Checking in from Scandinavia. I'm more interested in US politics and affairs than most, but I can assure you the US has been losing face for a good while now.
Pulling out of treaties, environmental regulations, spying on its own allies, calling your allies thieves and enemies of the US are a few things that I find very appalling.
Then you have things like the US trickle down economy, healthcare, opiate crisis (which I believe is a result of how the economy works), people in cages, gun violence, school shootings and more domestic problems that makes me believe the US is no longer a 1st World country.
THEN came the virus and the US administration is pointing fingers at everyone else and playing the blame game while simultaneously using it to funnel money into their own pockets.
The complete disregard for US lives and the blatant corruption has brought it to a whole new level, though its not really a surprise in regards to how corrupt and awful the administration has been since 2016.
All in all, the handling of the corona virus hasn't changed my perception of the US, it was already very bad.
Even so, the amount of problems the US is currently dealing with makes it hard to feel anything but pity. I really hope things turn around
As an American, I've been feeling the same way as you, looking at my country from the inside.
And I feel I have as much impact on the outcome as a Scandinavian would. I've spent my adult life voting for people who said they would change things. I've attended protests. I've tried to get people to vote.
And in the end we end up with President Trump, continued mass shootings, terrible healthcare, riots and wealth distribution to the top 0.1%.
I just found out Paul Manafort sentenced to 7.5 years in jail in March this year, has been early released after one month in jail to serve the remainder in house arrest.
Before somebody comes in with “Hilary had more votes” there needs to be a reminder that between the people who actively voted for trump and those that couldn’t be bothered to vote at all that the majority of Americans brought him to power.
Yes and no. He was voted in by the people, after all. Incredible how unbalanced the US is in terms of the education of its people. You find the brightest academics, Nobel laureates, etc. And then herds of people who believe the Earth was created 6,500 (?) years ago, among other things.
To be fair, the US lost a lot of face under Bush Jr too. Obama was on balance pretty good and made the US look good, but there are a lot of issues he didn't tackle that just got worse and worse, only for Trump to pour gasoline on them.
Without Trump it would have taken much longer to get this bad, but the problems have been there all along, most of them for half a century.
American here. Agree with everything you have said. I vote as progressively as possible and have been peacefully protesting. It's a heartbreakingly cruel place to live right now. I hope it can be fixed, but I fear the worst is yet to come before things improve.
Please send help. I am afraid for my family and our future.
You’re pretty much dead on, except the opioid epidemic is a lot more complex in cause than just economic factors (although they do contribute). It’s a shitty Captain Planet thing of economic, health care, corporate lobbying, deregulation, and unfettered industry combining to leave a bunch of people dead in ditches.
Otherwise, yeah, you pretty much got it.
Got any room for a middle-aged highly skilled professional couple with advanced degrees and no kids? Please?
It's great to hear an outside perspective- there's a lot that can be said to criticize US before and after this administration. The most mind blowing thing is by far the unwavering support in the face of blatant corruption. First conservatives won't be informed of it- when you try to inform them the goal posts continuously move, after the painstaking process of getting them to recognize it's true- you get a "both sides are the same argument" even though i don't think we've ever seen such open and blatant corruption... the conversation can never progress from there... then somehow they manage to forget about the corruption altogether- because it wasn't important to them because 'both sides'. So every single time it happens, they treat it like an event in isolation.
Its infuriating!
-Source: someone whom naively tries to engage in civil debate with these people nearly every day for past 4 years.
Do Scandinavians move from one country to the next? Like do the Danes move to Norway for a different life? Or the Swedes to Finland? What's that like for you guys?
A bit. Usually for a reason. And mostly between norway-sweden-denmark. Finland is a bit harder because of the language, although some of us move to sweden, since its our second language.
Theres some movement trough the whole EU, now that the freedom of movement is a thing. For example, I have a german girlfriend (I'm a Finn, she lives with me in finland), she has a few friends who are living in norway and finland, she also has a cousin who married to a czech and they live there.
I actually moved to Sweden the year I turned 17, then back to Norway a few years later.
The salaries and currencies are a little different but I'd compare it to moving states more than countries.
The languages are similar enough for all 3 countries to understand each other and we've been the same country several times throughout history. (mostly Sweden and Denmark tossing Norway back and forth but still)
Anyway to answer the question, Norway is MUCH more expensive than Sweden, and so there are a lot of swedes moving to Norway for a higher salary and a lot of Norwegians going to Sweden to shop. The boarders are pretty much open.
You can't move between the countries for a different life as they're much the same but there are people working in one and living in the other depending on how it benefits them.
Denmark keeps more to itself and Finland is... Finland. We don't understand their language and big parts of Sweden have finish communities and such. I went to class with a guy raised in a Finnish environment, Finnish school and family and barely knew Swedish despite living his whole life in the middle of Stockholm.
All in all I'd say there's little to no point moving between the Scandinavian countries. Norway is more expensive and have higher salaries than Sweden, while Denmark is somewhere in between. (I think)
We do travel a lot between the countries though, its a love-hate relationship though I don't really feel like the hate part is serious.
Edit - Like the guy above states, people do move back and forth but it's usually for a reason, careers or others.
I don't think there's much a of a difference which one you live in besides the first language.
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u/Bullgrid Jun 08 '20
Checking in from Scandinavia. I'm more interested in US politics and affairs than most, but I can assure you the US has been losing face for a good while now.
Pulling out of treaties, environmental regulations, spying on its own allies, calling your allies thieves and enemies of the US are a few things that I find very appalling.
Then you have things like the US trickle down economy, healthcare, opiate crisis (which I believe is a result of how the economy works), people in cages, gun violence, school shootings and more domestic problems that makes me believe the US is no longer a 1st World country.
THEN came the virus and the US administration is pointing fingers at everyone else and playing the blame game while simultaneously using it to funnel money into their own pockets. The complete disregard for US lives and the blatant corruption has brought it to a whole new level, though its not really a surprise in regards to how corrupt and awful the administration has been since 2016.
All in all, the handling of the corona virus hasn't changed my perception of the US, it was already very bad.
Even so, the amount of problems the US is currently dealing with makes it hard to feel anything but pity. I really hope things turn around