I wonder what the Viennese call 'em?

If your SO never buys you anything or thinks that getting an expensive thing is more important than your needs then you have a good indication your relationship isn't going to be a happy one. Same with a country if our priorities are shiny new gadgets for the military while we don't take care of the needs of the people, then the relationship is not going to be a happy one. And people who are hungry, unhoused, over worked and underpaid are not happy even if they try very hard they aren't going to be happy if they are sleeping outside in the cold. And people who see this injustice are not going to be happy either even if they have a home, plenty of food, and have relatively good jobs. The ripple effect I believe causes a general unhappiness. And people who want justice are called cry babies and a lot worse by the side that just wants to punish the poor.

not to buy all the extra crap we have to, but things like rain gear (kids go out to play even in the rain), snow gear, gym shoes...things like that.

When they go off to college they get a bit of money to help them live.

There are bike lanes everywhere, and they are cleaned better than the roads at times.

The weather can suck there, but everyone gets vacations, and they all take them....hanging out on a beach in Feb to get some much need vitamin D, not bad.

Access to public transportation...bike lanes...I'm sure I will think of more.

It was fun living there. My son was in 5th grade riding the trains and buses with his friend. When he was in 7th, he sometimes had to ride the bus home with my daughter, who was in 2nd grade. I just made sure they had money to stop and get a treat before coming home. My son did love his freedom there.

Very low discretionary income and extremely high housing. Oh housing is very small too. I don't think you will see many 3000 square feet homes like most of us have.

jesus, I would be hard pressed to find that and still have it be affordable (Northeast).

Also their discretionary income isn't that much lower than ours.

Smaller in Arnold, Maryland. I upped it a little. My home is 2700 on 2 acres.

Your characterization of 3k square foot homes being common and easily accessed needs some qualifications about region, that would be considered a huge house around here and could easily hit 350k+

I'll probably never live in one, in other words.

Obviously San Francisco is having issues with housing. Not enough for population and area so the 3000 square foot would even have a beginning discussion. But I guess I used 3000, because a lot of homes in Northern Virginia and even Maryland are even larger then 3000. However to leave out regions was not right on my part.

Expensive--and pretty far from DC.

Most people in NoVA who own live in houses under 2000 sq feet, and condos and rental apartments are much smaller.

And forget how close it is. When I shop, it is Annapolis Mall and Giant for food.

Not to many "cottages" in Arnold. A friend of mine sold a 15k on 20 acres on the mighty Magothy. I couldn't afford the taxes on it!

yeoman6987

Who need a 3000 suare feet big home - when you can live comfortable on far less.... I guess my apartments could be put into your living room and maybe in some of the rooms who is close to your living room - and even then I have a decent sized living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom and a hallwa.... and it is enough for me living alone, in fact I can even have some visitors over if I choose - and they can sleep over if they want to also....

The fact is that even if most houses in DK are smaller than in US, most danish people live rather comfortable - and have all the luxury they would ever be needed to have - on a smaller footprint than you do...


Diclotican

I know of a few who have a smaller home then me in other parts of Annapolis. When they visit they always say how they wish they could have more room. A lot of homeowners grow out of their homes and become very cramped and uncomfortable. It all is situational. We have a home in Florida that is 1900 square feet so during vacations I know all about being uncomfortable.

a lot of myopic people who somehow manage to earn great salaries- probably because they do not care to know how their unwashed underlings live, or what they do all day!

We are talking about homes. I have been to Denmark and the homes are small and extremely expensive.

Or are US demographics a huge blindspot for you?

Yeah, that's most people's lives.... in your neighborhood. On the other side of the tracks, and the rest of the nation- not so much.

I consider less than 1000 feet small.

But lots of people live well in less than that.

Right. Tell us another one.

Math a lone should explain that. Perhaps you have two large homes that you fit comfortably in. Not everyone has the luxury of having a lot of bedrooms everywhere. Nice you do though. Happy for you. Sometimes the struggle my family has to do is worth it. Makes us humble.

Refugees living in tents are struggling; you and your family are not.

Funny, Zillow features plenty of homes for sale well under 3,000 sf... http://www.zillow.com/arnold-md/ . I grew up in PG County and am somewhat familiar with Arnold; it *ain't* all that.

You were a little mean in your post so I made a super exaggerated post. Have a good one!

LOL, indeed.

You didn't write a reply on 28 so why should I mention it? That is not how it works.

your Macassar Ebony floors.

Seriously your awesome but I must go to bed.....have a great one. Talk to ya tomorrow hopefully (although on another OP)...Take care!

Glad that not having TWO huge homes and all the bedrooms you could wish for is what keeps you "humble." Surely you're being humorous and ironic here (?)!

It was funnier last night.

A very few would have a 3,000 sq. ft home.

Perhaps you are one. I honestly don't care what a rich Republican sounds like but you sure seem to be interested. Why didn't you vote on November 4th? That is the question that should be asked instead of trying to faulsly attack me which I believe is not allowed here.

How much space do you need? You can't be in every room at once.
Maybe if you have several children....

home and in the easily-accessible rest of Europe.

** about their being any "problem."

and we do not need them. A generation ago families lived happily in 1000 sq ft houses.

Somewhere around half of us are at or near poverty. Millions in either housing "projects" or "trailers" or urban slums - hell, urban not-slums - goddess knows how many homeless but "most of us" live in 3000 sq ft homes?

Most people in the US don't have 3000 sq ft homes.

I guess it depends on where you live. My house is not half that large.

J/K

Anywhere in Scandinavia, honestly. I definitely do not feel like I belong here as none of my ethics or social/economic attitudes are shared by the dominant culture.

My grandpa was from Denmark. If only my mother had been born there, I could get citizenship. Oh well...

I'm the child of recent immigrants too (Canada and a Portuguese colony) and I can't help but think my grandparents made a huge mistake in coming here. To make matters worse nearly all of them were ruined by coming here and didn't end up any better in the end.

I would retire there except I have family here.

Little time wasted on gun fetishism over there.

no Fox news, just for starters.

Not kidding. But they also have a very high literacy rate, so Danes in general are very hip to bullshit. One person won a seat into the government by promising "better weather."

Denmark has higher taxes and a much better, more egalitarian distribution of income. There is a lesson there for everyone. National happiness results from everyone paying their share and the benefits of the economy and government policy being shared widely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality

Then we better not even bother, because if we can't have things and also have an ethnic plurality we are all better off just going back to where we came from.

many more positives than a homogeneous society.
So much more chance of making new advancements...
also a diverse society is stronger and can handle many different challenges and find solutions.
Plus it is more interesting.

Diversity is good, but with it comes conflict and differing opinions (also good) and some less than optimal happiness!

Is economic security and a vibrant community and sense of a world of meaning, of which Denmark exceeds us by a good measure.

Like I said, your comments about a diverse society actually damn it, so you may want to revise your theory.

as you define it, that smaller countries with a common culture are able to obtain.

At least not using a Denmark model.

And the left should wrap it up and go back to wherever they came from/their ancestors came from.

Part of me stays in Portugal, part of me stays in Italy, part of me goes to Cape Verde, part of me goes to Norway.... on my mother's side are Portuguese Sephardic Jews, so therefore I'm a Jew on my mother's side (given "Jewish heritage" by matrilineal descent according to the "law of return&quot so... part of me goes to Israel?

Which parts, though?

the argument is stupid. Multiethnic societies are not doomed to failure imo.

I am too, also descended from sephardic jews but on my father's side. Are you from Massachusetts too?

Actually, wow our heritages are very similar. Mom is Irish and likely some kind of danish or norwegian, dad is cape verdean but of Portuguese and sephardic jew background.

And yes I am from MA, the former factory-mills mecca and Portuguese fisheries epicenter on the Southcoast. It's actually dad's side that's Irish and Norwegian. And a tiny drop Italian.

Portugal decriminalized all drugs a few years ago, and has apparently been having a successful experiment so far. What is sad is that it seems that the only sensible countries to have learned that fascism is bad are the ones who lived through it. Portugal went socialist after Salazar, while the countries that were occupied by the Nazis learned their lesson big time and largely quit trying to control people's private lives. (Italy is still pretty conservative though nowhere near Mussolini standards. There's just something about having the Vatican literally in your backyard.)

We were never officially "fascist" per se. We've just always held up a big façade that we're a "democracy" (or "free republic&quot , when really we're not. We're an oligarchy without proportional representation. And now we're on our way to becoming "theocracy 'lite'." The U.S. could learn a lot from Portugal about the failed drug war... but that would require us to admit that another country did something right, while we (and thus "American Exceptionalism&quot were -- and still are --

Wr-wr-wr-wr-wr-wr-wrrrrrrrrrrr-o-o-o-o-nnnnnnnnn-g-g-g-g-g.......!

The happiness of Americans should fall into a much wider spread, and because of the wider spread (due to the diverse nature of America), the average just can not be as high as a smaller, more homogeneous country.

Doesn't mean that there isn't plenty of happiness, just that we can't ever achieve the average happiness of Denmark.

You are essentially saying that we can't have nice things because Brown People. You are a racist or at least are harboring racist opinions.

Denmark people may be "happy", but the country will never have the potential to be great as this country has.
And that is because of the diversity of its people.

We are "great" (never defined by you, really) but not in a way in which we can have the same material happiness as Denmark. Why, you argue, because we have non-whites. A shameful line of argumentation.

this is not the correct way to create a diverse environment.
please have a peaceful evening. at least try.

you learn this country doesn't give a damn about you if you are working poor
Yeah, she died (and she was working-can't pay a living wage you know-might keep the monied from two houses/cars, etc) while your's lived with the same medical problems
When are you that are comfortable wake up to the cruelty this nation practices because
either you don't know or don't want to know (nothing like being ignored in your own country)
I would exchange Denmark with their high taxes any day

so many people only understand when the pain and loss occur to them....your spirit is wise

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"Oh well we would have nice things if it wasnt for all those pesky browns" summarizes that position and is a racist cop out.

Just because the majority of people are white skinned doesn't mean their social and political environment is somehow magically easier. To say that is to imply that bigotry and racism is natural and it is NOT. It is carefully taught by ignorant fools and capitalist. Capitalism, especially the type of capitalism practiced in the US, always, always, always needs an easily abused population to make money off of.

Yes you can compare the US to Denmark if you want to look at all possibilities. But if you want to praise capitalism and declare it the best economic and political system ever invented, well then you ignore Denmark and numerous other countries so that capitalism looks like a great deal.

Last edited Mon Nov 10, 2014, 07:16 PM - Edit history (1)

capitalism provides the wealth to fund the welfare state. Denmark simply has very high taxes and a lot of people working for the state. But it is all driven by capitalism.

It is severely restricted by socialism and all the policies that are considered attractive are socialist policies. Yes, their base is capitalism and it causes problems there too. But it is severely hemmed in by socialist policies.

And NO Capitalism does NOT ever provide wealth, it provides NOTHING. It is always labor that provides wealth. All economies are driven by labor not by some imaginary capitalist being.

It is a diverse free market economy. There is little state ownership of the means of production.

I have no use for this country....sad...as I was born into it.

We haven't evolved all that much since our most advanced ancestors. So maybe it is that simple that we're stupid enough to be afraid of people with varying degrees of melanin in their skin pigmentation.

Wait a minute -- if I think that's stupid, and most progressives think that's stupid, then maybe we even have varying degrees of evolution, with baggers actually going backwards...

WHY do people always bring "homogeneous demographic" up as if it's at all relevant to anything? It sounds a lot like veiled racism, to be perfectly frank.

In Canada, we have a pretty high standard of living too. A lot higher than the States, that's for damn sure. And in Toronto in particular? Guess what? Over 50% are visible minorities. That means black, brown, yellow, and everything in between.

So this homogeneous demographic bullshit is just that: Bullshit.

and its politics have tended to inch rightwards as it becomes more diverse. Whether you say that's right or wrong, it just is.

Its not the be all and end all, however. Japan, for instance, is relatively homogenous, but isn't terribly socialist. New Zealand is relatively heterogenous (about 30% are non-white) but still has universal health coverage, although it is arguably less socialist than Australia and European countries.

As for Canada - its tax burden is roughly 31% of GDP. The US is roughly 25% of GDP. Sweden is 44% of GDP. Canada is far closer to the US than to Sweden in that regard.

USA! USA! USA!

be believe to be racism, when they are not, and it keeps you from looking at issues from every side.

Denmark will never be great because it is NOT diverse, but at least its population can have a high happiness average.

Post hoc ergo prompter hoc.

the horror!

rating of a country.
In my mind, the more diverse country is the one to live in any day.
There is just so much more going on in this country.
Yes, the diversity can lead to some negative tails, but the positive tail can be beautiful.

background and culture will work with a population of 315 million people, with so many coming from very diverse backgrounds and different cultures.

If we had leaders (and a media) who encouraged community inclusion, instead of exclusion, if we had universal health care, a reasonable minimum wage, etc. - our country could become more melted.

As it is - with the likes of Limbaugh - people are encouraged to be antagonistic. It doesn't have to be that way.

Every time one of the Scandinavian countries are mentioned, someone on DU comes out and tells us all that these countries are only successful because they are all white, I mean, the same "culture".

As if racism and bigotry were the Natural way of life and cooperation and tolerance was somehow strange and against nature. Sounds like a very libertarian republiCON way of thinking that the Koch Brothers and their tea baggers would be proud of saying.

I hate these threads

It's always 3..2..1 before someone mentions 'culture' which is code for race

Like libertarian republiCON's. You even come up with a funny nickname for them.

Last edited Wed Nov 12, 2014, 11:44 AM - Edit history (1)

between libertarian and republiCON But typing on this cell is a pain. I always refer to the GOP as repuliCONS. They are con artists and they Routinely refer to democratic party members as democRATS.

But if you want to embrace the republiCONS who also consider racism, bigotry and intolerance natural, you need to post on a board that doesn't have the word democratic in it.

Explain the success of Canada then, of the UK, of the any other number of multicultural nations that have the same kind of social justice policies. It's veiled racism, period.

Your comments are actually condemnations of a multi-ethnic society, despite your intent.

The more the people and GDP the more they can get accomplished if we have the will.

It is also actually a very racist sentiment when you think about it.

That's just a weak excuse for not trying what clearly works for the majority of citizens. Our size and diversity don't make this unworkable.

What a twit.

Diverse backgrounds and different cultures have no bearing on it.

Explain to me how having a different culture would make a difference. You know, besides in someone's imagination.

And Muslim too!!