What is wrong with striving and possibilities? And starting from nothing and ending up somewhere that you did not have imagined for you for you more or less by birth on the basis of class? Some country has to offer these opportunities. And the immigrants who have come here do seem to "make good" over time, if not they themselves, then their children, millions coming from some really hellish experiences in their own country of origin. It may be a dirty job to offer these opportunities (indeed there ARE tradeoffs) but some country has to do it.
Completing an education, hard work and further learning on the job, and pro-active planning and responsibility (e.g planning your retirement and financial goals -God know why we don't thoroughly educate people on this) go a long way go a long way toward achieving desired ends. Finding our own best skills, talents and interests are and finding work that incorporates them does a lot to make life interesting, if not totally secure.
I too have lived in Western Europe (Vienna, Austria), and I have to admit, it has its charms. When I was unemployed, I was even given tram tickets so I could get myself to the unemployment office! Life was less challenging and more pleasant in many ways. America is a challenge, and the fact is, we as Americans are also offered the opportunity to address these perennial challenges we are faced with and find new and improved ways. Even as individuals we can have a part in this - through politics, through volunteer work, and in any creative way we can find.
Thanks Kathy- well said. Western Europe might be more "pleasant," but on balance I'd take the American way warts and all. But I do think that it's important to acknowledge that there are tradeoffs, and that good things don't necessarily go together. Striving leads to innovation, but striving—in the perpetual self-improvement sort of way that Americans favor—is also a driver of unhappiness. There are too many choices, too many opportunities, too many possibilities, and we know from the behavior economics literature that choice and contentment are often inversely-related. This is what makes America great, but it's so what makes America not so great. And that's okay :)
In Austria where I lived 8 years "Streber" (striver) was considered a negative adjective. I also like the American approach -which really stands out when you live abroad and find that your way of thinking is not the norm in those countries, for better or worse. I have noticed that Europeans for the most part seem less neurotic than Americans, and i wonder if that comes from having a defined place in life - geographically, , class-wise, and with deeper social, family and school ties,
and also not being expected to grow up to do something great like become president or have some other wild success in life. There is less mobility and more stability. Still all things considered I'd choose the American way too. There are always trade-offs, but when I see things happen that are protected against in the Constitution in this country (at least so far) , I am happy that the U.S. and its way of life exists and endures.
I might write more on this topic. Let's stay in touch. Your stuff sounds interesting.
Like the author, I think America is the best place to live, particularly since you have 50 states to pick from, in terms of your preferences for weather, culture, density, governance. For comparison, it might be more relevant comparing Seattle/Washington state to Denmark, California to Italy, or Massachusetts to France. There's no other way to compare the entirety of America to a small select set of countries in Europe. And really, many people in the United States love where they live, because they focus on the family they have and the community around them. And when they don't like the policies of a particularly state, they don't have a problem picking up and leaving for another state!
Yes! This is such an important but overlooked point. There really isn't another country in the world that contains this diversity of political institutions, cultural and religious orientation, and governmental regulation (or lack thereof) within its own borders. COVID I think (for both better and worse) illustrated this quite well, in a way that you didn't see anywhere within the centralized state structures in Europe: basically a laboratory of 50 different COVID regimes.
Schengen in Europe get you 2/3rds of way there. But the US, while more diverse than usually given credit, is sufficiently culturally, lingually, and intuitionally unified that a move to receive the benefits of different locations is still done within the context of an underlying sameness you don't get between, say Sweden and Romania.
True, but I'd see that as fundamentally different. It's hard for me to think of Sweden and Romania as being analogous to the difference within sameness (within-country variation) that we see in the United States. Sweden and Romania are better understood as just simply different nation-states. Perception, I think, is almost important: When a Swede visits Romania they may not perceive it as being within the same political unit, particularly if they don't *feel* European and that's not something you can make yourself feel.
What is wrong with striving and possibilities? And starting from nothing and ending up somewhere that you did not have imagined for you for you more or less by birth on the basis of class? Some country has to offer these opportunities. And the immigrants who have come here do seem to "make good" over time, if not they themselves, then their children, millions coming from some really hellish experiences in their own country of origin. It may be a dirty job to offer these opportunities (indeed there ARE tradeoffs) but some country has to do it.
Completing an education, hard work and further learning on the job, and pro-active planning and responsibility (e.g planning your retirement and financial goals -God know why we don't thoroughly educate people on this) go a long way go a long way toward achieving desired ends. Finding our own best skills, talents and interests are and finding work that incorporates them does a lot to make life interesting, if not totally secure.
I too have lived in Western Europe (Vienna, Austria), and I have to admit, it has its charms. When I was unemployed, I was even given tram tickets so I could get myself to the unemployment office! Life was less challenging and more pleasant in many ways. America is a challenge, and the fact is, we as Americans are also offered the opportunity to address these perennial challenges we are faced with and find new and improved ways. Even as individuals we can have a part in this - through politics, through volunteer work, and in any creative way we can find.
Thanks Kathy- well said. Western Europe might be more "pleasant," but on balance I'd take the American way warts and all. But I do think that it's important to acknowledge that there are tradeoffs, and that good things don't necessarily go together. Striving leads to innovation, but striving—in the perpetual self-improvement sort of way that Americans favor—is also a driver of unhappiness. There are too many choices, too many opportunities, too many possibilities, and we know from the behavior economics literature that choice and contentment are often inversely-related. This is what makes America great, but it's so what makes America not so great. And that's okay :)
In Austria where I lived 8 years "Streber" (striver) was considered a negative adjective. I also like the American approach -which really stands out when you live abroad and find that your way of thinking is not the norm in those countries, for better or worse. I have noticed that Europeans for the most part seem less neurotic than Americans, and i wonder if that comes from having a defined place in life - geographically, , class-wise, and with deeper social, family and school ties,
and also not being expected to grow up to do something great like become president or have some other wild success in life. There is less mobility and more stability. Still all things considered I'd choose the American way too. There are always trade-offs, but when I see things happen that are protected against in the Constitution in this country (at least so far) , I am happy that the U.S. and its way of life exists and endures.
I might write more on this topic. Let's stay in touch. Your stuff sounds interesting.
Like the author, I think America is the best place to live, particularly since you have 50 states to pick from, in terms of your preferences for weather, culture, density, governance. For comparison, it might be more relevant comparing Seattle/Washington state to Denmark, California to Italy, or Massachusetts to France. There's no other way to compare the entirety of America to a small select set of countries in Europe. And really, many people in the United States love where they live, because they focus on the family they have and the community around them. And when they don't like the policies of a particularly state, they don't have a problem picking up and leaving for another state!
Yes! This is such an important but overlooked point. There really isn't another country in the world that contains this diversity of political institutions, cultural and religious orientation, and governmental regulation (or lack thereof) within its own borders. COVID I think (for both better and worse) illustrated this quite well, in a way that you didn't see anywhere within the centralized state structures in Europe: basically a laboratory of 50 different COVID regimes.
Schengen in Europe get you 2/3rds of way there. But the US, while more diverse than usually given credit, is sufficiently culturally, lingually, and intuitionally unified that a move to receive the benefits of different locations is still done within the context of an underlying sameness you don't get between, say Sweden and Romania.
True, but I'd see that as fundamentally different. It's hard for me to think of Sweden and Romania as being analogous to the difference within sameness (within-country variation) that we see in the United States. Sweden and Romania are better understood as just simply different nation-states. Perception, I think, is almost important: When a Swede visits Romania they may not perceive it as being within the same political unit, particularly if they don't *feel* European and that's not something you can make yourself feel.