Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Hyeon Een]

I know George Bush likes to harp on about terrorists hating freedom, and that's why they attack the US. But as David Cross said, if that was the case then the Netherlands would be toast by know.

What do you think is the most free country in the world?

Somewhere like the US or the UK feels a lot less 'free' to me than South Korea. Back home I can't buy beer in the store at 6am on a Sunday, I can't walk around with bottles of alcohol at night, I can't visit a red-light district with chicks advertising themselves in the window, I can't buy pirated DVDs on the streets, I can't open up a filthy foodcart on the streets to earn a living, I can't beat the hell out of someone just because I'm married to them, I can't....

So where is the free-est place in the world that actually has a somewhat existant system of government and laws? (states in a.. state.. of anarchy don't count)

[Satori]

[jaganath69]

The Netherlands, now there's a free country.

[VanIslander]

To pedal a bike without being required to wear a friggin' helmet is one of the criteria of a free country.

Canada was free once. Not any more.

[mindmetoo]

The most free country is pretty hard to pin down. What's the per capita rate of federal laws between countries? Is that a good measure? One can throw around a lot of anecdotal evidence, of course. In Canada you can show fun bags and swear on network TV but you can't march in a Klan rally. In the USA it's the exact opposite. In Sweden 14 year old can see movies of people having hot sex but they can't see Star Wars because of the violence.

And of course there are laws and then there is what the community will tolerate. Can you claim on TV the 9/11 terrorists weren't cowards and retain your job? Can you have an anti-Bush bumper sticker and expect to keep your job?

[laogaiguk]

[ajgeddes]

[laogaiguk]

[SPINOZA]

[RACETRAITOR]

Wearing helmets is not worth getting pissed off about. In 20 years those of us who still don't wear helmets will look to our kids like our parents complaining about seatbelts look to us.

Obviously the US isn't doing so good with freedom these days, what with all the surveillance and the rolling back of constitutional rights and even Magna Carta. Canada is doing good at freedom but it's lacking in the opportunity department, which I think is important to the whole freedom thing. Both countries are incredibly lame when it comes to public drinking.

To be honest when I was in China I felt incredibly free there. You can basically do what you want and not worry about the police. I smashed a glass door (by accident while trying to break in) and all I had to do was pay some money. There are plenty of drugs there and the police don't really care. The people selling things are free too: there is no control making sure they practice fair business.

[billybrobby]

It's an interesting question.

When police protection is spotty, you're free to do a lot of stuff, but you lose the freedom to walk around at night and stuff like that. I love walking through the streets of Seoul at 2 AM everynight and I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't.

Racetraitor made a good point that freedom can be limited by a lack of opportunities. That's where I think the US is really good because it's big and has a big-ass economy and the sky is really the limit if you've got the right resources.

When it comes to rules, the US is clearly no winner. Drinking age 21? That sucks! But I'm glad we can still have klan rallies and such in America. When I hear about Europe and their misguided hate-speech laws, I cringe.

[jinju]

[RACETRAITOR]

[Satori]

IF you want to have real freedom of speech, you have to let the scumbags speak too. Otherwise you get on the slipperly slope of deciding who is and who isn`t a scumbag...

[kermo]

A while back, someone posted a rather brilliant discourse on "freedom from" vs. "freedom to"... where is that?