3 ms·

"The time I spend in the US I had the feeling that you have more of a pseudo freedom than actual freedom. " Having grown up in Germany and now living in the US

"The time I spend in the US I had the feeling that you have more of a pseudo freedom than actual freedom. " Having grown up in Germany and now living in the US I think in the US you can have more freedom if you are willing to live outside the boundaries of the life the average citizen has. If you are willing to live off the grid you can be pretty free. Some people think freedom also means the right to not have health insurance. But if you live the life of the average citizen with a regular job I feel the US citizen is less free. You constantly have to worry about the cost of health care and education. I also feel people are less willing to voice their opinion in order to not offend others. You have way less rights as an employee. Police is less predictable and may do weird stuff. I also feel less free when I get into a confrontation with somebody and have to worry about getting shot.

mrkstu 5y ago
Interesting perspective, though I'd like some detail around the 'worry about getting shot' comment. I'm in my 50s and have lived in the US all but 2 of my years, and have never been concerned about getting shot (in the US or abroad.) In what kind of situations have you found yourself that you've actively had this worry?
- spaetzleesser 5y ago
  I had a situation where almost every morning a guy with big work truck would pass us extremely closely at full speed while we were walking our dog. The road didn’t have sidewalks so usually cars would slow down or change sides but this guy didn’t. We tried to wave to him to slow down which only resulted in him swerving towards us so we had to jump off the road. One day I stood in the middle of the road and made him stop. I explained the situation to him and he was extremely aggressive and threatened to beat me up. I told him he can try but should think about the consequences first. After a while he backed off. I called his employer and never saw him again. When i told this story to some people they told me that I would have had a real problem if he had had a gun. That’s probably true. In Germany you usually can assume that even bad guys don’t have a gun but in the US you have to assume that every idiot has a gun. This brings confrontations quickly to a dangerous level.

mrkstu 5y ago

Interesting perspective, though I'd like some detail around the 'worry about getting shot' comment. I'm in my 50s and have lived in the US all but 2 of my years, and have never been concerned about getting shot (in the US or abroad.) In what kind of situations have you found yourself that you've actively had this worry?

spaetzleesser 5y ago
I had a situation where almost every morning a guy with big work truck would pass us extremely closely at full speed while we were walking our dog. The road didn’t have sidewalks so usually cars would slow down or change sides but this guy didn’t. We tried to wave to him to slow down which only resulted in him swerving towards us so we had to jump off the road. One day I stood in the middle of the road and made him stop. I explained the situation to him and he was extremely aggressive and threatened to beat me up. I told him he can try but should think about the consequences first. After a while he backed off. I called his employer and never saw him again. When i told this story to some people they told me that I would have had a real problem if he had had a gun. That’s probably true. In Germany you usually can assume that even bad guys don’t have a gun but in the US you have to assume that every idiot has a gun. This brings confrontations quickly to a dangerous level.