Is Belgium really a failed state?

Tim McClennen

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Attentive student of history and current events Updated 6y

Is Belgium really a failed state?

Are you fucking kidding me!?

I don’t normally use profanity on a public, family-friendly website, but the level of severity here calls for it.

Belgium is one of the most successful states in the entire world.

• They are in the top 10 for best education in the world.
• They have a budget deficit which is only 2.6% of their GDP (the U.S. deficit was 3.5% of GDP in 2017, it will be closer to 5% in 2018)
• They just underwent a second round of prison closures because their crime rate is so low that they just don’t need very many prisons.
• They are internationally renowned as expert manufacturers of high-precision equipment.
• Their healthcare is equal in quality to the U.S. at a way cheaper price. (If you can get the same quality at a lower price, that is generally considered a big win.)

Belgium is part one of a group of countries which I call “the excellent six”: Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland. The United States should be duplicating policies from these nations.

Now, to be completely accurate, Belgium is not outperforming any of the other Excellent Six except in manufacturing, and Germany is outperforming them there. But being close to the best still makes someone really good.

Finland is the world leader in education, beating Belgium by a narrow margin. The Netherlands is the world leader in crime rate reduction, again beating Belgium by a narrow margin. Denmark is the world leader in clean energy. Sweden is the world leader in reducing garbage. But in each of these categories Belgium is on the podium, even if they aren’t in first place.

I think that these countries are doing almost everything right, but I’m not about to move to any of them. I’m an American, and I love America. But I would love to see my country transform completely. If those “excellent six” were blended together, I want the U.S. to transform into that. I want Finnish education outcomes, Belgian manufacturing expertise, Dutch (adj.: from The Netherlands, or in the style of The Netherlands) crime rates, Danish (Adj.: from or like Denmark) energy production, and Swedish garbage management. It would be amazing if the U.S. could have those things.

EDIT: So, a number of commenters, many of them Belgians, have pointed out that the Belgian prison system is actually massively over-crowded. While there are other nations in the region which have significantly reduced incarceration, Belgium is not following suit. This does not mean that they are not a mostly modern and functioning nation.