The 11 greatest Western world problems
The Western world is heading towards either a sudden collapse or a slow decline.
I’ve already talked at length about why this is the case. There are 4 primary reasons:
An untenable economic welfare system based on debt
Political polarization and civil unrest
Mass immigration of barbarism
The death of civil liberties
You can read more about those in:
Apart from the main 4 issues, there are several smaller – yet significant – Western world problems that will continue to be a menace in the future, even if the West doesn’t completely collapse.
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Even if the West wasn’t slowly (or in some cases rather rapidly) heading towards a – now almost certainly inevitable – collapse or slow decline, there are still plenty of other problems in the West which provide good reasons for wanting to move away.
Even if all the aforementioned time bombs do not explode, and the West somehow limps on through the next few decades relatively unscathed, every factor I’ve talked about in the previous articles will still be very much present and most likely become even more prominent.
In addition, there are several matters that come with living in the West that you should also take into account.
None of these by itself will cause it to collapse, so they can be viewed as “minor” issues, but you have to be aware that even if your Western nation does not enter any of the scenarios mentioned above, there are still the following facts to consider.
And if you add them all up, the total cost is rather heavy to bear.
The West isn’t in a great situation, and even if it doesn’t destroy itself (or get destroyed), you’ll still continue to experience a number of unpleasant situations, which will probably grow in intensity, variety, frequency and ubiquity as the years go by.
The 4 big probable causes of a major collapse will not just magically disappear, so you’ll always have to deal with an untenable economic welfare system based on debt, political polarization and civil unrest, mass immigration of barbarism, and the death of civil liberties.
For me, just those by themselves are plenty of reason to escape the West, but there are a number of “smaller” inconveniences that will continue to hinder your personal freedom and long-term happiness:
Increased surveillance
You are being watched by your government, especially if you live in the US.
You can’t walk around a train station, shopping mall, or popular street without being filmed by security cameras.
- Enter a building, you’re being watched.
- Go through the airport, you’re being watched (and often groped).
- Do something online, you’re being watched.
Under the guise of “protection”, citizens have silently agreed to be monitored at all times, either through physical cameras as they go about their public (and often private) business or through digital surveillance via spyware, social media, and so on.
In Canada and certain countries in Europe, this is far less the case right now, but you can be certain that as time goes by and society deteriorates, governments will keep an ever closer eye on the activities of their subjects, lest mass disgruntlement lead to disruptive action.
Global warmongering
It is an absolutely verifiable fact that the United States is a warmongering nation.
You might think that Russia under Putin is belligerent, with taking over Crimea and Ukraine, but that really pales in comparison with what the US has been up to since its inception.
Over its 250 year history, the US of A has been in nearly a hundred wars, a few of which are still ongoing (such as in Somalia and Syria) publicly, with who knows how many others being conducted covertly, without the tax-payer’s approval, permission or often even awareness.
Of course, in those cases the very same unware tax-payer still has to cough up the money to fund these illegal wars.
And do you think we are heading towards a more peaceful time, that America will stop bossing other countries around and withdraw its vast efforts to be the world’s police, at a time when other nations are rising and challenging its supremacy on the world stage?
Small-scale conflicts in shithole countries like Somalia will probably never end, and will almost certainly even increase in scale and quantity.
Large-scale conflicts (on the level of another World War) might seem implausible right now, because nations such as Russia and China have a lot to lose with large and extended open conflict, but that does by no means mean they are impossible.
What we are likely to see is more and more escalating behind-the-scenes cyber wars between nations.
At some point, one of them is going to go too far, and actual physical conflict will be inevitable.
Europe and Canada are by and large very pacifistic, especially compared to the US, so it is unlikely they’ll start wars with anyone.
However, they are allied to the US and might get drawn into its conflicts, as was the case with Iraq.
And wars between European nations are of course always an option as well.
Dysfunctional prison systems
Locking up criminals and dissenters has been a popular activity of rulers everywhere since time immemorial.
And while the former definitely needs to happen, the latter isn’t conducive to a healthy society, and nobody reading this can say that the incarceration system in their nation is a glowing success.
The United States
In the West, on the one hand we have the United States, a country forever boasting about its freedom – which is hilariously ironic.
“The Land of the Free” has not deserved such a lofty title for many, many decades.
While this was true at its onset, a few centuries ago, right now American citizens are anything but free.
For example, did you know that, compared to every other country in the world, the US has the highest incarceration rate per capita?
As of May 2021, the number stands at 639 citizens imprisoned per 100.000 (over 2 million in total), easily beating the next few countries in the top 5 (El Salvador, Turkmenistan, Palau and Rwanda – not exactly bastions of freedom).
To put this into comparison, in the top 30 of incarceration rates, the United States is the only Western country.
Why is this so, one might ask?
While the reasons are of course more complicated than what I’m about to say, it mostly comes down to a combination of culturally ingrained inequality, widespread petty greed, stupidity at various levels, and a lack of proper education.
The mass incarceration of (more often than not) disadvantaged young (minority) men, for often silly reasons such as smoking a joint, provides jobs and brings in funding from the federal government.
It’s a major source of injustice and social harm and is definitely a factor you should consider – if you live in the US.
After all, your taxes pay for it.
And of this rather ridiculously large incarcerated populace, many are young men guilty of nothing more than using or selling cannabis, a drug that is not nearly as addictive or as damaging as alcohol or tobacco, two legal – and taxed – substances.
And let’s not even mention the plethora of legal and much more dangerous over the counter pills and powders that are available to all, and which are causing much greater harm to society at large.
So what we have here is an ostensibly free nation, putting its citizens in jail in dizzying numbers for often non-violent “crimes”, frequently related to an overall harmless herb, while simultaneously allowing its people to indulge in much more dangerous and addictive substances, creating a nation of addicts.
Of course there are plenty of actual criminals in jail, that’s not my point.
The point is that the prison population is bloated and inundated with non-violent offenders, who often turn to actual crime after their stint behind bars.
What better school than one where you’re surrounded by teachers, right?
How is that a benefit to society?
Oh, and don’t forget that this supposedly educated and progressive First World Country is still executing people left and right.
Personally, I’m all for getting rid of pedophiles, rapists and intentional murderers, but that’s not the issue here.
The issue is that the US has a rather sordid history of executing innocent people, those guilty of nothing else but selling drugs (no violence to others was involved), and even the retarded and the very young.
A bit fucked up, if you ask me.
“But I’m not a criminal, this has no bearing on me,” you might say.
And sure, you could be justified in thinking that this will not affect you because you do not do anything illegal at the moment, and thus have no reason to fear being thrown in prison.
However, apart from simply having the highest odds of ending up in the penal system IN THE WORLD while you live in the US, you should also keep in mind that rules and laws change.
While you may not be doing anything illegal right now, you might be guilty of a felony doing the same exact thing in a decade or so.
I’ve mentioned the issue of “thought crimes” before, and how speaking your mind is becoming ever more dangerous.
Disregarding America’s messed up penal system because you are currently not breaking any laws is short-sighted and, frankly, naïve.
And always keep in mind that on average, tax payers have to fork up around $80 billion every year to keep the prison system running.
Canada and Europe
On the other hand, we have the very soft prison systems of countries like Canada, Sweden and Belgium.
The biggest contrast with the United States is that they do not execute people anymore, and they have a very low percentage of their populace behind bars.
And that’s where part of their problem lies, because they are way too lenient.
Murderers sentenced to 20 years in prison getting out after a paltry 5 or rapists getting off with a warning are often the norm, not the exception.
In many countries, if you get convicted of anything less than 3 years (or any other arbitrary number), you do not even have to go to prison, you are immediately released “on probation”.
That is not even mentioning the fact that police and the justice system are often loath to prosecute members of minority groups, out of fear of being labeled “racist”.
The European court system is also very slow, often there are many years between the crime and the actual trial, and of course all of this costs a lot of money.
Money that you, the tax payer, have to cough up.
It’s difficult to say which is the more destructive.
In the US you have, by the numbers, the highest chance of ending up in prison – or getting killed by your own government.
In Europe and Canada, you have a higher chance of seeing murderers and rapists walk free.
Neither system works, and they both could have severe consequences on your freedom and well-being.
And they definitely impact your wallet.
A misanthropic legal system
The Western world is heavily feminized.
It’s definitely not a “man’s world” anymore, and while this has certainly brought forth advancements for the human race, such as women being treated as equals and given the same rights, it has gone way too far.
In the current day and age, if you are a (white) man in the West, you are often seen as the villain and the source of the world’s injustices.
While a man is by and large more powerful physically than a woman, this does not mean much in a society where he can be thrown in prison or at the very least face dire consequences at the whims of a woman.
The court system heavily favors women, and this expresses itself in many ways.
As a man, in most cases you are punished more severely than women who committed the same crime.
Is that fair?
I don’t think so, yet here we are.
If women are viewed as equal citizens (as they should), they should be treated the same as men in every regard.
Unfortunately, that is not the case.
At this point, we’re in a situation where men often have to prove their innocence when they are accused of hurting a woman, as opposed to “innocent until proven guilty”.
A woman’s word should not be enough to convict someone, either through the judicial system or in the eyes of his or her immediate environment.
Another example is divorce settlements and alimony, which are seriously out of whack.
I would heavily caution against marriage for many reasons, but having to pay half of what you own to a woman who divorces you for whatever reason does not sound fair at all.
To expand on the aforementioned point of a dysfunctional prison system, another reason for possibly doing time behind bars is not paying alimony.
While this system could be argued in favor for in the 1950’s when women barely worked and they had no means to support themselves upon divorce, this is not the case anymore in the 21st century.
Women can, and massively do, feature on the job-market, and are fully capable of providing for themselves.
So why would a man be obligated to pay (sometimes exorbitant) sums of money to his ex-wife for the rest of his life?
How is this system fair?
And why is it based on the income of the man, not on the actual living needs of the woman?
How can you possible justify the ex-wife of a billionaire receiving billions of dollars in alimony, money that the man often worked his ass off for?
Why not just base this upon her living needs?
I’ve used the man here as primary source because this is the most common scenario, but the same principles apply if the woman is the richer part of the couple, such as Britney Spears and this random dancer she married and then divorced years ago. This is also not right.
Anyway, the lack of fairness and rationality of this system and my or your stance on it are not really the issues here, but rather the fact that you have no choice in the matter.
You HAVE to adhere to this system, regardless of how unfair it is.
If you do not, you will go to prison.
You would rather not pay your cheating ex-wife or ex-husband half of the money you earn for the rest of your life?
Tough shit, you have no choice, or you will spend time behind bars.
Think you got yourself covered with a pre-nuptial agreement, so you can get divorced and avoid all of that shit?
Think again, my friend, because in many regions such an agreement isn’t even enforceable.
Impending theocracies
In the US, hardcore Christians are heavily represented in every level of government.
Even though non-believers and non-affiliated are rising in numbers, they have very little power.
More often than not, it’s the Jesus-freaks like George W. Bush who are in charge, and who make their (often very consequential) decisions not based on rational thought, but on thousand-year-old fairy tales and dogmatic thinking.
You might think this is A-Okay, because you believe in these things as well, but realize that when religion dominates the course of the state, you get situations like the Dark Ages, or shitholes like Afghanistan and Iraq.
And in no measurable way can such a situation be seen as anything less than a degradation and a collapse of the current status quo.
In Europe, even though Christianity is dying off, the imported rise of Islam paints an even more worrisome picture of the future.
Apart from the increasing amount of (sexual) violence towards women and children, terrorism, and lowering of the educational level, Islam threatens the very fabric of European culture and its citizens are too timid to do something about it.
As mentioned in What causes the collapse of the West? Part 2, barbarians were at the gates of Europe and instead of being repelled, they were welcomed in with open arms, given money, food and shelter, and are now slowly but surely taking over Europe.
Small steps like allowing women to work in public with their veils on (if a baseball-cap or ski-mask isn’t allowed for safety reasons, a veil shouldn’t be either), letting children be “educated” (indoctrinated) in private Islamic schools and giving Islamic theologians a seat at the table aren’t overly worrying and destructive by themselves, but as those continue to accrue both in numbers and severity, the European landscape will look radically different in a few decades from the one we have today.
In the fictional (yet rather worryingly accurate) “Soumission” (“Submission”, a book by the French author Houellebec), the radical left forms an alliance with the Islamic political party in order to thwart the right.
They are more than happy to allow for initially small policy changes about women’s rights and other democratic values if it means their political adversaries are denied power.
Because of the political polarization mentioned in What causes the collapse of the West?, this is sadly becoming a definite possibility, and within a few decades, Islam will play a much more prominent role in the life of Europeans.
Heavy taxes
I’ve mentioned this often on this site, but it warrants a closer look.
You might not think you are paying a lot of taxes in your Western country, because you haven’t really been paying attention or have come to terms with “that’s just how it is“, but read this and remember it well:
If you live in the West, you are taxed extremely heavily compared to the rest of the world.
For example, there are the obvious taxes, such as income tax, property tax and capital gains tax.
You’re probably aware of those. You might hate them, but figure there’s nothing you can do about it.
However, you also pay through the nose via all sorts of hidden taxes, such as inflation and taxes on products, services and transactions which would be much cheaper if the government did not tax the providers.
These taxes will only become more severe as the years go by and governments will become ever more debt-ridden.
Right now, in total and in most cases, you have to give up at least 40 to 60% of your income to the government.
Of course there are differences between many of the Western nations, but if you live in the United States, Canada or Europe, you are taxed on nearly everything, and in most cases you give at least half of your money to the state.
And if that money was exclusively used for worthwhile and justifiably gainful pursuits, such as scientific research, building a strong infrastructure, performing environmental cleanup or funding societal development, you could argue that it’d be worth it.
But no, almost all your involuntary forced contributions go to keeping the welfare and prison system running, paying extravagant salaries to often incompetent and corrupt politicians, wars, inefficient legal systems, and on and on.
I personally refuse to sponsor such madness, and by leaving the West, so can you.
Increasing cost of living
As time goes by, living in the West has become increasingly more expensive.
This probably isn’t a surprise to anyone.
Things go up in value and cost, and of course inflation plays an important and destructive role as well.
But the average income has not risen at the same pace.
Where half a century ago it was possible for a regular working man to support a family of 4 with just a single salary, and still do rather well and live comfortably, it’s insanity to think this is still the case right now in the West.
A typical household can no longer survive on a single, average income.
Prices have gone up too much, and wages have not followed at a similar rate.
This means that in order to live a reasonably comfortable life, a regular household needs to have at least 2 working members.
And even then, there are plenty of people who can barely make ends meet, even by working several jobs.
What makes this even worse is that many people now have to rely on government assistance to survive.
Food stamps, unemployment and welfare benefits, stimulus packages, and so on.
All this welfare needs to be paid for, either directly by the tax-payer, or indirectly through printing money and inflation – which ultimately ends up costing the tax-payer as well.
Those people are then forced to vote for politicians who are in favor of strong benefits, which makes the problem worse and worse and worse.
A vicious cycle from which many people cannot escape – because they do not understand it, or simply do not see a way out.
If you make a lot of money and you only have to support yourself, this is less of a factor, but it’s a reality about Western society that the average cost of living goes up, while the average personal standard of living goes down.
It does not have to be like this for you.
If you escape the West, you can most certainly attain a higher standard of living while earning the same (or even less) money.
In most countries in Latin America or Southeast Asia, you can live a better life at a fraction of your monthly costs in the West.
Western world problems - in summation
As you can see, even if your Western nation does not collapse and devolve into any of the likely scenarios (which it almost certainly will), you will still have to face facts and deal with:
- An untenable economic welfare system based on debt
- Political polarization and civil unrest
- Mass immigration of barbarism
- The death of civil liberties
- Increased surveillance
- Warmongering
- A dysfunctional prison system
- A misanthropic legal system
- Impending theocracies
- Heavy taxes
- Increasing cost of living
Now you might be thinking “Yes, all of those things might be verifiably true, but isn’t this the case in every country?
Why would I root up my life and move somewhere if I’m just going to have to deal with all of this shit again?”.
A fair question.
No country is perfect, and while living abroad you can certainly encounter some of the things you would have to deal with in the West, they will almost always be far less of a factor in your life.
Moving abroad can come with some downsides, I’ll be the first to admit that – but they pale in comparison to what you can gain.
And if nothing else, in almost every single case, your life will improve on the factors discussed in this article, which are far more important in the grand scheme of things.
If you’re looking for a better place to live, check out the following options:
And even if you’re not ready to move out just yet, I would urge you to at least get started with planting Flags all over the world.
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