this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2023
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[–] force@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It feels like the internet paints Scandinavian countries as a social paradise when in reality they have extreme problems with racism & require you to conform to the norm to a high degree, have a massive issue with wealth inequality & corporatism (although unlike the US you're not completely ruined if you're poor), and a lot of other things people complain about when referring to America (but obviously they don't come even close to being as ass backwards as the US in most regards).

Seriously, Sweden has the 12th highest wealth inequality of any country in the world, it ranks worse than Russia, the US, India, etc. Denmark and Norway fare far better in this regard, but they're still the highest in Europe along with Germany and the Netherlands (excluding Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey, which are completely fucked in their own right).

If you want country that actually comes close to meeting "social" criteria, go to an eastern European country like Poland or Czechia or Slovakia or Albania. Now, you'll get shanked if you appear even slightly gay, but otherwise it's pretty great; people don't steal (theft/robbery rates are EXTREMELY low, the lowest in the world probably), sexual crimes are low, there's not a culture of fearing for your safety constantly like in other places (you can walk alone at night in Albania!), eastern European countries are often ranked as some of the safest in Europe (shocker) and people in those countries generally feel safer, it's a lot more equal due to all that communism and stuff that happened, everything is inexpensive (although your income will be a lot lower too), it's very easy to find employment if you're skilled due to shortages. Poland has especially been growing economically and now getting better politically. Plus, Albania only has the third highest rate of cocaine use (behind the US and England/Wales, of course)!

But generally internet people don't even consider eastern Europe as a viable option to move to because it's too poor and nonwhite for them lol. Oh and I guess not being able to be gay in public is pretty bad.

I mean it's not like most people wanting to could move to the EU regardless, they'd be lucky to get in anywhere (yes, even Hungary). It's extremely hard to get in unless you're a highly skilled worker or you have a claim to citizenship/residence by descent from having e.g. Italian/Lithuanian/Hungarian ancestors or recent German/Slovak ancestors or the likes.