>And that’s not even mentioning the stark difference in quality of life, beyond “quality of life” graphs. Those graphs don’t account for having to wait 25+ minutes for the store to unlock steaks or vitamins from a security case. Or for mass tent camps in cities. Or Mmss drug deaths. Uncertainty of potable water. Access to and education on safe sex, abortion, etc. Walkability of cities.
As an American in an unremarkable medium-sized city, this sounds like a caricature based on unrepresentative viral anecdotes.
* I've never had to wait long for something to be unlocked. Most things are not locked. Maybe a bit more stuff is locked up post-BLM.
* I can't recall ever seeing a tent camp in my current city. I can't recall ever seeing more than, say, 10 homeless tents in the same place. Big camps probably exist somewhere, but not where I see them.
* I don't know anyone addicted to drugs, but that probably says more about my social network than anything.
* I've never lived somewhere without potable water. If you offered me $1000 to find you some non-potable tap water, I wouldn't know where to go. Flint maybe? Googling suggests that Flint's water was fixed years ago. EDIT: I did find this map; my guess would be that a violation is not equivalent to the water being 'non-potable': https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov/data-portal/physical/map?age=0...
* Was taught about safe sex as a teen.
* In my 30s, I still have no driver's license (should really get one some time). Walkability is acceptable, could be better depending on the area.
>Whenever I meet Americans traveling Europe, they virtually always rave about how much better life seems over here.
There might be a selection effect, where Americans traveling in Europe tend to be dissatisfied. Europe did not seem notably better when I visited, but my visit was not extensive.
Yep, I think this stat adjusts for welfare payments: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-median-income?tab=t...
>And that’s not even mentioning the stark difference in quality of life, beyond “quality of life” graphs. Those graphs don’t account for having to wait 25+ minutes for the store to unlock steaks or vitamins from a security case. Or for mass tent camps in cities. Or Mmss drug deaths. Uncertainty of potable water. Access to and education on safe sex, abortion, etc. Walkability of cities.
As an American in an unremarkable medium-sized city, this sounds like a caricature based on unrepresentative viral anecdotes.
* I've never had to wait long for something to be unlocked. Most things are not locked. Maybe a bit more stuff is locked up post-BLM.
* I can't recall ever seeing a tent camp in my current city. I can't recall ever seeing more than, say, 10 homeless tents in the same place. Big camps probably exist somewhere, but not where I see them.
* I don't know anyone addicted to drugs, but that probably says more about my social network than anything.
* I've never lived somewhere without potable water. If you offered me $1000 to find you some non-potable tap water, I wouldn't know where to go. Flint maybe? Googling suggests that Flint's water was fixed years ago. EDIT: I did find this map; my guess would be that a violation is not equivalent to the water being 'non-potable': https://hdpulse.nimhd.nih.gov/data-portal/physical/map?age=0...
* Was taught about safe sex as a teen.
* In my 30s, I still have no driver's license (should really get one some time). Walkability is acceptable, could be better depending on the area.
>Whenever I meet Americans traveling Europe, they virtually always rave about how much better life seems over here.
There might be a selection effect, where Americans traveling in Europe tend to be dissatisfied. Europe did not seem notably better when I visited, but my visit was not extensive.