[GZJOHN]

Reading this article I'm once again struck by how, as with so many problems in the U.S. is so rare to look outside their borders to learn from what is working in other countries.

Americans seem to have an almost pathological blindness to seeking out the experience of other countries.

[norwalkbear]

The average American doesn't have much representation in systemic decisions these days.

[ReactiveJelly]

I too hate the electoral college system

[SpicyLemonZest]

It's not obvious that cross-country comparisons are useful for the kinds of problems the article describes. They seem cultural, and you can't really just decide that the US is going to have the cultural norms of some other country even if you think you'd get good results.

[noirbot]

There's also other factors - almost all other countries are a lot more culturally, racially, and religiously homogeneous than the US. Obviously a lot of that is upstream from the resultant culture, but it still makes comparison hard. It's easy to point to things the US is "doing wrong" that it's famous for, but it's important to remember that very few cultural dividing lines are actually a majority in the US, and almost everyone is some melange of different traditions and identities compared to most other countries.

[mikhmha]

Is this a natural thing that occurs in other countries? I honestly don't think so. Cross country idea exchange like this usually happens due to geography - the citizens themselves see what works in other countries by visiting them on trips & vacations and they bring these ideas back. Otherwise you can't force stuff like this, the people will reject it as foreign and alien. Simply watching videos or being told how great things are in other countries isn't enough, you have to go there and actually experience it.

I would argue the current anti-car movement in the U.S is a result of more americans going abroad for vacation to Europe and Asia and seeing what works there and bringing those ideas back. But how easy is it for Americans to go abroad? Most can't.