the image of a country
2021-08-29
I like to compare countries to big corporations:
- citizens are the corporation's customers;
- government workers are its employees;
- the president, ministers, and governors are the top managers.
In countries with a fair, working market economy and a developed democracy, corporate image is a serious metric. It weighs heavily on a company's future: a company with a badly damaged image can even get pushed out of the market. And that image is judged by the quality of the services or products the company makes, the value it brings its customers, the culture and values inside the company, how its top managers carry themselves, and so on.
A country's image is the same kind of metric. But unlike companies on a market, a government is usually a monopoly inside its country. And in today's world, not every people has a real way to replace a government with a bad image.
Like any company, a government fights for smart people and for its people's (its customers') prosperity. Rich people, rich government. The government provides services (safety, protection, healthcare, education, quality of life, and all kinds of other opportunities) and takes a share of what people earn in return: taxes. When those services get worse, the country's image falls. When they improve, it rises.
I said above that a government is a monopoly inside its country, but it actually competes with the governments of other countries. And that competition is mostly for people.
Many things can raise or lower a country's image for a given group of people: what's happening in the country, how the government treats its citizens (or doesn't), the crime rate, a politics of openness or closedness, whose rights the officials actually protect, how strong justice is, how an ordinary person lives, the attitude toward the environment, whether the people are rich or poor. The first to notice these shifts are specialists in their field, people who could easily live in another country (they know the languages), free thinkers, and people who value openness. Is the country's image heading down? There you go: the smart people quietly start "moving out." They have a choice, and they prefer to live where their lives are valued.
The other side of the coin is a society's values. If a society's values run heavy on boastfulness, greed, short and primitive thinking, disrespect for people's choices, and a savage attitude toward anyone who thinks differently, the country's image degrades on its own. Free people want to live free, and in a society like that it's very hard for them to succeed. That, too, pushes smart people out of the country. And the people are left to the officials that same society produces: the kind who decide "my day has come" and do whatever they please, who never have enough, who only worry about the rights and wealth of their relatives and acquaintances.
The world in the 21st century is open enough, I think. And every country needs smart, educated people. Countries with a strong image will keep winning this competition, because not everyone has the patience to wait for a great future until the end of their life. And when a country's image keeps sliding, think at least about the children's future: why shouldn't they live in a free and open country or society?..
On the same theme: independence vs freedom.