Are you living in another universe? You said precisely nothing that applies to the world I live in.

What does this even mean?

So he just lumps together the countries the European Left loves to hate with no regard for their actual political and ideological orientations?

US: ultra-capitalist oligarchy pretending to be a two-party democracy
Israel: military rule in one area with sectionalist social democracy in the other area.
South Africa: EXTREME sectionalism based on actual tribal affiliation, coupled to a legacy of extreme racism.

If I was going to make an analysis, I would call sectionalism the common factor between these countries' problems, not a "fear based in freedom-myth". That, however, requires that we actually admit the United States has factions and sectionalism at all, which the dominant factions in the US refuse to admit (because by doing so they can cast themselves as the One True Representative Faction of all Americans rather than as a two-party system representing what are increasingly two separate nations).

The original intent was to have the government composed of a white, male, Protestant, landowning aristocracy "of merit" (ie: they did manage to own land, they must be competent rulers!).

Fuck the original intent, we should do something that's actually good!

No, actually, that's not inflation. That's just redistribution of wealth from labor to capital. Inflation means that salaries rise too.

In Europe you can reach another country in which to practice an nth language by driving for three hours or taking a train, and you don't even need to bring a passport within the Schengen Zone.

It's really much simpler than that. Any translation in N dimensions can be viewed as rotation around the appropriately-oriented axis of an N+1'st dimension.

Well that is why the phrase used is "Pinkie-Swear" rather than "Pinkie Promise". They do have lawyers for this sort of thing.

Honestly, you know we're in for it the instant you start seeing names of so-called movements that outright refuse to provide coherent definitions of themselves.

Actually, looking at you, Occupy Wall Street.

My family lives upstate, but let's be frank: upstate has little to no economy outside of state spending sponsored by NYC tax dollars. The city is paying for you, not the other way around.

You think Israel is actually going to get this fiber system built on-time, in-budget, and to-capacity?

You don't know shit about this country if you actually believe that, but we'll get it eventually.

In all truth, we had rockets landing in Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem in November without withdrawing from anything.

Is "the world" going to give me a post-doc?

Subtle? It's not all that subtle, dude. Boston has some evil opposite of New York's ethnic neighborhoods. New York is proud of Little Italy, of Harlem, of the Lower East Side, of Queens! Boston... is proud of Southie, Beacon Hill, and the suburbs, where the white working class and white professional elite live. Boston blatantly disdains, Jamaica Plains, Mattapan, Dorchester, and East Boston where most of the city's residents actually live, and GOD HELP YOU if you live in a student area like Allston, Brighton, or Fenway. Cambridge disdains Boston in the same way that monied/industrial classes and academic/technological classes hate each other worldwide. Brookline is too good for Boston and Boston is too good for Brookline at the same time, in a way that I'm officially told has absolutely nothing to do with Brookline being heavily Jewish. Only the people of Somerville seem to care about Somerville, which is ironically, in my opinion, the nicest actual town in the whole damn area.

Food is expensive, it's impossible to find a doctor when you need one (I literally had a nervous breakdown and could not get a damn doctor's appointment despite having work-supplied insurance), rent is expensive, the weather is crap (particularly because you can't really enjoy the winter weather without going to the countryside). For all they did to encourage biking, I still got flat tires from broken glass when I actually attempted to ride my bike the 3 miles to work straight down Massachusetts Ave instead of taking the bus. The primary social activity of the metro area was going to your favorite pub and getting smashed, which I wouldn't even object to except that the pub "system" of Boston relies on intricate local knowledge of the precise social scene you want to attend and crowd you want to attract. Actually, I do object because I like to go clubbing rather than just get drunk. Even the "geek" activities for non-students largely consisted of "go watch a guy talk about technology while you eat bar appetizers and drink beer". The T also shuts down its various lines at times ranging from 11:30PM to 1AM, making you either go home early every time you go out, find some place to stay, or only go out near where you live anyway.

And Anime Boston got wrecked last year by someone drunk and someone stoned fighting during the rave while hundreds of overcrowded fellow nerds waited to even get in. The cops got called and the party broke up. GOOD JOB BOSTON!

Wow, now was that ever a rant to get off my chest. AND DESPITE ALL THIS, native Bostonians will continually insist that they live in "the Hub of the Universe", which is obviously far superior to crappy cities like New York, especially New York, or San Francisco, or anyplace other than Boston or maybe Seattle.

Obviously these are all First World problems, but boy is Boston ever a depressing place to live outside its 3-4 months of summer.

Back in "the old days", wages rose throughout the entire economy in every growth period. It was normal.

Your problem is that you live in the Boston area, one of the sector-segregated, non-fluid labor markets in the country with a high cost of living to boot. Get the hell out of there.