[TheRaisin]

Well it depends. An urban society without lights and running water, yes, that's absolute crap. A place where there are still huge areas of untouched, pristine wilderness existing still as it did at the dawn of time, that's not crap. That's beautiful. I want to live there. Take me there now.

Yeah, the U.S. has it pretty good. I just wish we didn't squander what we have. In "Bowling for Columbine", the Michael Moore movie, at one point he interviews a guy who's just walked out of an emergency room in Canada and asks what the bill was and the guy doesn't know and he says the insurance covers it. And Moore interviews some teenagers and to them it's like "Why the hell should people pay vast sums of money simply to ensure their health and well-being?" And why the hell isn't it like that over here?!

And okay, this kind of stuff isn't a problem for me, my parents both bring in around 50k dollars a year. But that's definitely not normal around here. People here are POOR. I mean, really really poor. A large part of the population is uneducated immigrant orchard-workers, often with several children and only one parent. And there's no way they're benefitting from the system. The system is crapping on their heads. And they still have it better than people in other countries.

Do you think it's hypocritical for me to live comfortably in a country whose ruling class I detest so much? Maybe I should renounce my citizenship and live in some third-world country. I'd die horribly young and in poverty, but at least my karma would be really good.