Perfect analogy Indi. Very interesting to hear your perspective living in a developing country, because as another Westerner visiting the US I always thought the US looked like a very rich developing country to me.
Like you got the big fancy houses and cars and lavish lifestyles. Yet as a Norwegian when I look at the structures of society: Such as how does government operate, how does elections work, how are services to citizens America looks like Norway 50 to 100 years ago.
If you read Norwegian history you see how the structures of society and the way government operates has changed in tandem with increased wealth and prosperity. The same pattern is usually observed in most develped countries.
In the US this processes seems to have been detached. It is like a country which has developed modern wealth levels while their system of government and structure of society has essentially gotten stuck in the 1800s.
I know this is a bit of an abstract take and when I have mentioned this to Americans they don't seem to comperhend what I mean. I think Europeans who travel around in the US however and learn more about American society will more easily grasp what I mean. To Americans it is hard because this society is often all they know.
I can use some examples though. The US perform a regular census to fighre out how many people live in the country and what they do. That looks arcane to me. It is stuff you read about in the Bible, how the Romans had a census of inhabitans of Judea.
The Norwegian government doesn't need to run a census, because like most modern states their statistics is always up to date on who lives in the country. When you enter, the country, when somebody dies, leaves etc all that gets immediately added to the system.
Likewise the electorial college is really arcane. I think European countries voted in a similar fashion about 100 years ago. It was needed when communications was slower. But we live in the modern world. We don't need presidential electors to perform the selection of a government.
I think one of the most visible examples of the conservatism in the US is the fact that the US money looks the same today as probably a hundred years ago. It has gotten no modern updates: such as using different colors and sizes for different bills to make them easily distinguishable. Pretty much every other country does this. Not the US. The US has bills in a style that was state of the art in 1800.
