America = 20th Century, Rest of World = 21st Century

[Agathon]

The answer to your question is peculiar to America. You are not the only one who has noticed the public squalor of American cities. I remember visiting Boston for the first time and wondering how a major American City could be such an awful place. The last time I stayed in L.A. my hotel had an armed guard outside the door who said he wouldn't let me go for a walk in case I got shot, and my room had big notices telling you to keep your windows shut and never let anyone in (this was on the tenth floor or so, I cannot see how a robber could climb that high). This was at a reasonably nice airport hotel. So I stayed in my room and watched TV. By some coincidence every channel had something on that related to strippers.

The US is basically a giant experiment in how much public filth and inefficiency people can put up with if they really don't like paying tax. Other developed countries either have higher taxes or much higher growth and so can afford better public infrastructure. But it's their country, and if they want to live like swine in perpetual fear of crime, that is their problem.

The suburbs are an environmental disaster, and the true cost of them is only now becoming apparent. Americans have been used to extremely cheap petrol for years. It helps make suburbia affordable. This is unlikely to continue for much longer. Sadly, the solution was evident 50 years ago. The most energy efficient form of living is in short tower blocks with shared gardens. They take up less space and generate much less pollution. Those countries that planned around this model have a massive head start.

I have to laugh at Patroklos. I visited Singapore in 1983, and it was a lovely place then.

[Patroklos]

I have to laugh at Patroklos. I visited Singapore in 1983, and it was a lovely place then.

So as a communist you aprove of a square mile of decadent glass towers populated by abusive slave wage paying capitalists surrounded my hundreds of square miles of slums full of destitute poor?

The new face of the Communist utopia


At least your perception of Communism finally matches the reality of it.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
The answer to your question is peculiar to America. You are not the only one who has noticed the public squalor of American cities.

Oh, give me a ****ing break.

The subway stations in Toronto are much worse than the picture he showed of Chicago.

Get off yourself.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Agathon
I have to laugh at Patroklos. I visited Singapore in 1983, and it was a lovely place then.

The discussion is not whether Singapore is "lovely"; we can all agree it's pleasant, if a little dull (you probably didn't notice the dullness, being Canadian).

The discussion is about the material conditions that allow Singapore to be "lovely." As a Marxist, I would have thought the whole "material conditions" thing would have been right up your alley, but apparently Patroklos -- Patroklos! -- is more attuned to that than you are. You're a bad, bad commie. Unless, of course, you're just a bad, bad reader.

[Imran Siddiqui]

you probably didn't notice the dullness, being Canadian

You're a bad, bad commie. Unless, of course, you're just a bad, bad reader.

I'd add "bad, bad troll".

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

you probably didn't notice the dullness, being Canadian

Oi!

Kernel of truth though.

[Kidlicious]

IMO, we have too many show off buildings and things of that nature in the US, although we do neglect our important infrastructure too much. The bridge collapse in MN comes too mind. That said, Singapore sucks, and shouldn't represent communism.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
The discussion is not whether Singapore is "lovely"; we can all agree it's pleasant, if a little dull (you probably didn't notice the dullness, being Canadian).

AGATHON IS NOT CANADIAN! HE IS A KIWI!



He lived here a bit while he mooched off of public funds to get his degree in filosofical masturbation, then he promptly moved to Korea.

[DanS]

Originally posted by Lancer
It's true Frosty, many of our major cities are the pits. The world is passing us by in this way. Don't know much about Chicago but New York has been abandoned by its wealthy seeking a better life in the suburbs, running from forced bussing of their children to ghetto schools.

The rich may have abandoned New York, but they came back.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Asher


AGATHON IS NOT CANADIAN! HE IS A KIWI!



He lived here a bit while he mooched off of public funds to get his degree in filosofical masturbation, then he promptly moved to Korea.

I beg the apology of Canadians, then.

The joke works just as well with kiwis, anyway.

[Asher]

Apology accepted.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by FrostyBoy
But i'm not racist, my girlfriend is chinese.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Patroklos

So as a communist you aprove of a square mile of decadent glass towers populated by abusive slave wage paying capitalists surrounded my hundreds of square miles of slums full of destitute poor?

I didn't say I fully approved of Singapore, and your characterization of it is risible, as are most of your opinions. It was a nice place when I visited, although that was a long time ago (when you claim it was virtually a third world country). It scores well on the HDI, above European countries like Portugal.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly

The discussion is not whether Singapore is "lovely"; we can all agree it's pleasant, if a little dull (you probably didn't notice the dullness, being Canadian).

Don't associate me with the Canadians. They aren't a real country anyway.

[Patroklos]

I didn't say I fully approved of Singapore, and your characterization of it is risible, as are most of your opinions.

What is risible is an internet lecturing communist of the self proclaimed pseudo intellectual sort, would dare to call a place built on the backs of (and still supported on the backs of) millions of down trodden proles of the most destitute variety, a nice place.

There you are standing in one of the most decadent fortresses of oppressive capitalism, and even I will say that, and you overall judgment is a "nice place?" And this was in 1983, when the plight of Singapore’s own poor (to say nothing of the still backwards Maylay suburbs) was hardly as whitewashed as it is today?

I mean honestly, do you have any intellectual integrity at all? Hell, at the very least qualify that statment that it seemed nice only because you were ignorant of or not thinking about the realities of why what you saw was that way. Or that you were only commenting on the architeture and astetics of downtown only. Or at least drop the faux communist rheteric from now on.