First, thanks for the A2a! I liked thinking about this.
Here's the truth.
Barring some brutally oppressive regime or, of course, war and famine, life is going to be Okay.
I think that words like 'happier' and 'better' are not really meaningful when comparing countries.
Here are things that make me feel happy:
- hearing my son laugh.
- good sex
- watching Scooby-doo (with my son)
- doing an exceptionally good job at work
- "O Holy Night"--the Christmas carol--Christmas in general, actually
- "Surf's Up" by the Beach Boys
- a beef-and-cheese burrito smothered in green chile, Denver style(where the green chile is orange with chunks of pork in it), cheddar cheese and sour cream
- a damn good book on a rainy day
I'm fairly sure that I can experience most of those in almost any country in the world. And if I can't get a Denver-style green chili beef-and-cheese burrito here where I live, well, I CAN get a potato pancake.
Note. Nothing on this list says 'living in the USA.' Or 'not living in the USA.' Because that's just stupid. I don't define my happiness or lack theoreof by where I live.
And as for 'better', no. Nor worse.
Look, life is life wherever you are. Anybody who tells you that their country is trouble free is just spouting propaganda out their butts.
I see it all the time all oer the Internet, with people soft soaping their country, usually when it comes to some specific political issue that they do differently to the USA.
And why is it always the USA? Why don't I ever see questions like "As a non-Swiss person do you think your country..."?
People are obsessed with the USA and then when you point that out, they get pissed off.
The United States has some great advantages.
Other countries have their advantages.
Big deal.
Everybody likes to point to this or that 'quality of life' study that places the USA at number 8 or 12 or whatever and, I don't know, Canada or Switzerland at number one as far as 'quality of life' and the UK at 23,say and the Czech Republic, where I live, at 42...
What those lists don't tell you how little difference there is between these numbers,
If Canada or Switzerland gets a 9.99 at number 1, number 12 might be a 9.50 and number 42 might be an 9,25. Really.
The truth is, anywhere in the developed world and in large parts of the 'developing'world, life is pretty good for most people.
If you get an education, you're going to be all right. Rich no, not necessarily. But if you define happiness by wealth I guess you are probably 1/100 000 000 000th as happy as Bill Gates or whoever is rich guy number one nowadays.
But you can be content, yeah. Barring some congenital depression or something.
People in America or Europe(or other developed economies) who dwell on whether or not their country is 'better' or 'worse' than other companies are stupid at best and at worst make the world a more painful place. Forget it. Just forget it. If some American or Swede or Irishman or Canadian tells you their country is better, accept it for the flatulence that it is.
Because whether they are aware of it are not, they are engaged in a process of dehumanization, usually for some political aim.
And people who buy into that thinking are just letting themselves be divided. I can't relate to humans who let themselves be defined by their nationality.
I reject the whole idea.
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