A while back, I overheard someone say that, in Denmark, there is no wage gap, comparing Denmark to the USA and placing this great country of ours in a not-so-favorable light. This got me thinking, as most things do, about the nature of social issues, and how most Americans seem to have some vision of a Utopia, some paradisiacal locale that just so happens to not be These Here 50 Nifty United States of America.
Now, I would be remiss to type a proverb here about green grasses elsewhere and leave it at that. We need to look at what I believe Denmark has to trade off to accomplish this. (By the way, Denmark does report having a wage gap, and the very existence of wage gaps is a hotly debated topic that I’m sure we will discuss at some other time.)
To be clear, I believe that The United States of America is the greatest country in the world. By far. Did I say she was perfect? I did not. Do I believe she’s perfect? No, but I think that she is the best country there is. She has her problems, but those are for leftist blogs to discuss. Today, we discuss the social trade-offs that are being made and how America can be the country to rise above.
Denmark, Japan, and Perfection
Some countries are doing certain things better than America, but there is some slack created in other areas that we need to be aware of to paint a complete picture. I like Denmark, but they lack diversity something fierce. Denmark is overwhelmingly white. Perhaps this lack of diversity contributes to the country’s balancing of complex social issues like education, gender equality, and crime rate. I bet living in an ethnic echo chamber does wonders for your race-related social justice issues. Again, I like Denmark, but it cannot be overstated that they have problems, too.
Let’s look at Japan, probably the country most fetishized by us in the West. They have strong anti-individuality sentiments, in complete opposition to our values of American Exceptionalism. Stratospheric expectations for youths lead to a high suicide rate for students. Declining birth rate, dormant tourism industry, and stagnating population, too. Not even Japan is perfect.
America and Perfection
What’s ironic about this is that people in these (and all other) countries consider The United States to be the promised land. The grass is greener here after all. That’s why America is the melting pot of the world. That’s why we’re the best!
No country is perfect. Neither Denmark, Japan, nor The USA, but America is the one place that can become that country. We’re still ironing out the kinks, but we’ve got advantages no one else has. Let’s not forget that in the big picture, America is still young. We can learn from other countries, see their blunders and solutions, and approach our problems with youthful vigor, insofar as a country can have vigor.
We have diversity, we have fresh eyes to view world problems with, and the fighting spirit of every nation behind us. Our future is helmed by people from every place, race, and creed, and this, our designation as the melting pot of the world, is America’s greatest strength.