Countries that are less free than America.

[Mercury]

In China, you are forbidden to have more than one (1) child in your household. If you have a second, third, etc child, the Chinese police order you to kill it, and you face prison for non-compliance.

Cuba is a dictatorship. In a dictatorship, the government is literally free to do as they please, even if they want to put the entire nation into extreme poverty and cause widespread starvation while feeding their big bellies. Not to mention every single thing, down to the very words that come out of your mouth, are heavily and thoroughly monitored, and saying that the government has done something wrong will get you imprisoned and even executed.

In Saudi Arabia, single men and women are forbidden to mingle under national law. Also, women are forbidden under Saudi Arabian law to operate any type of wheeled device, including automobiles and even bicycles. Plus people are required to be covered from head to toe even when it is 120 degrees outside.

[Man With a Plan]

Thanks for dropping an ounce of sanity in this sea of misery and devolution. Only a moron would think America is the worst place in the world. The fact that you had to make this thread speaks volumes.

[Yohan]

There are plenty of countries and USA for sure is not the worst place among them worldwide - otherwise immigrants would not line up in front of US-consulates in large crowds.

However USA is not the top-country either, it is clearly overregulated, the internal legal situation between its federal states is a costly mess, it has serious racial issues among its citizens - so far this large nation was not able to create a social minimum security for all its citizens, for example regarding health insurance and retirement allowances. Labor laws do not protect workers, a huge number of people in the service industry work depend on tips to survive, there is an unusual huge prison population but many prisoners are serving unusual long sentences even for 'crimes' which are not crimes anywhere else, and you really can make a long long list what is not in best condition in USA. Not to forget to mention international politics with USA creating international laws, because in USA it is like that and therefore teaching everybody it should be everywhere in the world like that...

Personal communication among people within USA is terrible, you cannot trust anybody anymore, and there is a strong tendency of ghettos, almost no-go zones, some places look like a slum in the 3rd world. Some people are remarkably poor, no jobs, all outsourced to abroad etc.

On the other side, no other country worldwide has so many military servicemen outside of its own territory fighting everywhere in this world some totally meaningless and costly wars to protect some 'rights' ....

However again, as a non-US-citizen, who is not living in USA, I still fail to insist that USA is the worst place in the world. There are for sure at least more than 100 countries which are worse, much worse.

[Wolfeye]

I think a major thing is freedom in terms of social mores (if that's how to phrase it). In America, there are A LOT of social "lines" that can be crossed & there's no real way tell if someone actually believes them. A problem with this is that it makes people VERY unsure of each other & forming bonds are more difficult because of this- so is going about your general life, because there are so many social landmines & mirages.

[Mercury]

It is true that America is one of the least free countries, but America is not the least free country on Earth.

I would say the least free country on Earth is North Korea. Living in North Korea as a country is worse than living in Pelican Bay State Prison. North Korea is nothing but massive poverty while the greedy dictators and elite eat until their hearts content. Saying that Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il, or Kim Jong-Un have done a poor job running North Korea or saying that either one has done something wrong, plus trying to escape North Korea or get into a better life there gets a person plus 3 generations of his/her family thrown into one of North Korea's terrible gulags where they are forced into endless labor without any food. From what I read, those gulags are like Hell on Earth. Filthy, disease ridden, inmates eat live mice and rats, they dig corn kernels out of animal feces (yuck!), the camps are guarded by trigger happy guards and lethal voltage electric fences. Anyone who has read the book "Escape from Camp 14" would know just how nasty, horrible, painful, torturous, and yuckey those gulags are.

Worshipping anything other than the Kims also gets a person thrown into the gulags and even publicly executed as North Korea expects everyone to see the Kims as "gods." Christianity obviously is totally illegal in North Korea, and I even read that North Korean authorities once executed five Christians by running them over with a steamroller.

[Cornfed]

It has often been said that the West leads the world in freedom if you want to be free to be a degenerate piece of crap. If you want to be free to have a normal life, that has largely been stamped out.

[GuyAbroad8293]

Honestly, there is no country on earth that has LESS freedom than America. Especially in terms of the vibe, or atmosphere of a country. America literally has a paranoid police state vibe, everyone is constantly paranoid and afraid. NO other country on earth has such a horrible vibe.

America = hell on earth, literally

[Mercury]

In North Korea, people are forbidden to own automobiles, bicycles, boats, waverunners, rollerskates, smart phones, computers, televisions, and they are forbidden to use the Internet. Travel is also illegal in North Korea. Christianity is also illegal in North Korea, and North Koreans are expected to worship only Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il, and Kim Jong-Un. Reportedly even, North Koreans are no longer allowed to get anything but a Kim Jong-Un haircut when they get a haircut. Electricity is cut for hours practically every single night, and North Korean winters are long, cold, and brutal. Starving and freezing people are expected to "suck it up, or else." Complaining about not having enough to eat, complaining about power cuts, especially during winter, worshipping something or someone other than the dictators, possession of a smartphone, contacting people outside North Korea, and especially getting out of North Korea is punishable by imprisonment in those horrible, filthy, disease infested gulags and even public execution. Not just for the suspect either, but also 3 entire generations of the suspect's extended family!

North Korea is not even a country. It is even a nationwide supermax prison, every bit as uncomfortable as even the "Shu" at California's Pelican Bay State Prison and even the dark cells at the end of Alcatraz's "D-block." North Korea is big time Hell on Earth.

[Yohan]

In North Korea, people are forbidden to own automobiles, bicycles...

You should not all believe what is reported in Western media.
Not everybody there is dying of hunger....

There are many Chinese tourists entering North Korea and they take many pictures and videos, and there are various foreign diplomats, businessmen etc. living in Pyongyang (often from neutral countries from Europe).

Their comments are in general while life in North Korea is anything but comfortable by Western standard, it is not true that people are forbidden to own cars or bicycles...mobile phones etc. Not as bad as said in the Western media, but of course it's a strange place with personality cult....even for Chinese visitors.

Their comments also are about that the country is functioning, all is in a rather poor condition, but it works, North Korea is not a chaos country.

Traffic in Pyongyang 2017, the city has over 2.5 million people now....





There is also a metro system operating in Pyongyang if you have no car.

[fschmidt]

Traffic in Pyongyang 2017, the city has over 2.5 million people now....

The sterile architecture reminds me of America. But the subway is clean. I guess America combines the sterile architecture and urban planning of communism with the filth and disorder of a third world country.

[Yohan]

Traffic in Pyongyang 2017, the city has over 2.5 million people now....

The sterile architecture reminds me of America. But the subway is clean. I guess America combines the sterile architecture and urban planning of communism with the filth and disorder of a third world country.

Here from Japan we have some more deeper-in information about North Korea, not all is true what is written in the Western media about this country.
I know personally some people from Europe who were living in Pyongyang up to 2 years and had no problems at all.

Of course this is a poor, underdeveloped place with a strange government - even Communist China is not happy about it.
However it is not a chaos place like some poverty countries in Africa... There is an organization, everything is regulated.

Interesting how it circumvents any international sanctions, created even nuclear weapons.

Of course I don't want to live there, but we should not make North Korea worse than it is in reality.

Western media are often misleading - for example Saudi Arabia is nice, Iran is bad... etc.

USA is not always a dream country either - homeless people, a huge prison population, overpriced medical care, a chaotic legal system, everybody mistrusting everybody....

[Yohan]

Traffic in Pyongyang 2017, the city has over 2.5 million people now....

The sterile architecture reminds me of America. But the subway is clean. I guess America combines the sterile architecture and urban planning of communism with the filth and disorder of a third world country.

There are foreigners in North Korea and they often take some video and pictures. It is true that the city of Pyongyang is clean and free of crimes.
The architecture structure is typical Communist Russia related.

Of course not to misunderstand me, this is no place for me to live there, even not to visit until there is a significant political change.
And I am not very confident that something will change in the near future.

[Bao3niang]

Disagree about China and Viet Nam. You get many more everyday / social freedoms than you'll have in America.

[HappyGuy]

Depends on how you define freedom. There are social freedoms, political freedoms and freedom from too much government control. The thing is, cost of living is a big inhibitor to freedom. If everything is too expensive, including your living expenses, that's a big block to freedom of course.

What I hate is how America still pretends and acts as though the freedoms it had in the 1700's and early 1800's still exist today, as though no matter what happens, America still has those same freedoms. That's total bullocks of course, but the lie persists.

Winston in those days men even had the freedom to kill each other in duels, now you get fined for mowing your lawn at the wrong time and you can go to jail for anything, like taking steroids or not having health insurance.

If you want to be free you need money and connections.

[Mercury]

As of recently, the Taliban has ordered all women to wear burqas all over Afghanistan. For those who have no clue, a burqa is a heavy blue cloak that is worn over the head and completely conceals the entire body, eyes and all, from external view, with only a hexagonal mesh screen for the wearer to see forward. Like niqabs, a burqa also hangs down in loose folds to where it conceals the shape of the body, and a burqa also sweeps the ground. Many Middle East women are in protest against the new burqa laws, and I am sure there have been public executions in Afghanistan over the protests. There are also protests going on in Iran over hijabs.