A Belgian Discussion

On a weekly ride on Saturday morning, the route is always through the “Foothills” neighborhood in Phoenix. It is South of South Mountain. The ride includes a Pecos Road which is a straight, but rolling 7.5 mile road. Typically the group does repeated loops in this area for the Saturday training ride.

On the ride this past April 1 was a Belgian triathlete named Lucky. He was participating in the April 9 Ironman Arizona in Tempe, AZ.

He joined the group on about the second lap. It was apparent he was competing in the event due to his specific bike and he had on racing wheels. Typically a cyclist does not do a lot of training on a set of “Zipp” brand wheels, especially if the rear wheel is a “disc”.

After a couple more laps with the group, Lucky and I decided we would continue on for 2 additional hours. As we rode on, we talked about the US and Belgium, comparing and contrasting.

It was interesting to know Belgians like just about everything American; cars, clothes, beer (some), TV shows.

“Lost” and “Pimp My Ride” are popular shows. It was surprising to him to see Digital TV with 200+ stations… he said in Belgium they may have 37 or so.

Lucky also thought was surprised to see so many Hummers. “In Belgium there may be 1 you see in a month.” He said “In the US, you see 10 each day.”

I told him Americans then compare to Belgians regarding goods. Americans typically like most anything made in Europe, wines, clothes, cars... Americans like Belgian beer.

Lucky said it is well known in Belgium, the Americans are close to or already making better beer than Belgians. I told him it is likely America is just changing and using similar recipes as the Belgians and other Europeans… this may be where we learned.. Lucky said though, it is known the Americans are making the beer better now…

Lucky is 33 year old who lives in a more affluent area in Belgium. We were comparing costs of living, taxes etc… He said Belgians pay close to 50% of their income in taxes. He also said the cost of living is pretty high. An average 3 room apartment would probably cost about $600/month. This appeared to be reasonable until he said this is about half of his take home income each month. He works for the Belgian government in some fashion. He said he makes a pretty good living for Belgium.

Belgium has socialized health care. He pays $10/visit to any doctor. Also pays small amount for prescriptions. I told him I pay 28% in federal taxes and combine probably pay 33-35% taxes. We agreed Belgians probably are still paying for their health care through the high tax rate.

He said many Belgians want to go to the US. They believe they can do better here than they are in Belgium. They think if they did something similar in the US as they are in Belgium, they would be more wealthy in the US.

After thinking about this more today, I think the pay may or may not be better for similar work, however the most important difference is two-fold, lower taxes and more choices. Any Belgian who spoke English as well as Lucky could come to American and choose from a seemingly infinite number of jobs.

We also discussed terrorism and the War in Iraq. Lucky said after 9/11, Belgians were probably just as scare as Americans. They all saw how vulnerable any country could be. He said the terrorists are absolutely crazy people. You can not discuss anything with them. They want to die and go to heaven for their religion. He agreed most Muslims are not like this, however enough terrorists are causing all to suffer.

He said he agreed with the decision to go to War in Iraq. He thought it was the right thing to do. He said many Belgians also thought it was the right thing to do. He also brought up how important it was for Belgium and Europe when the US saved them in WWI and WWII. He said it would be such a different world if it were not for the Americans. He says he thinks some people forget this.

He also agreed the US has a good track record. They are not emperialists. The US wants what is best for the US and this just so happens to coincide with what is typically best for all nations.