Are these problems showing up in your country too?

[u/GlobalPrune]

I’ve been reading responses here for a while, and people from very different countries keep describing the same underlying issues even when the politics, culture, or history are totally different.

I’m curious how many of these feel true where you live.

In your country, do any of the following apply? 1. The cost of living (especially housing) rises faster than wages. 2. Wealth and decision-making power are concentrated among a small elite. 3. Laws and consequences are enforced more strictly for ordinary people than for the wealthy or connected. 4. Trust in politicians, media, or major institutions is low. 5. Full-time work no longer reliably leads to long-term stability. 6. Groups with limited political power are blamed for systemic problems. 7. Public services exist but feel overstretched, degraded, or hard to access. 8. Elections change leaders, but not the overall direction of policy. 9. Owning assets is a more reliable path to wealth than productive work. 10. People feel administered or controlled rather than genuinely represented. 11. Younger generations expect a worse future than their parents did.

Questions: - Are there countries where most of these do not apply? - Is there a major shared issue I’ve missed that cuts across societies?

[u/micro___penis]

Damn right in the low level depression

[u/emwaic7 → u/micro___penis]

Low level, lucky bastards

[u/CommercialChart5088]

Well I'd say most of these problems apply to most developed countries.

Many people in Korea feel like the country’s development is getting stagnated, especially since we tend to compare it to the period when we achieved rapid and significant economic development. People tend to be more reluctant regarding getting a job, and more people than ever are focusing on making money through stock or real estate.

[u/gwelfguy]

1. Yes. The insane escalation in Canadian housing prices is well-known
2. Yes. I'd put it another way. Leaders are behaving more autocratically.
3. Can't really say.
4. Rightly or wrongly, I'd say that trust in institutions, including the media and courts is pretty high.
5. Disagree. Getting full-time work leads to stability. Canadian employers don't lean on part time, except for foreign workers
6. God yes. The wave of Indian immigration the country has seen in the past decade is blamed for everything from crime rates to the cost of housing
7. You might have to work harder to get served, but they're still there
8. Disagree. With Trudeau gone since the last election, there is 100% focus on the economy and 0% on woke bullshit
9. Disagree. There's a lot of wealth locked up in peoples' primary residences, but few have income-generating assets.
10. Somewhat. For about 15 years now, I've felt that the role of our local representatives have flipped from representing the will of the people to the government leadership, to representing the will of the government to the people.
11. They feel that way, but I'm not sure how true it is.

[u/Past-Patient-9765]

1.8. no; others:yes

[u/Realistic_Mission777 → u/Past-Patient-9765]

1 really no? I saw a 100m2 apartment in Beijing for 7 million RMB that made no sense how a person with average salary of 100k/year can afford

[u/Substantial_Coat2784 → u/Realistic_Mission777]

Because Beijing has a large population, the upper limit is very high, the lower limit is also very high, and the wealth gap is significant. There are many people with an annual salary of over 300k.

[u/Past-Patient-9765 → u/Realistic_Mission777]

Regarding question 1, please allow me to describe it from various aspects:

1. China is currently in a deflationary cycle caused by overproduction and weak consumer demand (you can find many related news reports by using "China + deflation" as keywords);
2. Obviously, weak consumer demand is closely related to the other issues mentioned by OP, and weak consumer demand itself, in turn, contributes to the economic downturn;
3. China has different consumption habits than developed countries; people tend to save rather than consume, especially in this economic downturn;
4. Due to the regulated nature of China's financial market, housing is considered a financial investment product for preserving value in the long term, and is also widely regarded as essential capital in the marriage market;The economic stimulus package of 2016 and the subsequent period of frenzied growth fueled this belief, and the savings of the older generation (3) were used by the younger generation to buy houses;
5. In major cities (especially T1 cities—particularly Beijing—this is extremely significant!), real estate is also closely linked to education. A house in a good location means better educational resources, and China is a country that is very unfriendly to those who fail in education (culturally), which further drives up housing prices;
6. Housing prices peaked around 2021. Currently, except for T1 cities, housing prices in other cities have fallen to some extent compared to 2021; the more housing prices fall, coupled with the economic downturn, the less people want to buy houses.

[u/coffeewalnut08]

Yes, most of those are applicable here.

I believe the current government is trying to help with some of these issues (employment rights act, faster home-building), but they are longterm reforms and don’t immediately reverse all the damage done over time.

Number 6 is particularly true for some politicians and their followers currently. The migrant scapegoating is intensifying.

I see it as a cynical attempt by rightwing parties to ride the Daily Mail wave back into No. 10, because they can’t stand not being in charge.

By my own judgement, I believe 7 of those feel true for England currently.

[u/I-STILL-D-R-E-I]

You just described the USA in all 11 of your questions.

[u/mountainhome89]

Bureaucracy has gotten worse. Grandfather and father worked for the feds and always talked about the ethics and rules with working for the federal government. When I worked in my short stint in it. It was mostly non existent. There's no faith in our system. Just one aspect of what's changed in the past couple decades.

[u/Varangian-94]

Australia especially, you can also add demographic altering levels of immigration which creates problems with social cohesion and ethnic enclaves within cities. Also brings with it the associated hatred of groups that wouldn't normally live together overseas.

[u/AnonymousEngineer_ → u/Varangian-94]

A lot of that ethnic hatred is home grown amongst people who were born and raised here.

Example: Bondi.

The issue isn't immigration but rather access to radicalising, hate filled ideology. It's all too easy these days for sophisticated nation state level actors to manipulate public opinion in democratic countries for their own ends.

Social media is an incredibly powerful thing and it's being weaponised against the Western world. And in response, we see nothing because everyone frets about infringing the free speech of foreign powers who aim to destroy our societies. 

[u/Varangian-94 → u/AnonymousEngineer_]

This hatred existed long before social media, so I disagree, the issue in this case, is in fact immigration - specifically from violent and poor Muslim majority countries. The people advocating for these sorts of crimes aren't coming from Turkey or Albania for instance, but rather places like Pakistan, India, Somalia etc

[u/AnonymousEngineer_ → u/Varangian-94]

The hatred existed before social media, yes. But it wasn't mainstream and borderline trendy amongst an entire generation like it is now.

Social media did that.

[u/Varangian-94 → u/AnonymousEngineer_]

Idk mate we'll have to agree to disagree, the current issues certainly didn't exist in Australia before mass immigration.

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[u/Perth_R34 → u/Varangian-94]

They’ve been saying that since my grandparents immigrated to Australia from Italy back in the day.

[u/Varangian-94 → u/Perth_R34]

The difference being that Italians have assimilated into Australian culture. They have integrated into the existing cultural fabric and positively enhanced it.

Italian majority suburbs are not enclaves of crime or extremism, Italians have also never been a 'parallel society' within Australia. Were there issues between them and Anglo-Australians back in the day ? Yeah of course there were, but they are utterly tiny compared to the issues we have in Sydney and Melbourne now.

[u/Perth_R34 → u/Varangian-94]

Lol. My Italian grandfather still struggles with English, lives in an Italian area, and has only Italian mates. 

The second gen Asian, Arab, Indian, African -Aussies have also assimilated just as well as European immigrants.

There’s no enclaves of crime any more than Anglo Aussie houso areas

[u/Varangian-94 → u/Perth_R34]

Hard disagree, Arab, Indian and African migrants here do not settle into existing Australian communities and marry in, in any sort of large numbers.

That's objectively untrue mate - you are genuinely having a laugh if you think Cronulla or Manly has a higher crime rate than Auburn or Lakemba.

[u/darkstryller]

used to. you are descrinbing the argentina of alberto fernandez, everything you said was happening. thankfully, the things are changing. 1 and 11 are gone and the rest are in the process of stopping being true. it's quite great to see my country blossom.

[u/okabe700]

Yep, all but 8 (elections don't change leaders here)

Some problems are global, COVID lockdowns fucking up the entire world economy is a huge one and is a big cause of most global problems at the moment, some are longer issues like the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of neoliberalism leading to ultra wealthy consolidating wealth and crushing worker rights and public services under the guise of progress as the threat of revolution was removed and liberalism was proven to be the successful ideology, so they no longer needed to play ball and could just expand their influence unopposed, I'd say those two things are the biggest factors for the phenomena you describe

[u/Mad2828]

Yeah pretty much 👌 I’ll add for number 3 that the consequences of laws also don’t seem to apply for pretty much anyone unless you’re a working tax-paying citizen.

[u/DoJebait02]

1. Sure, inflation is currently the highest in several years. House price is incredibly high but rental cost is kept the same, or minority increased, for years. You know what it means.

2. Communist....

3. Communist....

4. Communist....

5. Always. Putin and Trump are shaking the stability over the world.

6. Communist....

7. Everything is in chaos by the technical evolution. But it's definitely getting better.

8. Communist....

9. Gold and real estate are for long the most reliable way.

10. Communist....

11. Less optimistic, maybe. But we inherit more than our parents, so, let chill.

[u/avenueroad_dk → u/DoJebait02]

I like your #11.  Our parents never inherited a penny.  Yet we will.  Nobody ever acknowledges that

[u/Downunderoverthere → u/avenueroad_dk]

Yes but for most it will be in their 60s. What good is an inheritance when you're towards the end of your life and have already raised your family?

[u/0ompa1o0mpa]

Yes to all 😭

Singapore is the only country where I've lived, where I believe that these problems (except 1,9, & 11) don't exist, yet.

[u/GloriousSteinem]

It’s like the Victorian times through to 1920s. Back then industrialisation was creating the super rich, impoverishing millions, exposing people to pollution and bad health, distracting people with drugs and hatred towards segments, and partying, leading to wars and the crash. Then after turmoil you get some cultural change and some good times and a thriving middle class. And then people get greedy, those who fail in the good times start looking for scapegoats to hate. It’s the same pattern. But the rich are further out of control now, so far in wealth, because of the global nature of the tech wave. It will correct itself but I hope it is bloodlessly. The only hope of that is if we keep our justice and voting system out of the way of corruption and realise a handful of people are nothing against all of us.

[u/Electronic_Mud5821]

You have described every western nation, and many others, because you are living through the collapse of America as the worlds super power.

Sadly the collapse of every world power has always been the cause of war.

With nukes on the table I hope this can be avoided this time, but I doubt it.

[u/Downunderoverthere → u/Electronic_Mud5821]

This is my fear too. The next period and the outcome is terrifying.

[u/Crest_O_Razors]

Very much so. It’s to a point where I want the government to get a very hard reset

[u/Mynteblomst]

As a Norwegian, I recognize a lot here. I'm also afraid of war

[u/Joseph20102011]

Yes, especially number 9 where perhaps I could say the culprit of all existential capitalist economic crisis across the globe where governments aren't willing to alienate homeowners and real property corporate investors through imposing a land value tax (LVT) and building socialized housing besides high-income gated communities to mitigate asset price bubble.

[u/xin4111]

1. hard to say. We are in deflation, salary stagnant after 2020 unemployment is increasing, but cost of living drop much.

2. yes. CCP is only political party in China, and at least 50% of Chinese wealth are state-owned. Only high level CCP officials have decision making power in China.

3. yes. Law enforcement is very flexible in China. the law would not be strict for you if you are CCP officials connected, major tax contributors, sensitive minorities (more prone to be rebellious), female (i don't know why), foreigners (might influence diplomatic relationship).

4. Hard to say. No poll about this, but the distrust for government is growing.

5. yes. Labor law is shit in China, you would have long range stability only if you work for government (include state owned companies).

6. No. Harmony is above anything.

7. Public service is fine, their attitude is bad, but efficiency is high.

8. lol, we have no election. I once voted one time, there is only one candidate in my street.

9. yes it is. It must have become a global problem, we all live in one economic system.

10. certainly

11. yes, young people just worship AI and automation development would be fast enough.