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Comment by teelelbrit | Hacker News Reader

I've been to a number of countries that by GDP are "poor" compared to the US. They have perfect roads, very little crime and far fewer cultural problems that plague america.

Italy, Switzerland and the Netherlands all seem to be getting along just fine.

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Switzerland is one of the richest countries in the world. And I wouldn't call Italy or NL "poor."

Switzerland's GDP per capita is around 25% higher than the United States. I would further guess that Switzerland probably has much less inequality than the United States. The Swiss are uniformly rich compared to the extremes of America.

What is their ethnic breakdown?

What is your point?

> far fewer cultural problems

Do most people in those countries look the same?

yes - as an american I take the uncommon position of not making prescriptive judgements on how other countries should conduct their affairs.

What does that mean?

I don't think Switzerland is "problematic" because they prioritize laws and policies that benefit the Swiss for ex. Same for iran etc. I don't see what the skin color or cultural diversity of the country really has to do with anything.

My point is that it's easier to have fewer cultural issues when your whole country looks the same.

A cursory look at a world history book proves that isn't the case.

I didn't say there were utopias but it eliminates an entire class of racism related cultural issues.

The same issues exist, just mapped onto other concepts like ethnic group, tribe, nationality, religion, class, etc.

Switzerland has 3 official languages.

Italy has a range of physical features that would surprise a lot of Americans and most Americans would not bucket every fully-native-for-generations Italian as white based on appearance. (In addition to the other side, lots of people that most Americans would think look too northern European to be Italian.)

I think you are projecting American racism onto other places. (Not that these other places don't have their own racism.)

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