Currently Online 
Also Dutch. I parrot what SvennoJ and Tober say just above me.
The obvious point is indeed how well organized we are. Svenno and Tober mention infrastructure as in roads and cycling, but it’s everything really. From that to general services to all sorts of events to the organization of the landscape itself. I dare anyone to find a “people” that’s even better at this. It does connects to Tober’s point of having no ‘real nature of significant size’. I’d go further; we have no nature at all. We have a few areas that have a natural origin, but everything is man-made and man-maintained so to say. Even the dunes and the Veluwe forest. We have pretty cities because of this, but pretty outdoor places are scarce.
This organization is culturally ingrained though, because it has been a necessity since Medieval times as population grew and the water and usability of the land became a big problem. So this is both impressive as it is a shame. I mean, we have mastery over the water now, and at one point we could make half the country an island at the blink of an eye to deter invasions (which worked until airplanes were invented) but on the other hand Tober is right that there aren’t really any places where you can really ‘get away’.
This is also getting harder and harder by the fact that the population keeps increasing quite rapidly, Svenno also mentions this. Towns and cities grow ever closer to each other putting more and more strain on the outdoor space that is left. This naturally results in social problems. People’s patience with other people is wearing thin in certain places and the tolerance for continuing immigration, while immigrants have been a thing since the Middle Ages as well, is shrinking rapidly. There’s pretty much literally “no more room”. The population puts strain on healthcare, the education system and infrastructure and public transport. Housing is a huge problem meaning many are forced to keep living with their parents for even as old as 40 in some cases. To keep up with the increasing costs of trying to combat all that and to keep everything on the level we are used to (which is high), everything gets more and more expensive. From taxes to groceries to fuel and energy to housing. It’s a downward spiral. To use an untranslatable Dutch word; It’s not getting any more ‘gezellig’.
At least we still know how to party and everyone can be who or what they want to be.
