New Zealand and the United States: A Stark Comparison

There are many important differences, many of which are interrelated, between New Zealand and the United States.  First, where the U.S. has rampant corruption that seems to be getting worse by the day, the Kiwis can proudly claim that their country ranks along with places like Denmark and Finland, as the most honest and transparent, least corrupt nations on the planet.

Another distinction to be made is that their system of governance enables science to play a superior role to that of the government itself.  When, for instance, public health officials offer guidance in the face of a pandemic, the entire country, from its Prime Ministers to its captains of industry, down to the dock workers and parking valets, do precisely what is asked of them.  And lo and behold, they don’t have a single active case of COVID-19.

At this point, that looks pretty damned attractive from this side of the Pacific, where the U.S. a) has millions of people who couldn’t care less about science, or the health of one another, and thumb their noses at laws put into place to protect us, and b) have 3.24 million active cases, not to mention an ever-growing death toll, now at 136,000.

Our leadership is atrocious, and many millions of our citizens aren’t much better.