by Jack
My daughter just arrived from Holland and having now lived in both CA and Holland she contrasted life here and there. She had some surprising and not so surprising perspectives. Her observations compared Amsterdam to Los Angeles and San Francisco and Chico to some comparable sized villages outside Amsterdam.
Note: The following are a sort of consensus opinions that included her Dutch friends that have also travelled here and of course her opinions.
1st reality check: California was nothing like the Dutch thought it would be. They expected L.A. and San Francisco to be a more glamorous cities, like Hollywood, bustling with world class business types and well to do people.
Once off the plane they started seeing the real CA. First impression, the people looked
Golden Gate Park
too casual, almost shabby and poor casual. There was no comparison to the well dressed characters they were accustomed to seeing on TV. It was like, Americans don’t care about their personal appearance very much.
Dutch tourists entering the big cities on the west coast in the last few years had to be taken aback by the large numbers of filthy people living next to and under freeway bridges. Or bums laying around in the city parks or crazy people pushing shopping carts filled with garbage bags, etc. It was a sight in this wealthy state that they never expected to see; the level of human misery and poverty was stunning. And all the trash… it was shocking to say the least. All of my daughters friends agreed with the above – CA is dirty and unsafe.
By comparison their cities, even in Amsterdam that is so well known for its liberal use of cannabis, is a 1000 times cleaner and 99% free of street bums, drunks, druggies and crazy people. I can imagine they collectively thought, my God is this America, what’s happened here? (A village neighborhood outside Amsterdam shown below, no pot holes either)
The standard of living in Holland was so superior to this, they couldn’t believe it. For example, their vehicles are generally smaller, but newer. Sure, they have their traffic issues, but nothing like here. She thinks this is because a large portion of the Dutch society ride the bus, train or bike to work. “You don’t see the big hillbilly pickups and loud beater cars in Holland.” She said.
Amsterdam is not loaded with fast food places, liquor stores, bars, chain restaurants and cheesy looking strip malls either. To the Dutch, our commercial districts look devoid of culture, no appealing architecture, just big windows framed in aluminum….all of our stores look so similar and not very appealing. For them, it was depressing to see because they had such a different idea of what modern and rich CA would look like.
Dutch villages have commercial districts too, but they are a variety of shops interspersed with homes or apartments. The shops (and bars) don’t really stand out. The locals know where to go to find what they need, its not necessary to have giant billboards and neon signs everywhere. They look down upon such things as trashy and they prefer understatement to our, in-your-face advertisements or tacky store signage.
Dutch people generally cook at home, they like eating healthy so the demand for fast foods isn’t there. Their grocery stores are well stocked, comparably priced products to ours, but the store floors and shelves are sparkling clean. You would not think of littering inside a store or letting your kids run loose. Kids are kept under control at all times. And outside the shop doors, you never see scary looking panhandlers hanging around. (Dutch teens shown below on left)
My daughter says because of the way they eat the Dutch tend to be slimmer. She thinks the young girls are a bit taller too. In her opinion, they dress better than the grungy, casual look here. Over there what you wear is a statement about your self respect and 
refinement. She said by comparison, the American girls look pretty sad. “They dress really poor like they don’t care.” Dutch think too many Americans take too little pride in their personal appearance and I would have to plead guilty to that one (at least at times).
My daughter’s take was younger Americans, those under 25, are just not as sharp mentally as their Dutch counterparts. She blames some of this in part on America trying to dummy proof everything for our society. In the Netherlands they have more personal responsibility in their daily lives and they must think for themselves, at least more than we do here. Here we see American’s that can’t even figure out how to use a simple roundabout without a ton of signs pointing out the obvious. She uses the phrase “dummy proofing”
a lot when describing how people are directed around CA, from our big parking lots to freeways. All those signs appear to be made for stupid people with no common sense. (American teens shown upper right) This is how my daughters friends see us.
It was her opinion that our education of K-12 in CA is not doing all that they could. They’re not teaching kids what they need to know to be good citizens and enter the work force. Instead we engage in too many worthless subjects best taught at home, if at all. We also give social promotions, unthinkable in Dutch society. We lack trade schools for those not interested in higher education, but the Dutch pride themselves in training skilled workers.
In Holland one could expect to pay about 40% in taxes and they know its high, but the
roads are well maintained, there’s no crumbling infrastructure or pot holed roads or trash along the freeways. It’s just a better run society and she says their tax dollars are better spent that our tax dollars. The Dutch spend public money on needed and practical projects that will last centuries. (Amsterdam train station on left – modern and very clean)
Aside from the regular taxes, they pay about $100 (USD) per month for complete 
healthcare with no deductible, you need help you can walk in and be served no further cost. However, addressing complicated medical issues takes far longer and there is a good chance if you need something to treat your cancer you won’t be getting it very fast. That’s the worst part.
(Graffiti on BART train shown right)
My daughter was quick to emphasize ( and most of her friends would agree) that their socialist form of healthcare would never work here! We are too different, the country is too big and in general we are too irresponsible. We simply have too many scammers, too many low class, riffraff that would become a huge financial drag on the whole system.
Criminal behavior is something Dutch society looks down on, they do not tolerate such people very well. Unlike here, there is a lot of peer pressure to behave or else. One does not get drunk and drive. You don’t do hard drugs and you don’t do the stupid stuff that will get you injured, unless you are a tourist from America.
Their system works because it’s a smaller country. Everything is easier to manage. They are a more homogeneous society where most everyone respects each other and abides by the rules.
They have no 3rd world types overrunning Holland and no crime riddled Mexico on their border like
we do. As a result, crime is low, employment is high and defrauding the government welfare system is fairly rare. Again, it’s a cultural thing, unlike here where cheating and stealing from the government is rampant and therefore our costs for everything is much higher than need be.
Their villages (see left) are more like fairy tale sets right out of Disneyland. They are super clean, very solid built and historic looking homes with smooth brick paved roads (narrower than here) and its all perfectly maintained. A house could be new or 300 years old and you probably couldn’t tell the difference from the outside.
Quaint Dutch Village Shops Lined with White Tulips in Holland Michigan 700755
If a place like seedy Stockton was suddenly transplanted to Holland…wow, the Dutch would be busy bulldozing about half it right off. They are intolerant of blight. And the miscreants that roam Stockton’s streets at night would be around for long. Hollands laws are much stricter than ours. My daughter thinks they would be deporting tens of thousands of losers back to the USA. The undereducated, low class, lazy or criminally inclined types we put up with here would be targets of scorn and ridicule in Holland. By comparison the Dutch are hard working, educated, and much more cultured than what we see coming up in our newest generations.
A few decades ago this culture contrast would not have been so great in CA, but now it like night and day and it’s shocking to the outside observer.
In closing, my daughter is sure that European tourism is bound to start falling off in blighted places like San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, etc. She said people from Holland, Germany, etc., would be horrified to see our bums and all the human feces and drug needles on the sidewalks of San Francisco. She doubts they will ever want to return to these S-hole cities run by our liberals.
In order to have truth in advertising, any tourism ads touting visiting Taxifornia should include “Bring your Hazmat suit”
Jack, do you remember when the left bragged that all they needed to do was get control of the schools in order to defeat us?
Chris and Libby are perfect examples of how it worked. Got into all those young minds full of mush, and turned entire generations in “useful idiots.”
“A few decades ago this culture contrast would not have been so great in CA, but now it like night and day and it’s shocking to the outside observer.”
You’re right. And it’s invisible to all the useful idiots who were manipulated so easily.
C. J. yep I do remember and they have been real busy doing it in full view. The pathetic part is Californians tend to get acclimated to our surroundings, even when those surrounding are sick and dangerous. When things get this bad, the right thing would be to get tough and force changes (starting in Sacramento). But, we’ve passed that time when this would have been possible. Now we’re so outnumbered we don’t stand a chance fixing what needs to be fixed. We are so outnumber us that a good ol patriotic revolt would probably not succeed…it’s just too late. We missed it and CA is lost.
Re: “It was her opinion that our education of K-12 in CA is not doing all that they could. They’re not teaching kids what they need to know to be good citizens and enter the work force. Instead we engage in too many worthless subjects best taught at home, if at all.”
See Cherokee Jack above with this addendum — Now people like Chris are in charge. You don’t think the hysterical lunacy he throws around in these pages does not make it prominently into his classroom? (This is assuming that the purple faced, dysfunctional, hyper-angry, sociopathic nutcase actually is a teacher.)
Re: “In Holland one could expect to pay about 40% in taxes and they know its high, but the roads are well maintained, there’s no crumbling infrastructure or pot holed roads or trash along the freeways.”
If we all were at the same tax rate I think it safe to say that nothing would change.
Re: “In closing, my daughter is sure that European tourism is bound to start falling off in blighted places like San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, etc.”
I can think of no reason why I would ever visit San Francisco again, Even for a Giants game. It is a disgusting sh*thole. And now progressives here are turning Chico into a sh*thole. I think the contentious and controversial Michal Savage is right about at least one thing, liberalism is a mental disorder. The red diaper doper babies are running the show now. Just look at the line up running for the Democrat Party nomination for President. Dope smoking absolutist socialists and proud of it.
With so many real problems our state is facing this is what Calif. legislators are spending their time and our money on. Unbelievable!
https://californiaglobe.com/legislature/california-bill-imposes-ban-on-little-shampoo-bottles-from-hotels/?fbclid=IwAR3-rHpeDgQjd_Mmtmrr3rIqyOIucHphDnGfUORona1AyHICv1oSz_Q64P8
California must be the most anal-retentive progressive loony bin on the planet. This will fly to and though the Governor’s desk. This is what you get when the lunatics run the asylum. They came for your straws, now they come for your shampoo. Priorities of the left.
But certainly this bill does not go far enough! What about the the little plastic shampoo bottles, plastic hand cream bottles, plastic tooth brushes and little plastic tubes of toothpaste given to people in hospital? This abject, planet destroying practice must stop!
What about those little plastic pill bottles? What about the plastic condiment bottles sold in supermarkets? What about those little plastic packages of mustard, ketchup and pickle relish provided by those horrid, planet destroying fast food burger joints serving up planet destroying ground meat from farting cows? This bill does not go far enough!
I’m curious. Why does your daughter call it Holland, when the country is The Netherlands?
I expect she was hanging out with residents of the province of Holland? Those Frisians were bad news in their day … and apparently, are STILL quite full of themselves.
Anyhoo, the population of The Netherlands is under 12 million, a third of what we have to manage, just here in California, so how about we adjust our expectations accordingly.
Holland is a region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands.
The name Holland first appeared in sources for the region around Haarlem, and by 1064 was being used as the name of the entire county. By the early twelfth century, the inhabitants of Holland were called Hollandi in a Latin text. Holland is derived from the Old Dutch term holtlant (“wood-land”). I like to use the name Holland because its shorter than writing the Netherlands
Methinks thou dost protest too much.
The very first Wiki paragraph addresses the issue:
Holland is a region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. The name Holland is also frequently used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. This usage is commonly accepted in other countries,[2] and sometimes employed by the Dutch themselves.[2] However, some in the Netherlands, particularly those from regions outside Holland, may find it undesirable[2] or misrepresentative to use the term for the whole country.
That is … them Frisians are STILL quite full of themselves.
Libby, I think I understand what you are saying, but your view isn’t quite fair. The Dutch are not really being aloof or condescending, maybe you find a little of that, but not much. They are just proud people because they have a great society. They have a smart government dealing with respectful citizens. As a result, they have low crime! Its clean, safe, and people don’t have the pressures put on them like here. They’re all around happier. They have very good lives and it shows whenever you talk with them. But, if you say stupid stuff they will let you know! lol They do not tolerate stupid.
Healthy minds and healthy bodies: They are fit, they exercise, they walk, ride bikes, eat right and they are well educated, says my daughter. I was there years ago and I agree with here assessment, although I didn’t live in a village like she did…just stayed in Amsterdam. I’m just glad things have not changed much since my time in the Netherlands.
“In closing, my daughter is sure that European tourism is bound to start falling off in blighted places like San Francisco, ….”
I don’t think it’s your daughter, Jack. I think it’s you who believes this. Alas, bubble-dwellers like yourself cannot make predictions based on anything but your prejudices. The facts are generally otherwise:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Despite-dirty-streets-San-Francisco-tourism-hits-13688538.php
Check this out:
https://www.citylab.com/design/2018/11/community-first-village-homeless-tiny-homes-austin-texas/575611/
Alas, San Francisco has 300-and-some times the population to deal with … so you see the problem.
Pie Guevara replies: Wherein Lippy insults Jack as a bubble dweller. Does anyone besides me see the amusing and delicious irony here?
“Bubble-dweller” is a description, not an insult … and I give him his name, which is more than you can do.
Pie Guevara replies: This is really too funny. You, Lippy-troll, blowing smoke up my *ss does not pass muster. Take your infantile and febrile insults and stick them where the sun don’t shine, dear. 😀
Are you at all aware why Post Scripts publishes your puerile comments?
1) Jack and Tina believe in freedom of speech.
2) You are your own worst enemy.
Keep up the good work! I am perfectly happy facilitate you to make an ass out of yourself with your idiotic insults and shall never, ever send any of your witless comments to the trash bin.
Why is Pie writing from the Post Scripts account? And why is he doing so to mindlessly berate other posters without even a hint of a counter-argument?
Chris, Pie is a co-editor. I hope you two can find some common ground. I would sure like to see good debates here.
Definition of puerile? … childishly silly, trivial and immature, i.e., “Lippy-troll.”
Look them up first, Pie.
Yeah … this does not bode well for the integrity of the blog. Pie is a veritable fount of infantile abuse, i.e., a potty mouth, but he does not argue. He does not seem to grasp the concept.
You say “prejudice”.
He says “poop”.
We can continue to point this out for awhile, and then it’s just not worth the effort.
I’ve tried to find common ground with Pie, Jack. He won’t allow it. When I’ve agreed with him, he’s taken umbrage and told me not to express agreement with him. When I defended you from what I thought was an unfair critique from a new poster last week, Pie chose to misread that as an attack on you.
This is a disappointing decision.
Chris the one thing PS has always been is a free speech podium. We have our faults here and I’ve said things I wish I had not. But, in the long haul I hope more good will come from our exchanges than anything else. If free speech was thought that important by our founders then I gotta go with it. (Remember, you were also offered a co-writer spot?)
All we lack is the political will:
https://tinyurl.com/y6h8d2cn
Cool, huh?
Libby, you keep avoiding the main issue. Why are all these bums, druggies, ex-cons, pervs, alcoholics and crazies coming here? What is the draw…here? Why us and please don’t say its the weather or employment opportunities?
Here? Austin? What difference does it make? They exist, and must be dealt with.
I have to say, the garbage thing floors me. They do generate amazing quantities … and wallow in it. Many times I have tried to get you to grasp the concept of the “poor in spirit”, as opposed to those merely without funds. Jesus said they would always be with us, and he wasn’t kidding.
If they can’t clean up after themselves, we have to do it.
It is that simple.
If you can own this, sans resentment, you’ll feel better.
The Demorats and illegal immigration.
https://www.vinsuprynowicz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/proxy.duckduckgo-5.jpg
Off Topic: Excellent read by Andrew McCarthy
https://nypost.com/2019/04/15/behind-the-obama-administrations-shady-plan-to-spy-on-the-trump-campaign/
Another off topic excellent read.
https://dailycaller.com/2019/04/16/richard-dearlove-steele-russia-halper-flynn/?fbclid=IwAR0ErwwG8fwBO8IV6-e2_7ZuuCs56cdPBdl63XGPZerrBxD4Uqs5w9MHw9E
Re Chris: “I’ve tried to find common ground with Pie, Jack. He won’t allow it. When I’ve agreed with him, he’s taken umbrage and told me not to express agreement with him. When I defended you from what I thought was an unfair critique from a new poster last week, Pie chose to misread that as an attack on you.”
AND
Re Jack: “Chris the one thing PS has always been is a free speech podium. We have our faults here and I’ve said things I wish I had not. But, in the long haul I hope more good will come from our exchanges than anything else. If free speech was thought that important by our founders then I gotta go with it. (Remember, you were also offered a co-writer spot?)”
Chris has called Jack and Tina and nearly everyone who posts in the comments section here racists, bigots, sexists, xenophobes etc. etc ad nauseam as part of a boilerplate compendium of juvenile left-wing progressive slurs he relies on. I understand this, Chris — and every puerile progressive I have ever known — depend on this asinine and deeply insulting fallback position.
As such I can think of no reason to take him seriously. This ugly, pouting, slur slinging name caller is nothing more than a self-aggrandizing schoolyard brat and bully using Post Scripts to vent his diseased spleen. This is what passes for civil discourse and “debate” in Chris’ mind. When I throw his fallacious and specious troll sh*t right back in his face, he whines to Jack and runs to Tina to hide beneath her skirts. Just like now.
Chris is damn straight. I do not want this despicable, childish, lunatic ***hole agreeing with anything I post as it only reflects badly on me. He has violated every logical fallacy mankind has created and possibly invented a few of his own. I am fully aware of when I am being fallacious but Chis is in complete denial. I deliberately use fallacy to make a satirical point. Chris, on the other hand, is totally oblivious to his own speciousness and completely lacks any semblance of self examination whatsoever. He takes himself very seriously, which is probably a good thing, since no one else (except perhaps Lippy) does.
As such, if Chris wants to get rid of me, all Jack or Tina need do is actually make him a co-writer for the blog. I will dump this place in a heartbeat. I need not waste my time electronically attaching myself to this silly, juvenile sh*thead and neither should Post Scripts, in my humble opinion.
(Some may presume I am expressing some sort of deep-seated anger here. That could not be farther from the truth. The facts are the facts and I am having a bit of fun and enjoying relating them. Take it or leave it, but I suggest no one presume to tell me what is in my mind like the quintessential jerk-troll has, laughably, tried to do so many times on so many occasions.)
“Negro burner”
Still trying to make fetch happen with this one, I see.
Sad.
Pie here: Just the facts, Chris, just the facts.
If you think I am being unfair, when have you ever been fair to Jack, Tina or anyone else? Cry me a river.
Like, totally, valley girl —
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb21lsCQ3EM