So you think everyone decides to behave more peacefully by magic? Or just because some other people did first? Again, that’s 30 percent foreign born. Unless you mean something different by “culture” than what most dictionaries call it, it is absolutely not homogenous.
I don't "believe" anything. I'm stating an objective fact. Monocultures tend to have less interpersonal violence among members of the community. Australia proactively vets incoming migrants to encourage them to internalize and adopt Austalian culture. A person can adopt a new culture as their life changes, you know that right? 30% of people born overseas implies racial diversity, nut cultural.
Culture in an individual can be fluid. The prime example there is the early 20th century American immigrants who took pains to assimilate into American culture, in some cases even changing their names, and raise their children as Americans.
What you observed on your visits and what I see living here isn’t homogenous beliefs, it’s a relatively across all populations lower level of stress. The reasons for that are institutional, there isn’t anything in the water that just magically makes people from all over the world more chill here. If there is anything approaching a cultural cause it is that trade unions achieved extremely high membership and thereby shaped voting and social service institutions. Australia has that in common with Scandinavian countries. But that’s not a product of some esoteric “trust” or magic personal qualities of its people in either place.
If the United States had similarly robust democratic processes, social safety nets, relatively high wages and good job security, it would have the same “homogenous” low levels of stress. Given the gigantic amount of wealth there overall to be honest it could outdo Scandinavia. It’s just that for political reasons, you all choose not to live in that kind of society.
Unfortunately for your rambling hypothesis, it's counter-factual. Australians do not report significantly less stress than Americans. Actually probably slightly more. Australians report in the 35%-38% range for Significant Anxiety, Distress and Depression. Americans report only 24% as significantly stressed.
Of the stressors, they are remarkably similar between our countries: Finances/Money, Health issues, family issues, and workplace stress rank at the top. (Although in the 2023 American stress survey "The Economy" edged out Family Issues here. I guess we don't believe the messaging that Bidenomics is awesome.
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These numbers are based in "soft science" so I wouldn't take them as the holy writ, but they certainly don't show a trend of less stress, and specifically less stress about health, mental health and employment in Oz vs. the US. That's not the cause of Australia's relatively low violence rate.
