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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (4746)	2/27/2003 11:40:12 AM
From: zonder	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

I trust you when you say that we are comparatively more open about financial matters, and less prone to feel obliged to put up a front. This is really not about putting up a front. It is more about what is rude, or more a propos, embarrassing. As in, it would be embarrassing to the others if someone suddenly said, "You know what, I cannot afford this". I was thinking of examples between close friends who know each other's life well enough that no front would work. However, it is a cultural thing, whereby talking about the need for money is very unusual. My American friends easily show a nice pair of shoes and say "You know what? I would love to have those buy I can't afford it". Not saying this is not putting up a front, imho. Keep in mind that these are people who earn far less money than Americans. It is just that they don't talk about it, whereas it is a very normal, "no big deal" subject for Americans. This is also a very obvious difference between Americans and Europeans as well. In Europe, people do not talk about what they can or cannot afford, either. I am curious about what you would consider "winter", though Oh say max 42 C in summer and min 10 C in the winter. Americans do not commonly wear shorts (outside of Florida, California, or Hawaii) past October.... The earliest that shorts come out is around the beginning of spring, in mid- March I cannot remember what months Americans were starting to wear the shorts or until when they kept them, but I remember being VERY cold in my sweater and coat and staring wide-eyed at their shorts & t-shirts :-) Then of course I went to the US in the summer for the first time and realized that you guys have to have built a tolerance for the cold, otherwise you would have kicked the bucket your first time in an air-conditioned building :-) In the name of cross-cultural understanding, can you explain to me why on earth buildings are air-conditioned to about 10 C in the US? I mean, human body is happy at about 22 C or so when nude, so add a few clothes on, and one should be happy at 20 C. Why lower the temperature so much in covered areas? Once in the US, my father had an urgent health problem in Philedelphia and we took him to the hospital of UPENN. I started sniffing within an hour of setting foot in the hospital. We were all sick in a day :-)