My Reaction to MSN Calling "We Built This City" the worst song, ever

http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/is-this-80s-no-1-hit-really-the-worst-song-ever/ar-AAiCaBe?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

GQ and MSN, and Rolling Stone are among the media whores saying "We Built This City" is the worst song, ever. These pulp-rags publications, are the ones "playing corporation games" that keep "changing names," and keep us "knee deep in the "hoopla," meaning bulls**t.  "We Built This City" is one of the few anti-ruling class songs to reach number one on the charts and become a hit despite its liberating message, until the powers-that-be found out what it really meant and tried to kill it. The message is as meaningful as in any Public Enemy song warning African-Americans how they were being co-opted with a 'church on one corner' of the projects and a 'liquor store on the other corner.' Look what the corporate media did to vital rap music, totally defanged it. "We Built This City" was a clarion call to the dwindling middle-class of European descendants in Reagan's America. "Marconi plays the mambo; listen to the radio" was a warning, at the start of the MTV age of mindless, talentless, photogenic rock groups and singers, for listeners to concentrate on the message, not the image of the song. Sure, Grace wanted the song to be a hit, and she straightened up for it, but the clandestine meaning, and sweet revenge she and Paul Kantner had on getting this message through was amazing. BTW, why isn't Paul Kantner included in this photo of Starship? The corporate media is still trying to marginalize Paul and the message he brought, ignoring hid opinion and instead using quotes in the article from a-political band members and outright traitors such as Mickey Thomas who got his nose broken in a fight after trying to hijack the group. The message Paul and Grace wanted us to hear was, 'Take it back, yo; this is your city. We built this city; not those corporate good-for-nothings'. This happened to Eiffel 65, the group that had a disco hit with "I'm Blue," and Chumbawumba who hit big with "I Get Knocked Down", becoming hits, falling through the cracks, until the butchers in black suits realized they were playing anarchist groups in constant rotation. The message still stands, and nothing can take it away; it is the last laugh the counter culture had before English language rock'n'roll  turned into a complete corporate controlled cookie-cutter mess. Rock 'n' roll will survive neo-liberalism, too. Instead of promoting mindless songs about fighting for your right to party, we can be together, volunteers for America, and fight for our right to live free. As Patti Smith said, "We created it; let's take it over!" 

The Worst States to Retire In

Actually, any state in the U.S. is not as good to retire in as many countries outside the States for health care, affordability, and sheer joy; remember you can always go back to visit your friends and family if the choose to stay put. 


http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/the-worst-states-for-retirement/ss-AAgR39P?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout#image=16

Where should you emigrate to leaving the USA? Take the quiz to see.

https://www.crowdpac.com/surveys/if-trump-is-elected-where-should-you-move

Taiwan Tops Global Expat Ranking, While China And HK Tumble

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jnylander/2016/08/29/taiwan-tops-global-expat-ranking-while-china-and-hk-tumble/

10 Reasons to Leave America

Great article by Cyrus Kirkpatrick that you should all read and consider acting on. Stop fooling yourself that the USA will get better. Only you can get better, if you leave ASAP

10 Reasons to Leave America

By Cyrus Kirkpatrick

As a preface, understand that America has some of the best scenery and nicest smaller towns in the world. It also provides maybe the most amount of geographic options within a single country. Finally, it’s the greatest place I can think of to do business. All that being said, as a world traveler I find there are many reasons to leave America and become an expat due to cultural issues. I will list them here.

# 10 – The Food is Garbage

My friend and traveling buddy explained to me, “When Americans move to Prague, they are surprised how they just seem to naturally lose weight. I think just being in the United States keeps you fat.’

Food is, by nature, lower quality in the U.S., even though there is a greater abundance of it. At the supermarket, I’ll find 20 different types of bread by big companies all competing for your dollar. More than half of these loaves have dubious ingredients on the back. Some brands even contain high fructose corn syrup to try to addict buyers who don’t know better to the product’s unnatural sugar content.

Most of Europe and the UK, on the other hand, has long since taken progressive measures to ban additives like carcinogenic food coloring. So you won’t find high fructose corn syrup sweetened, blue-dye morsels masquerading as blueberries in your muffin.

# 9 – The Infrastructure is Falling Apart

Nowhere is perfect. In cities in Southeast Asia I see streets with open sewage grates and pot-holes the size of craters. But what annoys me about the United States is that despite being such a rich country, I’ve seen similar problems of unkempt streets. Why? In other Western developed nations, this isn’t really a problem. The answer is probably that U.S. city governments constantly mismanage their funding, and the government in general allocates more money to things like warfare than its own citizens.

As a perfect example, note how most American cities completely lack adequate public transportation.

# 8 – The Architecture is Hideously Boring

Efficient, corporate, concrete slabs—this best describes U.S. cities and buildings. It’s hard to stay inspired in these types of environments for very long. I don’t know how architecture went bust in the modern world, but most European / Baltic cities do not suffer from this problem, as both new and ancient buildings maintain their sense of vision.

# 7 – Thug Culture is a Thing

Obviously, every city has its “bad side of town”, but nothing in the Western world compares to U.S. cities like Los Angeles. The dark reflection of the American “winner takes all” mentality is the celebration of and obsession with modern gang-bangers. Middle class kids try desperately to become these guys, while people who grow up in impoverished areas actually live the lifestyle and join massive, violent gangs like MS13.

To say this mentality flows against civil society and education is an understatement. These kids wouldn’t be able to locate Canada on a map, but they know enough about the metric system to deal crack by age 12.

Ghetto culture becomes so rampant across the states that whole sections of cities are generally considered “no go” areas if you’re not yourself extremely street savvy. Get lost one time and you’ll encounter endless hordes of drug-addicts, pimps, prostitutes, thugs, thieves, and killers. Growing up in Tucson, AZ I remember people in general lived in fear of venturing to the southern side of the city for any reason whatsoever.

I’ve been to “bad sides of town” in Europe and found it laughable. Their idea of a sketchy neighborhood is a couple of prostitutes and maybe one or two weird homeless people bugging you.

So, what’s to blame? Is it listening to gangster rap? Well, I don’t think so. I see kids blasting rap in low-crime European cities all of the time. The problem is systemic. It involves an American loneliness and anti-sociality, where it’s every man for himself. This leads to…

# 6 – Americans Are Anti-Social, Lonely and Depressed

A culture that revolves around business and “individualism” has a deep dark side. The general population, obsessed with anti-spiritual principles like fame, status and stepping over one another, leaves at best successful but lonely professionals, and at worst whole generations of disconnected, emotionally and socially broken souls.

Statistics will prove my points. Median depression rates in Europe are 6%. In my current city, Prague, it’s a bit high—7%. Median depression rates in the USA are around 16% according to the National Institute of Health.

“But Americans seem happy”, you may say. I see this, too. Americans try to fake pleasant behavior. Like the waitress at Applebees who greets you with a big, artificial smile while inside there is probably nothing but pain.

Fake American happiness is actually a coping mechanism. And, it’s a good effort. It won’t help to go around unfriendly and brooding about your problems. Even faking happiness to make other people happier at least helps push you in the right direction. But it won’t cure your existential crisis.

The result of this general malaise in the population can be felt by anyone who lives in the states for a long period of time. You will find that meeting friends is oddly challenging. People don’t prioritize socializing, but will quickly regress to things like video games, TV, work, or alcohol.

As a guy, if I try to meet an American woman I like, nine times out of ten I’ll discover she has more shields and defenses up than the Death Star. To be emotionally guarded is a symptom of pain and depression. I don’t encounter this problem much in Europe, and DEFINITELY not in Southeast Asia.

# 5 – The Family Unit is Broken

Divorce rates are so massive in the USA that it’s starting to seem like marriage itself is just a “career move” for, in particular, women who want the benefits of alimony / spousal support as they continue their own individual goals. (I am not saying men do not initiate divorce, too—but I have to look at statistics, showing men typically are the ones getting their asses handed to them in divorce courts.)

But there’s no reason to call out any particular sex. The real reason for this is the same I listed above: the “winner takes all” mentality. Many Americans enter relationships with the mindset of “What can I gain from this situation?”

The trickle-down effect are broken families as a whole. Unhappy kids, unhappy parents, ruined homes, and plastic artificial happiness in suburbia.

A culture that does not have this problem is vastly different. Depression, isolation and general malaise in the population won’t occur, because people have a family “safety net”, which means if your job crashes or you have a health problem, you have uncles, brothers, sisters, parents, cousins who will look out for you.

This is why people in countries like Thailand or the Philippines can be, gasp, poorer but still happier. Maybe they’re making just enough to scrape by, but while in the U.S. that might be a death sentence, in Southeast Asia you still have your entire family and social circle to provide security.

In the USA in many families, you’re out by 18—and it’s not a big deal, because by then you desperately want to get away from your arguing, manic parents who are on the verge of divorce. Is it any wonder that youth will then turn to thug culture (point 7) to find the social safety net humans desperately want?

# 4 – Americans Won’t Face Their Cultural Problems

“American superiority” is the belief that America is the greatest country, despite the fact infant mortality rates and a burgeoning healthcare and infrastructure points us more toward 2nd world developing status.

Ok, national pride, everyone has that, right? The problem with the states is that this mentality is not what you’d expect to find in just any country. Rather, it becomes something that feels like full-blown brainwashing.

“Yeah, I had to pay $8,500 in hospital bills because I stubbed my toe, and my family hasn’t spoken to each other in 15 years, and my city is falling apart, but fuck am I glad I’m not some socialist European.”

It’s almost as if certain branches of the media infuse people with quasi-nationalism so that they overlook the fact they’re being used as uneducated pawns. Hmmmm….

# 3 – Shallow Attitudes Rule the Day

If you are a teenager or a 20-something in America, I have some bad news: if you don’t follow reality TV like the Kardashians, like to get drunk, and you don’t like to gossip about co-workers or classmates, you will have no ability to connect with people your age.

The problem comes to American youth who just don’t use their brains. From early in school, education is discouraged (smart people = nerds), and thug culture is encouraged. Cool people aren’t the ones thinking about things. On through college, average conversations for me consisted of “Man I got plastered last night”. A guy like me just has to roll his eyes, endure it, or try to play along.

I first noticed something was different about the rest of the world when I started going to youth hostels in the USA and meeting European travelers. Everybody was filled with interesting opinions, ideas, and—unbelievably—actual personalities!

By contrast, exhibiting these traits among American peers is more likely to isolate you among the “outcasts”—in other words, the pimply kids sitting in the back of the cafeteria playing Magic the Gathering and drinking Mountain Dew. Not my idea of a good time, either.

That’s because conformity is the name of the game in America, especially when you’re young. Personality, thoughts, ideas and other taboos are considered low-value. For men, crew cuts, talking about getting plastered, and generally acting like a Neanderthal is the proper strategy if you want any chance of getting invited to parties or dare I say get laid.

In summary, in most places I go to abroad, you are free to be yourself and you won’t be judged for not conforming. Or, if you do experience judgmental behavior by peers, it’s so minor compared to the social excommunication you’d feel in America, that it’s not even an issue, and you can still find things like friends or parties. If you are a young person reading this, I highly suggest to go study abroad. Go somewhere like the Czech Republic, or even England.

# 2 – The U.S. is Becoming a Police State

I can quickly tell how systemically corrupt a country is by the quality of the police force. One major warning sign is if you feel safe in the presence of cops, or paranoid.

I’ve been to some countries that I quickly recognize as having corrupt governments by virtue of how the police act. Cities I feel paranoid include: Istanbul, Bangkok, and Los Angeles. By contrast, even when I was in London I felt safe around the cops (who do not even carry firearms).

While in some countries, the police will outright ask for bribes or blackmail you, the U.S. operates a bit more covertly by working within the parameters of the law. The scary part is how that means the law is slowly inching toward something that does not feel very democratic.

Even small police forces in rural cities are now arming themselves like branches of the military; all the while it’s becoming easier and easier for police to legally shoot and kill unarmed citizens for whatever dumb reason they can think up of.

This leaves a major question: what direction are things going? Where is this going to lead?

# 1 – Americans Are Slaves Controlled By Debt

I wanted to put the laughably bad healthcare system as the primary problem with America, but I realize I could instead address a bigger issue: Americans are forced into corners because of carrying crushing amounts of debt.

The debt is accumulated from primarily school loans and hospital bills—two sources of debt that are often eliminated in first-world countries that manage their governments properly enough to subsidize and reduce these expenses.

The reason is because, once again, people are born and raised in America with the same “winner takes all” mentality. People become educators not to educate, but to reap excess profit from an industry that people feel forced to purchase into. And, a majority of doctors certainly don’t care about helping sick people, they care about prescribing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cheap to produce cancer drugs to the nation’s sick and dying (drugs which are themselves toxic, requiring future medical expenses to treat the resulting diseases they cause, great business model right!).

But even worse is the fact that an uninsured trip to the ER for something as minor as a cut could cost thousands upon thousands of dollars. Many foreigners advise people who travel into America to be VERY well insured, and to keep the visit temporary lest you end up owing some American bank your entire life savings.

I often recount my experience in Thailand, where I shattered my upper femur bone and required a 10-hour operation and two weeks in the hospital. Thailand uses a free-market healthcare system like the U.S., but there are plenty of government-supported hospitals partially financed by private interests (namely, the Thai royal family). During my stay, they fed me steak, vitamins, and I worked with a good physical therapist. Final bill was $1,200.

The system to control Americans through debt is nothing short of evil, and the transparency of this corruption is especially evident when a developing country like Thailand, which is per capita far more populated than the United States, can still provide healthcare—even to a foreigner.

In Summary

The common theme in this article is that a “winner takes all”, anti-social mindset pervades America as the primary cause of most of its problems. The only way for America to heal and become a suitable place to live is if a cultural, social shift occurs, and priorities of people begin to change, with a new focus on the community. Will this happen in my lifetime? I have no idea.

Shutterstock

Terrified of Trump? Move to New Zealand with Ruth Bader Ginsburg

By Katie Herzog on Jul 11, 2016

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was unflinching in her assessment of presidential hopeful Donald Trump:

“I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be — with Donald Trump as our president,” she said. “For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be — I don’t even want to contemplate that.”

It reminded her of something her husband, Martin D. Ginsburg, a prominent tax lawyer who died in 2010, would have said.

“‘Now it’s time for us to move to New Zealand,’” Justice Ginsburg said, smiling ruefully.

She might be on to something. Especially considering how famously verdant the country is, with its fern icon and its “100% Pure New Zealand” slogan. But how realistic is it to move to New Zealand, really?

Unfortunately, you can’t just hitch a ride on the next tortoise and expect open arms and a visa. There are rules about this kind of thing — a lot of them. And, just like in the good ol’ USA, these rules favor the wealthy. While it is theoretically possible to get a temporary five-year visa for New Zealand if you have a job offer, employers must declare that the job can’t be filled by a citizen, so good luck with that. Unless you’re some kind of very special specialized specialist, a local can probably do your job just fine.

The easiest way to get residency in New Zealand is to invest. And we aren’t talking allowance money either: It takes an investment of 7.2 million U.S. dollars to be considered for permanent residence. And even then, you have to have spent a significant amount of time in the country in the three years preceding your application to be considered at all.

If you don’t have the money and the time invested, you could apply for refugee status, but that’s not easy either. In 2012, a Kiribati man named Ioane Teitiota applied for asylum in New Zealand when he was unable to find food or water in his rapidly disappearing homeland due to climate change. The New Zealand courts, however, rejected his application, and Teitiota was deported last year.

If losing your home to rising seas won’t get you a visa, the presidency of Donald Trump probably won’t either, so your best bet is to either start saving or marry a Kiwi. And for any New Zealanders out there looking for love, we hear Ruth Bader Ginsburg is available

The coming train wreck for older workers in the U.S.

Uh-oh. American workers aged 50 or older think there’s nearly a 1 in 2 chance they’ll still be working at 70 but many employees who expect to work longer are exactly the ones who’ll likely be least able to do so.

That’s the upshot of the new, frightening (for employees and employers) 2015/2016 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey by Willis Towers Watson, a global benefits advisory consultant. The firm surveyed 5,083 U.S. employees at large companies, as well as roughly 25,000 employees in 18 other countries.

The workers expecting to keep plugging away until 70, the study discovered, are often “the most vulnerable” and “showing higher levels of stress, lower levels of health and lower levels of engagement with their current jobs,” says Shane Bartling, senior consultant at Willis Towers Watson.

“That’s an uncomfortable fact for employees facing a very difficult situation and it sends a warning sign to employers about what’s transpiring in the new retirement system in the United States that we’ve put in place,” Bartling adds.

The survey says…

According to the survey, of those planning to retire after 70:

Only 47% say they are in very good health
40% feel they are stuck in their jobs (compared with 27% who plan to retire before 65)
40% have high or above average stress (compared with 30% of those expecting to retire at 65)
48% of workers earning below $35,000 expect to work to 70 or later (vs. 20% of those making $75,000 or more)

And if these vulnerable workers find themselves out of work, but wanting to be employed, the psychological effects — not to mention the financial ones — could be devastating.

As New School economist Teresa Ghilarducci just wrote, according to the government’s Health and Retirement Study of older Americans, “unemployed respondents were more likely than both workers and retirees to report a general feeling of helplessness. Among 55- to 64-year-olds, 40% of the unemployed agreed with the statement, ‘I often feel helpless in dealing with the problems of life.’” By contrast, only 8% of retirees and 16% of older workers felt that way.

Bartling worries (as do I) that many of the older, vulnerable workers have meager retirement savings and “don’t have options.” The question, says Bartling, “is how are they going to be able to continue working?”

Painful decisions ahead

And how will this play out for them? “These employees may be confronted with very painful decisions around having to adjust their lifestyle expectations in retirement and fall back on family and the social safety net in a bigger way than they had hoped,” says Bartling.

I’d like to see more employers taking more action to prevent this coming train wreck. It’s true that growing numbers of firms — especially large ones — are offering financial wellness and physical wellness programs, which is reason for some optimism.

Last year, a survey of 250 employers by the Aon Hewitt benefits consulting firm, said 93% of those firms planned to focus more on financial wellness for employees in ways extending beyond retirement decisions. Aon Hewitt’s Director of Retirement Research, Rob Austin, called financial wellness ‘sort of The Next Big Trend’ in benefits. Says Bartling: “We’re certainly seeing an increase in the attractiveness of financial planning support.”

Exactly how much good financial wellness programs do, however, is an open question, since the programs vary dramatically in how they work and who participates in them. “Many of those programs struggle to fully engage employees and get desirable outcomes,” says Bartling. “Now, the emphasis is on how to amplify those interventions, akin to financial biometrics.”

The success of physical wellness programs at work has been a mixed bag, too. Although 81% of larger companies now offer physical wellness programs, according to a 2015 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, health writer Sharon Begley recently wrote on the excellent Stat website that “there is a startling lack of rigorous evidence that they achieve their stated goals.”

But Bartling says: “It’s incumbent for all employers to understand how extensive [financial stress] is in the workforce. That’s only just beginning to happen.”

The state of retirement unreadiness

I asked Bartling whether he thinks many workers really will need to hold down jobs until after 70, as one in four expect. “We’ve done retirement readiness analysis for nearly 100 employers in the United States and the statistics based on that are not dissimilar from the results in the employees survey,” he says.

However, Bartling adds, there’s a “wide distribution of retirement readiness within the workforce.” And no, it’s not that wealthier workers are necessarily better prepared financially than lower-income ones.

“Many employees at both ends are well-prepared and underprepared,” says Bartling. “There are many situations where higher-paid employees actually have a higher level of a lack of preparedness,” due to living beyond their means.

One other notable finding in the new Willis Towers Watson survey: The percentage of Americans who expect to retire after age 65 has fallen from 52% in 2013 to 46% now. That, Bartling says, is likely a reflection of the improving economy.

But the next recession will come sometime, so that falling percentage is likely to head right back up again when times get tougher.

Richard Eisenberg is the senior Web editor of the Money & Security and Work & Purpose channels of Next Avenue and Assistant Managing Editor for the site. He is the author of “How to Avoid a Mid-Life Financial Crisis” and has been a personal finance editor at Money, Yahoo, Good Housekeeping, and CBS Moneywatch. Follow him on Twitter @richeis315.

This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org,