Scandinavia SUCKS
- Thread starter Angst
- Start date
The excuse used is that the US can't have decent social welfare because of our diversity. But there's never any explanation of why diversity would matter to that. What it really amounts to is that racists won't vote for a decent social welfare system because they refuse to allow benefits to go to 'those people'.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
The money to fund it is there, it's just that priorities would have to be reshuffled slightly and taxes might have to be raised here and there from the incredibly low amounts they sit at now.
Inequality-adjusted HDI
1. Norway
2. Australia
3. Netherlands
4. Switzerland
5. Germany
6. Iceland
7. Sweden
8. Denmark
...
11. Finland
...
25. Greece
...
28. United States
Link
(not to toot my own horn or anything, but Australia is ahead of the United States for both raw HDI and inequality-adjusted HDI)
1. Norway
2. Australia
3. Netherlands
4. Switzerland
5. Germany
6. Iceland
7. Sweden
8. Denmark
...
11. Finland
...
25. Greece
...
28. United States
Link
(not to toot my own horn or anything, but Australia is ahead of the United States for both raw HDI and inequality-adjusted HDI)
Well not if you're a hypothetical rich successful white oil-and-gas engineer with no debt.
Terxpahseyton
Nobody
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- Messages
- 10,759
I knew I saw the USA at a quit low place on a HDI list, but seeing luiz' list I just felt dumb and let that memory fleet away.
Now I know where I saw it - thanks!
BirraImperial
Pura Vida!
You know the cool thing is that we're often told here our girls are beautiful, and I've wondered if it was because the average-looking blonde was sexy to foreigners, and... well, we have way prettier people than represented there. And a lot of them. Please come around and talk with us, our girls are independent and open-minded. I'd love to bring you to the city.
Actually, I visited Denmark, Sweden and Norway back in 2004 when I was backpacking through Europe with a friend. I thought back at the time that Scandinavian girls were the best looking gals I've ever seen. Of course, I have a weak spot for blonde girls
In Denmark, I only stayed a couple of days in Copenhagen at some hostel, but I would love to visit again some time...
Edit: Also, the open-mindness of Scandinavian women is one of the things that I love about them.
Not having the time to look into it myself, I wonder how they rank the various amenities? Housing is comparatively large and cheap in the US, but that's only 1 factor. We pay for it in long and expensive transit times. And outside a handful of the largest cities, we don't have decent transit.
But then downsides we have, higher crime, which they may factor. Our inferior healthcare system. As a whole the pluses of the US have a lot of minuses balancing them out.
Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
Actually, I visited Denmark, Sweden and Norway back in 2004 when I was backpacking through Europe with a friend. I thought back at the time that Scandinavian girls were the best looking gals I've ever seen. Of course, I have a weak spot for blonde girls
In Denmark, I only stayed a couple of days in Copenhagen at some hostel, but I would love to visit again some time...
Edit: Also, the open-mindness of Scandinavian women is one of the things that I love about them.
I'm glad you feel this way.
Personally, I don't prefer blondes over brunettes but exactly the independent, open-minded attitude is very sexy to me, so for me this is a nice place to live. From what I can gather from people's stereotypical impressions, girls are more conservative about expectations of males in the south and in the US too. Plenty of blogs I've read on the subject matter talk about it either in the way that Scandinavian males are emasculated or that Scandinavian males are more withdrawn here while girls are the aforementioned independent, powerful individuals.A tangent fwiw. Superficially generalizing and being pseudo-racist, I think the worst place for me personally to pick up women would be Japan. I've read some awkward experiences of an American or Scandinavian woman (I forget which, think it was Scandinavian actually, but I don't want to guarantee anything), and the Japanese have a very orderly approach to relations, where one party is the active one and the other is the passive one, especially in the bed. This was very strange to the woman as here, typically both parties are the active ones, especially in the bed. And the woman being active was very emasculating for her Japanese boyfriends, as they had a hard time being "forced" into being the passive party.
I think there is a blog post about it somewhere. Perhaps it was a Reddit thread. But I've forgotten where it is. It might be more telling about the woman though. Here in Scandinavia, there is a lot more egalitarian approach in relations, where both parties are expected to work, take care of the house, take care of the children, and actively pursue and maintain romance if that makes sense.
I'm rambling.
Also isn't this information I'm presented at least little racist? How do I deal with it, if it is? Should I abandon my information about the Japanese altogether?
Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
Tbf Swedish crime was much higher than US crime according to a statistic I stumbled upon during the course of this thread. But I can't seem to find it again. Looking for it, I stumbled upon this statistic instead http://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp where the Scandinavian countries absolutely blow US crime out of the water. Denmark has half the crime index that the US do. I'm actually quite impressed by it, I knew we were doing great but this is marvelous.
Cheetah
Deity
Seeing as I am more or less luiz's alter ego, and living in Stavanger, I kinda had to reply to this!
Only I'm not a petroleum engineer , but an IT consultant with a Master's in CS and engineering. I do work for the oil industry though (just like almost everyone in this city), and I'm young, single and healthy.
Housing prices in Stavanger and Oslo are relatively insane. But this is not so much because of taxes and whatnot, but because of high incomes, limited area to build on, building code difficulties in building new houses, and even restrictions on building taller than seven floors! In addition, apartments which are too small, with too few or too small windows, or lots of other minor building code violations, are generally shut down. And to add to that, we get tax deductions for up to 30% of our mortgage payments! All in all, it's a recipe for continually rising housing prices, and the politicians refuse to fix it, because 80%+ of the population already own their own houses and thus profit from this arrangement...
Of course, everything else is also expensive, but we have generally high incomes all around, which kind of make up for it. And despite all the stories we like to throw around, healthcare is free and generally pretty awesome. Commodore shared a story of his wife's trip to the ER over a stuck fish bone: As a student, I managed to get a pill stuck in my throat, went to the ER in the evening, was sent to the hospital, went through four increasingly invasive tests to find it, was admitted, operated, spent the night and left the next morning. Everyone there were friendly and helpful, and I didn't pay a thing.
Though at my current life stage, I'd undoubtedly do better in the US. One of my friends are working in Microsoft at the moment, and wants me to come over and join him. He makes a bit more than me, and pay less taxes, so it would probably be a good financial decision. Biggest problem is that after three years out of Norway, he is now out of the national welfare program. So if he was suddenly fired tomorrow, he'd have to pay for his own insurance for three months before he'd be in on the national plan again (or just take his chances without). Probabilistically speaking, he's going to be better off than me, all in all. Perhaps I will go over there too. A few years in the US would probably be fun.
Also, a small rant: The reason I haven't moved to the US yet, is that I'm not too happy about the idea of living there. It's nice and all, but everything seems to have such a "fake" air to it. Kind of like the whole country being one giant Disneyland. As long as one has money it's awesome, but after a while it's easy to get a bit fed up over it.
And those million dollar mansions? They're actually of a rather crappy quality relatively to Scandinavian houses, from my experience. No wonder they're so cheap, they don't seem to be built properly... I'd rather prefer my apartment. Especially when I'm single. No need for more than 60 m² for one guy.
Canadian scientist Julien Bourrelle recently launched a book to help foreigners to understand Norwegians better.
We're actually pretty friendly, though we don't appreciate the sudden and inexplicable friendliness Americans and Canadians seem to have towards strangers. Bourrelle put it like this: "Politeness in Norway is to not disturb each other".
Starting a conversation with people on the street is only for the half-crazy people, or bums begging for money. Or foreigners! We're generally fluent in American culture, so if you're a tourist of the familiar Western type, you'll usually be forgiven for starting strange conversations. And if you can keep the conversation going, you'll end up actually experiencing how Norwegians are in fact very friendly.
Just don't come off as an idiot American. Being Canadian should save you from that rather easily, but still... We know there are tons of smart people in North America, but everyone has heard stories about crazy lawsuits, braindead politicans, and unbelievable celebrities. We know the US and Canada are different countries, but we don't generally differentiate your culture.
Beer is always good!
Meh. I always felt right at home in Japanese culture, but then I'm a fjellabe, so what do I know.
I'd say it's mostly about which subculture one interacts with. I've had problems and successes with picking up and dating girls in both Norway and Japan, and from what I can tell, people are as varied there as they are here.
The big thing culturally however, is that we (both Scandinavians and Japanese) seem to control our emotions far more than, say, southern Europeans do. And we also look down on the bragging which is so common to Americans.
I'll grant you that there might be a larger subculture in Japan of people who think men should be active and women passive, but my anecdotal experience does not confirm that theory. I hope I'm not being too rude, but I'll say that while in CFC you've come across as a bit too emasculated than what I think is good for you, I think your biggest problem with picking up girls in Japan would be the language, and not the culture. But just find the right crowd, and the language problem should be okay as well.
Farm Boy
I hope you dance
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Well if you only frequent subcultures that primarily value money, conspicuous consumption, and social climbing(which will tend to be the loudest cultures) then I suppose your takeaway is unavoidable. I'd say get out of California, NYC, and Southern Florida, but that'd be overly unfair. But seriously, even the weather in California feels tinny and fake.
I think the overtly friendly on the street culture of good natured bluster is probably playing a part in things feeling fake too. I can see how that'd be culture shock considering how bad mine was going in reverse. I had a hard time believing how unfriendly on the street Americans in say Chicago/Peoria were.
Cheetah
Deity
Yeah, that's probably a part of it. The idea that people pretend to be that friendly with me that fast, just sets of too many alarms in my head.
Farm Boy
I hope you dance
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Pretend? They probably are actually that friendly as far as a conversation is concerned. You're going to have to do more work if you want them to be fine with your tumbling their daughter. Doesn't mean there aren't nasty people out there, just that they tend to smile too. I guess if I had to choose between sorting out the mean people smiling and dealing with the friendly people being standoffish, I have a cultural preference that probably seems wearying from outside of it?
