4 ms·

I'm sure that level of overhead has nothing to do with the reason Belgian incomes, standards of living, and business outcomes are worse.

KittenInABox 3mo ago
How do you want to measure standards of living here?
FireBeyond 3mo ago
> standards of living As measured by ... purchasing power. Let's take a look, Safety Index - US 50.8, Belgium 50.6. Health care index - Belgium 75.9, US 67.8, Pollution Index - US 36.7, Belgium 49.2, Climate index - Belgium 86, US 78.5. As it stands US standard of living is better really only in "you can buy a larger house" (shocking, giving the relative size), and "it'll be slightly cheaper". Not by any other metric.
HatchedLake721 3mo ago
Reminded me of https://youtu.be/ML3qYHWRIZk https://youtu.be/ML3qYHWRIZk
- ecshafer 3mo ago
  His little rant about "freedom" ended up aging poorly as most of the countries he lists as being more free have put serious limits on free speech since then. The most Soorkin screed he has written, might as well be John Galt's speech in Atlas Shrugged for how much its just the author inserting his political views.
ozgrakkurt 3mo ago
It is a delusion that US is rich because of capitalism. It is an insult to the people that founded the country and people that developed science/tech/finance etc. in it. And ofc the space, natural resources and isolation from wars. Saying US is rich because capitalism is about as accurate as saying it is rich because it is christian
- matchbok3 3mo ago
  Do you think those natural resources would have been taken advantage of as well in some other system? Same with the geography and isolation. You are talking about entirely different things. Makes no sense whatsoever. You could make your same argument about any economic system. The natural resources are inputs, not the outcome.
  - ozgrakkurt 3mo ago
    > Do you think those natural resources would have been taken advantage of as well in some other system? What I mean is those factors can obviously effect a country's success. And can be argued that that do much more easier than arguing about religion or ideology. Similarly it is easier to argue that proper nutrition, sleep, drug usage etc. can effect an athlete's performance very positively. But you would find it much harder to argue on their religion, place they live, how wealthy were their family etc. As another example I think it is pretty easy to argue that the Jewish scientists going to US because of Hitler was a massive gain for US and a massive loss for Germany. And there are so many concrete factors like this that, all things considered, ideology seems irrelevant in comparison. You might say "this is all because US is capitalist in the first place". I want to point out how similar this kind of thinking is to the way some religious people think and how inconsequential it is in real world.
    - NetMageSCW 3mo ago
      When people like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs say they couldn’t have done what they did anyplace else in the world, capitalism seems like it is working.
      - TylerE 3mo ago
        Many of us see the existence of Elon Musk as a bug, not a feature. I am personally more and more converted to the idea that billionaires should not exist.
  - callmeal 3mo ago
trgn 3mo ago
vacationing/digital nomading in belgium atm, it looks erhm rich. traveling between brussels, leuven, ghent, bruges, soon antwerp... people dress well, never been anywhere with so many german luxury cars on the road, meals cost about the same as US. I'm sure statistics this and that, but something doesn't translate, sanguine reality is different.
- sensanaty 3mo ago
  I've worked in the US and now in the Netherlands, and while I earn less in NL it would take a quadruple of what I used to earn in the US to willingly move back there, and even then I'd GTFO as soon as I possibly could. The US is great for getting an absurd amount of money fast, for basically everything else that matters in life I'll take anywhere in the EU over the US.
genxy 3mo ago
I'd like to understand why you are so sure, and what does worse mean here both qualitatively and quantitatively?

KittenInABox 3mo ago

How do you want to measure standards of living here?

FireBeyond 3mo ago

> standards of living As measured by ... purchasing power. Let's take a look, Safety Index - US 50.8, Belgium 50.6. Health care index - Belgium 75.9, US 67.8, Pollution Index - US 36.7, Belgium 49.2, Climate index - Belgium 86, US 78.5. As it stands US standard of living is better really only in "you can buy a larger house" (shocking, giving the relative size), and "it'll be slightly cheaper". Not by any other metric.

HatchedLake721 3mo ago

Reminded me of https://youtu.be/ML3qYHWRIZk https://youtu.be/ML3qYHWRIZk

ecshafer 3mo ago
His little rant about "freedom" ended up aging poorly as most of the countries he lists as being more free have put serious limits on free speech since then. The most Soorkin screed he has written, might as well be John Galt's speech in Atlas Shrugged for how much its just the author inserting his political views.

ozgrakkurt 3mo ago

It is a delusion that US is rich because of capitalism. It is an insult to the people that founded the country and people that developed science/tech/finance etc. in it. And ofc the space, natural resources and isolation from wars. Saying US is rich because capitalism is about as accurate as saying it is rich because it is christian

matchbok3 3mo ago
Do you think those natural resources would have been taken advantage of as well in some other system? Same with the geography and isolation. You are talking about entirely different things. Makes no sense whatsoever. You could make your same argument about any economic system. The natural resources are inputs, not the outcome.
- ozgrakkurt 3mo ago
  > Do you think those natural resources would have been taken advantage of as well in some other system? What I mean is those factors can obviously effect a country's success. And can be argued that that do much more easier than arguing about religion or ideology. Similarly it is easier to argue that proper nutrition, sleep, drug usage etc. can effect an athlete's performance very positively. But you would find it much harder to argue on their religion, place they live, how wealthy were their family etc. As another example I think it is pretty easy to argue that the Jewish scientists going to US because of Hitler was a massive gain for US and a massive loss for Germany. And there are so many concrete factors like this that, all things considered, ideology seems irrelevant in comparison. You might say "this is all because US is capitalist in the first place". I want to point out how similar this kind of thinking is to the way some religious people think and how inconsequential it is in real world.
  - NetMageSCW 3mo ago
    When people like Elon Musk and Steve Jobs say they couldn’t have done what they did anyplace else in the world, capitalism seems like it is working.
    - TylerE 3mo ago
      Many of us see the existence of Elon Musk as a bug, not a feature. I am personally more and more converted to the idea that billionaires should not exist.
- callmeal 3mo ago

trgn 3mo ago

vacationing/digital nomading in belgium atm, it looks erhm rich. traveling between brussels, leuven, ghent, bruges, soon antwerp... people dress well, never been anywhere with so many german luxury cars on the road, meals cost about the same as US. I'm sure statistics this and that, but something doesn't translate, sanguine reality is different.

sensanaty 3mo ago
I've worked in the US and now in the Netherlands, and while I earn less in NL it would take a quadruple of what I used to earn in the US to willingly move back there, and even then I'd GTFO as soon as I possibly could. The US is great for getting an absurd amount of money fast, for basically everything else that matters in life I'll take anywhere in the EU over the US.

genxy 3mo ago

I'd like to understand why you are so sure, and what does worse mean here both qualitatively and quantitatively?