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I grew up in the USA but have lived abroad for many years. After seeing life in Europe and Asia, I agree with this article. Generalization below: Americans are

by buf 8y ago

I grew up in the USA but have lived abroad for many years. After seeing life in Europe and Asia, I agree with this article. Generalization below: Americans are isolated from other countries and from each other. It creates fear insofar as that we don't even let our children play in the front yards anymore, all the while kids in Tokyo ride the metro unattended by an adult. My life is much better outside of America, but yet I remain for now, because of the money I make here. Few more years to go and I'm done.

malvosenior 8y ago
It depends on how you define better. I happen to love Tokyo but let's not pretend like it's universally better than the US in all regards. In fact a lot of the countries people would think of as having better quality of life than the US have a higher per capita suicide rate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Japan#/media/File:Suicide-deaths-per-100000-trend.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Japan#/media/File:S...
- buf 8y ago
  I regret bringing up any country by name, because every country has at least one issue that is easily searchable on the internet.
  - tzs 8y ago
    That's a favorite trick of politicians for criticizing health care proposals. There are hundreds of different factors that you could use to compare the health care systems of any two countries. When someone proposes some change, and offers country X as an example of a place that works that way, opponents can always find among those hundreds of factors some particular things where we have better care than X, and then that's all they talk about. And of course if you propose a change and do NOT cite places that already work that way, then the opponents say you are trying something that is just theoretical and it would be irresponsible to risk our health on such experiments.
  - malvosenior 8y ago
    Of course. That's why the original article is kind of ridiculous. Every country has its pluses and minuses but suggesting that the US has the quality of life of a developing nation is pretty off the mark.
- yaacov 8y ago
  Depression and suicide rates are a bad measure of unhappiness or social dysfunction. See https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/01/15/depression-is-not-a-proxy-for-social-dysfunction/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/01/15/depression-is-not-a-pr...
  - malvosenior 8y ago
    That's only true if you don't count depression and suicide as unhappiness or social dysfunction. Unlike that opinion article, I do count both those as unhappiness and social dysfunction.
- ronnier 8y ago
  I lived in Tokyo, I find life in the US to be of much higher quality, though I live in Seattle now and Seattle is probably better off than most US cities.
fernly 8y ago
Where will you retire to?
- buf 8y ago
  I'll spend my 40s in Japan/Bulgaria. Not sure where life will take me after.
zeropnc 8y ago
Kids in Tokyo are also sexually repressed and have societal mental health issues that continue to baffle academics. Kids in Tokyo also have absurd work hours, brutal education standards and are exposed to large amounts of pollutants. But hey, at least they can ride the subway alone. Every country has its' problems, and any country can seem great until you actually live there.

by buf 8y ago

malvosenior 8y ago

It depends on how you define better. I happen to love Tokyo but let's not pretend like it's universally better than the US in all regards. In fact a lot of the countries people would think of as having better quality of life than the US have a higher per capita suicide rate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Japan#/media/File:Suicide-deaths-per-100000-trend.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Japan#/media/File:S...

buf 8y ago
I regret bringing up any country by name, because every country has at least one issue that is easily searchable on the internet.
- tzs 8y ago
  That's a favorite trick of politicians for criticizing health care proposals. There are hundreds of different factors that you could use to compare the health care systems of any two countries. When someone proposes some change, and offers country X as an example of a place that works that way, opponents can always find among those hundreds of factors some particular things where we have better care than X, and then that's all they talk about. And of course if you propose a change and do NOT cite places that already work that way, then the opponents say you are trying something that is just theoretical and it would be irresponsible to risk our health on such experiments.
- malvosenior 8y ago
  Of course. That's why the original article is kind of ridiculous. Every country has its pluses and minuses but suggesting that the US has the quality of life of a developing nation is pretty off the mark.
yaacov 8y ago
Depression and suicide rates are a bad measure of unhappiness or social dysfunction. See https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/01/15/depression-is-not-a-proxy-for-social-dysfunction/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/01/15/depression-is-not-a-pr...
- malvosenior 8y ago
  That's only true if you don't count depression and suicide as unhappiness or social dysfunction. Unlike that opinion article, I do count both those as unhappiness and social dysfunction.
ronnier 8y ago
I lived in Tokyo, I find life in the US to be of much higher quality, though I live in Seattle now and Seattle is probably better off than most US cities.

fernly 8y ago

Where will you retire to?

buf 8y ago
I'll spend my 40s in Japan/Bulgaria. Not sure where life will take me after.

zeropnc 8y ago

Kids in Tokyo are also sexually repressed and have societal mental health issues that continue to baffle academics. Kids in Tokyo also have absurd work hours, brutal education standards and are exposed to large amounts of pollutants. But hey, at least they can ride the subway alone. Every country has its' problems, and any country can seem great until you actually live there.