Social

Browsing a bunch of old MetaFilter entries, I found Going Dutch. After a year and a half of living in the Netherlands, American writer Russell Shorto compares the Dutch welfare state to the tax, health care and social security systems of the United States. Very interesting to see an outside perspective.

Also on Metafilter, an article on whether or not optimism is uniquely American. Contains some great comments, one in particular I'd like to quote.

The people there have been poor for generations and will be poor for generations, and have the indignity of living cheek by jowl with one of the wealthiest, most privileged, quarters in the whole country. In Paris there would be riots. But here, in this little American town, I am met with nothing but courtesy and amiable optimism.

They really do think, despite the sharp racial divides, despite the inaccessibility of good education, despite a frankly shocking health care system, that if they don't succeed in life it will be because they didn't work hard enough, and that when rich people do succeed it was because they did work harder and smarter. I think that most Americans don't even know that social mobility is lower in the US than it is elsewhere in the developed world, and what is more they don't want to know because contentment, here, is prized above clarity.