EMR

You have made my point for me.
You obviously do not come on here to debate but just to put forward your own views.
Has it occurred to you that there are as many economic theories as there are economists.
Do you really believe that only you has got it right and that the other 99999999 are wrong.??

jimenato

amideislas may well have a point but I've given up reading her posts.

They are characterised by sarcasm and very obvious straw men and treats any view contrary to hers with utter contempt - all very counter productive debating techniques which will only antagonise rather than persuade.

She does do the sarcasm very well.

EMR

What is the saying "Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit !!! "

johnnyone

Perhaps we should all move to Libya.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP
Statistics. What a lot of rubbish.

Fredbargate

But far better than no wit at all

EMR

Don't, worry you will get some eventually !!!!

EMR

Back on topic.
If anyone doubts why it is so important that tax evasion/avoidance is reduced so in part that our public services do not suffer from under funding should read the thread on the US section of British Expats " I ( thought ) I had bought Obama Care "
Next time I read someone complaining about the NHS etc I will refer them and remind them that " there but for the grace of past enlightened Governments across Europe etc

amideislas

<RANT>

First, I don't expect people to accept my views. In fact, I reckon most don't.

After all, I'm very outspoken about a lot of things that are contrary to the populist view, and frankly, some people just don't want to hear it. I fully accept that.

In fact, I am fully aware that expressing my controversial views on forums like this make me a prime target for criticism, just as you are so often subjected to. And I accept full responsibility for whatever despise anyone would develop for me or my views.

But there's a very clear and obvious difference between us, and it's not simply ideological. Let me explain:

Over my lifetime, I have observed a few very common human character traits which most people exhibit to varying degrees (including myself at times). And if you dig a little deeper, you often find these character traits are the very roots of whatever dissatisfaction people express, rather than whatever they express dissatisfaction with.

These include;

Hypocrisy
Dogmatism
Reckless Idealism
Arrogance
Pettiness
Jealousy

And if you look at my "debate" history, I believe you'll find that most of my arguments incubate from one or more of these things.

Pro-Americanism
No doubt most will argue that all my views are simply feckless "pro americanism", but if you look below the surface of that, you will discover that an astronomical amount of the irony, hypocrisy, dogmatism, and even jealousy people exhibit are directed at Americans. So much so, we often re-write history to support it. Happens all the time. Plus the fact that the Americans seem to consistently come out ahead, despite our (often misguided) beliefs. No doubt that only further pisses people off and makes the yanks an even greater target of criticism.

I'd argue that we falsely blame them for so many things that we ourselves are demonstrably equally or more to blame for, it certainly has the appearance that we are either diverting blame from our own failings, or simply out of jealousy, but that's another topic.

Anyway, my "pro-american" views are not really all about being "pro-american", but are far more related to my favourite human character traits so many people seem to exhibit.

She thinks she's always right
Again, I fully accept that many may have developed a distaste for my views and my presentation of them, and as a result, won't like anything I have to say not matter what it is. It's blatantly obvious. And it can be very petty at times.

In one really petty example, in a recent thread in the USA forum about UHT milk, I innocently mentioned that UHT is the norm in Europe, and it's difficult to find fresh milk and that it's more expensive, and that I'm jealous that fresh milk is far more available in the US. It was just an innocent comment, not a "pro-american rant".

Well, Someone else posted that fresh milk is widely available in Italy. Low and behold, shortly afterwards, someone else posted that they've rarely seen UHT milk in Europe, another suggested they've never seen any such unrefrigerated "milk section" in any European supermarket, and another piped in and suggested I am again proving how little I know about it.

I could have just left it there - after all, it's a very petty, useless argument, but being that UHT milk is demonstrably the absolute norm in most of Europe, I did what I normally do, and fact-checked it.

Well, what do you know? it turns out that UHT milk is known to be so common in Europe, that undeniable proof of it is staggering. Being a very easy thing to do, I posted a few links of that undeniable proof, and a photo of a milk section of a European supermarket, which stopped this useless, petty argument in its tracks...

...but I have no doubt that more than few contributors in that thread only resolved to "You just can't argue with that arrogant bitch. She thinks she's always right". But if that's true, OK with me, because it only exemplifies some of my favourite human character traits.

Fact or fiction?
I know all too well that many people have developed a strong distaste for my "arrogance" and will go to great lengths to prove how "wrong" I am, so I don't just fact-check everybody else's opinions, I routinely fact-check my own views, too.

In fact, before I post anything that contradicts the accepted populist view, I almost always fact-check my own views, and obtain supporting evidence, knowing full well that there is likely to be a backlash of opposing opinions.

So, when when my views challenged, I have plenty of supporting evidence ready to offer, and no doubt that only further pisses a lot of people off.

But that's OK, because I have no doubt it encourages people to think before adopting (often reckless) opinions without any supporting evidence.


With respect to you, EMR...

Here's a few observations and a little advice, which I'm sure you'll ignore, or even passionately deny, but I believe even those who have come to dislike me or any of my views would agree with this.

First, you never fact-check anything. You have a long history of blurting out opinions that you haven't fact-checked at all. You have a habit of never offering any supporting evidence of your opinions. Nothing. Your fish story in the Gibraltar thread is an excellent example of that.

Second, even when presented with undeniable, irrefutable evidence to the contrary, you seem to only elevate your flogging of a dead horse. That's called dogmatism. Look it up.

Third, you have the arrogance to openly accuse others of never providing any evidence to support their views (even when they do, you ignore them), yet you never seem to believe the same standard should apply to you. That's called hypocrisy. Look it up.

Fourth, in arguing your opinions, you routinely offer erroneous blanket statements as "supporting facts", and in every argument you engage in, you are always caught out in one or more obvious porkies. You have done it in this thread several times, and in other threads, you're nothing less than a legend for it.

Fifth, you consistently exhibit an obviously skewed view of reality. You make presumptions, sometimes based on the morning's sensationalist headlines, without even understanding the details of the story, and then proceed, on that basis alone, to assert a broad range of additional assumptions that are equally without any basis in reality. You get it miserably wrong very often, and are routinely caught-out. Yet you have the audacity to accuse everybody else of not having a clue.

Sixth, and particularly relative to your narrative in this thread, you consistently frame your arguments from a perspective of a "perfect world", where all things are ideal, yet you dismiss all realities of why we don't live in that world. That's reckless idealism, and if everybody saw the world from your perspective, I can assure you that our present condition would seem like a garden of eden by comparison.



Now considering that you consistently tick just about all my favourite boxes, it should be no surprise that I consider your narratives to be amongst my favourite objects of sarcasm.



</RANT>

jimenato

All together now...

It's not what you say it's the way that you say it...

... and that's what gets results.

EsuriJohn

When we moved to this little backward corner of Andalucia in 2005 you could not buy fresh milk in any of the supermarkets or locals we had to go into Portugal for it. It is still not available in most supermarkets except Mercadona!

EMR

I have no desire to enter into a lengthy debate on this .
I do not claim to be an expert or have all the answers.
I have my opinions and theories based on research and observation and you have yours.

If you study the human condition at all you will soon realise that history has taught us that what you think is right and an indisputable fact today will turn out to be the opposite tomorrow.
That is a fact.
Our views are poles apart . lets just leave it at that.

EMR

I cannot think of a european country we have visted where we have not been able to buy fresh milk even in Wales.

jimenato

You would have to search to get fresh milk in parts of Andalucia at one time - it was all UHT although that might have changed in the last year or so.

In the UK it is practically all fresh. UHT is available but it isn't given much shelf space.

Of course the UK isn't part of Europe.

Fredbargate

In Gibraltar in the closed frontier days it was
Powdered...... Nido
Tinned evaporated or condensed

Or if you were very lucky/military and an Herkybird had visited there was a slim possibility that fresh milk and the other rarety fresh eggs had been put on board

I installed an outside tap at Windy so they could water the hens more easily, my reward 2 fresh eggs for a half days work

Those times were great

amideislas

Europe's unrefrigerated milk could help save the environment

Popularity of UHT milk in Europe