From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Wed Sep 18 2002 - 03:19:57 MDT
Brian Williams:
> > Renounce your citizenship, go ahead, lose the ultimate safety
> > net...
Eugen Leitl:
> Safety net? Oh yeah, that really lavish social security.
Robert J. Bradbury:
>Eugene, let me know those days you get out of bed and the
>glass is half full instead of half empty. Or at least get
>Anders to send you a bottle of sunshine.
The sunshine did finally arrive in Germany, Robert, we have seen more
sunny days in the last week than in most of the summer.
I must agree with Eugene's sentiment, I found Brian's comment really
bizarre. What 'safety net' does a blue-cardboard-document-with-my
picture provide?
In the past, it provided a particular government hierarchy and justice
and defense system, but my citizenship has little use to my life here
now (with one exception of a broad ability to travel). For example, I
didn't go to the U.S. consulate to help me with my old landlord's
laywyer's mold-infested demands, I went to the place where other Germans
go, and I went through the German justice system.
If he doesn't equate safety net with a blue-cardboard-document-with-a
picture then, does he mean a place? Is a safety net a land location
where one kinda knows how things 'work' and people speak a language
one can understand?
If he means safety net as financial support, I think that 'gene
addressed that. A citizenship doesn't provide much of it. I agree that
a safety net for financial stability is important, especially when one
has dependents. Certainly job stability was and is a strong motivating
factor for me to move where I'm going into my next job (which is
not in the U.S.).
Or if not a land location, then is a safety net where your family and
friends are located? That to me, seems to be the most reasonable
definition of a safety net, but note that it's not a safety net at
all, it is only a gemütlich environment where you feel at home, where
you care about some people and they care about you.
I don't think that it is a good idea to live one's live in terms of
safety nets, even if we nailed down what definition of safety net we
are using. Progress doesn't take place in a world of safety nets, and
strong personal growth doesn't happen while depending on safety nets
either.
Some more (older) words about safety nets:
http://www.amara.com/astories/storieswetell.html
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." --Anais Nin
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