4 ms·
OTOH, having a poorly paid job in a rich country can be better than being rich in a poor country.. Read one of the Reddit threads about "What did you notice mo
by csense 4y ago
OTOH, having a poorly paid job in a rich country can be better than being rich in a poor country..
Read one of the Reddit threads about "What did you notice most when you moved from a poor country to a rich country?" It's pretty eye opening. Some stuff that I remember:
- Stuff that breaks (vending machines, bathrooms, etc.) usually gets repaired instead of just being broken from then on
- Government officials don't demand bribes everywhere you go
- You have rights, you can't just be jailed or worse for no reason, even if you criticize the government
- Buildings are well constructed and aren't in danger of collapse / burning down due to electrical faults / gas explosions
- Police, fire and ambulance come reasonably quickly and do their jobs reasonably well
- No matter how poor you are, you're not just left to fend for yourself, there are some safety nets
The best life hack is to live in places off the beaten path in a rich country, e.g. the Rust Belt in the US. Bonus points if you can work remotely for a company that pays big-city wages.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- refurb 4y agoYup, lived in a developing country for a while and holy hell you realize how much you take for granted living in a place like the US. Basic stuff like “is this medicine my doctor prescribing counterfeit or not”. Or “if I touch this light pole will I be electrocuted because it was never wired up correctly”. Or “is this really the law or are the police just shaking me down for bribes”.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- scaramanga 4y agoThat is similar, but mildly different, to how I feel when returning to (or visiting, respectively) the UK or US after living elsewhere in the first world. I think the point is that the US and UK are kind of basket cases among the first world countries. Every time I go home to the UK from South Korea, the UK has less and less there: - Bus routes to nearby major cities have been removed - You're on your own with COVID, gas bills, climate change, etc. - Roads are unmaintained, hard shoulders have been converted in to lanes - You walk through a crowded city centre, nobody wears masks, not even on the bus, and people walk around with sandwich boards saying "MASKS SPREAD FEAR" (which seems a strange thing to be afraid of, since nobody wears them anyway??) - Even the road maintenance vehicles are unmaintained and sit rotting - Climate deniers occupy government, and the government avoids even minor action on the most immediate issues Then I go back to south korea and there are: - New train lines - New bridges over the han river - The infrastructure is constantly being maintained, upgraded, recreation facilities added - People wear masks, there are free COVID test/vaccination centres on every corner - Utilities are nationalized and price controlled - There is a state response to the climate emergency In the UK it is increasingly clear that the political system has collapsed and is unable to address itself to crises, and increasingly unable to address itself to the basic maintenance of its own deployed capital. It is a wealthy failed-state in which some high quality public institutions still manage to function despite the failure of the central government.
- t0bia_s 4y agoSouth Korea sounds like brave new world to me.
- devoutsalsa 4y agoIs South Korea funding all of this new development with smart fiscal policy, or just deficit spending until they can’t pay the interest & maintenance?
- junofan 4y agoYou’re really bought into a single view on masks and a single view on climate change. Infrastructure is newer in South Korea. I’m not sure that’s super indicative of political collapse in places that don’t conform to your views or have older infrastructure? The UK still plays a quasi-religious role in mediating interactions between people, same as any other functioning state.
- rospaya 4y agoIt increasingly looks like that's UK government policy, not failure.