For those of us who live in the US things are and have been scary and depressing for a while, this seems to also be true about quite a few more countries in the world.
If you are living in a country that you deem safe, well functioning and overall a good country to live in, how do you feel? Do you feel anxious about the current state of the world? Also, what country are you in? (Just in case 🫣)
I live in Germany and we have an election coming up where the far right might win. And the US have just handed command of the most powerful military of the world to a certified moron who works for their biggest adversary. That’s somewhat concerning, isn’t it?
USA. Despite what people will tell you around here we aren’t crumbling to bits or shooting each other in the streets.
What the federal government does has ultimately very little effect on my day to day life. I go to work. I come home. I get high and pet my cats too much. I play video games with friends I’ve made over the course of my life. I eat dinner and I crash. I’ll repeat this pattern all week and then on weekends I do chores and visit friends/family.
Other than that everything is still functional. Safety hasn’t gone up or down. It’s still exactly as safe as it was under Obama and Biden eras. Pretty safe as long as you avoid certain places or hanging out with the wrong crowds.
8/10. Room for improved always but I’m not really concerned.
Enough to thrive
Sweden. I’m happy. But I have a hard time watching the rise of a fascist dictator and the collapse of the dollar reserves as the planet still gets eviscerated by mega corpos entities several orders of magnitude more powerful than any government. What I wish most is that the humans that do the biddings of the megacorps realised that they are just temporarily allowed to be their “ceo” or “cfo” and that in reality they are being used but the allure of money as a means of success, while mindlessly ignored goes the fact that joy and success is found in people that avoid money as much as possible. The demons can and should be revoked the status of being “legal humans” and correctly categorised as entities that exist to serve and protect humans. How can so many people be revoked the status of human and even killed while the destructive hateful entities that ruin our souls and habitat are continually worshipped by its zealots when they provide net negative happiness and health is so tragic.
This feels a bit out of touch. Firstly, anywhere in the USA, even Mississippi, is richer than almost anywhere else in the world in dollar terms. That is always going to buy a certain level of function and safety compared to most countries in the world, which are, well, poor. Next, “the US” is continent-sized federation. Vermont, say, is clearly safer and more functional, by any measure, than all but handful of independent countries.
In terms of figures, the USA is currently #43 out of 105 in the Safety Perceptions Index. Admittedly not a great score (but I can’t help noticing that #1 is Uzbekistan, which is a literal police state). Even harder to measure “functional” but the US is at #20 out of 193 in the Human Development Index, which measures wealth, education and healthcare.
Whatever the current frame of mind of Americans, it’s important to remember that the USA remains a privileged place.
You’re out of touch.
Do you have data or is that supposed to win you the argument?
Being moderately well-off doesn’t mean anything when the government decides to deport you or otherwise deny you rights (abortions, anyone?). USA is also the country with (one of?) the worlds highest prison populations per capita, which is seriously fucked up. They even made inmates do firefighting in the LA fires, without proper safety equipment.
How do you think those rankings will change with the current and upcoming changes implemented? Maybe 2, 5, or 10 years from now?
you are maybe talking about statistics and “the avarage person” but this doesn’t mean anything to individuals, especially when talking about something as big as the USA. While I am a privilaged person and don’t pretend to be in some terrible position, this does not change the fact that the USA is so capitalistic that “the avarage person” is meaning-less, maybe a median person would be better and I’m willing to bet that a median person in the USA is not doing nearly as well as an avarage person.
But in any case, I don’t care about statistics, this wasn’t a question of statistics, this was a question of feelings. I am aware that the USA is big and that even if one state is bad there are still plenty of options, some of which might be great. BUT, there is still the federal goverment that is currently scary and facist, so…
There aren’t any of those, but we do have a centre-left government (for now), we’re doing alright economically and still have a semblance of a social security safety net.
Mostly what it feels like is that the US and Russia are now both adversaries and this lasts only until their disinformation warfare wins the day or they attack us directly otherwise. We’re not “safe” because we’re not safe from you and the other couple of idiots that are still married to the old “superpower” idea. If you want to know how I feel, then, it’s mostly “really, really angry at any liberal of leftist that did not show up for Harris the way they did for Biden or Obama”.
So there’s that.
to be fair, no one is safe from me 👁️👃👁️
Canada. Could be a lot better, but I’m happy that we’re not currently doing as badly as they are south of the border.
I’ve been working relatively high-paying precarious positions, but my circumstances have allowed me to build myself a safety net. So even if the government can’t support me should something go wrong, I can support myself, at least for a time.
I currently have enough money to engage in hobbies and socialize. What I’m currently wishing for is more time.
I haven’t had a paid sick day in my life, though I have had a couple “We can’t give you a paid sick day, but we can pay you to do light work from home” in the last couple of years. The last time I had a paid vacation day and a job still lined up was in 2020. Though I do get statutory holidays, so it’s not terrible.
First world problems. Overall, I’m happy with my life. This year, I’m looking to turn my precarious positions into a full-time gig. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll try to turn my side-gig into a full-time thing (and take the pay cut in exchange for life satisfaction). And if neither of those works out, I have my safety net which should be able to carry me through until I can get more contracts. And my partner may be looking at income increases next year, which should make everything easier.
Things haven’t always been this good for me, but I’m happy with where they are and where they’re going.
You’ll be annexed soon enough.
That’d be a crappy downgrade. The US needs to get someone a bit less dementia-riddled in charge
“but at least we’re not as bad as the US” is Canada’s unofficial motto.
Yeah, and as someone who is actively trying to vote for improvement, I’m disappointed time and time again at people who think we should be comparing ourselves to the US’s metrics and not the rest of the developed world. We could be doing so much better.
I’m pretty happy
Guatemala.
Good food, good people, good mountains, laid-back fun culture.
incidentally, I am from the states but have chosen not to live in the US for the past decade for reasons that have now become obvious to everyone.
I’m not too worried if the US collapses, there are 200 other countries to live in.
it doesn’t seem like it will collapse entirely, maybe, since that wouldn’t benefit the rich people in charge of it? good luck.
Guatemala is considered more functional and safe than the US these days? Seems a stretch. For what it’s worth I have spent time in both countries.
Is guatemal more functional than the US’ recent attempted violent coup and literal ongoing executive coup of the government?
Yes. Guatemala is more functional than the US government run by a felon rapist who is literally violating the US Constitution, has frozen or defunded critical government operations and is actively erasing the function of its legislative and judicial branches via executive orders.
safe?
last time I was in the states, somebody shot someone else in the head over a parking spot outside the burger place I was eating lunch at.
This is hyperbole compounded by anecdote. The dysfunction in US politics mainly concerns Washington. The USA is a federal state and state-level politics is mostly unaffected. Security is everywhere guaranteed by police, not gangs. And the statistics that I cited remain.
you didn’t cite any statistics to me, but I can drop some knowledge on you.
State level politics has been affected nationwide, civil rights have been affected nationwide down to the personal level.
The executive branch eliminating the other two branches of government is in no way hyperbole.
Trump just signed an executive order declaring that he has the final say on legal matters, overriding any judicial power.
he has also claimed the right to unilaterally disperse or withhold funds, overriding any legislative power.
One branch of the US government (The executive) has taken over the other two branches(The judicial and legislative).
Trump is a convicted felon and a rapist.
none of this is hyperbole.
security is guaranteed by the police? not in the US.
US police rape and murder civilians and children in the US regularly.
US Police can legally abuse, lie to and manipulate civilians without consequence, and enjoy judicial legal immunity for their actions(known as qualified immunity).
The US has a mass shooting every 16 hours.
women in the US literally don’t have control over their own bodies and are denied access to hospitals and healthcare.
The US has by far the highest prison population in the world, run by for-profit corporations who benefit from imprisoning you and your neighbors.
these are not localized problems in DC, the entire US is unstable, exploitative and abusive towards its citizens.
UK. It’s actually alright here despite our culture of complaining about everything.
Weather is predictably dull and boring, but in a world of climate change that’s not such a bad thing anymore.
Wages are outpacing the cost of living once again so that’s nice.
Politics is just the usual arguing/ bitching about the economy. Everyone blaming each other blah blah blah. Storm in a teacup really.
US news is getting a bit scary, seeing the president cosying up with the enemy and appearing to want to let them take Ukraine in exchange for half of their minerals means that I don’t think we’ll be considering them a close ally in the near future. At least not a reliable one.
Glad you’re alright, MY_ANUS_IS_BLEEDING 🙏
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND ALL THAT IS HOLY, please don’t follow our right wing trajectory into chaos. Tell fElon to Fuck Off, as only the Brits can!
Sweden is a functional country for the most part, but we are small in a geopolitical context.
In daily life I feel mostly fine, I have a decent job (I am on the bus to work right now), I have a good apartment (if a bit small), just ordered a new desk for my home setup, in general you can feel society bracing against “Drumpf & Puttler’s Crazy Wild Ride: The Rise of Ketamine boy”.
Biggest news lately, the school shooting in Örebro, terrible shit, and the coward perpetrator didn’t have the decency to survive so we’ll probably never know his motives which would help us prevent this in the future.
Locally we have had some small scale scandals recently, politicians disliked by most citizens but with connections getting new jobs either barely following the process or outright ignoring it, nationalistic party have their scandal politicians, other politicians scamming money from the government.
We recently had a news story about an islamist being hired as a teacher and raping a student, that guy was rejected by the security service when applying to be a security guard before being a teacher.
Personally this is how I feel when reading the news lately:
As it stands now, I will just focus on myself and my family and friends, the current US regime is dancing to the tune of a dictatorship and I try to stay far away.
Germany. While I do feel like my country is overall still safe and a good place to live, it feels to me like we’re on the brink. The US may well drag us down with them and even if they don’t, our own politicians might just do that on their own. So yeah, quite anxious and not overly optimistic right now. The next few years will be critical and it could go either way really.
I go back and forth between lamenting that corporate propaganda created this state of things, and lamenting that so many people are dumb enough to fall for it. Calling voters dumbasses doesn’t solve anything, but I’m definitely thinking it a lot lately.
Left Germany for Switzerland and while I never really felt unsafe in Germany, it’s so much more relaxed here. And I start to really appreciate direct democracy.
I can imagine. Switzerland is in many ways in quite a unique, privileged position in Europe. I’ve gotten job offers in Switzerland but personally, I don’t really mesh with its culture. If I ever move away, I think it’ll either be somewhere like The Netherlands, or even a lot further away, like New Zealand or Japan.
Straya representing. Our brothers and sisters across the ditch in New Zealand have a beautiful country with rich culture and great people. They just keep claiming our pavlova recipe was theirs. mic drop
Also you’re always welcome here, it’s got large part thats dry and barren in the middle but the tropics and coasts are spectacular like one of the wonders of the world the great barrier reef.
I’ve never heard the ditch before. I love it.
Flanders, Belgium. Things are… okay-ish, but I feel like we’re balancing on an edge, and any little push will topple the current regime and bring power to the far-right parties who continue to gain ground every election. At this point in time, our little country has one of the least unequal societies in the world in terms of income. Something tells me that in say 10 years we’ll look back to today and reminisce about the “good old days”…
We are not living in the safe world anymore. We are all threatened with Ruzzia and its lapdog US.
Not to rub it in, but I moved from the US to Scandinavia (during Biden’s presidency) and while I have plenty of problems and stresses there’s a relief to the safety and stability of it that I didn’t realize I was missing in the US.
Life is far from perfect here but it’s all in all better than life was in the US for us, and I feel that would be even more true as time goes on.
Also sorry about wtf is going on to you (presumably) over there.
I have high school aged children so all of the sabre rattling is unsettling to me. I would love my kids to maybe explore degree programs outside of the US because I don’t see things getting better anytime soon. I don’t want them sucked into some bullshit conflict started by that guy.
Germany - Overall I feel ok. Nothing beyond the ordinary Weltschmerz. But that kinda creeped into normalcy, so yeah. Here we are.
Things might turn to shit tho. We have an election this weekend. So ask me again in a couple of days.
Good luck from Italy. I hope you don’t end up with a nazi party… again.
