A country can never be great if it’s not great for everyone.

r/

People talk about making their countries great but you don’t invest in it. Not it’s people, not it’s infrastructure. You support the people and help them succeed if you want to make a country great. Be a country you would want to live in. Legislate FOR the peoples’ benefit- not AGAINST.

Comments

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  2. rwags2024 Avatar

    So there’s no great countries then, ok lol

  3. ExperiencePutrid4566 Avatar

    no country is great for everyone.

  4. RebbitTheForg Avatar

    No no you dont get it. If you just remove the people who its not great for, then its great! /s

  5. whereverYouGoThereUR Avatar

    If you ask people if they vote/legislate FOR the peoples’ benefit, I would bet you well over 90% would say that they already do. The problem is that everyone will not agree as to what that is . . .

  6. funnyinput Avatar

    Those that try to appeal to everyone, appeal to no one.

  7. chris-rau-art Avatar

    Sounds like semantics. You’re basically saying no country has ever been great in the history of the world.

    Which is fine, but I think the word you’re looking for is “perfect” not “great”.

  8. Skooltruth Avatar

    I agree with this. But I’d add that a country is really only as great as it’s people. If we have lazy, unmotivated, unproductive, ignorant people, we can expect the entire country to be that way.

  9. RocketLeagueUser Avatar

    A country can be great but not perfect. (Not defending Trump in any way)

  10. -Spcy- Avatar

    it is physically impossible for everyone to be happy, whats important is doing what you can, thats what makes a country great

  11. gamesquid Avatar

    nonsense. pleasing everyone is always a bad idea especially on a government level.

  12. Impressive-Panda527 Avatar

    “Ask not what your country can do for. Ask what you can do for your country”

  13. airwavesinmeinjeans Avatar

    How tf are you going to create a country that’s great for everyone if not even everyone in the country accepts it. Impossible.

  14. MatJosher Avatar

    OK, go ahead and make that happen

  15. CocktailOnion Avatar

    I heard someone say once that one question will show you where the greatest political divide is: “Do you think certain groups of people are intrinsically better than other groups of people?”

  16. OhFuuuuuuuuuuuudge Avatar

    Did you just pull that out of your ass?

  17. Icy-Slip-1950 Avatar

    This has always been a pipe dream. People can’t accept that life will never be “perfect.” There will always be hungry, homeless, poor, and sick in this world. We can do our best to help people, but we can’t help everyone. And even in our best efforts, we still fail. It’s just life. The “utopia” dream people want will NEVER EXIST.

  18. noloking Avatar

    A country with opportunity is great. It is up to each individual to make the best of their situation 

  19. Carrera1107 Avatar

    They’ve tried this it’s called communism. Which is misery.

  20. NoWin3930 Avatar

    can we get this guy a reddit gold and some doots in the upward direction

  21. GoziMai Avatar

    Imo the country doesn’t need to be great for everyone but I think it’s possible to make it not actively bad or dangerous for the vast majority of the population

  22. CycIon3 Avatar

    So communism?

  23. rd_rd_rd Avatar

    Which country considered great to your utopia standard, what about some people that wanted the opposite of the other group of people ?

  24. SloppyMcFloppy1738 Avatar

    It should be great, but greatest for its citizens.

  25. MadFunEnjoyer Avatar

    That’s an impossible requirement, you’re asking for something that defies human nature, total agreement.

  26. Own-Replacement-6495 Avatar

    Such a glass half empty outlook. No country is great for everyone. 

  27. andy0506 Avatar

    You will never satisfy everyone.

  28. HyacinthFT Avatar

    No country is going to be great for everyone. People’s opinions and situations vary. That’s just reality. You can eliminate, say, measles, and there will be people who will try to bring it back. You can provide enough houses for all the homeless, and some people will still be homeless.

    And if you actually do solve everyone’s problems somehow, they will get bored and make up new ones. We saw that in the US last year – a bunch of people leading fairly safe and privileged lives just made up things (they’re turning kids trans in schools! Chinese workers who make almost no money are laughing at us because they have manufacturing jobs and we don’t! we’re being overrun with illegal immigrants to the point you can’t walk in any major city without being attacked!) and voted to take away their own safety and privilege to deal with those fake problems.

  29. RevolutionKooky5285 Avatar

    You need to cater to the majority, places that do that are happier, places that cater to the minority (The rich) tend to suck.

    America fetishizes rich people, everyone thinks they are a few lucky breaks away from being a multi millionaire.

    Look at the responses in this thread, you guys are fucked, the propaganda and individualism is out of control, everyone only cares about themselves.

  30. PsychologicalFox8839 Avatar

    This isn’t an unpopular opinion.

  31. Alternative_Car6497 Avatar

    Why you scare to say this about the United States? What issue do you specifically have besides “infrastructure” or “Legislation for the people”

  32. ZedFraunce Avatar

    You can do everything to help the people but not everyone is going to be happy with the results. Some may think it’s not fair X or Y can get this when they can’t. Or that X or Y is not getting enough. Or that not enough is being done in general and the government could be doing more. Which doesn’t make sense but there are a lot of greedy people.

  33. ChaoticDad21 Avatar

    Wut

    This is a braindead take

  34. BlazingOreo Avatar

    and future people too.

  35. TheBrasilianCapybara Avatar

    If you want peace prepare for war.

    There is no social development without military and industrial development, simply because our world is governed by a country whose economy and history are based on war.

    If your country’s development is not beneficial to the global north, your country will either receive “democracy” or will have to fight the “red threat”

    You need to became great to breath.

  36. countytime69 Avatar

    How can you invest in infrastructure when you have huge welfare programs free healthcare free dental free schooling generation after generation of single moms . No one want to pay there debts . University students crying about have to pay debt .

  37. PossiblyA_Bot Avatar

    I can’t tell if everyone here completely missed the point or if they’re purposely misinterpreting it

  38. Main-Climate-1506 Avatar

    honestly, in my opinion iceland is the only great country because statistically, its the best country to live in

  39. ph_uck_yu Avatar

    That country doesn’t exist

  40. red-at-night Avatar

    Agreed. I usually say ”no country is richer than its poorest citizen”

  41. im-a-guy-like-me Avatar

    Half of the residents of blowjobland beg to differ.

  42. Trashtag420 Avatar

    I see what you’re getting at, but you’ll have to elucidate beyond simple descriptors as “great” when addressing these sorts of massive sociocultural, geopolitical, and heady concepts.

    “Great” is a term that can mean a lot of things to different people.

    To some people, “great” can only be applied to nations that are functionally ethno states. To others, “great” is a measure of how the world fears and respects a nation. Others may consider more strict economic factors, citizen happiness be damned.

    But there’s no single “great” that you can adequately apply to all political systems and all individuals within them. This isn’t an unpopular opinion, many people tacitly agree with this sort of ideology, but it is an inarticulate opinion.

    But you are on the right track, just don’t forget to show your work. Why is greatness for everyone a goal you think needs achieving? Why have others decided that “greatness for me and mine is enough” and why do you disagree?

    I’m not asking because I want to know necessarily (I already have my own principles thank you), but because thinking about these questions is how you flesh out your own set of values. It’s important to understand them and not just preach them.

  43. marc-of-the-beast Avatar

    To whom though every person on the planet? Or just those who can afford to pay coyotes to get them here?

    Big yawn, guys. Grow up.

  44. AndyGreyjoy Avatar

    I don’t disagree. This seems too much like a platitude to br unpopular.

  45. Intrepid_Doubt_6602 Avatar

    Do you example of any time in human history that this has occurred at a country wide level?

  46. FoxForceFive5V Avatar

    So no country in the history of ever has been great. Canada is off to a real shit start this millennia, for example.

  47. Driftmier54 Avatar

    There is no such thing as a country perfect for everyone. Perfection doesn’t exist.

    The US is still the greatest country to live in, in the world. If you disagree go move to the Middle East and get back to me. 

  48. Dazz316 Avatar

    You can’t expect anyone to perfect anything, that’s just not in human nature, but what you can do is recognise steps or leaps in quality for people, it’s actions to others etc.

    What the Romans did in terms of bureaucracy , technology etc etc was a great thing, their empire was great and they forwarded humanity on a good chunk due to the actions they did. Was everything they did great? No. They used slavery and conquered other nations, but it’s unfair to judge based on circumstances . Everybody was using slaves, every race, country, continent…slavery existed, conquering was the norm. So, they were normal…but you look at how big they grew, what they introduced and did for people was an amazing thing. They were a great country. Were they a perfect country? Absolutely not. But judging on the standards of their day and where they grew to, they were absolutely great.

  49. largos7289 Avatar

    Trying to be everything to everyone will make everyone not happy.

  50. badbackEric Avatar

    This would be better over in r/StonerThoughts

  51. unaffectedlyodd Avatar

    Go live in Syria for a week and come back. Then tell me this Country isn’t great.

  52. normie_evolved Avatar

    Real talk. Country ain’t ‘great’ if folks can’t even get bye. Take care of the people first – that’s the real flex

  53. UnicorncreamPi Avatar

    Hence Liberty and justice for all..any more deep original thoughts to share?

  54. slowcheetah91 Avatar

    Unattainable utopia

  55. Freeze__ Avatar

    To quote the US Constitution:

    We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

    It’s not about being great, it’s about constantly working towards greatness. The way that America used to.

  56. fetalgirth Avatar

    Then there’s no great country in the world by that standard. Yet there are great places to live good lives, sooo…true I suppose but context is everything.

  57. AphonicTX Avatar

    They don’t want it to be great for everyone. Just them. White. Christian. Rich. are the only ones they want to experience the “greatness”.

    Wait until 99% of magas find out they don’t fit that target audience. It’ll be too late by then. They’ll use them right up until they no longer need them.

  58. 60sStratLover Avatar

    Life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness.

    Some people don’t want to pursue, but expect it to be handed to them.

  59. FrankCobretti Avatar

    This is a popular opinion. Take my downvote.

  60. Connect_Hospital_270 Avatar

    Countries with hundreds of millions of people are always going to have dissenters because there will always be people who have different ideas of how you help people, people who are literally incapable of being helped, etc.

    Human nature simply works like that. My personal opinion? Always have social safety nets, but not cocoons. You need to set up a society where people are able to succeed on their own merits if they simply want to and not an extreme welfare state, where you rob peter to pay paul.

    This is really only accomplished when you have flourishing economies.

  61. IamKingCraig Avatar

    My beloved ynys brydain was great for everyone before the romans arrived 🧙🏻‍♂️🕊️

  62. Interesting_Loquat90 Avatar

    Maybe there just aren’t any “great” countries and we should stop using vague and subjective terminology like it

  63. Major_Enthusiasm1099 Avatar

    So basically no country is great

  64. Jslewalite Avatar

    Then it looks like no country is great. Oh well

  65. Current_Run9540 Avatar

    No one country will ever be great for everyone. It’s the dichotomy: We want something that works well for everyone, but by default, some will ever be happy. It’s one of the reasons why unenforced segregation happens: people like being around people like them and want people like them to lead and govern people like them. Even here in the US you’re starting to see this in a larger, clearer picture. It’s easy to see it as left vs right, but really, that’s dumbing down the fact that over the decades, regions of the US have adopted unique social/cultural norms and expectations of what they want for lifestyle and what they expect of leadership. My countries within the country, not based around race, but based around like minded individuals. There are some really interesting studies going on regarding the phenomenon right now if anyone is interested. Collin Woodard is a great place to start!

  66. Big_P4U Avatar

    It’s honestly entirely subjective and subject to individual experiences, perspective and perception.

  67. Ophidian534 Avatar

    Americans are fine living in a country where millionaires and billionaires exist and who have priced them out of the housing market.

    Where they go bankrupt paying for medical bills while Israel, the apartheid ethnostate they prop with their taxes, provides it to their settlers for free

    Where they are forced to go into debt paying for college tuition while other Western countries and even China, that evil Communist Boogeyman, provides it for their people. Because an educated populace is an empowered populace. 

    Americans are notorious for being a prideful, arrogant, ignorant, uneducated, misinformed, and brainwashed population. And this is all done by design. To mold us in the direction of mindless, miserable workers and consumers.

    Americans are fine with not owning the means of production and having to sell their labor to a haughty, elitist managerial class who have the power to hire and fire whoever they want, are accountable to no one, and profit off the labor of their employees.

    And they’re fine being sent overseas to kill poor people their rich, corrupt, incompetent, donor-controlled government tells them are a threat to “democracy”, which just means corporate interests. Why else does America start wars if not for profit and resources?

    But this is all just commie talk. Americans are the freest people in the world because of the amount of toil and misery we can endure while experiencing increasingly diminished standard of living with every presidential administration that screws the people over. 

    But we have the First Amendment and the choice of purchasing a Whopper or a Big Mac. That’s freedom. America is a democracy even though the people have no voice. We have to take personal responsibility but not the government whose job is to represent us.

  68. jmlinden7 Avatar

    By that definition it’s impossible for any country to be great since many people require mutually incompatible things. Hence why we have things like voting and median statistics, since it’s literally impossible to make every single person happy

  69. pigtailrose2 Avatar

    Youd like the short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.”

  70. Quirky-Employer9717 Avatar

    Ancient Egypt wasn’t great? Rome wasn’t great?

  71. UwU-Sugoi-Desu-ne Avatar

    Everyone is a pretty broad term. If you mean financial classes that is fine but a lot of people have taken this thought and run with it.

  72. Bagel__Enjoyer Avatar

    China begs to differ

  73. CrispityCraspits Avatar

    >You support the people and help them succeed if you want to make a country great. Legislate FOR the peoples’ benefit- not AGAINST.

    Yes, what an unpopular opinion. you are very brave to say this extremely controversial thing.

  74. SecretRecipe Avatar

    in that case no country can ever be great. there will always be self sabotaging losers that fail to thrive no matter the environment

  75. Savage13765 Avatar

    Upvote because unpopular.

    A country cannot be great for everyone. And nor should not. Some groups will have contrasting opinions. Islamic fundamentlists cannot be accommodated for, while also accommodating those who want gender equality, for example. Or communists with capitalist. Some views are fundamentally exclusionary.

    What a society can do, in my opinion, is provide assistance for those who are disadvantaged beyond their control, and reward/incentive those who work to improve there own and others lives, in equal measure for all. If you’re injured, healthcare should be free. If you’re unable to work, assistance should be given. And if you’re proactive and dedicated to your own personal excellence, efforts should be made to reward that conduct. But if you’re harming others, or unwilling to sacrifice, or otherwise unwilling to play the societal game, then the societal game should not assist you.

  76. Bitter-Assignment464 Avatar

    That’s ridiculous because you can’t stop people from making really bad decisions or not caring about their condition.

  77. llaminaria Avatar

    Your title – a country can never be great for “everyone”, because even in the best case scenario it would run on the principles of democracy – which means what the majority had decided is best for itself. What is best for the majority is often bad for specific groups, which is, sometimes unfortunately, natural and necessary for the preservation of a state.

  78. George22232 Avatar

    It isnt possible
    I for one already pay a high tax bill and use very littke government services outside of roads and an appreciation for military protection and other less obvious.
    Great for me would be lower tax burden on me it would not be increasing my already high tax burden to make it great for someone else.

  79. jsand2 Avatar

    Going strictly off of the topic, it is impossible to make it great for everyone b/c somebody will always be unhappy over something. All you can do is to try for making it as great for as large of a majority as possible.

  80. trivialempire Avatar

    Based on that opinion…there are not, and will never be great countries

    My unpopular opinion on that take is you’ve always got people that revel in being unhappy and ruin shit for others.

  81. lienepientje2 Avatar

    That’s how I feel about the US. How can you be great, ever when you allow so many people to live on the street and people are scared they might get sick and never to recover financialy? You can’t, you should be ashamed.

  82. Sad-Coconut-5842 Avatar

    “Everyone wants to save the world, they just disagree on how.”

    • Brother Maximus
  83. Sacu-Shi Avatar

    Or at least ‘trying’ to be great for everyone’. I mean, a good social safety net, things in place for homeless, mental health, veterans, jobless, etc.

    A country or society should be judged on how it treats its most needy citizens, not how it treats its wealthiest.

  84. RIBCAGESTEAK Avatar

    That means no country is great.

  85. yaboichurro11 Avatar

    Nothing in the world will ever be “good” or “great” for every single person.

    Best you can hope for is to make it great for most people.

  86. davebrose Avatar

    Then no country in history has ever been or will ever be great.

  87. Jordangander Avatar

    I agree completely.

    Make sure that manufacturing stays in your country so there are jobs.

    Limit off shore services to make sure your people have jobs.

    Limit government to make sure people can keep more of their money and spend less on taxes.

    Have good over-site to ensure that taxes are spent wisely and not spent on extremist ideology.

  88. keepingitrealgowrong Avatar

    That’s an impossible task no matter the political system. There will always be people that are not having a great time.

  89. Richard2468 Avatar

    And that’s why MAGA is generally considered extreme right, and in many cases white supremacist. Make America Great Again? Who was it great for in the past? It wasn’t exactly great for black people.. or for the natives. Or any minority really.