Damnit, I got the Publacta part wrong... it has been 2 decades... and I only seen like 2 maybe 3 Garda the entire time...
One at a car accident (surprisingly rare... considering the speeds and road conditions...)
The other for sure was parked along side the road possibly napping...
Its almost like socialized health care and higher education fights crime.... but that would be nearly almost kinda if you squint and are more then a little illiterate and gullible to be like Communism
Car accidents better be rare here(and they are). You have to take 12 lessons(12!), test to get a permit to take those lessons in the first place, and then pass a very strict driver's test within a year of completing those lessons. They also do not let Americans transfer their licenses. I have to take 6 lessons and pass the test. Because I could just pay to insure myself on my US license, I haven't bothered...yet...but I will eventually have to. Here's an example of the test, note the video is 25 minutes long. What always gets me is the reversing around a corner requirement. I mean, you will eventually have to do it here because the streets are so crowded and there are a lot of cul de sacs. But on a test for young drivers, that's where many lose points. Still, this is a good example of how crowded the streets can be here in even a rural area. In Dublin, it's rough. Cork is much easier to drive.
Education is not just affordable, but it's also set up differently than we have stateside.
In most of Europe, you are out of 'high school' by 16. And colleges are more like our private colleges stateside, so the base requirements aren't quite as plentiful. You mainly only study your major without too much social studies, philosophy, or history requirements. So you can graduate in 3 years. That's right, by the time your average American is enrolled in college, a European can be nearly graduated and working. And, yes, your average college-educated American is actually better educated than your average European due to a four year system in most public colleges. I mean, I was an industrial design major, a science degree, and I have done required courses in philosophy, history, an extra English course that was completely not necessary but required(college level technical writing), and a required economics course. That's like half a year of adjacent material most European and private US schools do not require. I didn't really need the English as I had taken it in HS.
I suppose it could be worse. By the time your average Irish citizen is 16, they would have 8 years of Irish. I mean, it's a good idea to teach it since this is Ireland and all, but very few Irish are fluent in Irish. I am told it's because they lack interest, are lazy, or it isn't taught well. But it is just stunning to me that I took only 2 years of German in HS and College and I can easily interact and find my way around Germany. But your average Irish person can not easily converse in Irish after years of it. So something is going on with that. My last German course was 2 hrs twice a week of 100% German conversation, no English was ever allowed, and the less German you could talk the more often they tried to converse with you. And it was at dinner time and we were allowed to bring in food or had food there. So I was often told 'Du frisst'. So maybe it's lack of interaction, I dunno.
Our HS system is nearly set up as day care by comparison. Most European systems would have you vocationally trained by 16 and into 1-2 years of professional apprenticeship by the time your average American has graduated HS.
A Danish friend of mine graduated HS at 16 and went into a carpentry trade school for 2 years, which included apprenticeship. He is the guy that did those oak stairs in the Waterford Estate I showed you. In Denmark, you not only do not pay for the school, but you also get a stipend to pay for room and board if you have to move closer to the school, or are simply given room and board. Yes, taxes are higher there, but the education level and employment is also high. Taxes invest in your country's future.
Now, having said that, my HS did a decent job with their wood shop and auto shop. I was a halfway decent mechanic and welder by the time I was 18, and that work bench I made I didn't use any plans and just winged it.
However, I only worked a few years in my major as the internet exploded whilst I was in the bay area of California at the time since that's where my college was. Companies were so desperate to hire, they took on a 24 year old me who only knew Unix because I was working on CAD systems at the time, and paid me the modern equivalent of $60K starting salary plus benefits to baby sit internal email and storage systems. It was a crazy time. I recall free vending machines, in house coffee shops and cafe's that were free, and work-sponsored housing etc. Good times. My bro still works up there as he also went to a California college, too. He IPO'd with a huge online gaming company recently and makes well into the six figures now as well as loads of stock. So the American dream is still out there.
