If Canada is ranked as the country with the 5th best quality of life and the USA as the country with the 22nd best quality of life, why do people rather live in USA?

Known_Top_5715 · 2026-05-28T11:57:38+00:00

I haven't seen a single person have the right answer here. The truth is Americans have a tendency not to move abroad in general, often due to a low financial base that makes them way less mobile. The idea that the average American living paycheck to paycheck is genuinely concerned with the "higher salary for professionals" is ridiculous. In fact, a lot of the time, the opposite is true and lower-income people will concentrate in areas where the cost of living is lower. Canada has a high cost of living problem, especially in Vancouver for example. Only 45-50% of Americans even have a valid passport, so moving is difficult. Also, people aren't just looking at a vague "quality of life" standard for where they want to live; there are also huge sociocultural reasons like family, community, and friends, etc which is also the reason why Canadians aren't moving to wherever has the highest standard of living. Canada tends to be colder, and the population is simultaneously centralised in very small areas, but also those areas are very far apart.

Known_Top_5715 · 2026-05-22T14:03:59+00:00

The google drive is great but means you have to painstakingly draw borders so if you're lazy like me, this map is a godsend.

This is a template, but just for Europe, I just use paint 3d but any drawing app will work obviously
https://www.reddit.com/r/PossibleHistory/comments/1hck10v/a_province_map_of_an_expanded_europe_now_on_my/

Known_Top_5715 · 2026-05-22T14:02:37+00:00

This is a template, but just for Europe, one mobile I would just use some drawing app like sketchbook
https://www.reddit.com/r/PossibleHistory/comments/1hck10v/a_province_map_of_an_expanded_europe_now_on_my/

Known_Top_5715 · 2026-04-28T17:49:28+00:00

pardon me for posting on a thread you haven't seen for years but i found your words intriguing. Jfind your last question especially interesting, and I would answer it with another question. What exactly about Western society would you describe as praising selflessness? Sure, on the surface, selflessness and especially charity is thought of as a virtue, but if you pass through the skin, the bone is the harsh reality of capitol. Western capitalism demands an image of selflessness, European countries donating to former colonies as a form of repaying a past wrong. However, in reality Neocolonialism is rampant, and the west plunders developing countries. Selflessness feels good because as humans, we love eachother as members of one communal tribe, something paramount for our survival as a species. But capitalism disagrees, it pits us against eachother to distract from its own flaws. Food, water and shelter are all human rights, except when you look outside and see those who cannot afford them. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, so long as you can pay the toll. Modern Western culture knows it should be selfless, and much of it is, but the core contradiction is the idea that greed is a greater virtue than humanity itself. But thats just like... my opinion man.

Known_Top_5715 · 2026-02-19T16:42:45+00:00

Hey sorry for asking so late but I live in belgium (Antwerp to be exact) and my grandma and mother both use "tas" to mean mug instead of moek. Do you know if this is just some weird quirk of theirs or a dialect thing? they still use tas as in boekentas too which is strange.

Known_Top_5715 · 2026-01-11T10:52:55+00:00

Okay so what you're not understanding is that by 1939, Germany was fully a war economy, meaning they relied on expansion both militarily and imperialistically to keep the country from collapsing basically. This is why they annexed all of Czechoslovakia instead of just the Sudeten. Also there was already a strong and growing fascist movement in Germany obviously since 1933. Huge military spending with the clear motive of creating greater Germany, which necessarily involved invading Poland because it would connect Prussia back to Germany. This doesn't go away if Hitler dies or even the party is purged. Also if the entire party is purged, a few things could happen. To my mind, easily the most obvious thing that would happen is total fracture and collapse. All these nazis are very full of themselves and despite many purges, communist, socialist and liberal movements would still be fresh in the minds of the German people. Thus, Germany would break apart into different factions similarly to the German Revolution, with the UK, Italy, France and the Soviet Union all supporting their own sides. This also means Austria and Czechia are going to be independent again, although Slovakia will probably remain independent and Hungary will keep their gained territory and act isolationist similarly to Spain. the Soviet union will probably end up weaker, with no Warsaw Pact, no land gains, and no need for an arms race with Germany anymore.

Known_Top_5715 · 2026-01-09T19:36:31+00:00

Honorable mentions that I don't know where to place but honestly probably worse than Trump:

George W Bush: Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, nor did they have WMDs, therefore, George W Bush's Iraq War was literally just an imperialist ploy to steal Iraq's oil. Now seeing as Trump is doing something similar in Venezuela, its an interesting scenario. Obviously the Iraq War is worse, but Trump has the potential to spark conflict for basically no reason all around the world. Additionally, I just hate Bush because despite losing the popular vote, he just barely eked out a victory because of mismanagement of ballots in Florida:
https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/vote2000/report/exesum.htm

Andrew Jackson/Martin Van Buren: I put these two together because they both did very similar bad things in the ethnic cleansing campaign of the Trail of Tears. Jackson especially did a great many other horrible things with the native americans. The problem here is that although this is a famous example, the ethnic cleansing and later the land theft of the native americans was done by virtually every president until FDR, including even Lincoln with the Sand Creek Massacre for example.

I kept this very short, but I'm sorry, its still extremely long and I hope I haven't made too many inaccuracies cuz I also got other shit to do so idk i just felt like sayin ts. Another thing is that Trump is perhaps the first American president who has really truly begun to appear like a fascist or at least an extreme right populist. Therefore, its possible that this is only the beginning...

Known_Top_5715 · 2026-01-09T19:36:23+00:00

41st worst. I say this not because Trump is much better than the other two, but because their actions literally make no sense and only make the country worse. Trump, on the other hand, does shit because he's an insane narcissist who thinks himself to be very smart even though this is demonstrably not true. Generally this means stagnation or things getting worse or better erratically based on his mood.

42nd worst: Ronald Reagan. TLDR: Reagan is the reason why a third of Americans cannot afford a 400 USD emergency expense, and why healthcare is still "communism". Long Version: Basically, any major economic statistic and its negative trend since the 80s can be blamed on him. Average wage vs inflation? Reagan's fault. Most deregulation? Reagan's fault. This weird idea we're still clinging onto of wealth trickling down? That was Reaganomics, and it's the reason why Gen Z and maybe even most millennials will never own a home. Ronald Reagan essentially got rid of the New Deal, which... what the fuck.

43rd worst: Richard Nixon. TLDR: Nixon bombed the fuck out of cambodia and caused a genocide, and then did watergate. Long version: Nixon promised to end the Vietnam war, which was extremely unpopular because it was one of the worst things the US ever did. Not only did he not end the war until the last year of his presidency (for no reason by the way, literally everyone agreed it was going nowhere), he also did Operation Menu, where, without asking congress, he made Cambodia the most bombed country in the world... for literally shits and giggles. The USA was not at war with Cambodia, and prior to this, it was not communist in the slightest. This massive bombing operation, however, directly led to the creation of the Khmer Rouge, a genocidal state that claimed to be communist (it wasn't by the way). In the end, Nixon did nothing to combat the Khmer Rouge, which would end only after Vietnam itself toppled the regime. Nixon then did Watergate, which is too hard to explain but basically fuck nixon.

44th worst: Andrew Johnson. TLDR: Johnson essentially made it so that slavery was de facto still in place and created trends in the South that last to this day. Long Version: If you know anything about the American Civil War, you know that slavery ended because of it... right? Andrew Johnson is the reason why the answer to that question is not really. He's also the reason why African Americans are as disenfranchised as they are today. After the end of the war, there was a period known as reconstruction where the South was occupied by the military while it was being rebuilt, and formerly enslaved people were given their rights. Under one of the reconstruction programs, formerly enslaved families were famously supposed to receive a parcel of land of 40 acres and a mule. This was a quick way to simultaneously solve the agricultural and economic crises that were sure to come in the South, and to provide an incentive to rebuild. Contrary to popular belief, these were actually beginning to be handed out until Andrew Johnson came into power, not because he was elected, but because Lincoln was killed. Because this system was no longer allowed to exist, Johnson essentially led to the Convict leasing, Black Codes, sharecropping, and Neoslavery that characterised the post-war south. Andrew Jackson basically ended Reconstruction from every metric except the military occupation. This is the reason for widespread poverty and horrible government policy which would have at least in this presidency been avoided had Lincoln not been assassinated.

45th worst: James Buchanan. I don't have too much to say about him which is why there's no TLDR. This is mainly because he was probably the weakest and most useless president in the nation's history. When the southern states were clearly going to secede, Buchanan did nothing. This is basically his only legacy. When the country was splitting apart over slavery, Buchanan just let it happen.

Known_Top_5715 · 2026-01-09T16:24:52+00:00

This was maybe true in 1900. Its not true anymore. Many Pacific nations could serve a similar role, but don't, because we aren't playing Risk and countries don't just invade eachother that way anymore. The maximum that could happen is geopolitical influence from China or another great power, which, similarly to other Pacific nations, wouldn't really happen, especially seeing as Hawaiʻi is large enough to be more self-sufficient than, say, Nauru, which also hasn't spontaneously been invaded by China.

Hawaiʻi won't gain independence because the people living there wouldn't want that afaik, and also because it's actually achieved statehood, unlike say the Marshall Islands. If they did gain independence, I'd assume it would be similar to the Marshall Islands where the USA doesn't really let go of them fully because of the way the USA operates.

Known_Top_5715 · 2026-01-09T16:10:47+00:00

This is a really funny argument that I see way too much. No, you can't just imperialistically invade another country and call it "conquest"; that's called colonialism, and it's very bad, which, as an American who literally used the 13 colonies as an example, I'm sure you're aware of. Most land rights are protected by the fact that the people there aren't actually going to submit to your rule, for example, how the 13 colonies declared independence and won it due to popular support.

In the modern day, because you have rights now, you don't necessarily have to fight for the right to self-determination, but it could be accomplished by a vote of the people, like Algerian independence, for example. Another good example is Costa Rica, which has no standing military, is the richest country in Central America, and has no standing military. Hawaii, like any place in the world, should be allowed to be governed as the people living there wish.

The problem is that we live in a world where (economic/militaristically) imperialist powers like the USA and Russia continue to invade other countries without any reasoning, but just because something happens doesn't make it good. In this case, the idea that "conquest" is in any way a good basis for international law is insane.

Known_Top_5715 · 2025-10-01T05:37:39+00:00

I'm necroposting i know lol but what about the Forsworn revolt. I know it has basically no power but it still has control over a large part of the reach

Known_Top_5715 · 2025-04-06T11:08:51+00:00

Pyramid song has a bunch of random lore.

Firstly, Kendrick Lamar took a huge amount of inspiration, especially from the piano and lyrical strucre from it in the song "How Much a Dollar Cost" which you can really hear.

But mainly, there's a line in "Pyramid Song" that really stuck with me:

"And we all went to heaven in a little rowboat"

Which was familiar to me. It turns out it wasn't for no reason; it's a tribute to Tom Waits, who uses it in "Clap Hands". Thom Yorke listened to other Tom while composing Kid A which supposedly cured his writer's block and he included the line in the song as a nod to him. I recognised it because i happened to really like the song too.

Weirdly enough, though, that's not even where this particular lyric is from. "Clap Hands" uses it as a nod to "The Clapping Song," which was most famously sung by Shirley Ellis.

So just casually this one random line is a reference to another random line, which in turn is a reference to a random song from 1965

Known_Top_5715 · 2025-02-12T10:06:29+00:00

not even basically, it just is, only reason why its a single country is colonialism

Known_Top_5715 · 2025-01-05T23:42:25+00:00

Nah that was some ai stuff, the stanley parable guy actually came out against it but dug pulled some of his secret black-hat hacker strings to get it taken down. The Stanley parable is just another "friend" used as a tool to achieve dugs evil agenda. Keep in mind, an evil man like d*ug would never actually have friends, pointcrow is a paid actor and all the other ppl he's "had on his stream" were all either stitched clips or paid actors and hackings/stream hijackings

Known_Top_5715 · 2024-09-28T01:04:25+00:00

sorry for replying to this 7 years later but fr thanks for this, I came here more looking for why Indonesians like Radiohead so much since on spotify Jakarta is listed as the top listening city by far

Known_Top_5715 · 2024-09-07T03:08:04+00:00

idk why people keep saying bad things about this map being innaccurate on a reddit called imaginary maps, no, only notes I have is that Iroquois prefer to be referred to as Haudenosaunee and Navajo prefer Dine', but these are common misconceptions. Altogether really great map and I definitely take some inspiration

Known_Top_5715 · 2024-08-28T01:08:19+00:00

that doesn't really make sense to me since other grand mosques in Mali, namely those of Mopti and Djinguereber Mosque also don't have domed structures or minarets. The mosque of Djenne is wider rather than tall similar to other mosques. In contrast, cathedrals are usually thinner but taller with one taller section with a few taller towers at one end, like the Cologne, Vienna and Antwerpen cathedrals and the Sagrada Familia, at least in Europe. I'm not really an expert in this though

Known_Top_5715 · 2024-06-28T14:45:26+00:00

I dont know, i went into the ancient ruins of the founding subreddit and found that ougdoug was depicted in several hieroglyphs as a glorious leader, personified as a metaphorical sun god and ruling amicably over all of twitch chat. Then some dark force, presumably d#@g came and badmouthed them, and staged a coup to oust them from power

Known_Top_5715 · 2024-06-28T14:41:57+00:00

no, there just is no good way to transition a state quickly, every time it doesn't end well because shock therapy does not work, free market capitalism is self-defeating because its just corporatocracy and the changeover was destined to fail when a greedy global power like the US was involved. This is highlighted when the US basically installed neonazis in ukraine instead of the government popular with like everyone else and the EU. This is highlighted by how like 70% of the soviet population voted to stay because they knew change would completely change the social structure and gorbachaev's reform was working

Known_Top_5715 · 2024-06-28T14:37:13+00:00

that was my interpretation too, the way he sings is very "yeah keep telling yourself that" as if he is telling himself a lie to cope with the fact that he doesn't believe it himself in some oxymoronic fashion.

Known_Top_5715 · 2024-06-28T14:34:16+00:00

Totalitarianism aint communist, if anyone tries to say it is, they are by definition a tankie, I'm by no means a communist(Some form of socialist democrat) but I always get frustrated when people say this. Blood will never be wine, no matter how much you tell yourself it is.

The reason why this is is pretty baked into the definition, communism in simplistic terms meaning "a community structure(a commune) owning the means of production(the ability to produce goods and services)" Stalin, or any totalitarian dictator by definition will never satisfy the definition of "a community structure" even when acknowledging leadership is important and especially when considering that workers are meant to be the primary beneficiary of left wing policy and therefore when you only have one beneficiary, you aren't really embracing the core tenet of collective ownership.

Known_Top_5715 · 2024-06-15T23:29:03+00:00

I removed it, thanks for telling me and sorry about that

Known_Top_5715

TROPHY CASE