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Politics : The Castle -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (3422)	6/2/2004 6:31:50 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7936

I said what I said because I once believed like you that the American model was the best I don't think the "American model" (to the extent that there is a consciously planned or selected model) is the best of all possible models, merely the best that anyone has implemented, or perhaps just the best for the US. but through my own experiences and learning, I grew to realize that different models have different priorities. I've realized that a long time ago. Obviously any selection of a certain model as best would have to be based on relative priorities. No model is best at everything. With unusual priorities you could even select a monarchy, dictatorship, or theocracy as best. I put a strong emphasis on economic growth and opportunity, and a very strong emphasis on individual freedom. I would put a moderately strong emphasis on equality of opportunity and a low emphasis on equality of results. Someone who considers more equal results to be a higher priority would probably want a system with more socialism built in to it even if it resulted in less growth, opportunity, and/or freedom. How do you know? In many ways, the Europeans discourage excess. They place a large tax on gas to reduce consumption and encourage the development of other modes of transportation. Consequently, their public transportation system, both inter city and intra city, is much better than ours. A tax on gas isn't particularly relevant to super sized portions of food, and the size of food portions is almost completely irrelevant to how socialist a country is. They have worked diligently to keep their cities pedestrian friendly.......one by-product....less wasteful sprawl. For a long time, the French would not allow McDonald's to open in France and when did, McDonalds was required to follow strict guidelines. Those guidelines do not include limits on portion sizes, and in any case you don't need to have McDs or any fast food place in order to have huge portions of food. "If it is true Americans overeat more then most Europeans" Huh? You don't think that's true? Why do you think that. If I didn't think it was true I would have said something like "If it was true...", "If it is true..." is a neutral statement. I suspect in this case it is true, although its possible the extent of the truth has been exaggerated in many accounts. Like I said, most people do not eat to excess because they are happy. You do the math! You have to lay out the equation first. Then it might be good to actually show some relevance to the more general point. I could guess at what you are implying but why should I? My guess might be incorrect, in which case I would be distorting your position, or it might be correct, it which case I would be making the argument for you. Most people who eat to excess probably don't do so because they are happy but that doesn't mean that they are not happy (or that they are), it just means happiness is not the reason. Tim