Maedhros

475 new deaths reported in Italy today, deadliest day there so far https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/italy-reports-475-new-coronavirus-deaths-highest-one-day-toll-12553828 -- Interesting interview with Tucker Carlson (who apparently is the reason why Trump takes this seriously now?) https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/03/tucker-carlson-on-how-he-brought-coronavirus-message-to-mar-a-lago

Warning given to Norwegian students abroad. Thought this was pretty funny, although it's wrong. The US has great health services. if you can afford it Also

Which ones did you like the most? I've seen Spirited Away, Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle and Kiki's Delivery Service. Liked them all, and in that order pretty much.

Why does having a welfare state mean government gets more powerful? I just don't see the correlation. Again, the most democratic countries in this world are countries with strong welfare systems in place. A government should serve its people. Not just a minor % of it that happens to be rich. As for your last point, that sounds better than the system you have now - but I'd still argue that free(ish) healthcare should simply be a human right in a modern country. We can afford it.

We need reasonable conservatives tempering the fire of those who want to change too much too fast, but this is pretty defeatist stuff. Let's never progress because we might step wrong? The most democratic countres in the world are welfare states with "free stuff": https://www.eiu.com/topic/democracy-index I don't think the US would have more issues with authoritarianism if it built a more functional welfare state for the people (whereas now "socialism" over there only seems to apply for the rich). It's weird for me that you worry about "collectivist authoritarianism" when it's something very different that plagues the US, with inequality begetting more inequality, and your country moving more and more towards becoming an oligarchy. The fact that Bloomberg could buy himself into the fold so easily says much. But we'll never agree on this!

Like the article says - Denmark, not Cuba. It's fully possible to have good welfare systems without abandoning democracy or capitalism. If anything, I think helping the lower and middle class economically would indirectly give less power to the government and more power to the people.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election/bear-attack-allena-hansen-face-bernie-sanders-healthcare-insurance-2020-election-super-tuesday-a9370156.html "Literally, as I was being eaten by a wild beast, I wasn't thinking about Jesus or my family or my son. I was thinking my insurance was not going to pay for this,"

"Just pull yourself together"- success stories are nice and all, but as you say, you can do everything right and still not get the outcome you hope for. The state's job is to maximise the chance of positive outcomes. Edit: @Guard Dog

It's not equal, it's probably easier in Scandinavia. We're just not as obsessed with the "American Dream", so your millionaire numbers are probably more correct than the ones I found. However: https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-social-mobility-index-2020-why-economies-benefit-from-fixing-inequality I also checked income equality numbers, because I'm very certain Sweden and Denmark doesn't have similar problems as the US there (or at least not to the same extent). OECD data seems to confirm that: https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm I don't intend for this to be a d*** measuring contest, I genuinly just think the US would be better off with more impulses from the Nordic welfare system. (We own a lot of stocks in the US too, so you guys doing well is in our interest!)

You definitely can, and there are more than a few who try to abuse the system. It's sometimes hard to seperate those with the ones who are actually unable to work and need support. (Fatigue syndromes etc)

Thousands of people's safety nets are ladders for them, and the one man still has his ladder (and even a safety net to catch him if he falls of it). More bakers, more cake, and less rat food - as shown in the article. Less income inequality, same opportunity to get rich, a better society where people can relate more to each other. Maybe you won't get as many Jeff Bezoses, but you won't have all his underpaid workers either.

You make some fair points, and I do understand that the US is different, with most of you being "temporarily upset capitalists" and happy with that. I just don't think a stronger welfare state would hinder any opportunity, quite the opposite. You can perfectly well sell "opportunity" and "happiness" hand in hand. https://evonomics.com/where-in-the-world-is-it-easiest-to-get-rich/ Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you should turn into Scandinavia, because there are clearly different challenges over there that we don't have (size and diversity, among other things). But I think investing in your populace (education, healthcare, etc) will more likely than not give returns. GD said something earlier about the massive debt making it impossible to spend any more money on welfare (or something like that?). But you need to spend money to make money.

No government will ever be flawless, or even near flawless, but if you look at which countries attains the highest degree of happiness and democracy in polls and studies, they're countries with good welfare systems guaranteed by the government.

Yeah. The natural followup question whenever someone claims a country's economy is good is...who is it good for?

"In China they eat dogs" is legendary.

Better Call Saul is fantastic. I keep trying to convince my friends to watch it, but they have a spinoff aversion that I share in most cases - but with BCS I'm glad I gave it a chance.

No one wants to remain in dire circumstances. There's always the social inheritance aspect. Someone born to poor, unintelligent or abusive parents will never have the same opportunity as others. Technically, maybe, but not in reality, knowing what we do about the human brain and how early experiences shape us. How society allows for poor (in any meaning of the word) people to break through the chain says a lot about that society. In the US you seem to want to keep the status quo, with expensive education and healthcare that definitely doesn't help poor people be "free". It's good that you see the benefit of donations and tax supported safety nets though.

Memories of Murder and The Wailing are my two favorite South korean films. I also liked Snowpiercer though and didn't feel like I lost any iq points throughout it. It had a silly frenzied charm I enjoyed.

Isometric RPGs are nearly all very boring. Most lauded games are well crafted, but are also dull and a chore to play. Red Dead Redemption 2 comes to mind.

Out of curiosity, why do you have no desire to see it? Not a fan of the director?

Suicide Squad was torture material for me. I don't really agree with the consensus view that Margot Robbie somehow made it watchable. Her character wasn't well done, and suffers from being clearly written to please fans. Arya in Game of Thrones suffered from the same fate after a while. The only good thing that came out of the film was all the Harley Quinn halloween costumes. Apparently Birds of Prey will be a bit better though.

Do we really though? There are many here and elsewhere who want the government to provide cheaper healthcare and education through raised taxes, which is fully possible without abandoning a capitalist system - but I don't see many people who genuinly defend communism? Except the occational oddball every now and then.

Recently got a new job. Now I can walk 15 minutes to my new workplace, as opposed to a one hour drive with the bus. I wish I was asked what my favorite pasta was though. I detest generic job interviews, and feel like they (often) say something about the person interviewing you. I rejected a job offer recently because I got a bad feeling on the boss lady, it felt like she had just googled "job interview questions", and asked the ten first ones she found. She came across as really dull, and in my experience places with dull/bad leaders also have similar work environments.

This is probably only interesting to me, but I found an old map of where descendants of Norwegians are situated in the US. There is a saying here about there being more Norwegians in the US than in Norway, and apparently it's true. It's a bit amusing that so many decided they liked the cold, that they again went for the North. However that's apparently where you could find cheap land at the time. Norway was very poor in those times, had a huge percentage of its population move there. This also lead to Norwegian workers in their homecountry getting reasonable wages again due to now having a smaller work force. My own great-grandfather went to New York, and one of his sons stayed there, whereas my own grandfather returned to Norway. So there's a seperate branch of my family living in New York. I was invited to visit them when I was in New York ten years ago, but I chickened out, being of course Norwegian and thus socially awkward.