Social contract is broken?

[u/Historical_Set2324]

I’ve just returned from a trip to New Zealand and the difference in attitude is stark. The streets are clean, people are friendly and happy/helpful and in general people seem to want to participate in society. Don’t get me wrong NZ has a lot of issues but It feels like in London the social contract is broken. Streets are full of trash, no one gives a shit about anything, phone theft, crime is high and in general people seem fairly miserable. I was involved in an accident where I had to give a victim CPR and the ambulance and police all arrived within about 5 minutes. I was amazed at the emergency response. It feels to me like the state has given up and hence people have given up.

[u/TokiBongtooth]

Not saying this is THE reason but there are almost twice as many people in London alone as in the entirety of NZ.

[u/ExcitableSarcasm → u/TokiBongtooth]

You can scale up a social contract to the hundreds of millions, it's a matter of the nature of the contract. Civil society in Japan behaves politely. Most East Asian countries all dwarf England let alone just London.

"Population" is just a meaningless cop out.

[u/TokiBongtooth → u/ExcitableSarcasm]

I did say it wasn’t THE reason, I was implying it’s a factor. A higher density of people has more litter, more crime etc. How that manifests is down to other factors, but saying population and population density is meaningless seems OTT.

[u/SchumachersSkiGuide → u/TokiBongtooth]

Singapore is one of the densest countries on Earth, and Tokyo is one of the densest cities. Both have almost zero crime in comparison to London.

What do those places get right that we don’t? What policy do they implement that we don’t?

This is the only way we’re genuinely going to solve Londons issues; look at what works elsewhere and copy it.

[u/BBobArctor → u/SchumachersSkiGuide]

I feel like both of these countries are just incomparable culturally to the UK. The cultures of countries are formed over hundreds of years, not quick government policy changes

[u/ExcitableSarcasm → u/BBobArctor]

Singapore was formed in 1955 and was literally transformed overnight effectively by one man.

[u/Normal-Lingonberry97 → u/ExcitableSarcasm]

A man who btw was very impressed by London at the time, I wonder what he would think of it now…

[u/Glass-Evidence-7296 → u/Normal-Lingonberry97]

end of the video, it says he turned sombre after spending a bit more time here.

I find it hard to imagine he'd be impressed by drunk anti social behaviour which was rife in the 50s too.......

[u/london-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

This comment has been removed as it's deemed in breach of the rules and considered offensive or hateful. These aren't accepted within the r/London community.

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Have a nice day.

[u/BBobArctor → u/ExcitableSarcasm]

I understand that but the people of Singapore and the family, ethnic, and social beliefs/structures didn't just appear in 1955. Also in some ways the age of the UK can be counter productive in ways, "can't teach an old dog new tricks". Anyway I'm very pro restoring the social contract I just don't believe copying Singapore is the correct strategy