Things looking up?
No.
I was wondering though how the average person evaluates their country, where for instance, Finland has been recently cited as "the happiest country on earth" but if you ask most Finns, they will definitely not have that impression. And in general, things are pretty good here in many respects, but nothing is ever going to be good enough.
I have worked with many Americans over the years with some living here, some visiting regularly, and some less often, yet despite the weather and look of the buildings, they all quite enjoy the difference between the US and Finland, where they like the safety (despite sharing a long border with Russia) and the social provision and the general laid back nature of society, where people walk around and enjoy doing quite normal things. There is no glitz and glamor, it is all pretty basic.
Yet, it also seems the average American believes that they have the best quality of life on earth, and perhaps if looking at it from an average economic perspective, that could be true. But does the average American really have a high quality of life, or is it a fallacy? Does the American dream exist in reality, or just in the ether of dreams?
While there is plenty of wealth gap in Finland, it isn't as stark as it is in the US and perhaps due to a smaller population and some policies around how suburbs are built, there is a lot more mix in Finland. There are wealthier and poorer suburbs, but it hasn't descended into gated communities and ghettos, where never the twain shall meet. And because of the smaller population and the way people are spread through schooling and moving for work, everyone pretty much knows everyone through an acquaintance or two. As a result of closer averages in living standard, Finland is pretty down to earth.
But very few will ever be obscenely wealthy.
There is a little old money in a few businesses and there are some tech millionaires from gaming companies and the like, but there are very, very few billionaires. Not because the companies haven't been successful, but the system just doesn't allow for them. The US has over 900 billionaires, which means there are almost three per million people. That means there should be almost 18 in Finland, but there are only seven. And four of them are from the same family and company.
From an American perspective, this makes Finland a failure as an economic venture, but from the human perspective, is it a failure? I kind of feel like people in the US will defend a system to create billionaires, even though they themselves will never be a billionaire, and will be restricted and suffer from the same system they defend. To me, this is nonsensical, but I might have quite a different value profile when it comes to this than that of the average American.
Is that the case?
When people from America defend the system to me, I always wonder what part of America they have experience with. I have never been to the United States, but the Americans I talk with area also affected by a selection bias. Those that live here are the type of people who are willing and able to live outside of the US and those I have worked with who live in the US, are all professionals able to work in an international environment. Their view of America is not from a ghetto or a trailer park, and they have all been pretty well educated.
But, is that the average American's experience?
And what does "average" mean when applied to a population of 350 million people, with a lot of diversity in economic, social and cultural upbringing? I was reading an article the other day where Paris Hilton was saying that she is "self-made", which is delusional for anyone, let alone her. Even the sextape that made her famous in the first place, was only famous because she was a Hilton. She lived in a bubble as an American, that the vast majority of Americans will never see.
And while I am talking about the US a lot here, none of this is specific to the US, as we all have our own experiential bubbles that we see the world from. But as the US is the driving economic force through much of the world, and they have a president saying how awesome everything in the US is, I question how many Americans actually believe it. Is the economy really so great for the average American? Are the cost of living issues really not so bad? And if the average American is struggling in the current economic and cultural environment, why are they still supporting it?
Patriotism?
Is it patriotic to support systemic problems? Is it unpatriotic to question the government? If the government is built as a mechanism in service to the people of the country, the government itself is not the country, the people are. That means that patriotism shouldn't be for the government or office, it should be directed toward what is best for the people of the country. The government is a tool for the people to organise themselves for societal betterment, not a tool to control most people to benefit a few at the expense of society.
How many people in America believe things are getting better?
I wonder how many people in any country believe that things in their country are improving. There are always going to be some, but like the types of Americans I interact with, is it a selection bias? Even for people in America who have first-hand experience with the local conditions, are they giving an opinion on the average state, or the average they see? Are they walking daily through the ganglands, or in schools with drug problems, trying to make ends meet from an old trailer, or spending time in a fentanyl drug den?
Is their view any more accurate than mine?
Maybe, maybe not. But what I think we should all consider in society isn't about how high a few people can climb economically, but how we all live socially. The level of our wellbeing as individuals and communities is far more representative of how we are doing as a country, than how the billionaires are doing.
But, no one is interested in normal people.
So it is okay if they increasingly struggle.
Taraz
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