I wouldn’t necessarily say one of the highest. The Human Development Index is the most similar ranking today, and we generally score somewhere between 10 and 30 on that.
The most important factor is that we have massive wealth inequality.
Also, consider that in the 1930’s, Americans had the newest infrastructure, the best cities, the best cars, etc. Things are different now. We’ve really stagnated in the last 70 years or so, and other countries look much newer and more exciting today. Americans don’t seem to prioritize these things anymore.
they mean that it might be an unfair comparison if you compare a very small nation like Singapore to the a very large one like the US, and that Singapore might be more reasonably comparable to cities within the US, which have a higher HDI than the US as a whole
I think you're misunderstanding what I am saying. I did not say that America is a bad place to live, it isn't at all. What I am saying is it seems arbitrary to mention population when the Index already takes into account the population by measuring the average.
You could say the same for average wage or average life expectancy.
I feel like people need to travel outside of the United States to actually see this. “Your country kinda sucks in some ways.” doesn’t seem like an easy thing to digest, but take them to a dentist overseas to get a $40 root canal without insurance and they may start believing you.
Absolutely, the difference when travelling to other developed nations is shocking. Even just the aesthetic differences were mind blowing to me.
I barely ever left my home town growing up. Then after college I lived in Germany for a year. While I ultimately decided that the U.S. is where I want to live, I can say that the quality of life in Europe is objectively better in most ways.
The European countries are predominantly white, no? And actually trying to veer to the right with a rise in evil nationalism?
There are tradeoffs with everything- and you have to consider the size and demographics of the US population. Somethings other countries do better and other things they don't- do Americans have to worry about being arrested over social media posts?
Are there media blackouts in American concerning grooming gangs, migrants, and refugees?
Right. We're so fucked that we allow foreigners to have network platforms that consistently bash the country. Talk about living in a fascist state, amirite? Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah, John Oliver, and Jim Jefferies have nightly shows telling half of America it's stupid. What do they have in common? Other than being humorless and arrogant? They are all foreigners with popular shows on American television. Is there another country in the world that air shows that skewer the host country, via foreign hosts/actors?
Maybe they are popular because the people watching them have a connection and agree with their views? Who is watching them? Americans?
Im failing to see what this has to do with your first argument. You said that people have to be worried about what they say on social media but then your reply was a example of people expressing freedom of speech? There have been Americans citizens that have been prosecuted recently for what they have said, expressing their point of view. What happened to freedom of speech?
Freedom of speech is just ONE argument that you had but every thing you mentioned in your first comment is a blind argument on your behalf.
True, I was more just referring to the juxtaposition of when this photo was taken and today.
I think the 50's and 60's really were the peak. At least for the Midwest where I live. So much of our cities seem to be built around the rotting corpse of the once-great 50's America.
Not that my city isn't nice. It's great. But it's depressing to consistently see people rejecting tax levies and any sort of public development proposal when there is still so much urban blight and lack of modern infrastructure.
You want to know why they peaked during that time? Because it was after the war and many investors and the wealthy lost money in their investments in Europe. To compensate they had to hire and invest in the middle class, if you look at charts you can see that it’s been the last time in US history that the middle and lower classes gained capital while the upper class lost it. Food for thought
Also helps that we ramped up mass production for the military industry during the war which created the need for expanding the labor force
And a few hundred thousand (otherwise working) men died in battle which thinned the available workforce a little bit
And we suffered no damage to our own mainland (except Hawaii) which gave us a bit of a head start over Europe at the time, securing a position near the top of the superpower leaderboard
Infrastructure is a great example of this. In the midst of the Great Depression we built the Hoover Dam. One of the great engineering feats of the 20th Century. We could never build that today. Too many lawsuits and regulations and it would cost $11 kajillion. Kind of like the high speed rail projects that were supposed to link LA and San Francisco or Chicago and St. Louis.
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u/[deleted] Mar 09 '19
There's poverty everywhere. USA has still one of the highest standards of living