I'm with you on the absurdity of the West. The isolation, sterility and atomisation of life in large cities (self service checkouts, lack of street life/physicality, laws wrapped in regulations wrapped in rules) is soul destroying.

But we live until 80, our institutions work, we want for little (materially), and trust is higher. So depends on what you value.

Africa doesn't have to emulate anybody. It can move up the human development index any way it pleases, but, for the sake of its people, it must move up.

Do you miss queuing up to withdraw money or check the balance of your bank account? I don't see how self service checkouts are philosophically different from ATMs.

No, I love the convenience! I'm just using it as an example of how we continue to automate away human interaction.

Maybe that's fine. But spend time in Africa or South East Asia where you can't help but interact with people every day (just walking through a city like Bangkok makes you feel alive) and it feels clinical and cold by comparison.

That argument is very similar to the crazy idea that everything was better in the good old days.

We all like to romanticize, but truth is that present life in the developed world is the best it's ever been, anywhere in the world.

Not saying it can't be better, certain the US has issues :)

There are different ways to be a developed country. Canada and the US are similarly developed but Canada has a vastly higher quality of life.

I agree, and actually I came to West Africa after 10 years in Canada.

In many ways, West Africa has a better quality of life than Canada.

(yes, of course there are also many ways it's much, much worse, but it's worth remembering it's not all bad, and we in the West can learn a lot from people who love life more than money and family more than things.)

I have lived and been all over both countries. This is wrong - the quality of life is very similar. Of course, the US has famously higher levels of certain social ills than you'd expect for a country of its wealth, but that's not saying the same thing. Really curious about where your perception of it comes from. Do you live in Canada?

People far enough up the income ladder have a decent quality of life in North Korea

Evidenced by the constant brain drain from the US to Canada to take advantage of that massive increase in quality of life...oh shit wait.