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Comment by perardi | Hacker News Reader

I am curious what country you could move to that isn’t co-opted by the wealthy and powerful.

Sure isn’t Canada. Sure isn’t anywhere in the EU. Super-duper-sure it isn’t anywhere in Asia.

I don't know honestly, never been to any of these places and after moving around several times within the US I realize how nice it is to just be setted in one place, but here's what I would consider: Netherlands (I really like biking), Germany (Cologne seems like a nice vibe), France (Probably Paris, Food obviously, but I also really appreciate people's willingness to protest stuff)

> Probably Paris

Paris is probably one of the worst places to live in Europe. Looks nice on postcards and it's nice to visit when you never live there, though.

I like it, and especially compared to the US it's a huge upgrade

The US is a single place? I did not know that.

Wouldn't you have said, "The US are," if you actually believed that?

It's funny that you generalised a region of 12.2 million but then is offended by someone generalising the US.

You've repeated a cliche about the city.

Did you live there? Anything particular?

That made you decide: "never live there, though"

Everywhere in the US is subject to the same dysfunctional government and awful societal design.

Even the best place in the US is worse than Paris

Hard disagree. Paris is lovely and gets more so every day with reduced car traffic increased greenspace etc. You're mad. The only place better is Amsterdam

Nederlands has not so great weather. If you're used to the West Coast and like to cycle, try Girona. A bit more wet though. Pay is obviously a lot lower than you may be used to.

Point to a single time in history this hasn't been the case.

Things are a lot better now than they used to be.

The only thing that has really changed is that the post-war American boom is over. Cheap labor, cheap money, cheap everything has returned to baseline and reached the costs felt elsewhere in the industrialized world.

Things aren’t better at all. People say this because we have better technology, medicine, etc. but there was never a time in the past when humans had the life sucked out of them as they do now. We are raised inside boxes, our whole lives elapse inside boxes staring at screens and our social and emotional brain networks atrophy, leaving us damaged and hollow. Like zombies. There is no escaping the state. The law is absolute, there is no chance of escape or starting over. There is no land that is mysterious, the world has been collapsed. There’s no mystery in the world compared to before. AI gets better by the month and now most people can’t rationalize or ignore it: humans will face obsolescence soon. This is bad not just for the obvious reasons. We ingest chemicals and environmental contaminants that make us extremely sick. People are keeling over from heart attacks, obesity much more than they used to. I’ve read a lot of history and I would much rather live in 1720 than 2020.

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