Smart Move: 21 year old leaves the USA

[Kurt]

Incidentally I sometimes feel that Germans think about their cars in the same way Americans think about guns. One of the parties in the current government recently suggested a uniform national speed limit of - gasp - 130km/h and the result was a bit like telling Americans they can’t own assault rifles. Still, I’ve never heard of someone running amok in a school with a Mercedes so the analogy only goes far.

Are there provinces in Germany where motorists are defacto permitted to run down pedestrians because they feel "threatened"? We got that here.

[snaark]

Are there provinces in Germany where motorists are defacto permitted to run down pedestrians because they feel "threatened"? We got that here.

Not that I know of. Maybe in Bavaria.

[ROB]

Incidentally I sometimes feel that Germans think about their cars in the same way Americans think about guns. One of the parties in the current government recently suggested a uniform national speed limit of - gasp - 130km/h and the result was a bit like telling Americans they can’t own assault rifles. Still, I’ve never heard of someone running amok in a school with a Mercedes so the analogy only goes far.

Too much food kills people. Why don't we just ban food?

[rickshaw92]

JUST SPEAK LOUDER.

I have done that on several occasions and sometimes it actually works.

[Tarkan]

So do you guys have people wandering the streets randomly shoving chicken McNuggets down the gullets of 40 unsuspecting innocents at a time?

No, but it's an irrational fear.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/811 ... -injuries/

72 fatalities this year from mass shootings. That means your chances of dying from a mass shooting in the United States is about 2 in 100,000,000. (~2.18 to be more precise).

Meanwhile, CDC top causes of death (2021, alas):
Heart disease: 695,547
Cancer: 605,213
COVID-19: 416,893
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 224,935
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 162,890
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 142,342
Alzheimer’s disease: 119,399
Diabetes: 103,294
Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis : 56,585
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 54,358

Most of those, with the exception of accidents and chronic lower respiratory disease, can be tracked to diet (even covid, since the obese had much high fatality rates).

Fleeing the country because of the fear of mass shootings is a perfect example of an irrational fear. It's like deciding to drive everywhere because you are afraid of flying, only it's even worse statistically.

[Kurt]

So do you guys have people wandering the streets randomly shoving chicken McNuggets down the gullets of 40 unsuspecting innocents at a time?

No, but it's an irrational fear.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/811 ... -injuries/

72 fatalities this year from mass shootings. That means your chances of dying from a mass shooting in the United States is about 2 in 100,000,000. (~2.18 to be more precise).

Meanwhile, CDC top causes of death (2021, alas):
Heart disease: 695,547
Cancer: 605,213
COVID-19: 416,893
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 224,935
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 162,890
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 142,342
Alzheimer’s disease: 119,399
Diabetes: 103,294
Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis : 56,585
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 54,358

Most of those, with the exception of accidents and chronic lower respiratory disease, can be tracked to diet (even covid, since the obese had much high fatality rates).

Fleeing the country because of the fear of mass shootings is a perfect example of an irrational fear. It's like deciding to drive everywhere because you are afraid of flying, only it's even worse statistically.

No fear of something that actually happens is irrational.

When 3,0000 people croaked in a terrorist attack people crapped themselves and murdered Sikhs, an over-reaction for sure but having been through two terrorist attacks in Istanbul and in NYC I can say for sure that terrorism is stressful. Wearing N-95 masks to not breathe toxic dust and burning corpse fumes, mail being filled with Anthrax. It takes a few years of it not happening to get over it.

Now imagine you are a young person. You got to worry about that at any moment, some nut may just rock up to a school, mall, movie theater, parade and start shooting. Then you go to college and gotta worry about that again. You gotta wear clear backpacks, look for exits and its something that hardly exists anyplace else in the world, and when it does happen someplace else they actually do something to try to prevent the next one.

If terrorists killed 20k per year we would just nuke regions of the earth where we thought the terrorists originated from.

Hell, we have had more legislation against transexuals than limiting guns from nutballs.

[Tarkan]

So do you guys have people wandering the streets randomly shoving chicken McNuggets down the gullets of 40 unsuspecting innocents at a time?

No, but it's an irrational fear.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/811 ... -injuries/

72 fatalities this year from mass shootings. That means your chances of dying from a mass shooting in the United States is about 2 in 100,000,000. (~2.18 to be more precise).

Meanwhile, CDC top causes of death (2021, alas):
Heart disease: 695,547
Cancer: 605,213
COVID-19: 416,893
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 224,935
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 162,890
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 142,342
Alzheimer’s disease: 119,399
Diabetes: 103,294
Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis : 56,585
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 54,358

Most of those, with the exception of accidents and chronic lower respiratory disease, can be tracked to diet (even covid, since the obese had much high fatality rates).

Fleeing the country because of the fear of mass shootings is a perfect example of an irrational fear. It's like deciding to drive everywhere because you are afraid of flying, only it's even worse statistically.

No fear of something that actually happens is irrational.

When 3,0000 people croaked in a terrorist attack people crapped themselves and murdered Sikhs, an over-reaction for sure but having been through two terrorist attacks in Istanbul and in NYC I can say for sure that terrorism is stressful. Wearing N-95 masks to not breathe toxic dust and burning corpse fumes, mail being filled with Anthrax. It takes a few years of it not happening to get over it.

Now imagine you are a young person. You got to worry about that at any moment, some nut may just rock up to a school, mall, movie theater, parade and start shooting. Then you go to college and gotta worry about that again. You gotta wear clear backpacks, look for exits and its something that hardly exists anyplace else in the world, and when it does happen someplace else they actually do something to try to prevent the next one.

If terrorists killed 20k per year we would just nuke regions of the earth where we thought the terrorists originated from.

Hell, we have had more legislation against transexuals than limiting guns from nutballs.

If people are afraid of mass shootings to the point of moving countries, then they should have been catatonic from fear on the drive to the airport. ~100 deaths from mass shootings per year vs. ~40,000 - 45,000 vehicular deaths per year in the United States.

Irrationality in this means trading a low probability negative outcome event for a higher probability negative outcome event. Or spending all your time worrying about a very low probability event (only a little less probable than getting killed by lightning) to the point of anxiety and emigrating to a different country. Most phobias are irrational emotional responses. I'm a little phobic about flying. Intellectually I understand it's stupid, but it doesn't keep me from getting an elevated heart rate and BP anytime the plane makes a weird noise or we hit turbulence, so I get your friend's response. I stopped working for an airline back in the day partially because I didn't like taking 4 flights a week for work. Doesn't mean it wasn't irrational on my part to do so.

[Kurt]

But here is what it is like for them...

Them: This is bullshit, I'm outa here.

Us: Statistically blah car accidents, swimming pools, heart disease blah blah

Them in another country: Wow, plus I get six weeks paid vacation and single payer health care and passenger rail with a youth discount. You all be careful about drowning or getting shot and gloat about how I left.

[Tarkan]

But here is what it is like for them...

Them: This is bullshit, I'm outa here.

Us: Statistically blah car accidents, swimming pools, heart disease blah blah

Them in another country: Wow, plus I get six weeks paid vacation and single payer health care and passenger rail with a youth discount. You all be careful about drowning or getting shot and gloat about how I left.

Totally. And they will probably live longer because, like ROB said, no one is force feeding them 40 chicken mcnuggets sprayed with glyphosate anymore.

[snaark]

Totally. And they will probably live longer because, like ROB said, no one is force feeding them 40 chicken mcnuggets sprayed with glyphosate anymore.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/eu-commission-renew-glyphosate-authorisation-10-years-2023-11-16/

Don’t forget, glyphosate is German now.

[snaark]

Them in another country: Wow, plus I get six weeks paid vacation and single payer health care and passenger rail with a youth discount.

As much as I like having 7 (actually 36 days plus many, many public holidays for Christian things I don't understand) paid leave a year, universal health care isn't that great when you realise paying 16% of you salary for pretty average services, and any German will tell you that the Deutsche Bahn is a pale shadow of its former self. But yeah, no guns.

[Kurt]

16% is pretty high.

You ever have insurance company call your wife in intensive care and tell her she has to check herself out because their is a "problem" with her account she needs to clear with her employer. After that, then she can be re-admitted?

Basically trying to convince my wife to check herself out so no one but her would be liable when she died after checkout.

How we handled it was by ignoring them but the fact they tried to kill her to save some money as policy is likely not something Germany has had to deal with for 78 years.

[snaark]

Nope, never happened to me. But I know plenty of people with their own horror stories. There are actually two health care systems here. The private one is for rich people and gives you priority access to the best care. Most people have the public one (which costs 16% of your income) and makes you wait months for an appointment. In big cities many drs will only take private patients, which isn’t really what I’d call universal. I’m not trying to get into a “who’s country is worse” argument btw, just saying that things like first class universal health care and efficient public transport are a myth.

[ROB]

Guns are the leading cause of death for US children and teens, since surpassing car accidents in 2020. Firearms accounted for nearly 19% of childhood deaths (ages 1-18) in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wonder database.

[Tarkan]

Guns are the leading cause of death for US children and teens, since surpassing car accidents in 2020. Firearms accounted for nearly 19% of childhood deaths (ages 1-18) in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wonder database.

The idea that little kids are getting mowed down in statistically significant numbers is bullshit. But that's your prime currency these days Rob. If you weren't such a halfwit, you might actually read into the statistics and the study instead of parroting propaganda that fits your worldview like the good little NPC you are.

They get that leading cause of death by re-classifying 18 & 19 year old adults as "children".

Deaths from firearms 14 and under are statistically insignificant.

Deaths from firearms 15 and over are easily predicted by involvement in criminal gang activity. Not involved in gang activity = very low change of dying from a firearm.