While I am still a rather neophyte world traveler I can say without a doubt that the USA is the most unfriendly place I’ve visited.. and I live here. As I hop from continent to continent living out this life long dream, I can also say that I think I know why the USA is the way it is: population density.
there is perhaps a magical number when it comes to population density. Too many people per KM and they just get mean about it (see India and NYC). While at the other extreme they just get scared and weird about people coming into their space (see Tennessee and Norway). In a place like Phoenix you get just enough space for the entire enterprise to feel rather meh and that causes a cascade of troubles.
I discovered the theory upon returning from Victoria, BC where I walked on average 7-10 miles over the course of a day. Yet a review of my numbers here indicates I travel closer to 40 miles over the course of a day and walk less than three. This leaves me isolated and exposed to a multitude of on air distractions. I could go on about the filter bubble and how what you listen to leads to listening to more like it and how troubling that could be, but I want to focus on the foot traffic: there is none. This there are no people we are required to interact with and practice our niceties.
again, too many is bad. Too few is bad. With the heat and the space we occupy here in the desert it is very bad. My kids leave the house once a day to play basketball. They can avoid talking to another human outside of family for weeks at a time (unless they go to work). This is the case with many Arizonans. Unless it is work related, our universes often exist in bubbles projected from our phones and we don’t talk to the people two doors down.
it’s just a thoery