Why do Americans do this?

Damian in Edinburgh   Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:02 am GMT
It's a chronic problem here in the UK as well.....the problem all boils down to the fact that life expectancy is increasing year by year.......by the time I get to offical retirement age I'll be at least 70 years old...it's currently 65 years in the UK.

I would never wish to be a burden on anyone - be it relatives or, heaven forbid, the State. I plan to sell all my worldy goods then take all my cash out of the bank and move into a croft cottage on a remote island in the West of Scotland, which I will heat with peat in the winter, and live on cockles, winkles and seaweed quiches washed down by pure freshwater running down a nearby glen I will watch the sun rise over Ben Nevis in the east and watch it set over the wild Atlantic to the west and entertain myself with sudoku and BBC Radio Scotland.

I will be self sufficient to my dying day......and end up as sustenance for the seagulls.....we don't have vultures in Scotland.....outside of Government, that is.

Guid nicht fae Scotland.
diagnostics   Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:22 am GMT
<<I will be self sufficient to my dying day..>>


No you won't. If you live long enough you'll be decrepit and have a maid cleaning up the mess from your self-induced fistula.
Wintereis   Thu Dec 31, 2009 4:05 am GMT
<<Why do Americans?>>

Because, people like to generalize and forget the fact that other countries do the same thing. It is something we Americans nave to put up with daily. . . the stupidity of foreigners.

Victoires de la Musique Classique. French Prima Donna, Natalie Dessay -"Glitter And Be Gay" from Bernstein's Operetta, Candide:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCg4r1Ile4w&feature=PlayList&p=7663D26F90E2116A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=14
American   Thu Dec 31, 2009 4:51 am GMT
American culture puts a great emphasis on independence. Americans don't see it as abandoning their parents/grandparents. They see it as allowing them to live independently. Conversely, many elderly people would rather be put into some sort of home than feel they are a burden to their family. It's just the way the culture is.

Also, there may be practical reasons for living in such a facility. For instance, an individual may require specialized medical care on a regular basis and it's cheaper, safer, and more convenient for them to reside in a place with medical staff on hand. I worked at a retirement home in high school. One portion was basically an apartment complex with a nursing staff that would deliver medicine door to door, very independent. The other was a "permanent resident building", which housed those that needed constant medical care.
money talks   Thu Dec 31, 2009 6:15 am GMT
because there are no family values in USA.

Highest divorce rate in the world USA
Highest abortion rate USA
Highest (your question) USA
Highest disbelieve in marriage USA

its just a jungle with no family values, but remember the poor european immigrants went to USA to make money, not a great culture and preserve family values. And the new waves of immigrants were corrupted by the immoral society, where all it matters is money, money, money.
A typical American can pimp his sister, sell his mother for money. The whole world knows that Americans are wage slaves, where time is money, everything in America is money and business first blh blah blah.

there are 1000 of cases in america were people killed their parents to take over their houses.
Wintereis   Thu Dec 31, 2009 6:37 am GMT
<<because there are no family values in USA.

Highest divorce rate in the world USA
Highest abortion rate USA
Highest (your question) USA
Highest disbelieve in marriage USA

its just a jungle with no family values, but remember the poor european immigrants went to USA to make money, not a great culture and preserve family values. And the new waves of immigrants were corrupted by the immoral society, where all it matters is money, money, money.
A typical American can pimp his sister, sell his mother for money. The whole world knows that Americans are wage slaves, where time is money, everything in America is money and business first blh blah blah.

there are 1000 of cases in america were people killed their parents to take over their houses.>>

From now on, any time someone posts some stupid, stereotyped, nearsighted, xenophobic drivel on here I will post something that challenges such assumptions. By the way, the statement above is EASILY disproven, if one takes the time to actually look at history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx8WbZIWCSM
Wintereis   Thu Dec 31, 2009 7:07 am GMT
Also,

Americans are the most generous people in the world, measured by charitable giving as a percent of GDP. Americans give twice as much (1.67% of GDP) as the next most charitable country, the U.K. at 0.73%, according to this study by the Charities Aid Foundation (chart above is taken from the study). Americans give almost 12 times as much as the French and almost 8 times as much as the Germans. In fact, Americans give more as a percent of GDP than France, Germany, Turkey, New Zealand, Singapore and the Netherlands COMBINED!

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charitable causes last year, setting a record and besting the 2005 total that had been boosted by a surge in aid to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the Asian tsunami.
Donors contributed an estimated $295.02 billion in 2006, a 1% increase when adjusted for inflation, up from $283.05 billion in 2005. Excluding donations for disaster relief, the total rose 3.2%, inflation-adjusted, according to an annual report released Monday by the Giving USA Foundation at Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy.

And

according to data from the ISSP 51% of Americans volunteer for charitable purposes while that figure is 37% for France, 36% for Norway, Denmark's figure was 18%.
Edward Teach   Thu Dec 31, 2009 7:39 am GMT
There are a 1000 cases in the east where families sell their children to increase their own lifestyle.
There are a 1000 cases in the east when families commit suicide (or at least the parents commit suicide and murder their children) due to 'financial difficulties'.
Dowries are another example of placing money above the happiness of their children.

Perhaps money talks should travel before deciding that america is any more immoral than anywhere else.
blanc   Thu Dec 31, 2009 9:26 am GMT
the land of the serial criminals
And what other nation kills their democratic elected presidents? How many did you kill and attempted to kill? shame on you, nation of killers
Damian in Edinburgh   Thu Dec 31, 2009 10:06 am GMT
Hardly a week goes by in the streets of the UK without people collecting money for some charity or other....one week it can be for Multiple Sclerosis and the next for the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children), and the one after that for the refugees of some poor, starving African state or the victims of a cyclone in Bangladesh or the local hospice for terminal cancer cases, or whatever the cause of the week was.

At the time of the Indian Ocean tsunami five years ago the people of Britain donated one of the largest sums of money ever to be raised in one single nation -millions of £s in total...there were collectors and collecting tins in practically every single retail establishment, banks, post offices, hotels and even restaurants, and the same happened again following the devastating earthquake in China...yes, China...supposedly the next world economic superpower....British people handing money hand over fist to the Chinese victims of a major disaster. Whether any kind of major disaster in Britain would ever elicit such generosity of spirit from China is highly debatable, but there you go....let us not be uncharitable here.

Street collectors in the UK are not permitted to rattle their tins or openly solicit donations from passing members of the public - all they have to do is stand there and witness the generosity of the British public as they walk by.

My mum has MS (the incidence of MS is high in Scotland, as it is in most northern hemisphere countries - the further north you go the higher the incidence of MS apparently) and I have often stood outside Tesco or Sainsbury's (they are two of the UK's largest supermarkets) with my collecting tin, and wearing my tabard and with my authentication document to hand issued by the MS Society. I am often gobsmacked by the generosity of the British public.....a fellow collector once had a man put a £50 note into his tin...the highest single donation I had put into my tin was a £20 note, from an elderly lady outside Boots (a chain of UK chemists/dispensaries/cum just about everything else connected with health - called drugstores in America I believe).

On one occasion I saw a group of about five or six lads of about 17 to 20 years old approaching me - they looked like typical neds - chavs in English English speak - the types who could well have made me think they would have punched me to the ground and made off with my weighty collecting tin. How wrong I was - each and every one of them dropped a pound coin into my tin, with one of them one saying: "There you go, pal, have one on us!"

Lay off the America bashing!!! - it is true about American generosity. It is only about ten years ago or so that Britain finally paid off the very last American cent of the vast sums of money loaned to us by the United States following the devastation and traumas of WW2.

Credit where credit is due! Thanks Yanks! - that was a commonly used expression over here at that time.

It is Hogmanay in Scotland tonight......Scotland's greatest night of the year......more to follow when I have time......
Guest   Thu Dec 31, 2009 11:25 am GMT
Being generous to the rest of the world doesn't diminish their heartless nature towards their elders.

Americans like K.T and Jasper have a lot of time for writing their drivel on Antimoon yet they have issues with taking care of their parents and grandparents.

Excuses, Excuses !

American men are only good at fucking women and leaving their kids hopeless, miserable.

So called generous people!
Charles   Thu Dec 31, 2009 11:45 am GMT
Wintereis said:

<the stupidity of foreigners. >

Wintereis also said:

<From now on, any time someone posts some stupid, stereotyped, nearsighted, xenophobic drivel on here I will post something that challenges such assumptions. >

So now post something to "challenge" your own assumption, Wintereis.
Guess   Thu Dec 31, 2009 11:47 am GMT
because they send the sons and daughters to the middle east to kill the moslems and there is nobody home to look after the fathers and mothers.
Another Guess   Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:24 pm GMT
What is a moslem?
BethAnn   Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:32 pm GMT
* Hardly a week goes by in the streets of the UK without people collecting money for some charity or other*

So are you saying that, in a country of over 61 million people, weeks do very occasionally go by without people collecting money for some charity or other?