I don't believe in utopia, and any time I see a supposed utopia that is too good to be true I cringe a little. This isn't rooted in cynicism but in what I thin

I don't believe in utopia, and any time I see a supposed utopia that is too good to be true I cringe a little. This isn't rooted in cynicism but in what I think is an accurate understanding of life. Life exists in a perpetual state of war against entropy. There are always massive problems. Your body spends anywhere from 20% to 50% (depending on how you count it) of its metabolic energy just not falling apart. If your body stopped doing this you would turn into mush in a few days... almost literally. So if you look at a place and it looks like utopia, there are a few possibilities: (1) Everyone is paying through the nose in the form of taxes or other fees to pay other people to fix things. (2) The problems are being hidden through a campaign of propaganda and cosmetics. The extreme of this is known as a "Potemkin village." (3) There is a system of slavery or near-slavery in which an underclass is handling all the dirty work. (4) There are massive problems you are just not seeing yet because you are not looking closely enough. This often happens when people visit somewhere or live there briefly but do not stay long enough to really get to know the place deeply. Singapore has low taxes. Their situation seems to be a mix of options 2-4. Oh, and on lockdowns: > There will be some who will make the parallel to lockdowns in the US and the rest of the developed world, but fundamentally, those lockdowns were about sheltering in place at home, applied equally across the population, and gave people autonomy to go out for essential needs etc. I would argue that the US barely even had true "lockdowns." There were few places in the US where anyone actually got in real trouble for going out, not wearing a mask, etc. There were places of business and public buildings who would turn you away, sure, but that's about as soft of a glove as you can get here. I see tons and tons of people completely ignoring COVID orders and nothing happened to them. I don't think I want it different. I will call people stupid for ignoring COVID orders and not getting vaccinated, but if I saw people getting arrested I don't think I would be okay with that.