It’s interesting that Japan is below the US in the main rankings. I feel more free here in almost every regard than I did as an adult in the US.
Economic freedom is not freedom in general. Hell you could even define economic freedom in different ways. Like freedom to let business do whatever they want or the freedom to not have to worry about needing to finance certain basic things. It is loose term and it very much depends on your values.
Yeah, is specifically meant economic freedom, at least as it applies to me. More affordable housing (I could still afford my payment even if my salary dropped in half if absolutely necessary), no worrying to death about medical bills, etc. This even allowed me to start my farm business which I’d likey be too terrified to do in the US. All in all I feel much less fear and anxiety over monetary matters here (though wanting to travel internationally sucks right now due to the weak yen, which I suppose is a downside).
My only real point of friction is investing, but that’s because I’m a US citizen still (until my parents pass, anyway) and that’s not a Japan problem. I’ve heard that buying and selling gold has some weird rules, but that’s not an issue I face.
Phacking
I’ve heard that the justice system in Japan is absolute trash. Not only are many laws regarding things like recreational drug possession insanely punitive, they have a general conviction rate over 99%. Which is a major red flag imo. Makes you wonder how many people there have been wrongly convicted in order to keep the numbers up.
More info:
https://www.vox.com/world/2015/12/13/9989250/japan-crime-conviction-rate
https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/japan-s-hidden-landscape-of-violent-crime
USA! USA!! 💥
And they say that American exceptionalism is a myth
Greatest country in the world apparently.
This show is feeling relevant every single day now.
I live in a third world country, and I get asked now and then if I’d ever move to the USA, and my answer is always
“No, if I’m going to move to a country it must be better than the one I am currently living in”
It’s the bully who constantly has to tell everyone how great they are and acts like an asshole tworads everyone while they’re actually very mentally broken, scared, dumb etc.
Hang on. They said, “except Us,” so you’re supposed to drop that letter. The chant is now “SA! SA!!” 🇿🇦
And americans will tell you it’s because they are better or different.
I’m not even American, but what the fuck are you even talking about, no one’s saying that
You dont know this but some Americans are profoundly stupid. By some I mean more then any body can manage.
So just because you dont ride in those circles, dont think for a moment american exceptionalism isnt some sort of self defeating pride that will soon have my country on its knees.
You dont know this but some Americans are profoundly stupid.
Isn’t this the case basically everywhere? Is there a culture or country that doesn’t have profoundly stupid people in it?
I mean, we take it very seriously, though. There I go with american exceptionalism again.
Also not American. You don’t think there’s a perception that American is the greatest country in the West? It comes off thick with a lot of topics even discussed on the fediverse. A good clip that I enjoy watching every now and then https://youtu.be/wTjMqda19wk
Everyone knows about the American exceptionalism, but it exists despite these horrid humanitarian conditions, not because.
No one’s gonna say “yeah I’m happy with being forced to eat dirt, I’m superior to you, that’s why!”
I’m sure many Americans would crow about these more positive things if they could but think about those posts that unironically brag about how “X about to find out why Americans don’t have healthcare” while showing a picture of an airborne orphan crusher, or something.
It’s all part of their true grit machismo, like hell yeah most brutal capitalist hellscape imaginable, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Honestly they revel in it.
It’s like Canadians and their cold winters.
Gotta fund the military somehow, mirite?
The “military power” reputation took a huge hit this year too. Really? That bs is why they forego all these benefits for their people?
But…but…hellfire missiles go brrrrrr?
number one!
I’d argue even with education, your defacto two party system still prevents true change/progress. Not sure if better education would be enough to change this.
a UNIPARTY, the gop and dinos are a coalition. not even a true 2 party system. DInos are allowed to throw people a bone once in a while so they dont form an uprising or take over the party
Moron. Go educate yourself. You’re responsible for all the unnecessary evil and thousands of murders trump has brought upon this world.
well, at least people will be able to conceptualize this is a completely stupid system.
Right now they have the sport-fan mentality. Us vs Them, Me vs You, Good vs Bad. Baby view of the world.
(and it’s not my de-facto :) )
The two party system worked for a long time because both sides were committed to the idea that a functional government was a good thing.
A multiple party system didn’t save Germany from Fascists. When enough citizens decide their fellow citizens are the problem decent government becomes impossible.
I wouldn’t say it worked. It was barely good enough while being quiet bad. Switzerland took usa’s system and made it better, so much better. Anno 1848
I think the education is a symptom of a deeper problem still, and that is corporate entities owning significant parts of the governing process, through lobbying, campaign financing and a rotating door of government positions and coproate advisers.
They want an uneducated population, because that is how they get a greater and greater share of the say in what the government does each election cycle. Getting Citizens United through was one of the worst they accomplished in recent years, but it won’t end there.
Step 1: Reform the Supreme Court (term limits, mandatory retirement age of 65, etc). Step 1.5: Abolish Citizens United.
Ah yes but the US has the “freedom” to not have all of those things.
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It’s more that they’re diseducated IMO. To me, throwing vitriol at people because a decades-long campaign from the most powerful people on earth succeeded feels so similar to blaming the enslaved for not freeing themselves.
It’s really frustrating and it blows to see so many people harming themselves out of hate, fear, and illiteracy, but how are they to know better? All they see elsewhere is hate against them for something they’ve been trained to identify with; no human responds to that.
I’m not trying to come off as offensive to insulting. I think the above is worth considering and might be productive :)
I agree with you mostly but don’t agree in calling people “diseducated”, I think it removes too much personal agency. Undermining education and replacing it with religious devotion is most definitely a goal of fascist wealthy class but we aren’t there yet.
Public education doesn’t make someone mentally incompetent, so no need to infantilize them. This “hate, fear, and illiteracy” are all choices they’ve made to identify with.
No one is born MAGA, they choose it for themselves. Their lack of self-discipline and unable to delay gratification and propensity to choose the path of least resistance may be preyed upon by the system but they always have a choice.
Its very similar to the food system in this country, it’s all engineered to feel good and make you addicted and overconsume. You still have the choice to eat less and exercise more but it’s hard. Some people are also predisposed to falling into it, so I do think you make a good point even if I don’t fully agree
I appreciate your response, it’s well written and considerate.
I want to clarify that my use of the term diseducation is not primarily directed to public schools en masse, but rather the increasing role platforms like TikTok, television, and ‘alternative’ ‘sources’ of mis/disinformation play as a voice of authority in many areas of life. To me, disinformation and diseducation vary in that disinformation is intentionally misleading/false facts about a topic to form a particular stance such, whereas diseducation primarily affects a way of thinking or conducting “research” to yield more results over time. For example, I believe a religious take on something like creationism to be disinformation as it pertains to a single set of facts on a single topic, but I believe a religious framing of things like the origin of sin and human nature to be more diseducation as they affect an individual’s framework for understanding that branches beyond a particular topic. Probably not the best example; I had a long day at work
I may be misinterpreting you a bit still, but if I reframe diseducation as propaganda, then I completely agree with your point. And it also presents a challenge we will face in perpetuity in the future. The technological progress of the internet has had an enormous positive impact on humanity but also comes with an enormous human cost as the worst of us weaponize it to gain money and power.
To me, throwing vitriol at people because a decades-long campaign from the most powerful people on earth succeeded feels so similar to blaming the enslaved for not freeing themselves.
It becomes more complicated when the campaign was created by propagandists from the 1940s and simply echoed through time by increasingly credulous buffons with more and more money.
At the same time, the “enslaved” keep signing up to join the military and the police, so that they can leverage their position to get access to the things they are trying to deprive everyone else of.
So it’s a cycle of self-imposed violence and poverty. And it is one that people accept reflexively because it hurts other people who are lower than them on the social order.
Not simply an issue of ignorance but of cruelty.
At the same time, the “enslaved” keep signing up to join the military and the police, so that they can leverage their position to get access to the things they are trying to deprive everyone else of.
At least in my hometown, people are trained from birth that joining the military is a high honor and one of the bravest and least-selfish things one can do. There’s a reason the military aims more recruiting effort towards teenagers than any other demographic, with 40% of the entire military (not just of new recruits) being under 25: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK547615/figure/fig_3_2/?report=objectonly
So it’s a cycle of self-imposed violence and poverty. And it is one that people accept reflexively because it hurts other people who are lower than them on the social order.
Partly, yes. Keep in mind my original comment was in response to another, not a holistic self-standing claim. My opening sentence was a comparative, not a declaration of absolute fact.
Also to be clear, my use of enslaved was in reference to slavery in the USA, not the military which is an entirely volunteer (yes, the word volunteer is a heavy lift) force.
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This feels very much like the booststraps the owner class expects you to clime the social ladder with.
It shouldn’t take years of proper education to know not to hate someone for being born a certain way.
No one said anything else. My claim was that there exists a well established, well funded, and effective institution that diseducates this into people that wouldn’t otherwise have it.
Edit: formatting
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If you ‘know better’ then what’s stopping you from recognizing that not everyone is cut from the same cloth?
A black person raised to believe in the Nation of Islam might be more militant in their suppor of black rights — does that make what they believe right? No, the NoI is a cult that believes white people were born in a lab 7000 years ago (amongst other crazy bullshit). MAGA is also a cult. You should read up on what defines cults and what kind of people are susceptible to them.
I’m not exactly making excuses for them, I hate MAGA. Nuance here, however, is very important.
You nailed it; recognizing nuance is a critical skill
a decades-long campaign from the most powerful people on earth succeeded feels so similar to blaming the enslaved for not freeing themselves.
Yeah, but those people all received a public education (like I did) and have access to all humanity’s knowledge at their fingertips. And they’re still profoundly stupid. That’s not a good look.
but how are they to know better?
Self education? I know a whole lot more than I did when I stopped having a formal education. I don’t think it’s right to just assume that people are sheep by default and have to have good educators to be reasonably intelligent. Especially in this day and age. It removes the expectation of personal responsibility that we should have for every adult.
They sell it to a third of the population, and those people rabidly vote for corporate USA every year.
THIS is how CEO’s make thier money, it’s how the rich 1% stay rich - by exploiting people who let them exploit them based on outmoded tropes from the rich people of the last generation, who exploited people who had very little choice when it came to ‘money’ Incarcerate the rich who own companies that don’t pay living wages
It’s because you have the most capitalist country, so you are number 1 in exploitation. Congratulations 👍🎉
Those other countries can merely dream of doing as little as we do for our workslaves!
I’m convinced the reason is “We can’t do that, black people would get it. White people have the good jobs and will get that all on their own.”
You think you’re the only racist developed country in the world?
Nah, mate. It’s capitalism. Capitalism, as a system, always needs a powerful country to be its base, where capital can politically defend itself and control the political system to keep the corporations strong, and wield that country’s military against any foreign country that refuses to accept the domination of the corporations.
It was Amsterdam at first, then Britain for a long while, then in the 19th century it started moving to the USA, where it prospered mightily.
Capitalism cannot let the people be the priority. It must hold profit above all else, it’s the nature of the machine. This is not a decision made by a person, this is how the system of capitalism works.
27 countries? Which ones?
It’s kinda why these types of posts should probably be discouraged. Posts like these should have sources.
To be fair they did say they had the lowest literacy rates
My country has all of that (healthcare/education are basically free). Workers rights are protected and stuff but taxes here are really high compared to the U.S.
Good question! The report is here but there’s no such list that I could find.
https://static.heritage.org/index/pdf/2026/2026_indexofeconomicfreedom.pdf
Lol. Who’s the shithole country now?
No, there are approximately 190 fully capitalist countries, stop whitewashing capitalism. Capitalist countries also include: Afghanistan, Burundi, South Sudan, DRC and India. Stop with this evolutionist nonsense.
Yeah because capitalism is just how things develop without excessive government intervention to prevent it. It’s a lie to say capitalism is a choice. I guess technically you could say it’s a choice between buying food from a farmer or starving to death, but really that’s not much of a choice. The two biggest famines in history were cause by socialist countries taking direct control of the agriculture industry.
Yeah but we have mythical Freedom! and the whole world except us is mythically oppressed by socialist tyranny!
Europe doesn’t have socialism. This list is not even close to good. Europe is like, behind what I want. I want socialism. I want to nationalize big tech. Europe wants no part in nationalizing their tech. I don’t want mandatory PTO, I want a union and representation and a funded pension. I want publicly ran and funded groceries and hospitals, not just universal health insurance.
The modern use of the word Socialism means having significant publicly funded institutions. When people say they want socialism they mean they want more of it, because most likely they already have lots of publicly funded institutions - like police and fire protection, public libraries, unemployment compensation… What they want is more, and Europe has more than the US.
Developed and non-developed are economics terms for different degrees of industrialization and overall wealth. they’re not “colonial” language.
I agree and also would note that “developed” is the current, more sensitive term which specifically seeks to avoid unfair judgement in favor of a term that looks at metrics that measure general well being. You cannot tell me it’s racist to acknowledge and want to improve the quality of life for billions of people who needlessly suffer disease, death, and other miserable preventable (with resources/education) situations.
Socialism is impossible. It cannot exist with a species like ours that is hardwired for greediness and self-preservation.
At the end of the day, too many people will look at socialism and see "this is bullshit, why should insert marginalised/oppressed minority get that when insert marginalised/oppressed minority that person identifies with gets less. Or just happen to be staunchly opposed to a population protected by the socialist system.
It’s idealist. And I fucking hate capitalism. But at the end of the day the very best we can really hope for is capitalism with strong, firmly enforced and well thought out regulations.
We will get neither just so we are clear. But it’s the best possible type of system in my mind.
We are literally hardwired for cooperation, as a hyper social species. Maybe do some scientific research before you go spouting off your garbage political opinions which aren’t based in science.
Did you take your meds on the day you chose your user name?
Edit: if you actually believe in science (doubtful, you just use those words as a club) why don’t you read up on some evolutionary psychology and come back and share with the class what you find.
Enjoy the down votes, dumbass.
Nuh uh
You sure showed me, dumbfuck.
No u
It cannot exist with a species like ours that is hardwired for greediness and self-preservation.
In general this is a myth, being a self interested economic agent is something we’re trained to conform to, not something we do instinctually. Which isn’t to say we are naturally suited for large scale cooperation, but what the Hobbesian perspective misses is that whatever behavior you’re assuming is human nature has a context, and that context could be made very different.
That’s a pretty interesting point and totally fair. I would like to think we would do better in a different context. My problem is the context for us I (mostly) believe to be inevitable.
hardwired for greediness and self-preservation.
Speak for yourself. Some of us are out here building communities with our own blood, sweat, and tears.
Socialism isn’t a binary concept any more than Capitalism is. You can have capitalist activity alongside freely available publicly funded institutions - national parks, libraries, etc. People who say they want socialism usually want a specific list of human needs publically funded. This is perfectly possible in a capitalist economy, as OP’s list illustrates.
So what you’re saying is the ideal system (or at least what most people who say they want socialism think is ideal is capitalism with strong, firmly enforced and well thought out regulations?
No, that’s a tremendous oversimplification. I’m saying capitalism alongside publicly funded necessities for survival and wellbeing. Nobody starves, nobody is homeless. If you want it summed up as a slogan how about, “We don’t leave our people behind.”
You’ve convinced me. I will stop wanting socialism now. It can never happen. I accept the liberal order. Capitalism is a force of good. I will no longer vote for the democratic socialists. I will vote for the liberal establishment. I will be acting like a good citizen of western democracy. Yes this is good.
You think idealism is bad, yet you believe “at the end of the day the very best we can really hope for is capitalism with strong, firmly enforced and well thought out regulations.”
That is idealism. Capitalism will continue to kill people in other countries while you vacation every summer. Capitalism is good for you so you want it to continue. I’m sorry, but I can’t live my life that way. You can, and good for you for that—I envy it.
So if I’m understanding you correctly, a constrained capitalism is idealism (fair) and somehow the farther left side of that is more realistic (absurd)?
If anything you’re making my point for me.
You want to paint me as some defender of capitalism or accepting of it because of my creature comforts…fill your boots, you don’t know me. But at least get your logic in check.
Any government is possible. You do not know american history, or human history, enough or how the government works. If America continues after Donald Trump, then it will be something completely different than what it looked like before him. More and more Democratic Socialists are getting elected. Socialism is more and more likely the more socialists americans elect. My state house of representatives in Kentucky got one more. Times may be changing.
Your view of humans is wrong btw. You may be projecting.
Are you conflating democratic socialism with full blown socialism? That is most certainly not true socialism.
Evidence in my favor includes the Nordic countries, having a very firmly capitalist society with strong welfare policies. They blow the west out of the water on social outcomes.
But that’s not socialism. That’s exactly what I’m advocating for.
So do you think the Nordic countries are still too capitalist, or do you actually mean to argue that they’re an example to follow? I guess it has to be the first?
Democratic socialism is not social democracy. The nordic model is social democracy (european capitalism I call it). Democratic socialism is socialism, the thing I keep saying I want.
Europe is capitalist, I want socialism. Europe is too right wing and not anti capitalist, pro socialist, and leftist enough for me. I want america to be more socialist than capitalist europe.
I dont care about the west. ‘The west’ is a mythological culture that doesn’t exist.
Analogy: it’s more realistic to cut a tumor out and heal the patient than to keep it growing at an acceptable rate.
Ah yes, except for when the tumor is 90% of the body. Then you can’t just cut it out.
Good analogy, I like it.
The best they ever have to offer is circular reasoning or no reasoning at all. Makes me wonder why they believe it.
Do they even realize when they’re mixing feelings (or ideals) with facts? 🤷♂️
Is this an invitation to share more of my reasoning on why I think socialism is impossible? Or was there a circular argument that you heard in what I said?
If I’m hard-wired for greed and self-preservation, why do I let people go ahead of me in traffic? Why do I give money to beggars? Why do I vote for people who will raise taxes on me?
And why do so many other people do these things? If they are hardwired for greed and self preservation? Are they not human?
Our intelligence allows us to override our base instincts.
The hardware is self preservation and greed. You raise a human in the wild with no social connection what will you get? A cooperative person? Lol. No.
So many of you are so confident in your assertion that humans are cooperative by nature. That is laughable. We cooperate because we are smart enough (some of us) to figure out that cooperation is the best path forward. Take all the external factors out, introduce some danger and you’ll see just how cooperative we are…
I disagree with your entire assertion, because there have been plenty of studies done that do not support it.
Humans are a social species by nature. We help each other on an instinctual level. We evolved that way, because it happened to be more effective for survival.
The people who behave in the way you describe, helping others only when it benefits them, are called sociopaths. They are unusual, and not the majority. Indeed, one of the ways in which they exploit us for their own gain is that normal humans feel good when they help someone.
Perhaps you do not feel this. Perhaps you have a bit of sociopathy. This does not necessarily condemn you, btw, most sociopaths do not become monsters, due to the benefits of cooperation that you describe.
I simply mention it because it may explain why you believe something which is inaccurate.
Lol…man oh man that’s quite the passive aggressive “you might be wrong cause you’re fucked up”
You do realize that “feeling good” being altruistic is a selfish reason to do it. That is the benefit. Feeling good is a reward. You are literally describing doing something in order to get a positive reward which you then described as sociopathic. Just because the reward is “feeling good” doesn’t make it any different. Are you a sociopath?
Obviously humans are a social species. The social part is only as functional as the social circle around it. You put a bunch of total strangers in an urgent life or death situation, do you really believe there will be any altrusim? Really? Come on now…
We can absolutely be altruistic. The context is everything. What you would do with total strangers, high stakes and complete anonymity is what I’m talking about. Anything besides that and you have social factors influencing the picture, even if it’s just about feeling good.
Edit: clarity
If you exclude the essential social nature of a human from your scenario, and somehow anonymise them… Where exactly does this apply? I have been in a survival situation with strangers. We all just worked together to do the right thing, and make sure everyone was safe.
If your proposed essential human selfishness is so limited that it means they mostly do the right thing…
