[sbeller]

Great read. (resident in San Mateo County here)

I personally think the whole country should focus more on the greater good for everyone by culling the virus instead of doing this open-nd-close back and forth juggling, as to optimize for the best outcome available (similar to New Zealand). But then again I am not well versed on the Nash equilibrium when it comes to highly infectious diseases.

[rlt]

For better or worse it’s simply not in America’s collective nature to obey authority on the scale you’re hoping for.

[EdwardDiego]

Not really in the nature of NZ, either. Our cultural heroes often feature a sense of "bugger them" if they're not inventing something.

* Hone Heke, kept cutting down a flagpole to mess with the British

* The Southern Man popularised by a beer company, who prefers the company of his horse.

* The Good Keen Man popularised by Barry Crump, who prefers the company of the hills and his rifle.

* James MacKenzie, a sheep rustler who ended up with a sizable part of the South Island named after him (the MacKenzie Country)

* Edmund Hillary travelling to the South Pole by tractor "accidentally on purpose" when he was supposed to be laying out supplies for a British Lord's expedition.

However, what we have in our culture that the US seems to lack (from my _very_ distant POV) is a slight tendency towards collectivism over individualism.

Maybe it's from our long gone years as a "cradle to the grave" social democracy, maybe it's from the emphasis on mateship.

Maybe it's because we don't really like interpersonal conflict. (How do you know a Kiwi didn't like their meal in your restaurant? We haven't figured that out yet).

[grecy]

I'm from Australia, and I've lived in the US, and now live in Canada.

From experience, the difference is entirely in the way our societies are setup, and therefore how we treat each other.

In NZ/Oz/Canada, we have healthcare for all, affordable tertiary education, and we all pay higher taxes to help strangers. Looking out for each other is built into the makeup of our countries, systems and society.

In the US, it is literally "Me vs. You", "Everyman for himself", "Pay your own way", etc. It is simply not in the makeup of their society to help others. While of course there are extremely kind and generous people who do, it's not the way the systems are setup, so it's not the default way people think about things.

Also because tens of millions of people are within a millimetre of bankruptcy/starvation/living on the street, they literally have no head space or ability to do anything other than meet their own basic needs.

Here in Canada tens of millions of people have been getting $2k every month since March. Same in Australia.

In the US they got $1,200. ONCE. That changes a lot.

[atweiden]

As a frequent traveler between AU/NZ/US/CA, I find the residents of Commonwealth countries tend to be compliant with the law in ways Americans simply aren't. I can't speak for Canada on this, but at least for AU/NZ, there's also zero gun culture. I'm still not sure how much of an impact that has on the public's psyche, but lack of gun culture does seem to point to trusting more in social institutions. As an outsider, my perspective is that Aussies/Kiwis understand viscerally at levels unseen in American culture — and possibly Canadian culture — that nature can kill you, and that the authorities really are a good resource to draw upon when your life is on the line, which it was during the Covid pandemic.