h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just marking... shan't read the b/log it will likely just enfuriate me.

ATOM BOY
yes, so, if you cant afford health insurence on your own, there is Medicaide and Medicare. I dont remember which is which, but one is for old people, where the govt provides their insurance, and one is for poor people. I dont know how the one for poor people works, but my grandmother has suddenly found herself with a nurse coming 2 times a week to clean, shop, and cook! And that's besides the medical bills.

and is it possible to be without health insurance, even with medicaide en medicare? Does one has to request medicaide/care?



Oh, and another question; if an American doenst have a job, what does he gets? and howmuch...what's the idea behind foodstamps etc?



(yes, i'm b!7(|-|!ing, but I really wanna know if my opinion of the "american system" is wrong...)

It is very possible to be w/o insurance or medicade. But, and heres the catch, the majority of those people whom have niether don't work by choice not because of health restrictions.

Food stamps are handed out to anyone who meets the "poverty guide lines".

In addition to those programs there are food banks in every substancially sized town and lots of aid orginazitions, like the salvation army, who provide clothing, shelter, help w/ utility bills, car rides to important appointments, medical funding(reduced costs and aid)...........

Churches and cherities help those whom seek it. The gov hands out lots of welfare. The people of this nation are very compassionate.

Thank you Nexton. I was wondering if Atom Boy really thought we live in a nation of dogs.
Ever since the Great Depression there has been plenty of welfare and aid to people who need it. Not to mention unemployment payments for those out of work, WIC if your kids need nourishment, HUD if the govt feels you house is too small for your family, and so on. The only people who might not know how to get all their income out of the government is the newly immigrated. Otherwise, if you're living on a park bench, it's by choice.

Just catching up on the backlog, this particular one staggered me, Leo...

>> quite a few "African-Americans" are not from Africa at all, but trace themselves waaaay back in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and other places in the Western Hemisphere. <<

What do you think they were doing there? And how do you think they got there?

RF

OK RF, how far back does your origin have to be before you dump it for your more recent location?

Example:
for three generations back I'm American.

Four generations back and I'm Russian.

Five generations back and I'm Palestinian.

Six generations back and I'm Scottish.

Do I go around calling myself a Scottish-American? Palestinian-American? Russian-American? Heck, no! I consider myself to be from America.

Similiarly, if your family has been in Puerto Rico for 5 generations,
and you march in the Puerto Rican day parade,
you speak Spanish, not Swahili,
and you've never tasted any food that wasn't Carribean,
how can you call yourself "African"?!

Which reminds me, Atom Boy, I'm not sure if you got the idea before, that being called an _______-American is the choice of the people of these ethnicities, as a matter of pride. There is no discrimination involved. They want it.

(And if I were discriminating, I'd be more likely to call them "black" "coolie" "kike" "limey" or any other less polite term than "Chinese-American".)

>>What do you think they were doing there? And how do you think they got there?<<

Fancy answering the question, Leo?

Blurring the distinction between elective migration and forcible relocation as a result of slavery doesn't really help - easy enough to say 'Hey, I'm just an American' if you're with the former group, a rather more complex business for descendants of the latter.

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<<(And if I were discriminating, I'd be more likely to call them "black" "coolie" "kike" "limey" or any other less polite term than "Chinese-American".)>>

I'd prefer to just call myself "American"--but I suppose others think other ways.

just to return to the original subject of the thread
Mark Thatcher, son of the former British PM has been arrested in SA for possible involvement in an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea
given MTs Texas connections and EQ being the 3rd largest African oil producer conspiracy theories will be flying around so to a limited degree it does affect the US

to trow it offtopic again

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About the first sentence; I don't get it, could you please be a little clearer.(English is not my first language)
About foodstamps; how exactly does that work (in the netherlands we only had foodstamps in the 2nd world war.)


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No, I don't think you live in a nation of dogs. As I said before, I wanted to find out wheter or not my idea of the USA was flawed. And it is flawed...nevertheless I'll continue to ask questions about the us social security just cause i'm interested.

About the "it's by choice" part. Can you agree with me that there are people who just fall through the mazes of the net?(poory translated dutch expression)

I'm not on a course to burn the american system or whatever. I'm just curious.

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true, point well made!

There are some people who choose not to apply for aid. many of the people who sleep on park benches, for example, choose to do so because, (I quote from an article based on interviews,) they value their "privacy and independence."

Yes, there are doubtless some who fall through the cracks accidentally, but not more or less so than in any other country. And a neighbor of mine, a recent immigrant, is so good at managing the system that I wonder whether more of her income comes from the government and various organizations, or from her part-time job!

>>Blurring the distinction between elective migration and forcible relocation as a result of slavery doesn't really help - easy enough to say 'Hey, I'm just an American' if you're with the former group, a rather more complex business for descendants of the latter.<<


Just an aside: [Where exactly does 'elective migration' and 'forcible relocation' begin and end? For example, if a deportee of WWII returned to their town and found their house and property taken over by the somewhat hostile locals, and they were forced to move, is that 'elective' or 'forcible'?]

Anyway, you are COMPLETELY missing the point that was made. The term "Chinese-American", "Mexican-American" and "African-American" are generally used to affiliate oneself with an American sub-culture.

Since a good chunk of the Dominican-Repulicans and Puerto-Ricans in question affiliate themselves with the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, it's merely odd that they identify themselves with a sub-culture that they don't have anything to do with.

I hope that my helped highlight the important parts, so that you don't think this is about immigration instead of culture.

Hmm.

Hmm indeed.

>>Just an aside: [Where exactly does 'elective migration' and 'forcible relocation' begin and end? For example, if a deportee of WWII returned to their town and found their house and property taken over by the somewhat hostile locals, and they were forced to move, is that 'elective' or 'forcible'?]<<

Forcible.

>>Anyway, you are COMPLETELY missing the point that was made. The term "Chinese-American", "Mexican-American" and "African-American" are generally used to affiliate oneself with an American sub-culture.

Since a good chunk of the Dominican-Repulicans and Puerto-Ricans in question affiliate themselves with the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, it's merely odd that they identify themselves with a sub-culture that they don't have anything to do with.

I hope that my helped highlight the important parts, so that you don't think this is about immigration instead of culture.<<

In the absence of a distinction between 'America' and 'The United States of America', it is "about immigration [national] instead of culture [supranational]"

You still haven't answered the question.

for the first:
Most european immigrants from the 1950s don't call themselves Polish-Americans.

For the second:
In the absence of a distinction between 'America' and 'The United States of America', it is "about immigration [national] instead of culture [supranational]"<<

You are quibbling. If they were in Canada they would call themselves African-Canadians. It is most definitely cultural.

*Sigh*

[Leo] >> quite a few "African-Americans" are not from Africa at all, but trace themselves waaaay back in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and other places in the Western Hemisphere. <<

[RF] >>What do you think they were doing there? And how do you think they got there?<<

Still be quite interested in hearing your response.

Well I was 'Hmm-ing' at most things said between then and my last post. Not just what Howl had said...

OK Trin, they came from Africa on slaveships. _10_ generations ago. They dont practice African culture, speak Swahili, or do anything particularly African. (Not all, but many.)
For almost anybody else, that would qualify them as non-African. In fact, I recall that on the "Tell me about Americans" thread one person griping that the problem with Americans is that they call themselves "Dutch" "German" etc when all they do is eat the food when their grandmother serves it to them. ie: They connect themselves to cultures that aren't theirs. Apparently you feel the opposite. So try this one.

Lets say a merchant from France was kidnapped by pirates during the middle ages, (a common enough happening), sold as a slave in Egypt, where he was eventually freed. He settled down, and 6 generations later, what do you suppose his children call themselves?
According to you, there should be vast families in North AFrica that call themselves "French-Egyptian" "Spanish-Tunisian" and "Belgian-Morroccan". Go find some. Then come back with your "Well where did they come from?" arguement.