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As an American with some German ancestry, I find this to be very embarrassing. (The Swedes in my family can all change a tire as well, including my sister, but
by sverige 10y ago
As an American with some German ancestry, I find this to be very embarrassing. (The Swedes in my family can all change a tire as well, including my sister, but the German side is embarrassed.)
Americans have become complacent and lazy, with no sense of "know how" or "make do." Hell, kids don't even know how to clean and cook a rabbit, let alone how to catch one with a snare. If the zombie apocalypse ever happened for real, The Walking Dead wouldn't last a full season. Everyone would starve to death.
- kodfodrasz 10y agoWould you risk eating a "zombie rabbit"? :)
- sverige 10y agoThe main thing is to check the liver for spots. If it has spots, don't eat the meat.
- a_bonobo 10y agoI assure you 99.99999% of Germans don't know how to clean and cook a rabbit.
- Arnt 10y agoYou're saying that there are only 8 Germans alive who can do it. Between 90 and 99% sounds more reasonable.
- easilyBored 10y agoYou're saying that there are only 8 Germans alive who can do it. and 6 of them have a 99.9% chance of dying within 10 years, given that they are 82+ years old. :) On a serious note: A lot of immigrants make a lot of money (relatively speaking) right away since they are jack of all trades and are willing /have to learn. Things that a locksmith would charge you $150 and a plumber $200 and an electrician $xxx an immigrant can do all within an afternoon, all for living rent free as superintendent. Probably some rules and codes are bent but who's watching...
- dozzie 10y agoThe owner, who is German himself.
- easilyBored 10y agoI meant government rules and codes .
- mcv 10y agoGermany might not have as much of a hunting culture as the US or Norway, but still a lot more so than Netherland. I would expect more Germans to know how to clean and cook a rabbit.
- johndotsun 10y agoSaying Americans have become complacent and lazy because they don't know how to catch, clean, and cook a rabbit is like saying that Americans have become complacent and lazy because they don't know how to steer a covered wagon across the plains.
- imesh 10y agoYeah except being able to catch, clean and cook your food is still a valuable skill. However I would say there are more Americans who can do that than Germans... It's hard as hell to get a hunting license in Germany.
- johndotsun 10y agoI suppose it's useful if you're really into wild camping. Realistically how often would the average person, even someone living in a rural state, need to catch, clean and cook their own food? How many decades has it been since a significant portion of the population has needed that skill? Probably several generations at least. I bet less than a fraction of a percent of the population lives in a situation such that they don't procure most of their food through purchases of the products of agriculture or animal husbandry. A town has to get very small and very remote before periodic trips to the grocery store become so onerous that it's actually more efficient to set snares or sit in a tree for days on end waiting for a deer to wander by. I suspect that any scenario in which hunting/trapping becomes a valuable skill for a significant portion of the population is also a situation where knowing how to operate an animal drawn vehicle is also a useful skill.
- Pica_soO 10y agoThe moment it really matters- every day you walk away from and the day after.
- Frondo 10y agoAgreed. This whole "you might need it to survive" stuff is such a total fantasy, it's as realistic as "you might need to learn klingon to survive on a bird of prey some day". This fiction about civilization collapsing, but then surviving on your wits and hunting skill, is the stuff of YA novels.
- mcv 10y agoThis certainly makes me think. I'm Dutch, and when I was a kid, I knew how to repair my bike. Today, I tend to hire others to fix everything. I wouldn't know how to replace a car tire (other than to try the obvious).
- InitialLastName 10y agoPlease just remember to loosen the lug nuts while the wheel is on the ground (and tighten them fully in the same state).
- pjc50 10y agoEveryone knowing how to skin a rabbit doesn't help if there aren't enough rabbits. A population of 320m Americans catching rabbits? A billion rabbits a week? (The US currently consumes 8 billion chickens a year)
- sverige 10y agoThere are lots and lots of wild rabbits. They breed ... like rabbits, lol.
- sverige 10y agoComing back to this late. I guess my point about rabbits is that when I was a kid in the 60s in a rural place, it was a very common skill that kids were taught -- along with a bunch of other practical stuff. My generation generally did a poor job of passing along those skills. (My daughter can clean a fish, not a rabbit, but she's a vegan now haha.)