[rayiner]

It’s mismanagement that arises out of European individualism. Because the individual is sacrosanct, you can’t infringe on individual “rights” like doing drugs or sleeping in parks. You can’t throw them in prison or execute the people facilitating antisocial behavior, like drug dealers. Simultaneously, no value is accorded to the collective right to a clean and orderly commons, free from antisocial behavior.

[nec4b]

That just not true, there are a lot of places which value European individualism in the US or outside of it where drugs problems are on the same level as in Asian countries.

[rayiner]

Such as?

[nec4b]

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/drug-use-...

Looking at the map I think you'll see for yourself your point doesn't stand.

[rayiner]

So what I'm seeing is Africa/Asia with the lowest drug use, continental europe with significantly higher drug use, the Anglo countries (which are more individualistic than continental Europe) even higher, and the U.S. (which carries western individualism to the greatest extreme) at the top of the charts. There seems to be something weird going on with the former Soviet bloc countries, but overall the chart seems to strongly support the trend I'm talking about.

[nec4b]

Russia, Myanmar, Mongolia, UAE, Belarus are all significantly worse then almost all of the European countries (only Estonia is worse). I wouldn't consider those countries more individualistic than Germany for example. Vietnam and South Korea are at same levels as most of central/western Europe. India and Italy are also similar. There simply isn't any correlation (a formula if you will) between how individualistic a society is and how much drug abuse it has.

[onetimeusename]

I actually think dysfunction in SF is not a result of European individualism. The situation is not best explained by individual vs collective rights. Rather, I think the dysfunction is deliberate and the politicians who control the city are part of a party and belief that repudiates anything European.

For example, the city of SF will come down on you like a ton of bricks if you are not from the correct demographic. There is a lawsuit where white police officers are suing the city for denying them promotions and a system of racial discrimination. What about their individual rights? Another example is how the city and state protect homeless encampments but make it difficult for regular people to build homes or other buildings. Or how homeless people and drug addicts attack and harass regular people and the city does nothing about it but it was up in arms when a former fire chief allegedly attacked a homeless person.

Individualism isn't broadly accepted, rather it seems the homeless have more rights than anyone else. This isn't individualism and shows that there is a ideology driving the dysfunction.