Eric A. Stalee

I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while now.  But you know…blog writing doesn’t exactly take a priority over most things if the blog is just for fun.

While living abroad (in both Russia and NL) I’ve noticed a more carefree attitude towards the law.  I notice this attitude among my German friends as well (egads, but Germans are so orderly!!).  Contrast this with the USA where a lot of people tend to be more afraid of the police or of breaking the law in general.

The attitude of most (western) Europeans I’ve interacted with seems to be that breaking laws is ok if you aren’t seriously hurting someone while doing it.  This is painting people with a fairly broad brush but that’s what I’ve encountered in any case.  For instance if your bicycle light is not working, even though it’s illegal to ride without a functioning light (because safety etc.) people still do it and also don’t really bother to replace it.  They might eventually but it is not a priority at all.  Police in general also do not seem to care too much.
(16.12.2016 – Small additional example;  I was watching a TV show (Gute Zeiten schlechte Zeiten)  that takes place in Berlin.  In one scene a woman and her friend were shown eating pringles while riding the subway/metro.  Yet, you will see in almost every compartment in the metro, signs saying no food allowed.  And on TV they blatantly violate this.)

This is the same case with urinating in public.  If a person (well, a guy) just goes a bit out of sight down a side street to do their business (when it’s nighttime and you’ve been partying), almost nobody cares.  Police will look the other way and it’s no big deal.  I also had the pleasure (sarcasm) of seeing a drunk Dutch guy with his friends on Koningsdag urinating into a Burger King trashcan.  By Dutch standards this isn’t really ‘normal’.  BUT, nobody is going to call the police or really try to stop the guy.  Especially on Koningsdag I suppose since so many Dutch people will be on the streets and having fun.

I’m not sure this would have been tolerated in the USA however, even if the USA had a day similar to Koningsdag.

I personally prefer the European attitude…it’s more live and let live I think.  Whereas in the states it’s more like follow the law or die face the consequences.  Another way of putting this might be that Europeans tend to (mostly) follow the spirit of the law whereas Americans follow the letter of the law.

 

By the by, have you heard Kent’s new song?  NO?  Why not? It’s amazing.  Although some of the diehard fans who followed Kent from its beginning don’t like it.  IMO I think they just don’t like that it’s less rock sounding than what Kent did in its earlier albums (i.e. they don’t like change).  Anyways, have a listen.

 

And the EURUSD bounced a while ago at 1.115
I need to update my charts again.
🙁