#17 - What I will miss about Australia
I'm currently sitting at Dallas Fort Worth International airport, in the heartland of "Real America". Many of the values that people view as quintessentially American, such as freedom, individualism and the right to bear arms, are especially espoused in Texas and the rest of the American South/Midwest.
These values have led to a truly amazing country with the world's biggest economy and people creating the products and ideas that shape the future of the rest of the world. Despite all of this, there are many things I am going to miss about Australia until I hopefully return at the end of this year:
Truly beautiful cities
Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Surrounded by water on one side, Sydney has some of the best and most famous beaches in the world, together with a spectacular harbour at the centre of our city. Away from the water, Sydney has a lot of national parks and other preserved nature for hiking and exploring.
As nice as Chicago is, the city and suburbs are still a lot grimier and appear to be more decrepit than Sydney. The same is true of San Francisco and New York.
Safety
Sydney, and other Australian cities, are safe. Crime, especially violent crime, is low and I would never feel scared to catch public transport or walk alone late at night.
The same is not true in Chicago. I won't catch public transport at night and am generally more concerned about my safety. Armed robberies and mugging are not just restricted to the South Side of Chicago - they also happen in places that my friends and I go out to, such as Wicker Park and Bucktown. Additionally, gangs in Chicago have now started using rifles (including AK-47s), with one rifle attack only 10km away from where I live.
Prices are what they are
Prices in Australia include sales tax, which is a common 10% nationally. Additionally, decent minimum wages and government services mean that people in Australia don't tip, because it simply isn't required.
It's genuinely pleasing to go out in Australia and only pay what it says on the menu. While visitors to Australia often complain about the higher prices for food and other things (which probably exist), I also believe that the hidden costs of tax and tips actually makes big city life in America often more expensive than Australia.
Good infrastructure
Despite recent issues with Sydney's trains, public transport in Sydney (and other Australia cities) is generally clean, reliable, safe and fairly priced. On the other hand, public transport in America is not cheap, dirty, unreliable/generally lacking and unsafe. This gap has allowed for companies like Uber to effectively become privately subsidised providers of transportation. This may be potentially to the detriment of society as a whole, given the increase in congestion and pollution that having more cars on the roads brings.
Similarly, most roads and public facilities in Australia are better maintained than in America. Yes, we pay higher taxes in Australia. However, those taxes lead to a society that is better off on average and provides a good quality services and goods for the many, not the few.
This is why Australian cities rank highly in any global survey of best cities to live in, while American cities do far less well.
Moderate politics and sanity
Politics in America is crazy and polarised. Liberal Americans rejoiced when almost half of Alabama voted for an accused child molester (although he lost by a ridiculously narrow margin). The Trump administration is now looking to make it easier to use nuclear weapons.
Compulsory voting in Australia may reduce people's "freedoms", but it leads to far more moderate politics because parties can't appeal to the extremes to get elected. They need to consider what the average person thinks. The last politician to target the extremes of Australian politics was Tony Abbott. Abbott's certainty in the electorate having provided him a conservative mandate led to an extreme budget, incredible unpopularity amongst the electorate and Abbott's eventual removal by Turnbull (who has proven himself to be another weak PM, beholden to his conservative puppetmasters).