Reasons Americans are hated

[theweatherman]

haha, thats the most ignorant view of third worldexplotation ive ever heard. The people are forced to work on these flower plantations because the companies that own them own all the land in the area, as such the only jobs are on the platation forwhat the company decides is a good wage (good for the company, not the worker).

The big flaw in your argument is that fact that while the flowers are worth 1000 an acre theworker only gets like 1 dollar an acre. If he grew an acre of corn then he would be much better off than growing profits for a huge company.

[MaxPower]

[ QUOTE ]
haha, thats the most ignorant view of third worldexplotation ive ever heard. The people are forced to work on these flower plantations because the companies that own them own all the land in the area, as such the only jobs are on the platation forwhat the company decides is a good wage (good for the company, not the worker).

The big flaw in your argument is that fact that while the flowers are worth 1000 an acre theworker only gets like 1 dollar an acre. If he grew an acre of corn then he would be much better off than growing profits for a huge company.

[/ QUOTE ]

Who allows these companies to own all of the land and allows them to pay their workers so poorly?

It is silly to blame Americans for that. It is the powerfull people in these 3rd world countries that allow these things to happen. We do benefit from it though.

[jcx]

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For a nation that aspires to be a global superpower, its citizens are not traveling abroad as much as self-respecting citizens of a superpower would!

It appears that only about 20 percent of Americans own a passport. Here's an interesting web page with some figures.

I don't have the figures for other countries but the American percentage seems quite low in comparison to what I'd expect from most other western democracies - or even Japan. (Canadians seem to have passports in double that figure.)

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There are reasons for the average American's lack of passport stamps. The US is blessed with nearly every type of topography and climate within its borders you could imagine. Intl travel is not necessary if an American wishes to lay on a beach in the tropics, hike in an alpine meadow, mountain bike in the desert or visit a glacier. As for foreign culture, the food and customs of almost every ethnic group on earth can be found here. Most Europeans (N. Europeans esp) Canadians and Japanese need to travel internationally to find warm winter weather. Japanese society is incredibly homogenous, so they have to travel to experience different culture.

As previously stated, Americans also work longer hours in general and have less vacation time for long summer holidays. If you have a week or two only to play with, you're likely not going to want to waste 2-3 days of your vacation just to get to and from your destination. Many also use vacation time to visit rarely-seen family (which may live 1500 miles away, not usually a problem for the Dutch).

This is not meant to deny the parochial nature of many Americans. Many of us have a smug attitude that our way of life is best and see no reason to travel when the best of everything is right here. I for one have been to 4 continents and would like to someday be able to say I stood on all 7. But I'm fairly unique amongst my friends and acquaintances. To many Americans Hawaii and (for the real adventurous) perhaps the UK or France are about as exotic as it will ever get.

[jcx]

[ QUOTE ]
haha, thats the most ignorant view of third worldexplotation ive ever heard. The people are forced to work on these flower plantations because the companies that own them own all the land in the area, as such the only jobs are on the platation forwhat the company decides is a good wage (good for the company, not the worker).

The big flaw in your argument is that fact that while the flowers are worth 1000 an acre theworker only gets like 1 dollar an acre. If he grew an acre of corn then he would be much better off than growing profits for a huge company.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes because subsistence farming is a definite path to prosperity for poor nations. I like the way you think comrade.

[bobman0330]

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haha, thats the most ignorant view of third worldexplotation ive ever heard. The people are forced to work on these flower plantations because the companies that own them own all the land in the area, as such the only jobs are on the platation forwhat the company decides is a good wage (good for the company, not the worker).

The big flaw in your argument is that fact that while the flowers are worth 1000 an acre theworker only gets like 1 dollar an acre. If he grew an acre of corn then he would be much better off than growing profits for a huge company.

[/ QUOTE ]

What the [censored] are you people talking about?? There is no such thing as third world flower exploitation. The big flower industry does not own any "all the land" in any area. In fact, the bulk of flower production is in the first world (as of mid-90s link). In any case, EU flower demand is much higher than US demand.

Furthermore, it's terribly uneconomical for third-world farmers to grow food crops because of EU (and to a lesser extent, US) agricultural subsidies.

Part of what made the OP so hilarious was that he made up his entire rant out of whole cloth...

[BCPVP]

This is the reason Americans are hated abroad? And here I thought it was because of their perceptions of our foreign policies! Silly me.

Your choice of time and place to rail against American capitalism is a little inappropriate, don't you think? Were you wearing your Che shirt while you were at it, comrade?

[HopeydaFish]

So you're at a family funeral...for a war veteran...and you decide that *this* is a good time to start ranting to your cousin about the evils of America. Well played.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

Al-Qaida started in Peshawar, meaning the city of flowers. I think you are wrong, it is the terrorists who like flowers [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img].

[HopeydaFish]

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Al-Qaida started in Peshawar, meaning the city of flowers. I think you are wrong, it is the terrorists who like flowers [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img].

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Well, poppies anyway.

[Cyrus]

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For the most part im only going to need [a passport] if i travel overseas, but wouldnt europeans need them to travel right next door?

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That's the problem. For most Americans, next door is abroad.