basically starting
> all over again, financially. You think I'll be retiring in 10 years?
> Have you heard me complain? Have you heard me express a desire to move
> to France??? Yeah, right!
>
>> Prison population
>> US: 2 million plus. France: 50,500 plus
>
> Well, I could say a lot about the true cost of the Drug War (and I
> have). But, in general, a spirited, free people like Americans are going
> to cross the line a little more than others. A free society is a bit
> more dangerous than an unfree society
nah, the french know how to integrate theirs into society, the
americans just stick em back in prison, alienating the winners from
the losers.
-- what with all those people
> thinking nothing of pretty much doing whatever they want. Take, for
> example, the hip-hop "gangsta" culture. You're less than a dweeb if you
> haven't served some time.
>
>> Number of murders a year
>> US: 16,692. France: approx 1,000
>
> Wait a minute -- only about triple the murder rate? But we have *all
> these guns*....
exactly triple the murder rates because of the gun rights, you're a
bright one.
the rest of your post is hilarious. thanks. typical. not even fred
weiss has been able to resist the temptation of responding this
time...
>
>> Number of overweight citizens
>> US: a little more than two thirds. France: a little under one third
>
> It's all this raging poverty.
>
>> Public transport
>> US: bus, train and subway are all hit and miss. France: train, metro,
>> bus and tram are all notoriously punctual
>
> All us poor people would rather drive our cars directly to where we want
> to go, when we want to go there. The highly efficient mass transit
> didn't move French people out of their cars... they were never in cars
> to begin with.
>
>> You are most likely to be struck by
>> US: tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, exploding levees,
>> tornadoes, mudslides, forest fires, generic flooding and permafrost.
>
> Pack up th' kids, Hun. Thar's a big permafrost front movin' in and it's
> due t'hit early in the mornin'. Whar's mah gun...
>
>> France: flooding; avalanches; windstorms and the occasional forest
>> fire :
>
> Don't forget heat waves. How many people died in France the summer
> before last? Something like 6000 in Paree alone....
>
> In America, the poor live in A/C. In France, even the middle class don't.
>
> Want a statistic that actually means something? List the countries that
> have, as a matter of ongoing policy, forcibly limited emigration /out/
> of their borders in the last century? Now list the countries that have,
> as a matter of ongoing policy, forcibly limited immigration /into/ the
> country.
>
> You think that there just might, maybe, kinda, possibly be just a slim
> chance that we have /something/ going for us?
>
> TommCatt
> --
> Don't spend two dollars to dry clean a shirt. Donate it to the Salvation
> Army instead. They'll clean it and put it on a hanger. Next morning buy
> it back for seventy-five cents. - William Coronel
