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Denmark is a much less ethnically diverse country. It's easier to connect with your fellow countrymen when you share the same customs, mannerisms, and language.
There are some benefits to diversity, but fostering a feeling of community with your neighbors is not one of them.
I see some people drive cars to meet up with other people. I see others ride bicycles just to ride home again. Most people are lonely because that is what we are comfortable with.
Well, we have to dig a bit deeper. We may be comfortable with it because our societies isolated us and made it much harder to be part of a community. The Culture and "system" have schooled us to work,work,work and get ahead and move (if needed) for each job promotion or change. When people move they give up a LOT of their roots...family, friends, neighborhood and more. New neighborhoods are usually designed to isolate people.
Book could - and have - been written on this. In general it is not our individual fault(s). Decisions made by earlier generations that continue (car culture, for example) form the basis of our lives. It's the really rare bird in the USA today who actually lives where they live. Rather they get in their car...which is in the garage so they are not seen, and drive to a commercial establishment (maybe indoor air conditioned soccer?) and then to another commercial establishment and then to another.
We don't have many street cultures of Cafe cultures - where people walk down the block to get their coffee, talk to the guys or gals and then work nearby and visit the local corner watering hole some evenings.
I'm speaking broadly - I know such communities do exist but it does take a real effort on the part of individuals - whereas in the past, your community came somewhat naturally.
Basically - in the USA money talks and BS (interpersonal relationships) walk....again, being broad, but that is what our culture does to us. Or at least what I see when I look hard around (and I am extensively traveled in the USA...from the boonies to the cities).
Denmark is a much less ethnically diverse country. It's easier to connect with your fellow countrymen when you share the same customs, mannerisms, and language.
There are some benefits to diversity, but fostering a feeling of community with your neighbors is not one of them.
Well, what came first - the fences, HOA's, gated communities, houses designed so you don't see anyone when you enter the garage and drive away or what???
I can show you vast "un diversified" areas where they is little or no community. None at all.
From what I have seen many Americans have to work so hard, worry so much (Danes don't have to worry about bankruptcy for a Medical Bill or from losing their job).....that they have nothing left for community. They are lucky if they can even deal with family after giving everything they got to the Boss Man.
Also, remember, it's their experience of diversity that makes Danes - Danes. For example, a young sales manager at the company I worked with had already lived for years in Asia...both trading and working in an embassy. That's quite typical for Danes. Unlike Americans of the same caliber, you would never hear them talking about foreigners being "bad people".
They aren't angry. That's a big thing. The reason the USA makes such good music and cinema, etc. is that these undercurrents constantly run through our society. Suffering and loneliness make for much better drama and music than happiness.
BTW, 5 weeks paid vacation (besides the short work weeks and high pay) are LAW. Of course, that doesn't include many other weeks off.
When people have time for themselves and their families...THEN, they can have time for friends and others also.
I don't know what sick places you live, but I have never seen anything like that in my America. Perhaps you should start thinking about yourselves more and worrying less about your contemplates. What a liberal post.
I think G. Carlin had some idea of what might be wrong - values wise....
“A person of good intelligence and sensitivity cannot exist in this society very long without having some anger about the inequality - and it’s not just a bleeding-heart, knee-jerk, liberal kind of a thing - it is just a normal human reaction to a nonsensical set of values where we have cinnamon flavored dental floss and there are people sleeping in the street.”
You need a stronger correlation between cars and loneliness for your poll to be valid.
Alas ...
Without cars I'd have been VERY lonely when I was 16 ..
Even my VW bug was big enough to...do away with loneliness. Dang thing ran out of gas one day and I left it in W. Philly. Wasn't there when I returned but found it stripped and up on blocks a couple days later.
I think there is something ridiculous about massive traffic jams where every 2 ton and five seat vehicle has one person in it. But that's being solved slowly by the sharing economy.
Not to far in the future we will have driverless cars on call for all of us. I do suspect that will be better for society as a whole (I could list the reasons, but they are extensive).
In the US we are currently experiencing a 'loneliness crisis' that has been widely reported. https://www.ajc.com/news/health-med-...3qZI8WlukHfpK/
It may be partially responsible for our increasing suicides and drug deaths, and in turn our declining lifespans.
We Americans spend much time in the sealed metal and glass boxes that we call automobiles. No wonder we are bereft of human contact!
The Danes have a convivial and cohesive society; this has even been proven by OECD studies. Denmark taxes the bejesus out of privately owned automobiles. Until just recently the Danes taxed economy cars at 105%, and higher-priced at 180%. There is also a VAT tax slapped on, and annual environment fees. As in most European nations, fuel is heavily taxed. The result is that Danes tend to get out of their steel and glass boxes, and onto bicycles and public transit. No wonder they don't have our loneliness crisis!
Do you agree that we should increase car taxes as a way to fight loneliness?
End Feminism and loneliness goes away.
Blue hair and 20 cats is not going to get you a man.
Then complain you are miserable.
In the US we are currently experiencing a 'loneliness crisis' that has been widely reported. https://www.ajc.com/news/health-med-...3qZI8WlukHfpK/
It may be partially responsible for our increasing suicides and drug deaths, and in turn our declining lifespans.
We Americans spend much time in the sealed metal and glass boxes that we call automobiles. No wonder we are bereft of human contact!
The Danes have a convivial and cohesive society; this has even been proven by OECD studies. Denmark taxes the bejesus out of privately owned automobiles. Until just recently the Danes taxed economy cars at 105%, and higher-priced at 180%. There is also a VAT tax slapped on, and annual environment fees. As in most European nations, fuel is heavily taxed. The result is that Danes tend to get out of their steel and glass boxes, and onto bicycles and public transit. No wonder they don't have our loneliness crisis!
Do you agree that we should increase car taxes as a way to fight loneliness?
It's because no one will look up from their phones to talk to another human being, that's why they are so "lonely". They have no social skills at all.
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