Re: Our Usual Anti-American Tirades

["Andrew Schwartz" <andrew_s_swartz@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

First off - apologies for meandering off-topic, but I promise to try to 
bring it back to Alfas by the end of my reply.

Jerry - I'm sorry if I offended you when pointing out that certain aspects 
of Italian driving is better than American driving.  I stand by that.  
Having driven all over the world - and having driven in Italy for a little 
more than '3 days' that's my personal opinion.  It is too easy to get a 
driving permit here (the US) - which leads to lots of underqualified people 
on the roads.

Why do you see that as anti-Americanism.  Well - newsflash - there are some 
things that other countries do better than America.  Some things - car 
design, driving, food and fashion - the Italians are world leading.  Others 
- choosing leaders (Mussolini and Silvio Berlusconi spring to mind), writing 
computer software, running an efficient administration, fighting wars - the 
Italians suck at (and the Americans tend to be quite good - as much as I am 
not particularly fond of Bush jr., I'll take him over Berlusconi any day)

Having lived all over - I've learnt that generalisations are usually true - 
British food is terrible and their comedy is good; German cars are reliable, 
but they make lousy lovers; Belgians cook well, but they are much too 
officious.  Most countries have learnt to laugh at themselves - I hope one 
day, we Americans learn that skill!

So - why are Americans worse drivers?, and what has this got to do with 
Alfas?
As Michael Porter of the Harvard Business School pointed out in 'The 
Competitive Advantage of Nations' (business is something Americans are very 
good at btw) - it has a lot to do with factor conditions and the formation 
of clusters.  Italians (especially in the North around Milan) have lots of 
twisty BAD roads where you can't go very fast, but need great road holding 
not to get killed - that's why you get Alfas.  Compare that with the average 
driving conditions in America  - wide open, straight roads - that's why you 
get Cadillacs.  Similarly - you get Ducati coming out of Italy, and Harley 
Davidson coming out of the States - different demands.

And why are Italians better city drivers - because their cities tend to be 
very crowded with roads that were not initially designed for cars, unlike 
American cities which are (mostly) fairly quiet and laid out on grids.  So 
again - to drive in an Italian city you need a higher level of skill than to 
drive in an American city (even LA which is fairly crowded really only calls 
for the skill of patience).

So - Italians are better drivers and design better cars than Americans 
because their country has (historically) been poorer and they have worse 
roads.  This, of course, has nothing to do with rudeness - and yes - 
Italians are well versed at swearing at their fellow drivers.

Now - there are exceptions to the rule - there are Germans with a sense of 
humor, and Brits that can cook (Jamie Oliver sprang to mind - but he does 
Italian style food), and indeed even white men that can jump - that doesn't 
mean ON AVERAGE, the generalization holds true.

Peace and safe Alfa driving.
Andrew

Jerry in Houston wrote:

> I see we are back to our typical anti-American cheap
> shots and of course the italians do everything so
> perfectly well.  WELL, bullcookies
....
> based on anecdotal evidence at
> best, Ohhhh I was in Italy for 3 days and yadda yadda
> yadda, or no evidence at all.  Characterizing a whole
> population as being afraid of their cars or some such
> malarky is no different than "white men can't jump"
> and "black folks all have rhythm".  Both of which are
> pure B.S.  There are good and bad drivers in both
> cultures, of course the members of this digest ALL
> qualify as above average or excellent drivers....
> yeah....right.
_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE*  
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided