traveling open your eyes to how terrible the US is in many ways?

[Anonymous]

Two things they don't have that make the difference:
A massive government with easily bribed politicians who will support ANYONE for money (drug gangs, big pharma, health insurance companies, processed foods)

Drugs - there are drugs in HS, MS, every street corner. Leads to profound homelessness, trash etc. And their leaders buy their freedom (see above)

We need fewer reps and senators with a better oversight of their lawlessness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Recently went to Taiwan, where they rank higher on the freedom index than even the US. It's amazing how things function when everyone obeys the law and it is clean everywhere. Never worried about crimes and guns anywhere. Public transport? Amazing. Regional railways that took over one hour long cost a grand total of about $2.80 FOR TWO TICKETS. Amazing when infrastructure is not built around cars and catering to car culture. Food, much higher quality. Next stop was in Thailand, where one in our party got sick. Went to the hospital and was seen immediately. Got checked out by the attending physician, took a stool sample to determine if there was an infection, and had the results in less than one hour. All of this without using insurance cost a grand whopping total of $83. Imagine how terrible it'd be in the US. Probably at least over $2000 for the same treatment and it'd take triple the amount of time. Even Thailand is so much safer with respect to gun violence and crime. Traveling really opens your eyes to how terrible the US has gotten. I honestly think we are borderline 2nd world. We aren't really that free, healthcare is unaffordable, zero guaranteed vacations, high cost of living, toxic food, terrible infrastructure, severely obese population, and out of control crime and gun problems.

Look beyond the surface and the main economic issues that dominate Taiwan are the same as those in the U.S. - high cost of living, affordable housing, lack of employment opportunities, lack of quality health care. From someone who has been visiting Taiwan since the 1980s, the comparisons are not always what they seem.

[Anonymous]

I try not to compare places to the United States as whole but to where I live to keep it in perspective. I have a nice life in Arlington despite barely making median income. The scale of our country is enormous, the experiences varied.

[Anonymous]

Thailand routinely has bloodless coups. They also have some wild laws including very strong anti-defamatory laws. Try posting a negative review online and see what happens. You can be charged with a significant crime, even if it’s true.

[Anonymous]

These posts are the worst. Hey guys I spent two weeks at a luxury hotel and can now comment on how a whole country lives. A foreigner would have the same reaction if they spent a week in Nantucket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thailand routinely has bloodless coups. They also have some wild laws including very strong anti-defamatory laws. Try posting a negative review online and see what happens. You can be charged with a significant crime, even if it’s true.

And yet the US has almost 50,000 citizens killed per year by guns, classrooms of 8 years shot up by weapons of war, piss poor healthcare that bankrupts/kills people for things as simple as insulin, and education bankrupting people as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thailand routinely has bloodless coups. They also have some wild laws including very strong anti-defamatory laws. Try posting a negative review online and see what happens. You can be charged with a significant crime, even if it’s true.

And yet the US has almost 50,000 citizens killed per year by guns, classrooms of 8 years shot up by weapons of war, piss poor healthcare that bankrupts/kills people for things as simple as insulin, and education bankrupting people as well.

Strange Whataboutism

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I started noticing back in the 1990s that many US cities were 10x more dangerous than any European city. Hearing how others in South America and Caribbean view the US made me realize how silly we look. How we muck things up with the car-centric culture, the lack of accessible health care and child svd elder care, the expense to educate…and now, increasingly, with the huge increase in guns

New York City in the late 90s was magical - clean and safe - and I found it better run than London and Paris at the time by far. Of course, things have changed. Cities don’t stay stagnant as administrators change.

NYC in the 90s was magical? There were more than a 1000 murders a years for the first half of the decade and even in the latter half annual murder rates were more than today.

This absolutely feels like a visiting at the right time of your life or preferring the rhetoric of tough on crime over actual data.

[Anonymous]

I’m usually happy to return to the US after my travels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really hate when people go to another country for 1-2 weeks on vacation and think that everything is idyllic there because they had a good experience during that short period of time.

I’m by no means a jingoist or believe that America is superior in everything. I lived in two separate Asian countries, one as a teen and one as an adult, for two years each.

Yes, some countries do other things better than we do. Most have gun control much better handled.

But education, taxes, politics, economics and societal norms are complex, and you can’t tell just from a cheap hospital visit or train ride how good things are.

Taiwan is not even recognized as its own country by China and many other foreign powers. They could be invaded by China at any time. China still claims Taiwan as its own.

Thailand is a kingdom, and it isn’t exactly pro-democracy sometimes.

It’s too complicated to go into in a DCUM but, your one glimpse into foreign life doesn’t mean everything is better everywhere else.

This. It’s childish to believe that by visiting a place as a tourist has anything to do with what it’s like to live there.

All places have their pros and cons. Some places are better than others. But a vacation isn’t going to tell you much of that.

I like Taiwan and I like Thailand. You can live there relatively successfully. But there are many things that would drive you crazy and people don’t even they exist until confronted by them.

[Anonymous]

They may look shiny and well run but don’t open your mouth about the government or they shoot you in front of an open grave and you’ll disappear forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was recently in Japan and felt the same way.

Japan is amazing as a white expat. Clean, safe, pretty, amazing food, nice people. But socially it's still basically 1960 there and has been for decades. Still very patriarchal, women are expected to serve and clean and stay home when they have kids. Lots of discrimination against non-white expats, including Southeast Asian workers. Extremely conformist society. You may be technically free to say a lot of things but you will be ostracized if you do.

I lived there for years and loved it but knew I'd never do it permanently.

[Anonymous]

No it’s the opposite.

Americans have a unique sense of optimism and ambition that is rarely seen in other countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No it’s the opposite.

Americans have a unique sense of optimism and ambition that is rarely seen in other countries.

those days are over. we're on the back end of this republic.

[Anonymous]

I think you are missing a few things:

1. Both Taiwan and Thailand have a cohesive society in terms of race and culture.

2. Dramatic socioeconomic inequality in both countries mean the nice stuff tourists enjoy (great food, transportation, cheap healthcare, etc) are out of reach for many/most of the locals.

3. And the sex trafficking and child prostitution in Thailand that drives a significant part of its tourism is astounding. The fact that locals couldn’t care less speaks volumes. The abject poverty there isn’t in your face at your fancy hotel in the expensive (to them) areas tourists see.

You didn’t see the real Taiwan or Thailand.

Having said that, yes, our standard of living in the US has changed. We are more populated and far more diverse, and that diversity comes with some very real negative impacts on our social safety net, hospitals, schools, etc. But some of our issues were created by policy decisions made decades ago. As much as globalization helped us, it also negatively impacted our job market. It’s not a coincidence that economic inequality is growing in the US while other countries are making good strides: we’ve sent union jobs, manufacturing, and other blue collar industries abroad. Sigh.

And we’ve basically poisoned our food with toxins. On the upside, nobody is starving in the US. Trade offs.