> We are told america is the best place on earth with all the doors open to you to be rich. That all other forms of government are flawed and we have excellence here everywhere you look.
What other countries are great compared to America? With all its flaws America is the only country where you can dream of building spaceships, create multi billion dollar tech companies in less than a decade.
Any ideology that forces individual to be less ambitious for the prosperity of the group only gives more power to the enforcer's of the ideology. As an insider you may not realize how powerful America's culture of individual freedom has impact on other countries.
I was collecting FANG salaries in the states. I was in the 1% for my age, and most people would consider this the "American dream".
I was miserable.
I moved to Japan with a much lower income, but my standard of living is so much more higher.
> you may not realize how powerful America's culture of individual freedom has impact on other countries
Does individual freedom include not wearing masks? Does individual freedom include feeling unsafe from crime?
Japan feels much safer than any urban center in America, especially during this pandemic. This feeling of taking public transit without anxiety throughout the pandemic alone is already worth forgoing those FANG salaries.
I grew up in Portland, Oregon. That place has deteriorated. Parts of San Francisco is more dangerous than Vietnam or Egypt. NYC is filled with confrontation for all sorts of minor problems, none of which you would ever face in Tokyo.
> Any ideology that forces individual to be less ambitious for the prosperity of the group only gives more power to the enforcer's of the ideology.
This is not inherently unique to America or individual liberty. In fact, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is based on the idea that the whole benefits because the individual is acting in their own self regard, not altruistically for society at large.
Asian countries are collectivist with much less individual freedom.
> What other countries are great compared to America? With all its flaws America is the only country where you can dream of building spaceships, create multi billion dollar tech companies in less than a decade.
Speaking of great, how about China? China's bullet train networks span longer than the rest of the world combined. All of that was built within a decade. They have spaceships and unicorns too.
With all its flaws America is the only country where you can dream of building spaceships...
Pedantically, literally anyone anywhere can dream of building spaceships. But let's examine that claim on the basis of people who have actually done it.
- Musk has, but he's South African.
- Bezos crossed the Kármán line so he's done it, but he hasn't reached orbit yet so calling New Shepherd a 'spaceship' is a slightly dubious claim.
- Branson hasn't either and he's British anyway.
- Carmack isn't in the news for space stuff any more, so maybe he's given up?
Looking at the evidence of 'billionaires and their space toys', I think 'not Americans' are a little ahead.
> the only country where you can dream of building spaceships, create multi billion dollar tech companies in less than a decade
And all you need is hard work, persistence, and a couple tens of millions burning a hole in your back pocket... and a legion of people, like you, who don't have that kind of capital to do the heavy lifting.
What percent of top tech companies were funded by multiple millions in personal or family money? We're on YC's website, which invests $500k in startups ($125k until just recently). I thought most startups were venture funded.
Many startups get a lot of family and friends funding. On top of this - a lot of startups are having someone do unpaid work before they get funded. This usually means someone had support to pay rent, food, insurance, etc.
Varies a lot but all the people I know who are relatively young and doing startups come from pretty wealthy families.
> With all its flaws America is the only country where you can dream of building spaceships, create multi billion dollar tech companies in less than a decade.
Why are these top priorities? Metrics like happiness seem like much more valuable metrics than number of spaceships or massive tech companies.
> "What other countries are great compared to America? With all its flaws America is the only country where you can dream of building spaceships, create multi billion dollar tech companies in less than a decade."
--to be honest, the vast majority of people just don't care, because it is completely detached from any experience they have, and is in fact kind of obnoxious to them. To them, your evidence is a category error.
How do countries treat their poor->lower middle class, is more salient for a judge of societal excellence, for them. Is a country interested in raising the ceiling or the floor? America has always been focused on raising the ceiling.
Why can't you dream of that in other countries? I come from Sweden and I don't see why swedes baby have those dreams (or realize them in Sweden). Example multi billion dollar companies; Spotify, Klarna (to name a few). We do have SAAB Aerospace and we do have launchpads for rockets. Then, we're less than half the inhabitants of NYC so our course it's less chance that we at any moment in time have any people building rockets than the US (with 30 times more people).
I'm not surprised he said it on a throwaway. For one thing there are a lot of people from the rest of the world here. We all roll our eyes and sigh a little when we hear "America is the greatest nation on earth".
FYI I am not a native American. I am aware Americas foreign policy is evil and it goes to war with any nation for selfish purpose. But with all its flaws it promotes individual freedom and that like most of Asian country citizens I admire.
I also understand some of the European countries are great in terms of quality of life, safety net e.t.c. But they are weak and can not protect themselves in case of war and everything can change in a short period of time. America's strength lies in its founding principles based on freedom and that is something every nation looks up to.
What other countries are great compared to America? With all its flaws America is the only country where you can dream of building spaceships, create multi billion dollar tech companies in less than a decade.
Any ideology that forces individual to be less ambitious for the prosperity of the group only gives more power to the enforcer's of the ideology. As an insider you may not realize how powerful America's culture of individual freedom has impact on other countries.