Problems other countries face?

Fraggr

Fraggr

Fraggr

Soldato
Joined
29 Jun 2006
Posts
3,372
Location
Sheffield
We all know the problems in the UK - gangs, binge drinking, violence, drugs, immigration, dole scroungers and chavs, and a lack of national pride - but what problems do other countries in the West face? For example what problems do the Italians, Spanish, French, Americans, Swedes, etc face?
 
chiggz said:
i assume most would be common in many places (gangs, violence, etc)?
Click to expand...

I'm sure those two are quite common, and I'm not saying they don't affect other countries. I don't think they are as widespread (maybe in America though - gun crime especially).
 
What problems do any of the countries have that are specific to them - e.g. Spain/France with Basque terrorists?
 
From what I have seen from the news and sport in particular, Spain and Italy have some serious problems with racism (which are actually brushed over by the media in most cases). I wonder if it stems from both being traditionally facist countries.
 
Spain and France have problems with Basque separatists.

America has a problem with the leadership party.

France have problems connected with being cheese eating surrender monkeys, a similar problem to that experienced by the Italians.

Poland suffers from being next to Germany. Everyone else suffers from having German towels everywhere.
 
Fraggr said:
We all know the problems in the UK - gangs, binge drinking, violence, drugs, immigration, dole scroungers and chavs, and a lack of national pride - but what problems do other countries in the West face? For example what problems do the Italians, Spanish, French, Americans, Swedes, etc face?
Click to expand...

As a Spaniard in these forums I can more or less tell you what the problems are in Spain.

-Economy is slowing down (similar to the UK, but Economy in Spain works a tad differently due to a big focus on Construction). Employment growth is therefore going down too. I think the overall growth of the country is supposed to be 2.9%. Food prices (like in the UK) are going up too. Even with these details, Spain GDP has surpased Italy's and its now the 8th economy of the world
-Inmigration. Spain is the country in Europe that is receiving more illegal inmigration per year.
-More Crime. It is true though that Spain has got more police on the streets than the UK and it is not such a big problem.
-Terrorism. There was a murder from ETA on Friday. Although much weaker than ever before, they are still a threat.
-Democracy is still young and inmature. There are stupid personal attacks from both main party candidates. It is slowly getting there though :)

Good things (better than the UK).
-Health. The Health system works much better in Spain, its much more personalized and you don't have as many queues as in the UK.
-Social Measures. The governemt gives every family with low income £2000 for every kid they have. There is also help for under 26s to rent flats (up to £200 a month). Pensions are going up considerably as well.
-Roads. So, so much better in Spain (even if the terrain is much more difficult to build on)

THats a quick overview of what is going on in Spain.
 
Ezyryder said:
Good things (better than the UK).
-Health. The Health system works much better in Spain, its much more personalized and you don't have as many queues as in the UK.
-Social Measures. The governemt gives every family with low income £2000 for every kid they have. There is also help for under 26s to rent flats (up to £200 a month). Pensions are going up considerably as well.
-Roads. So, so much better in Spain (even if the terrain is much more difficult to build on)
Click to expand...

It's really quite ironic that it is us that's paying for them as well... You know, due to the amount we put into the EU, and the amount that spain takes out being pretty much the same. (3billion euros per year)
 
Last edited:
Ironic yes, Spain didn't have the Marshall Plan like you did after the world war, even if Spain nationalist was heavily helped by Germany and Italy during the Civil War (1936-1939).

Here you go, the budget:
Given Received
European Union 105,259,468,772 100.00% 106,575,500,000 100.00%
Germany 22,218,438,941 21.11% 12,242,400,000 11.49%
France 17,303,107,859 16.44% 13,496,200,000 12.66%
Italy 14,359,479,157 13.64% 10,922,300,000 10.25%
United Kingdom 13,739,900,046 13.05% 8,294,200,000 7.78%
Spain 8,957,286,488 8.51% 12,883,000,000 12.09%
Netherlands 5,552,933,781 5.28% 2,190,400,000 2.06%
Belgium 4,035,286,807 3.83% 5,625,100,000 5.28%
Sweden 2,832,862,800 2.69% 1,573,400,000 1.48%
Austria 2,308,432,030 2.19% 1,830,100,000 1.72%
Denmark 2,130,860,212 2.02% 1,501,900,000 1.41%
Poland 2,099,087,114 1.99% 5,305,600,000 4.98%
Greece 1,882,611,879 1.79% 6,833,700,000 6.41%
Finland 1,544,832,284 1.47% 1,280,400,000 1.20%
Portugal 1,443,049,602 1.37% 3,634,800,000 3.41%
Ireland 1,341,281,313 1.27% 2,461,800,000 2.31%
Hungary 1,003,119,411 0.95% 1,842,200,000 1.73%
Czech Republic 932,392,859 0.89% 1,330,000,000 1.25%
Slovakia 393,148,777 0.37% 696,200,000 0.65%
Slovenia 299,993,572 0.29% 406,000,000 0.38%
Luxembourg 241,439,011 0.23% 1,194,800,000 1.12%
Lithuania 221,997,405 0.21% 799,800,000 0.75%
Cyprus 144,556,416 0.14% 239,600,000 0.22%
Latvia 115,205,431 0.11% 402,600,000 0.24%
Estonia 100,756,308 0.10% 300,000,000 0.28%
Malta 57,409,269 0.05% 157,000,000 0.14%
Bulgaria Not in EU at time of Budget. Not in EU at time of Budget. 360,600,000 0.34%
Romania Not in EU at time of Budget. Not in EU at time of Budget. 693,100,000 0.65%
 
Last edited:
France has a lot of the same "problems" that you'll find in the UK.

Additionally, when I was there salaries were considerably lower than the equivalent in the UK, and it was extremely difficult to obtain a mortgage to try and buy your own property - I remember the bank manager almost laughing at me when I said I wanted to buy somewhere as a twenty-something.

France has the highest percentage of the workforce earning the minimum wage too...

http://www.journaldunet.com/management/repere/smic.shtml
(apologies it's in French, but the columns refer to the minimum wage in €, the equivalent "buying power", and the percentage of workers earning that as of 2005)

smicwy0.jpg
 
The reason I want to know about this is because a lot of people on here seem to make it out that the UK has more problems than everywhere else in the West and just wanted to compare us to them. :)

But it seems that several countries have more problems than us...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom