I agree with you. But about the education: I think it’s a key to success, but there are a couple of prerequisites, if you want to get well educated. For example here in Germany you have many chances to be successful, because the education is free. You don’t have to pay for going to a good college. The only thing you need is skills. There is also a welfare system to support poor people. The constitutional law says:“Every citizen has a right on a dignified life […]”. But in America you have to pay for your education yourself and if your parents are poor, then you have minor chances to achieve something.
And the most messed up thing I’ve ever seen is discrimination of “races”!
Germans are used to tolerate other nationalities and skin colors somehow, but in the east Germany it’s worse. And if you want to get a job and have another skin color or speak german with an accent or have an extra ordinary name you will never be prefered! I think it’s just pathetic, how the society isolates the minorities!
“But in America you have to pay for your education yourself and if your parents are poor, then you have minor chances to achieve something.”
I think you are right on the money with this, of course some people go from rags to riches but it is a very small percentile. It is so nice to hear educated Europeans speak because Americans really do not speak like you speak, they generally have little or no common sense and speak mindlessly most of the time. Its really tiresome.
Also, it saddens me to see that that kind of discrimination exists in East Germany, although I am really not surprised as we have alot of discrimination and race hatred in the US as well. From my experience, in the US the minorities hate the whites. I am like the nicest person you will meet and most black and spanish hate me for the color of my skin and don’t give me a chance to show that white people are actually good people when you give them the chance. Maybe its also because I am a smart guy that works to achieve, people find that easy to hate because of petty jealousies and whatever else. I am finding out that hate and discrimination has really become an excuse to be lazy, on whatever side or entity its coming from. People want to judge you in the first second they meet you and don’t want to think about you anymore. We Americans really have to shape up, we are really getting lazy. Why do you think we have more overweight people then any country, I will give you a hint, its not only because we are the wealthiest country. Anyway, thats my view on the situation here, although I don’t mean to sound anti-American because I am really not, I love my country and think its the best place in the world to be.
— I agree with most of that. Money (as with most things in America) dictates education. Poor minorities don’t get good education or jobs and the Government hasn’t been able to solve that problem. There is racism in most places. We try to name and label things and people and do little to understand them.
— Theoryofexist talked about hatred and discrimination as an excuse to be lazy, and envy of the good. I’m not so sure that people actually receive what they sow, there is a lot of corruption, etc. Still, attitude is important.
— We Americans have come through two World Wars virtually unscathed, We as a nation, are like a young naive kid with the biggest gun. I hope we will truly work with NATO and the UN to bring about peace.
— Who’s your favourite German author xplicit? I’ve read Thomas Mann, Herman Hesse, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and others (translated of course). I’m not as familiar with the more modern German authors. My favourite literature is French, German, and Russian. I like Albert Camus, Jose Ortega y Gasset, Dostoevsky.