Good snow stories, XO. Allentown would be good to ride around in the snow in - quite a few hills.

Good link to the Zakaria article. I read his stuff in Newsweek all the time and I think he's got a good sense of the reality of a lot of things. The only problem I have with his article is when he talks about the income levels of people in certain European countries compared to the US. One has to factor into the discussion the fact that many of the countries he cited have socialized medicine, hence it's easier in that respect of families to live on lower incomes. Of course, this in no way makes up for the wage gap, but it is an important thing to think about. I think it would be interesting to look at citizen debt in certain EU countries vs. US and asian countries. Americans have a lot of debt on average (for college students it's something like $9000, for families I am sure much higher), and the UK, with their intermediate wage status between the US and EU is quickly catching up to us. I wonder if people in Sweden have high credit card debt? It would interesting to see if there is a correlation between high income on average in a country and high average credit card debt. just something to think about. C, let me know if you come across anything like that.

Hope all are well. Looking forward to your birthday, Dad! the big 7-0. We'll have to take you out and get tattooed or something. ha.

love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 2/14/2006 02:45:00 PM