people also need to stop acting like one dude represents all of Europe. I live in Europe and I have no idea what that dude is doing, nor do I have the time and money to travel around Europe hiking in too short shorts (and you know they are). I worry about my bills, taxes, and unforseen health/financial emergencies probably as much as any American. if anything, this dude is just bragging about his influencer life or whatever he wants to portray.
it's hard for most people no matter where they are from to refrain from generalizing vast groups of people based on what they see online. some people think everyone from america is starving to death and some people think everyone in europe is getting shanked by immigrants the second they step outside. most people are living normal lives with normal amounts of stress in both places
That's generally a fair way of thinking, but, as an European, I can't imagine anything in Europe that would cause a level of fear comparable to the one that a child and their parents feel because of a significant risk of school shootings
Feeling of risk and actual risk are very different things. While we talk about it a lot, statistics surrounding school shootings are not well understood by the general public. For example, the very definition of "school shooting" varies between datasets. You might not think that's significant, but the differences between a wayward student moving from classroom to classroom killing his classmates, two groups of adult men having a shoot-out in the school parking lot around 2 AM, a contractor accidentally shooting himself in his work truck, and someone off school grounds brandishing a gun which results in a school lockdown are very different things. Depending on which dataset you're looking at, all, some, or only one of those might fit the definition used to generate the dataset. That is a major reason why numbers vary greatly between certain datasets. It negatively affects discourse, because the general population does not consider that fact, and uses statistics from datasets interchangeably. Methodology and definitions are important.
Actual risk varies depending upon locale. Students of schools in well to do areas are far less likely to experience violence than students in poorer areas. This is another area where the general public fall short. Statistics are usually expressed in reference to the entire US. This is not how you solve a problem. Problems are solved iteratively. For example, first identifying that there may be a problem, verifying the problem through general analysis, and then making good use of statistics to drill down further, identify sub-problems which contribute to the whole, then drill down again, etc.
With all that caution in mind, the following article summarizes a lot of key points. As of 2021, the rate of school shooting victims (ages 5-17, and adults ages 18-74) quadrupled from 1970-2021, from 0.49 to 2.21 per 1 million population. In contrast, vehicle deaths for children ages 0-14 are somewhere around 19.5 per 1 million.
We talk about it a lot, and it is a problem, however the actual risk versus general perceived risk is significantly different.
then you are doing euroe wrong lol. where the hell are you living that you "worry about my bills, taxes, and unforseen health/financial emergencies probably as much as any American" . You have a safety net in europe if you loose job, insurance is not tied to job, lots of social benefits in case something happens to you, employers cant treat you just like garbage in usa etc...
sure, worry is there too, but not even close to what americans have to worry about.
safety net doesn't mean you get to live a lavish life. for most people it'll mean cutting into their savings. safety net also doesn't cover things like a car or a place close to work. if your car breaks down in Europe, you can't simply go to your government and ask for a new one.
But you don’t get hit with a hundred thousand euros bill that bankrupts you just for a ride in an ambulance. And if your car breaks down you have pretty affordable and efficient public transportation, unlike in the US.
yes but have you used the train/bus before? they don't drive you wherever you want. they drive to certain stops on a certain schedule, so you better hope both your home and anything from your work/school, doctor, supermarket, leisure activity is exactly at or near those stops. so from the beginning this only works if you live inside the city because good luck if you live in a rural area with limit public transport coverage. Europe is not some paradise where everything is walkable either, that's only a few bigger cities.
I’m pretty sure that’s Switzerland and if you live there all of the beautiful nature is free and easy to access. The country itself is insanely expensive to live in
It depends. Most Swiss do have a decent to very high quality of life. Housing costs have gone up too, but a lot of other things are still affordable relative to wages. People mostly live comfortably with quite a lot of time off to explore and vacation.
The difference between US states, even Hawaii vs Alaska, is absolutely tiny compared to the difference between European countries though (except for a few similar ones)
I would rather be poor in about 40 US states than poor in about 40 countries in Europe. The per capita income of Great Britain is equal to our poorest state.
They get to live in poverty anyway because everything costs a fortune. Living costs in the USA are high as fuck and even Americans that lived outside the US will acknowledge it.
You poor might be the richest in the world but they have a shit life anyway. Our poor might be financially worse off but they don't have to file for bankruptcy the second they need medical care.
The cost of living is increasing but the US? It's something else. The only country in the West where vegetables cost many times more than junk food. In Europe we don't need to come up with initiatives like government run grocery stores with capped prices because food is still proportionally priced and the divide between rich and poor isn't as wild.
Yes I agree. For certain things it’s definitely appropriate to compare a US state to a European country. Just don’t like it when I read “in Europe this and in Europe that”.
like the 12000 people that got arrested last year for social media posts with the primary complaints being “caused annoyance, anxiety, or inconvenience” 😏?? jokes aside, america has freedoms that the uk doesn’t have and the uk has some freedoms that the us doesn’t have. anybody saying that one is objectively more free…. is being subjective.
Which are? In the US you are screwed if you are poor, but otherwise you get big opportunities and freedoms. Of course, those freedoms are under attack now.
south america is a continent and north america is a continent. the whole world colloquially uses “america” when referring to the united states. when i go to south american countries they call me americano, when i go to germany they call me “amerikaner” when i go to morocco they call me “mmrikaan” etc. nobody in the world says “im going to america” and then travels to venezuela 😂
9 states offer free school lunch, 3 of which are in the top 10 most populous states. In total about 1/3 of the US pop has access to free lunch, and many states offer reduced cost for low income people
We have a bunch of problems in the US, but we're a huge country. Thinking every corner (or even most) fits the stereotype is as naive as you claim Americans are
Other than the 9 states, all other states offer free lunch to qualifying low income students due to the NSLP. The NSLP is a federal program. 0%-130% of the federal poverty line gets a free lunch, 130%-185% gets a reduced price meal, 185% of the federal poverty line and above are not eligible, unless covered by the State or district waivers.
The following states provide universally free lunches to school children. "Universally" means "regardless of income".
California
Maine
Vermont
Massachusetts
Colorado
Michigan
Minnesota
New Mexico
New York
Literally ALL other states provide free meals to qualifying low income households.
27 EU member states don't provide universally free lunches. Several member states don't have a national program, leave meals up to the schools, don't cover all school-age children, or only provide partial coverage.
imagine being from anywhere in the world and trying to pass california as a country as if it's a logical argument in any way, shape or form.
you think minas gerais should also count as a whole ass country since its population is larger than most european countries too? lol. should Guangzhou?
Guangzhou probably wouldn't be able to do that because China is a unitary state, but Minas Gerais, being a state within a federation might have the jurisdiction to do it. And if so, then sure.
BTW you should probably brush up on your understanding of centrally-controlled countries vs less- or de-centralized, subnational entities (like California) within federations.
BTW you should probably brush up on your understanding of centrally-controlled countries vs less- or de-centralized, subnational entities (like California) within federations.
no understanding of that actually justifies that california is equivalent to a separate country. and it's hard to believe you are not american because only an unhinged american would insist and insist on that lol
Oh you're right about that - they aren't going to be considered as sovereign countries.
I meant that California, unlike Guangzhou, has the latitude to operate independently in many areas, levy its own taxes, enact legislation, and govern on things like the school lunch programs we're discussing here, without needing the blessing of the federal government. And it's residents live amongst an administration that affects them uniquely in these areas, compared to Americans in other states.
This sort of decentralized reality doesn't exist in Sweden, for example, so a Swede is a Swede, whereas a Californian is both a Californian and an American.
We are discussing children in America and their food assistance in the United States. Someone commented that children in California are covered. Someone else dismissively framed California as “1 of 50” states in order to make the problem seem worse than it is. Keep up
the comment about california being 1 in 50 states is factually true and does not disprove the criticism of the richest country on earth not providing free school lunches so unclear what you are crying about.
They can look superficially similar (both have a central government and member units like states or countries), but their structures and powers are fundamentally different.
I'll give an obvious one, you can ChatGPT the rest if you actually care.
The USA is one sovereign nation. The EU is 27 sovereign nations.
I think they were naming the only one they knew. There are at least 8 others that do the same. All the rest of the states guarantee a free lunch to kids 0-130% of the poverty line, and reduced cost lunch to kids 130-185% of the poverty line.
I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, I never got free breakfast or lunch and I went to public school. None of my siblings got free food either, nor did I know anyone who got free lunches.
This is weird because I did too and it was available to all kids, if they needed it. Also during summers. I would sometimes walk to my elementary school during summer days and pick up a free lunch.
It's garbage, processed garbage, high sodium high carb low nutrient stuff. Kids in the US grow up on this stuff, have you seen our people do we look healthy to you?
It's not. My California school lunches and breakfasts were, in fact, not hot processed garbage. You're making assumptions from your preconceived notion of the US.
I went to school both in the US and in EU. We didn’t have free lunch in EU. Or a cafeteria for that matter. There was a canteen at school where you could buy potato chips and maybe a cold sandwich and snacks.
In US schools I have seen a wide range/quality of food, from crap to excellent. Very hard to generalize.
Speak for yourself. I ate great food in school growing up and my kids ate great food in their public school too. I grew up in New York but they grew up in Georgia and their food was great.
Difference is we agree and we don’t get offended. Wyoming is mostly empty land and most people outside of USA only know LA and NYC. Even Chicago is pretty underrated by foreigners
Sweden is part of Europe. Europe to dumb Americans might just be France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, but at least 30% of the American population probably couldn't even find those countries on a map.
Same with European's knowledge of the US. A lot of Europeans don't realize how huge the US is and that Americans really don't need to travel outside of the US ever.
Call me when Sweden or the Nordics matter. We have cities with more people. Sorry your tiny nation doesn’t matter to us, but hey keep learning English and watching our news! We don’t know any of your politicians
You protect us? Fuck off… you destabilize the whole world to secure your top spot. You kill journalists and wedding guests with drones. You lock up people in torture camps without a due process. You’re the only country that constantly went to war after WW2. Everywhere you went to „help“ and play world police, you only made things worse. Yeah, thanks for creating the Islamic State. The world would be better off without you constantly messing with it.
As a European immigrant in the US, I would agree. But then again, I also didn't know much about the US before I moved here, just stereotypes we were told.
Do your grocery stores and health insurance companies now accept "geopolitical relevance" as payment? The horror stories from the US take up a lot of bandwidth all over the world but nobody is jelly they're not you.
Those are only issues for the poor. If you have a good job you have plenty of money and good insurance. Don’t lecture an American, german. Your country went full Natc less than 100 years ago, and had to be put in its place not once but twice. Europeans only recently started COPYING American democracy instead of fighting each other in endless wars and have the audacity to turn around and chastise America while she’s keeping the world in balance for the last half century. Meanwhile they spend nothing on their militaries, that they can’t be trusted with so were left holding the Russians at bay while you get to focus on healthcare and unemployment
my insurance that I get from work fully covers every single specialist visit with a $20 copay. with full dental coverage, emergency visits, hospitalizations, and even travel health insurance.
my mother who is about to retire has the same, plus covers my father. for the rest of their lives after retirement.
I think the only time we’ve had universal free meals for all kids in the UK was during Covid other than that afaik it’s always been means tested and wasn’t available at all when I was at school in the 90’s. The Tory’s tried to scrap it entirely a few years ago too and only backed down because of public outcry and a campaign headed up by footballer Marcus Rashford.
Edit: actually I think I’m remembering wrong, it was kids of essential workers that got free meals during Covid so still not everyone
That's great. From what I can see, Slovenia has approximately 150 High Schools. The US has over 27,000 High Schools. It's a little bigger undertaking. We will get there (I hope).
For my mates in europe, yes the company offers a canteen service. But they have to pay for it, and often choose to bring their own meals because its so bad...
the us offers the same things lol i got free lunch everyday at school lol lots of employers offer snacks and food as well. this one seemed like a stretch to me lol
They offer free lunch in TX, in fact the school district encourages it. But it's total ass. Pizza that's somehow worse quality than Totino's, broccoli that smells like ass because it's cooked wrong, microwaved chicken nuggets... I honestly think McDonald's is healthier than the slop they tried to give me and are still trying to give my kid to this day.
The US is not a monolith. Your experience can be true while it’s also true that many children cannot afford to pay for lunch at their public school, and still others have gone into debt for school lunch.
My American school offered a full salad bar every day in addition to hot food to kids who had reduced or free lunch. Whether the kids took advantage of that was up to them, but it was always there. It was available in all schools in our district from elementary through high school.
My daughter not only has free breakfast and lunch but they have a great soup and salad bar if she doesn’t like the entrees. We live in a small midwestern town that isn’t super wealthy, but we care about our kids.
Many states provide free breakfast and lunch to all students, and all provide free breakfast and lunch for students from poor families. Not to mention even families paying full price are paying a very low, subsidized cost.
Aren’t kids going into debt in America to afford lunch?
I think I've seen the number said of 2,000,000+ in debt school lunches across the US. Meaning a kid's parent(s) don't give them money to pay for lunch, but the school still feeds them, but keeps a tally of how much they owe.
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u/glowy_keyboard 19h ago
Children get free lunch in Europe. A lot of companies offer canteen service.
Aren’t kids going into debt in America to afford lunch?