HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: gene_ledbetter@internetqm.llnl.gov (Gene Ledbetter)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Let's go! [was U.S.A. livin
Date: 18 Aug 1992 15:01:42 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

         Regarding:               Let's go! [was U.S.A. living standard?]
              
My fellow Americans (and fellow non-Americans),

Daniel Chung (dchung@efi.com):

> ... we have a lot of decay, like juvenile crime and pregnancy,
> drugs and alcohol, many minorities not cared for, and a high
> energy consumption rate.

> I am not even immigrating here.

> *Zhong* Qi-Iao, U.S.A.

Well, whenever our friend Chung signs his name as Zhong you can be sure
he is thinking of home.  8-)  I believe that Daniel is from Hong Kong, and
I wonder if he will return there or look elsewhere.  (Daniel, vi devas diri,
kien vi iros !)

But Daniel may be onto something.  Maybe we'd better all emigrate (or not
immigrate) before it's too late.  Where to, guys?  I've given a thought or
two to Costa Rica, but there's not room for everybody there.  Where would
_you_ go if you decided to emigrate?

Hasta entonces, Yanquis,

Ledbetter.


Xref: sparky soc.culture.usa:6573 misc.jobs.misc:5862
From: mike@pacsoft.com (Mike Stefanik)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,misc.jobs.misc
Subject: Re: Why do Americans get so little vacation time?
Keywords: work vacation
Date: 13 Aug 92 21:58:14 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.usa
Organization: Pacific Software Group, Riverside, Ca.

In an, article ttraub@world.std.com (Terry Traub) writes:
> How then is it that Americans managed to land people on
>the moon not once but several times [...]

A rather meaningless act, don't you think?  Yes, there were many beneficial
by-products of the space race, but it in of itself was a competetion with
a former superpower for nothing more than "bragging rights".  It was
a tool of the Cold War, plain and simple.

>[...] by the way, winning two world wars against some of these "smarter"
>people?

Oh, now *that's* something to be proud of.  Yes, Americans are superior
manufacturers of weaponry.  We have perfected the fine art of destroying
members of our own species with a great degree of precision.  Bravo.

What you don't mention is that many of the achievements (both real and
perceived) that you attribute to the United States were made by "imported
citizens" from Germany and other nations after WWII.

Perhaps if you would get that flag out of your face you could see things
a little more clearly (ie: as they are, not as you want them to be.)
-- 
Mike Stefanik  mike@pacsoft.com  ...!uunet!pacsoft!mike  (+1 714 681 2623)
Pacific Software Group, Riverside, CA
Xref: sparky soc.culture.usa:6763 talk.politics.misc:41170 talk.politics.theory:3781 alt.conspiracy:10201
From: KAMCHAR@ibm.cl.msu.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,talk.politics.misc,talk.politics.theory,alt.conspiracy
Subject: Re: Kulturkampf
Date: 21 Aug 92 21:25:35 GMT
Organization: Kamchatka Charlie

In article <1992Aug20.225227.21991@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>
andy@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (Andy Freeman) writes:
>Don't tell me about how little money we're talking about.  If it
>really was an insignificant amount of money, it wouldn't matter that
>Helms is trying to redirect it and it wouldn't be worth protecting.
>It isn't the principle, it's the money.
     Sorry to say this, but you're wrong.  It is NOT the money.
     Think:  If it was indeed the $$$, then how do you explain the constant
free-speechers defense of such rotten expressions of free speech such as 2 Live
Crew and BodyCount??  Can't be the money, since these groups had low-selling
albums BEFORE the attacks from the right.  I also have trouble remembering
about attacks on such albums such as "Straight Outta Compton" or anything by
Public Enemy (compare with Sister Souillja, whom Clinton attacked just as her
album jumped off the charts--for the first time).
     It's more power than anything.  Either way, the NEA is supporting
someone's culture, just whose culture will it support is what's being argued.

>Other cultures don't rely on the threat of force; they pay their own way.
     Don't be so sure about this.

Kamchatka Charlie          KAMCHAR@ibm.cl.msu.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
From: krishna@seas.smu.edu (Sanjay Krishna)
Subject: Frats - Greeks ???
Organization: School of Engineering and Applied Science
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 20:07:13 GMT


  Hi, 
       SMU is a well known school in Dallas for its football scandal and 
as a party school. The school seems dominated by fraternities and sororities.
I read in a campus newspaper that the greeks are close to 50% of the student 
body. My curiousity is about the system of greeks. I have friends in the 
fraternities and the sororities as well. But the only time I get to talk to
them is in parties when we are all drunk and useful information was out of the
question. 

   i) How did the name "greek" come about ? - does it have a reference to 
      healthy mind and a healthy body or whatever ?  
   ii) Do frats have any non-whites at all ? I have never seen any of them. 
[ Things might have changed since SMU has gotten tough with the frats and the 
frats in turn restrict admissions to their parties] 
   iii) Is the southern part of the USA (colonial south or the plantation 
south) where this is most prevelent ? If so, why ? 

[ I read a humourous book on this topic - "Why Princess Margaret cannot 
become a Kappa Kappa Gamma " - in which it said the mothers are hell bent 
on their daughters getting into the right sorority in the south and would
go to any limits to get this done ]  
 
This question is purely out of curiousity and I do not intend to indulge 
in greek-bashing. You can send your replies on the net or to me 

krishna@seas.smu.edu 

Sanjay 

ps - I am from India. 


Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
From: jon@lindy.Stanford.EDU (Jon Corelis)
Subject: Re: Why do Americans get so little vacation time?
Keywords: work vacation
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 19:28:34 GMT

labiche@crchh561.BNR.CA (Maurice LaBiche) writes:



>This thread is beginning to digress somewhat.  What does OSHA
>regulations have to do with keeping Americans down with a, if your
>lucky, two week per year vacation...

   The connection is that the set of people who are keeping Americans
down with a two week per year vacation is congruent with the set of
people who would like to see OSHA vanish so they can make their
employees work under any conditions they damn well please.  
--


Jon Corelis               jon@lindy.stanford.edu
Stanford University       BITNET:  BR.JGC@RLG.STANFORD.EDU
From: rhubner@vax.path.ox.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Maine
Date: 13 Aug 92 15:52:07 GMT
Organization: Oxford University Molecular Biology Data Centre
Nntp-Posting-User: rhubner

Hi there,
 I would like to find out about the accomodation situation (prices) in Maine - 
specifically Bar Harbor. I can't get any US usegroups here; please guide me to 
the best place(s) [any gopher sites "nearby"]
Thanks a lot,
 Roland {rhubner@ox.path.ac.uk or hubner@ox.vax.ac.uk}
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
From: feld@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Michael Feld)
Subject: Re: Multiculturalism
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 19:15:56 GMT

In article <1992Aug15.155828.28221@panix.com> gcf@panix.com (Gordon Fitch) writes:
>Is there more than one viable culture in the United States?
>If there is more than one, how would you identify them?  How
>do they differ from one another?  How do they connect?
>-- 
>Gordon Fitch | gcf@panix.com | uunet!cmcl2!panix!gcf 
>*       1238 Blg. Grn. Sta., N.Y., N.Y. 10274      *


Appocryphal interview:
	Q: Mr. Gandhi, what do you think of Western culture?

	A: That would be nice.
-- 
Michael Feld                         | E-mail:  <feld@ccu.umanitoba.ca>
Dept. of Philosophy                  | FAX:     (204) 261-0021
University of Manitoba               | Voice:   (204) 474-9136
Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2M8, Canada	                     
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,misc.jobs.misc
From: frank@rover.uchicago.edu (Frank - Hardware Hacker - Borger)
Subject: Re: Why do Americans get so little vacation time?
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Keywords: work vacation
Reply-To: frank@rover.uchicago.edu
Organization: Joint Center for Radiation Therapy
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 16:42:00 GMT

In article <Bsw5Lq.C2I@world.std.com>, ttraub@world.std.com (Terry Traub) writes...
>Tell that to: OSHA - a body which imposes expensive regulations on the
>                     workplace (you kow the computer industry is now mature. 
>...
>              ETC. - Name your favorite govnerment regulatory body...

	There's the rub. Last month, our Hospital department prepared for the
	fourth major government inspection since last December. Many many
	people hours of work went into the preparation, etc.

	One $%^&*( architect spent 5 minutes going thru the department and
	noted that a door had an opening over the top, and was not a fire
	barrier. (The door was in one of those barriers that are put up
	quickly to turn a large room into office space, and as such only was
	there for security.)

	Ten years ago I did Physics and Engineering. Today I spend more and
	more of my time dealing with various agencies. I just got off the
	phone with one bureaucrat who wanted to know everything about a
	a minor electronic mod installed on one of our Radiation Therapy
	machine, but said bureaucrat obviously didn't know electronics. It
	was like talking to my 13 year old daugher. (Actually worse, my daughter
	can learn.)

	The situation is often ludicrous. The state of Illinois has state
	inspectors who inspect diagnostic X-ray machines. The hospitals are
	paying good money to hire MS or PHD physicists, (who usually have
	several years of post degree training before they can work,) to insure
	that their machines are operating properly. The state, however, takes
	diagnostic x-ray technicians, gives them a crash course in meters, etc,
	and then says, "you are now qualified inspectors."

	It isn't so much the amount of supervision and regulation that the
	various agencies impose, but the quality and training of the "inspectors
	that makes my job such a pain. If the government doesn't realize that
	this is a major reason why the US is not competitive, then we need some-
	one on the hill with an IQ larger than their chest size.

   Frank R. Borger - Physicist    __       Internet:  Frank@rover.uchicago.edu
Michael Reese - Univ. of Chicago |___      Phone : 312-791-8075 fax : 567-7455
  Center for Radiation Therapy   | |_) _   
    2929 South Ellis Avenue        | \|_)  Hell is paved with good Samaritans.
    Chicago, Illinois 60616           |_)  William M. Holden
From: gcf@panix.com (Gordon Fitch)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Multiculturalism
Date: 15 Aug 92 15:58:28 GMT
Organization: mydog in exile

Is there more than one viable culture in the United States?
If there is more than one, how would you identify them?  How
do they differ from one another?  How do they connect?
-- 
Gordon Fitch | gcf@panix.com | uunet!cmcl2!panix!gcf 
*       1238 Blg. Grn. Sta., N.Y., N.Y. 10274      *
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
From: kevinh@hslrswi.hasler.ascom.ch (kevinh)
Subject: Re: Why do Americans get so little vacation time?
Originator: kevinh@mira
Reply-To: kevinh@hslrswi.hasler.ascom.ch
Organization: Ascom Hasler AG
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 15:10:52 GMT


In article <1992Aug12.193508.11810@cs.ucla.edu>, gds@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Greg Skinner) writes:
|> In article <1992Aug11.233841.25067@bnr.ca> labiche@crchh561.BNR.CA (Maurice LaBiche) writes:
|> >I'm also puzzled by this fact(and a little pissed off too).
|> >Is it really that this lack of slack time keeps our economy
|> >from heading down the tubes?  I can't believe that.  I wish
|> >this would change soon but I'm sure the big $ interests will
|> >try and keep this from happening, the old lost productivity line 
|> >again.  It's enough to make you think how civil this country 
|> >really is or isn't.  This is just another reason to re-evaluate
|> >the claim that americans live 'better' than people anywhere else!
|> 
|> I believe that Americans tend to work *harder* (ie. more) than
|> Europeans, but not necessarily *smarter*. 

My father works for an American company (in the UK) and has spent time in the 
parent company in the US and came to the same conclusion!  The work
seems just to be stretched to fit the (slightly) longer day. Productivity
on an hourly basis seemed lower.

kevinh@hasler.ascom.ch
Xref: sparky soc.culture.usa:6556 misc.jobs.misc:5851
From: cote@cs.ucsd.edu (Brad Cote)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,misc.jobs.misc
Subject: Re: Why do Americans get so little vacation time?
Keywords: work vacation
Date: 13 Aug 92 23:43:08 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.usa

labiche@crchh561.BNR.CA (Maurice LaBiche) writes:

>This thread is beginning to digress somewhat.  What does OSHA regulations
>have to do with keeping Americans down with a, if your lucky, two week
>per year vacation.  

>Maurice LaBiche (Mo.L.)             labiche@bnr.ca
>Bell Northern Research              
>Richardson, Texas                   i'm really in Texas, USA not Canada

Because the productivity per worker is reduced by excessive government
interference. Hence, workers must work more days per year to
compensate for the inefficiency caused by our increasingly
paternalistic government. I would call it 'socialist', but that term
has been replaced by its adherents by 'progressive,' which I don't
agree with at all.

				Brad Cote'
				University of California, San Diego
				STARE Project
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.elections,alt.war
From: nelson_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Nelson)
Subject: Re: NAFTA (was Re: Bush's position on Bosnia)
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 21:44:48 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

pjm@anegada.sps.mot.com (Patrick J. McGuinness) writes:
> 
> 
> NAFTA will be good for all parties concerned.

  I think this is a religious proposition.  I'm not saying it
  isn't true, I'm just saying that no one has made a very 
  convincing case one way or the other.  NPR said yesterday 
  that estimates range from gaining 150,000 jobs to losing 
  400,000 jobs.   It is very clear from reading leading economists'
  predictions about the economy in the Wall Street Journal, 
  over the last several years that economics is far, FAR from
  a reliable science.

  I haven't decided whether to support NAFTA or not.  I will
  base my decision strictly on the jobs question.   I need to
  be convinced that NAFTA will result in more US jobs, overall,
  and that if any net losses occurs in any sector of the labor
  force, e.g., unskilled workers, that there is some very good
  reason to think that it will not result in net suffering for
  them.  In the latter case, for instance, I would need to 
  be shown that other jobs will come into existence that 
  those workers might be reasonably be expected to migrate
  to, and not just those few of them who have the ambition and
  IQ to become molecular biologists or something.

  The US has enough poor people, and miserable enough conditions 
  among the poor.  I'm not going to support NAFTA it it will
  only benefit people like me (educated, well-off, salaried 
  employees with enough money in the bank, learning skills, and
  sophistication to easily find other jobs, or go back to college
  and retrain if needed because of a changing economy).  But if
  NAFTA will benefit all segments of the economy ("all parties")
  then I'm all for it.    Convince us.


---peter

  
  
 
  


Xref: sparky soc.culture.usa:6545 misc.jobs.misc:5838
From: judy@evolving.com (Judy Bettinger)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,misc.jobs.misc
Subject: Re: Why do Americans get so little vacation time?
Date: 13 Aug 92 17:37:33 GMT
Organization: Evolving Systems, Inc.

Maurice LaBiche writes:
>>Is it really that this lack of slack time keeps our economy
>>from heading down the tubes?  I can't believe that.  

Me either.  It just reduces our quality of life.  And in a 
long-term way, too.  Look at how many of our children are 
being raised by day-care workers more than their parents.
 
Greg Skinner writes:
>I believe that Americans tend to work *harder* (ie. more) than
>Europeans, but not necessarily *smarter*.  

YES!

I don't know if it's true in other companies, but here there's
an almost macho attitude about the number of hours worked.
"I worked 85 hours this week -- I'm more of a 'work-athlete' than
the next guy". (And yes, it's usually guys who have this attitude.)
The thing noone seems to notice is that there's no guarantee that 
the 85 hour week gets us to deadlines faster or with a better product.  
-- 
Judy Bettinger (judy@evolving.com)            < |/
Evolving Systems, Inc.                         :o<)
Denver, Colorado                              < |\
Lines: 23
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 23:10:08 MDT
From: gritton@alaska.et.byu.edu (Jamie Gritton)
Organization: Brigham Young University, Provo UT USA
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Re: Culture "!=" Politics (and places to visit!)
Reply-To: gritton@byu.edu
	<1992Aug12.161250.2116@den.mmc.com>
	<1992Aug20.164427.22259@nntp.hut.fi>

jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala) writes:

>>Keep the abortion/conspiracy/cascades/politics/drugs etc. issues in their
>>respective news groups!
> Equally well one could demand people keep the Usonian politics/drugs
> issues in their respective, ie. Usonian, newsgroups.

   Can't you leave that decision up to the poster? Did you stop to
think that perhaps he didn't *want* the article to appear in a dozen
irrelavant groups?
   This isn't soc.usa, it's soc.*culture*.usa.

> Other countries
> of the world (or Usenet) are not having the same problems, so why
> clutter the net with discussions on Usonian issues?

   Other countries don't have problems with abortion and government?
Other countries don't have paranoids looking for conspiracy? Other
countries don't have politicians? People don't use drugs and get
punished for it in other countries? Do tell.
   By the way, This isn't Usonia. We're Americans here.
--
James Gritton - gritton@byu.edu - I disclaim
From: tim@sinix.UUCP (Tim Bissell)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa
Subject: Re: Dollar bills
Date: 17 Aug 92 16:15:19 GMT
Organization: SNI AG Muenchen, STO XS

In article <1992Aug12.142011.3394@desire.wright.edu> demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:
>In article <frank2.11@underdog.ee.wits.ac.za>, frank2@underdog.ee.wits.ac.za (FRANK D N) writes:
>> On the back of a U.S. Dollar bill there appears a pyramid. There is an eye 
>> super-imposed on its peak, which hovers disjointed in an aura, just above 
>> the rest of the pyramid. A Latin inscription, "NOVO ORDO SECLORUM" 
>
>	Seriously, the latin means something like "from one, many".  The

Hey!  I speak no latin, but "from many, one" is something like
"E Pluribus Unum".  Latin ain't _that_ different from English 8-)

>eye/pyramid (and the rest of the things on most US money) have to do with
>wealth, security, prosperity, etc.  I can't remember the exact details.

I thought it was because a lot of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons,
that being a popular thing at the time of the Enlightenment, and not just
an opportunity to get a leg up in the Police (sorry, UK reference).

Tim.

-- 
Tim Bissell		|      best...	tim@athen.uucp
Work:+49 89 636 49542	| 	hmm...	tim%sinix@germany.eu.net
Home:+49 89 692 5263	|   UK only...	uk.co.uel!sinix!athen!tim
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,talk.politics.misc,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.elections,alt.war
From: htilney@vax.clarku.edu
Subject: RE: [military] sending troops to the Middle East
Organization: Clark University
Date: 15 AUG 92 17:07:08 GMT


In a previous article, exodus@IASTATE.EDU wrote:
> 
>Do you have any idea what the Middle East would look
>like today had Bush taken to the isolationist-like stance that you seem to
>support? I prefer not to think of the dangerous implications of letting a
>ruthless dictator run roughshot over the enire Middle East. Seems like it

>	[more foreign-policy speech type stuff deleted]

>   I will end by asking one last question- how can you people possibly be
>willing to turn your heads when actual genocide- efforts to actually implement
>racial purification are going on in the Balkans right now? How can you be so
>brutally uncaring about the plight of those people?

I agree that Bush has waited much too long to clarify where he stands on this,
much less proposing any action. A couple of weeks ago it looked like he was
finalizing an agenda, but I guess not. His timing was much better IMO during
the gulf war, but I suppose it is much easier to justify intervention when it
involves strife between countries as opposed to within a country (militarily
speaking). 

For every person who points to the human suffering in this case, there will
be another who would denounce intervention as imperialistic. But at this point
it would certainly seem warranted. Bush will continue his all-issue policy
of not taking any bold steps unless the outcome is crystal-clear. I would
suggest that in gaining foreign policy experience (which Bush touts as his
strength), he has only taken what's been given to hi


-
Bart "Webb" Tilney		|   "All of life is a blur 
Email: htilney@vax.clarku.edu	|    of Republicans and meat!"
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa,misc.jobs.misc
From: ptrei@bistromath.mitre.org (Peter Trei)
Subject: Re: Why do Americans get so little vacation time?
Keywords: work vacation
Organization: The MITRE Corporation
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 13:12:45 GMT


     On reason we get so little vacation time in the US is the
benefits structure we've wound up with. 

     Most Americans get employer-subsidized medical insurance. This
was originally an inexpensive fringe benefit, but it has gradually
become a major piece of overhead in hiring costs. It's also a fixed,
per-employee expense: it costs about the same to provide medical
coverage for the janitor as it does for the CEO.

     The upshot of this is that there is a high marginal cost per
employee. It make economic sense to hire as few workers as possible
and work them hard, using high salaries to keep them from leaving.

     Once I realized this, I became a lot more receptive to the idea
of national health insurance.

							Peter Trei
							ptrei@mitre.org

PS: At least we're not as bad as Japan, where overwork is a recognized
cause of death, the language has a specific word to describe it, and
employers have government-mandated programs to compensate the widows
of men they kill that way.


Disclaimer: I don't speak for MITRE.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.usa