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Thread: Bad news from the Homeland.......

  1. #31
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LDAHL View Post
    Terrible marketing, if citizenship is evaluated as a sort of benefits package.
    I agree, this was terrible marketing on Kennedy's part looked at in the light of society in 2018 given the vast inequalities in the US that are only growing worse as time goes on. In Kennedy's era, people actually got raises that kept up with inflation and there was not the level of terror over getting sick that exists today in America - a terror that is only seeping upwards through the social classes so that the wealthy can hoard yet more wealth. This is a very different society today with much less faith in and/or hope for the future overall and in light of today's society, I'd agree this quote is terrible marketing, yes. In Kennedy's time, maybe not so much an inappropriate quote that could lead one to ponder what was he on when he said it? Gotta understand though that Kennedy's era was not the brutal fear based one we live in now. Rob

  2. #32
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LDAHL View Post
    Terrible marketing, if citizenship is evaluated as a sort of benefits package.
    When you get right down to it, what is citizenship for everyday people beyond a benefit package of sorts? Rob

  3. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife View Post
    When you get right down to it, what is citizenship for everyday people beyond a benefit package of sorts? Rob
    I guess that’s one of those “if you have to ask you’ll never know” questions.

    My belief, and I could well be wrong, is that a meaningful life is more about the responsibilities you accept than the benefits you demand from others.

  4. #34
    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife View Post
    When you get right down to it, what is citizenship for everyday people beyond a benefit package of sorts? Rob
    In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

  5. #35
    Senior Member herbgeek's Avatar
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    there was not the level of terror over getting sick that exists today in America
    I don't know about the validity of your claim. Cancer was a death sentence. Many folks with heart attacks didn't make it. Many of today's manageable conditions didn't have such happy results, and people died. When you were hospitalized, there wasn't much that could be done, either diagnostics or treatments. Many of the the pharmaceuticals we have now didn't exist. Life expectancy was a decade shorter. Medicare and Medicaid didn't even exist until the mid 60's. I'm not sure Kennedy's time was this nirvana you think it was, particularly for the poor.

    Here's an interesting article I found about that: https://www.ssa.gov/history/pdf/Heal...Early1960s.pdf

  6. #36
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post

    ...None of these other cool countries will let in random outraged Americans unless they show up on the doorstep with boatloads of capital, or have a spouse in the country, or a firm job offer in a desired profession and sponsorship, and so on and so on. I've checked.

    .
    I am not sure about that for Rob and Austria. We probably talked about this and
    I dont remember the answer, but his mother may retain Austrian citizenship. That may give
    Rob a leg up into The Homeland. I base this on DH’s status as the son of a Swiss citizen. There are probably similarities.

    Perhaps Rob will expand om this point the next time he swings around to this thread to park a disparaging remark about the United .states.
    Last edited by iris lilies; 7-25-18 at 4:21pm.

  7. #37
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    I am not sure about that for Rob and Austria. We probably talked about this and
    I dont remember the answer, but his mother may retain Austrian citizenship. That may give
    eob a leg up into The Homeland. I base this on DH’s status as the son of a Swiss citizen. There are probably similarities.

    Perhaps Rob will expand om this point the next time he swings around to this thread to park a disparaging remark about the United .states.
    Hi IL....no disparaging remark necessary. About Austria....I don't have a leg up as you say....Austria does not allow for dual citizenship and when my Mother accepted this citizenship in 1969, she had to unwisely gave up her Austrian citizenship to do so my easy way in does not exist. My Mother to this day kicks herself verbally at least three times a day for giving up citizenship in the Homeland but on the other hand, there is no way she could have known how the future in America would play out. It sure would have made life a lot easier had she been able to return to her people and take me there too once her divorce to my Father took place. But what is, is.........Rob

  8. #38
    Senior Member gimmethesimplelife's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by herbgeek View Post
    I don't know about the validity of your claim. Cancer was a death sentence. Many folks with heart attacks didn't make it. Many of today's manageable conditions didn't have such happy results, and people died. When you were hospitalized, there wasn't much that could be done, either diagnostics or treatments. Many of the the pharmaceuticals we have now didn't exist. Life expectancy was a decade shorter. Medicare and Medicaid didn't even exist until the mid 60's. I'm not sure Kennedy's time was this nirvana you think it was, particularly for the poor.

    Here's an interesting article I found about that: https://www.ssa.gov/history/pdf/Heal...Early1960s.pdf
    I agree with you as to advances in medical/health care and it's true that cancer was a death sentence back then, too. And we did not have the array of mental health medications that we have today, nor some of the procedures that are commonplace today. In fact I might be dead today - I'm not sure, perhaps someone with more medical knowledge than me can chime in here (?) - due to my liver infection I had November/December of 2016....antibiotics did exist in Kennedy's time but not all of the ones available today and I don't know if the procedure to drain my liver of infection existed back then, either. So, my point Herbgeek is that I agree with some of what you say, yes.

    OTOH....health care did not cost what it does today, either, and there was less chance of being out on the street due to the costs of an illness.....insurance covered more then, too, and deductibles were not what they are now. People in general were not one or two paychecks away from homelessness then (with exceptions, yes, I'll give you that, but such was not as widespread as it is now).......the very idea of getting sick did not cause the financial terror then that it does now. So I believe we both have points here.......Rob

  9. #39
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife View Post
    Hi IL....no disparaging remark necessary. About Austria....I don't have a leg up as you say....Austria does not allow for dual citizenship and when my Mother accepted this citizenship in 1969, she had to unwisely gave up her Austrian citizenship to do so my easy way in does not exist. My Mother to this day kicks herself verbally at least three times a day for giving up citizenship in the Homeland but on the other hand, there is no way she could have known how the future in America would play out. It sure would have made life a lot easier had she been able to return to her people and take me there too once her divorce to my Father took place. But what is, is.........Rob

    That is quite intolerant of The Homeland to require that she choose a country.

    The United States does not demand that unconscionable choice. My cold blooded view is that Austria’s requirement about citizenship is immoral.

  10. #40
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gimmethesimplelife View Post
    I ...In fact I might be dead today - I'm not sure, perhaps someone with more medical knowledge than me can chime in here (?) - due to my liver infection I had November/December of 2016....antibiotics did exist in Kennedy's time but not all of the ones available today and I don't know if the procedure to drain my liver of infection existed back then, either. So, my point Herbgeek is that I agree with some of what you say, yes.
    Do you mean the liver infection that landed you in the hospital for two weeks? The infection that created a hospital bill probably around a quarter of a million dollars? The hospital bill that the taxpayers picked up because the socialzed medicine system here, the one you constantly disparage, actually worked for you?

    Is that the liver infection you are talking about?

    If so, oh, okay—carry on.

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