I don´t doubt that at all, I live in a capitalist country myself and have hated all my jobs with very few exceptions. However, it came as a surprise to me that when I congratulated a Vietnamese dude on Vietnamese independence day, to hear from him that he would have preferred the US to win the war because he thought then his life would have been better. That kind of experience is what I was trying to express.
I mean there is a selection bias at play here. People who left Vietnam to US were the ones who were already biased against communism to start with. You’d have to go and talk to people who actually live and work in Vietnam today to get an idea of what a typical person in Vietnam thinks. If you look at the happiness index report for 2023, Vietnam has climbed 12 places, so clearly life satisfaction continues to improve for majority of the people.
I mean there is a selection bias at play here. People who left Vietnam (…) were the ones who were already biased against communism to start with.
Good point in general, however the particular dude had moved to Europe and not that long before I talked to him, which was about five years ago, so I would guess he spent most of his life in Vietnam but you are probably right in assuming that he wasn’t a communist.
Like I said, you’ll find people who are unhappy in every society. We don’t have utopias in the real world. I think the focus needs to be on whether a society is working for majority of people, and whether the progress appears to be moving in a positive direction. That’s really the best we can hope for.
Indeed, we could be living in a far better world than we do now given the level of science and technology we’ve achieved. Unfortunately, our societies are saddled with a lot of baggage that people keep clinging on to holding back development that would benefit us all.
I don´t doubt that at all, I live in a capitalist country myself and have hated all my jobs with very few exceptions. However, it came as a surprise to me that when I congratulated a Vietnamese dude on Vietnamese independence day, to hear from him that he would have preferred the US to win the war because he thought then his life would have been better. That kind of experience is what I was trying to express.
I mean there is a selection bias at play here. People who left Vietnam to US were the ones who were already biased against communism to start with. You’d have to go and talk to people who actually live and work in Vietnam today to get an idea of what a typical person in Vietnam thinks. If you look at the happiness index report for 2023, Vietnam has climbed 12 places, so clearly life satisfaction continues to improve for majority of the people.
Meanwhile, the situation in US is the diametric opposite https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/guides/employee-happiness-h1-2023
Good point in general, however the particular dude had moved to Europe and not that long before I talked to him, which was about five years ago, so I would guess he spent most of his life in Vietnam but you are probably right in assuming that he wasn’t a communist.
Like I said, you’ll find people who are unhappy in every society. We don’t have utopias in the real world. I think the focus needs to be on whether a society is working for majority of people, and whether the progress appears to be moving in a positive direction. That’s really the best we can hope for.
Reasonable take, I just wish social evolution was faster.
Indeed, we could be living in a far better world than we do now given the level of science and technology we’ve achieved. Unfortunately, our societies are saddled with a lot of baggage that people keep clinging on to holding back development that would benefit us all.