For example, populations in the Scandinavian countries have high trust in their governments and let them collect a lot of private data.
And that’s very stupid.
But psychologically this may be a good thing - people learn to not be ashamed of saying “yeah, you can get all this information about me, but it’s simply not your concern, so fsck off” from the very beginning.
It may feel stupid to you, but Scandinavia is a very different world than, for example, the US. They’ve never had a reason to not trust their governments. They are among the happiest countries in the world and their economies are outstanding and have been for a long time, and the standard of living is second to none. They feel like their governments work for them.
Same can be said of Germany, but they’ve obviously gone through different historic events and their approach to government is different.
They’ve never had a reason to not trust their governments.
From how people actually from those countries (and not approving Americans) seem to me, the main reason their governments function well is exactly that they don’t have too much power or bureaucratic depth to brew something bad, and because people don’t trust them or respect them too much.
I’d say that’s the reason these are “among the happiest countries in the world”.
That they don’t “trust” the government (the way approving Americans would want to), they just don’t fear it or treat it as magic. And I think most people elsewhere willing to live “like in Scandinavia” would push things into the opposite direction, if given their way.
Oh. Well, then we’ll see that trust erode, because that’s what happens to trust always. Nature has feedbacks to compensate for disturbances. And Scandinavian countries’ good government is a relatively new thing historically.
And that’s very stupid.
But psychologically this may be a good thing - people learn to not be ashamed of saying “yeah, you can get all this information about me, but it’s simply not your concern, so fsck off” from the very beginning.
It may feel stupid to you, but Scandinavia is a very different world than, for example, the US. They’ve never had a reason to not trust their governments. They are among the happiest countries in the world and their economies are outstanding and have been for a long time, and the standard of living is second to none. They feel like their governments work for them.
Same can be said of Germany, but they’ve obviously gone through different historic events and their approach to government is different.
From how people actually from those countries (and not approving Americans) seem to me, the main reason their governments function well is exactly that they don’t have too much power or bureaucratic depth to brew something bad, and because people don’t trust them or respect them too much.
I’d say that’s the reason these are “among the happiest countries in the world”.
That they don’t “trust” the government (the way approving Americans would want to), they just don’t fear it or treat it as magic. And I think most people elsewhere willing to live “like in Scandinavia” would push things into the opposite direction, if given their way.
I’ve lived in several Scandinavian countries for many years. You’re wrong.
Oh. Well, then we’ll see that trust erode, because that’s what happens to trust always. Nature has feedbacks to compensate for disturbances. And Scandinavian countries’ good government is a relatively new thing historically.