We’re small, and that means a lot of the problems facing America just pass us by.
I guess history and a sense of being part of an established culture.
Do also want to point out though that Americans talk their country down on here. It’s a place of extremes but that diversity in theory means anyone could find their niche. They also have pretty much every biome you might want to live in from desert, to parks to icy tundra - I can see why you might not need a passport.
- Actually diverse politics (though still dominated by moneyed right wing)
- Amazon is not the nº 1 online retailer and there exists… some competition between the major ones
- Significantly less infighting between federal govt and states - phones were recently banned from every school as federal law, no “let states decide” bullshit
- We don’t have to pay to make searches in justice databases
- We have govt-funded hospitals and healthcare (doesn’t always work and there’s constant right-wing ill-will to sell it all off)
- 🏴☠️ So long as you don’t pirate stuff for profit, nobody will go after you 🏴☠️
At this point. If youre a democracy and just voting against money in all ways, shapes, and forms you’re oopsed.
It doesn’t have a traitor as a president
A president cant win without getting majority of votes. If there is no one with over 50% of the votes, a second round happens between the top 2
French?
Romania
This seems like a pretty obvious one: We have democracy.
Ow
Don’t feel too bad about it, remarkably few countries really do have democracy (even though many have more of it than the US).
To be fair, what we specifically have is a republic, although we do have democratic voting to elect our representatives.
Some of those representatives take the stance that they can choose whatever they want best, regardless of what their constituents want, because they were voted in.
Other representatives take the stance that they should vote for whatever the majority of their constituents want.
We have a Constitutional Republic…
Which is a type of democracy
Some…representatives…choose whatever they want…because they were voted in.
Oh that there’s the Republicans.
Others…vote for whatever the majority of their consituents want.
Found the Democrats.
Instead of starting a list of those things and ending up with my App crashing, I will name the one thing I think the US does better.
I think having a speed limit on your highways is kinda a sane thing to have.
Speed limits are great until some idiot decides to follow it.
Thats not a speed limit. That’s a speed minimum.
Our target speed (the speed you are recommended to drive) is faster than the US speed limit.
I mean, it’s a nice tickling in the balls when you engage the warp drive on your way home. But it also inspires a lot of amateur race car drivers. Nah, I can do without.
I say minium because if you’re not doing it you’ll get hell from all drivers around you and realistically everyone is pushing 10 over.
And nuclear energy
(Germany I guess)
Even when ignoring environmental concerns and purely looking at it from a financial perspective: Renewable energy is more profitable already.
Yes, but they are unreliable. Nuclear is an amazing option for base loads, and then adding renewables on top of that just makes sense. Battery energy storage is still insanely expensive, so nuclear is a very valid alternative in countries that haven’t let their nuclear production capabilities fall off to the point of taking decades.
Hydro power can be great for baseload and storage
Agreed, but it is so incredibly geography dependant that you can’t really generalize with it.
You definitely have to ignore ecological concerns when talking about hydro.
There is no 100% clean energy, but hydro is pretty good
Why?
Public healthcare
Super annuation
Preferential & compulsory voting
No tipping culture
Consumer protection laws
Gun control laws
Weather service isnt privitised
Wide variety of multicultural foods
Farming sector isnt controlled by a few companies (ie chickens)/subsidy schemes (looking at you corn)
Organised religion has less participation and dropping steadily
Adoption of rooftop solar systemsAlso significantly less instances of tech billionares, team factional politics, media oligarchs & donald trumps.
There are a lot of areas we could do better and are ashamed of though.
I live in Japan and we tick most of these boxes as well
We’ve got one media oligarch and that’s one too many.
Assuming you’re talking about Australia since you mentioned Super.
Would we consider him australian still?
No chance.
Australia?
Correct
I’m on board except for the food variety, but I live in Chicago which attracts an amazing foodie scene. In bumbfuck Iowa you’re probably more likely to have trouble getting some good Thai food.
I come from a third world country that is worse than the US in a lot of ways, but I don’t have to worry about getting shot by a rando with a gun.
Which country, if you don’t mind me asking?
India - multi-party democracy. US is too big and too diverse of a place to have effectively have two parties for every region and every cohort of the country. It should try to copy some aspects of India’s multi-party culture. Some states in India have parties that don’t exist in any other state. And some parties exist across many states. Basically a mix of current US system and the European system.
If you get cancer, you can have access to chemotherapy for free. And that’s basically it
Just off the top of my head:
State-sponsored higher education that is later paid back through taxes. Free healthcare, also paid for by taxes, and affordable medicine. Decent mass transit, although railways are a disgrace. Labour laws. Paid sick leave and mandatory minimum vacation days. Paid maternity leave, and tax breaks for new mothers.
PM is a Russian asset, but still better than Trump.
wondering which country out of the many performing all this better than the US is described
Decent mass transit, although railways are a disgrace.
Ah, got it.
What’s your guess?
I was sure this was a dunk on Deutsche Bahn, but now you’re making me doubt it.
DB would be an improvement.
I am so incredibly sorry.
Healthcare, climate, food, democracy, measurement system, no death penalty, houses in concrete
We already went through the phase you just began.
Germany?
Yeah.
Yeah Germany is about to launch into this again though
Absolutely, it’s not looking to hot here either. For those who don’t know should look into our west/east split.
Parliamentary democracy with proportional representation, affordable healthcare, affordable education, great roads and infrastructure with lots of cycling lanes, shops near homes, better labour laws, more vacation days, maternity leave, social safety net, less gun violence, police trained in de-escalation, affordable phone and internet plans, more affordable healthy food options, more egalitarian culture, none of those pesky hills or mountains, surrounded by countries that make good beer.
En het is er gewoon gezellig.