Modern quality of life disparity in wealthy countries

I stumbled across this video and it shocked me.

This is America - specifically, Kensington in Philadelphia - in 2023. I just cannot believe that this situation exists; more so in a comparatively wealthy country. I'm not naive enough to think that we don't have similar issues in some places of the UK and other countries but, seeing these scenes... without wishing to disrespect the people in the video, it's like some kind of zombie movie.

There are plenty more videos like this on YouTube but I don't think I can watch any more. And that's part of the problem here; people can be pretty good at ignoring these situations. It's strawbin' horrifying, and yet I'm now gonna try and forget about it.

The older I get, the more I wonder about our inequality. I do think there is merit in the idea of taking ownership and improving one's own quality of life... but how can we - as entire countries - let things turn out so badly for others?

I've seen those vids of Kensington in Philadelphia too, it's a horrific situation yet seems to be largely ignored.

The American Dream.

Seen a few of the USA on YouTube, the skid row stuff is genuinely unsettling. The people just standing in the streets bent over after taking stuff is horribly sad.

Outside of the larger/wealthier cities (that also have plenty of deprived areas and poverty), I imagine a lot of the USA is not a particularly nice place to live for most Americans, there's no NHS equivalent, little job security and a political system that favours the wealthy 'elite', widespread racism and rampant gun crime that will likely never be adressed, it's just somewhere I would never want to visit, let alone live.

Ironhide wrote:Outside of the larger/wealthier cities (that also have plenty of deprived areas and poverty), I imagine a lot of the USA is not a particularly nice place to live for most Americans, there's no NHS equivalent, little job security and a political system that favours the wealthy 'elite', widespread racism and rampant gun crime that will likely never be adressed, it's just somewhere I would never want to visit, let alone live.

I think there's probably lots of places in the US which are genuinely lovely locations to visit and potentially live, it's such a vast country that finding somewhere decent is likely fairly easy. The trouble is, is that you only ever hear about the bad stuff, which while it does happen, probably isn't as common as you'd think (kinda like how things are here, as in there are good areas and bad areas, bad stuff happens, but it's not happening everywhere all the time).

jawa_ wrote:but how can we - as entire countries - let things turn out so badly for others?

A mix of the Republican/Tory policies over the last 50 years plus a right wing press that scares the left/centre-left wing parties away from much needed national reform.

Hadn't seen that video before but it doesn't seem too unusual in some parts of the USA.

Jawa, spot on with Fentanyl addicts looking like Zombie movie extras. It's very eery.

And the homelessness / streets filled with tents issue even without the increase in fentanyl usage seems to have become an enormous problem in recent years too.

I can't think of anywhere in the UK as depressing as that video with such an obvious homelessness problem and indifference to blatant usage of hard drugs being openly used.

I don't think fentanyl has become a thing anywhere in Europe thankfully.

Blackpool is the most depressing part of the UK I've been to and it's nothing like as shocking as that video.

The average American now has the same healthy life expectancy (years lived in good health) as someone in Blackpool, the town with England’s lowest life expectancy (by far), synonymous with deep-rooted social decline.

One in 25 American five-year-olds today will not make it to their 40th birthday.

I posted this a few months ago:

Grumpy David wrote:

twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1641799667942866944

twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1641799703636369408

twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1641799722418556931

twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1641799759395422208

Greatest country on earth, land of the free.

Knoyleo wrote:Greatest country on earth, land of the free.

The land of the free? whoever told you that is your enemy.

Wow. Some interesting but dreadfully sad stats there, Grumpy David.

I've never actually been to the US myself. I get the impression that it's a paradise for some folk but hell for others. A pal of mine who visited and toured a few states was taken aback by how close the well-off and the very poor where living in a few locations (including, IIRC, Lol Angeles); apparently you'd have streets of gated properties not that far from other streets where people were living on the pavement or in tents. I tend to think it's very much a "first past the post" setup; some people who hit the jackpot but quite a few who are practically impoverished.

Vermilion wrote:I've seen those vids of Kensington in Philadelphia too, it's a horrific situation yet seems to be largely ignored.

It's sort of amazing that some Americans see government attempts to help these people as socialism and wrong.
The lack of empathy is pretty shocking and they've been brainwashed into only caring about the super rich and huge companies profits.

They will gladly vote for tax cuts for billionaires at the cost of less social spending in the hope that trickle down will finally work.

jawa_ wrote:Wow. Some interesting but dreadfully sad stats there, Grumpy David.

I've never actually been to the US myself. I get the impression that it's a paradise for some folk but hell for others. A pal of mine who visited and toured a few states was taken aback by how close the well-off and the very poor where living in a few locations (including, IIRC, Lol Angeles); apparently you'd have streets of gated properties not that far from other streets where people were living on the pavement or in tents. I tend to think it's very much a "first past the post" setup; some people who hit the jackpot but quite a few who are practically impoverished.

If you have money the US is fantastic.
For the poor and middle class it's not so great.

They do things like in Texas where during the ongoing heatwaves they've got rid of mandatory drink breaks for people working outside and the people in prisons are dieing due to not having AC.
Yep, republicans are a caring bunch.

Peter Crisp wrote:

jawa_ wrote:Wow. Some interesting but dreadfully sad stats there, Grumpy David.

I've never actually been to the US myself. I get the impression that it's a paradise for some folk but hell for others. A pal of mine who visited and toured a few states was taken aback by how close the well-off and the very poor where living in a few locations (including, IIRC, Lol Angeles); apparently you'd have streets of gated properties not that far from other streets where people were living on the pavement or in tents. I tend to think it's very much a "first past the post" setup; some people who hit the jackpot but quite a few who are practically impoverished.

If you have money the US is fantastic.
For the poor and middle class it's not so great.

They do things like in Texas where during the ongoing heatwaves they've got rid of mandatory drink breaks for people working outside and the people in prisons are dieing due to not having AC.
Yep, republicans are a caring bunch.

The Republican party is a death cult at this point.

Tomous wrote:

Peter Crisp wrote:

jawa_ wrote:Wow. Some interesting but dreadfully sad stats there, Grumpy David.

I've never actually been to the US myself. I get the impression that it's a paradise for some folk but hell for others. A pal of mine who visited and toured a few states was taken aback by how close the well-off and the very poor where living in a few locations (including, IIRC, Lol Angeles); apparently you'd have streets of gated properties not that far from other streets where people were living on the pavement or in tents. I tend to think it's very much a "first past the post" setup; some people who hit the jackpot but quite a few who are practically impoverished.

If you have money the US is fantastic.
For the poor and middle class it's not so great.

They do things like in Texas where during the ongoing heatwaves they've got rid of mandatory drink breaks for people working outside and the people in prisons are dieing due to not having AC.
Yep, republicans are a caring bunch.

The Republican party is a death cult at this point.

Death for thee, not for me - The republicans 2023.

shithole country

Aren’t we nearly ready for the Bell riots according to Star Trek?

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bell_Riots

Time for a Grcade Star Trek DS9 episode re-watch.

San Francisco had the most homeless people I've ever seen when I was there like 8 years ago.

Memento Mori wrote:San Francisco had the most homeless people I've ever seen when I was there like 8 years ago.

Brother was just there. That was one of his main observations.

I've been to Barcelona before and I'm in Copenhagen now. Both have poverty.

Barcelona has people looking through bins near mega yachts. Copenhagen has a large amount of people looking through bins for cans they can cash at the local shops.

America seems to have these problems with widespread drug addiction on top. It's extremely bad.

San Fran and Atlanta have by far the worst homelessness and poverty I've ever seen. It's insane.