4 ms·

Could downvoter(s) explain?

jdietrich 10y ago
He's literally asking us to disregard the health outcomes for a particularly vulnerable section of society. That strongly implies that these people aren't worth factoring in to our evaluation of a healthcare system, that their health simply doesn't matter. On a purely statistical level, it makes very little sense. Does he believe that poverty and drug addiction are uniquely American phenomena? Does he believe that the healthcare system has no impact on the number of people with drug addictions or chronic poverty-related diseases?
- douche 10y ago
  On the other hand, if you want to compare the enormous, diverse US to tiny, homogeneous EU countries 1-1, that's somewhat disingenuous as well.
- brianwawok 10y ago
  I'm pointing out that you are comparing apples to oranges. France is closer in composition to New Hampshire than the US as a whole. So comparing health outcomes of the US as a whole to France is wrong. Compare health outcomes of say New Hampshire or Vermont to France.... This is the same mistake the news and popular politicians use to exploit the groupthink. "Look how bad the US is at X compared to this homogenous European country". Be it prison rate or poverty level or what have you.
  - jdietrich 10y ago
    >France is closer in composition to New Hampshire than the US as a whole. Does New Hampshire have any cities where 30-40% of the population are Muslim? http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/resentment-growing-christians-muslims-marseilles/ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/resentment-growing-christians... To describe France as homogeneous is utterly, profoundly ignorant.
    - brianwawok 10y ago
      Compared to the United States, it is. If you want actual numbers, you can start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_ranked_by_ethnic_and_cultural_diversity_level https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_ranked_by_et... It is not a huge difference, but it's there. I wouldn't consider religion the top factor to pivot on, I would consider things like native language a better model. Here is data that suggests infant mortality ranges from 9.6 in Mississippi to 4.2 in MA. So by this metric, infant mortality is in fact LOWER for many people than in France (or many parts of Europe). http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/infant-death-rate/?currentTimeframe=0 http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/infant-death-rate/?curr...

He's literally asking us to disregard the health outcomes for a particularly vulnerable section of society. That strongly implies that these people aren't worth factoring in to our evaluation of a healthcare system, that their health simply doesn't matter. On a purely statistical level, it makes very little sense. Does he believe that poverty and drug addiction are uniquely American phenomena? Does he believe that the healthcare system has no impact on the number of people with drug addictions or chronic poverty-related diseases?

douche 10y ago
On the other hand, if you want to compare the enormous, diverse US to tiny, homogeneous EU countries 1-1, that's somewhat disingenuous as well.
brianwawok 10y ago
I'm pointing out that you are comparing apples to oranges. France is closer in composition to New Hampshire than the US as a whole. So comparing health outcomes of the US as a whole to France is wrong. Compare health outcomes of say New Hampshire or Vermont to France.... This is the same mistake the news and popular politicians use to exploit the groupthink. "Look how bad the US is at X compared to this homogenous European country". Be it prison rate or poverty level or what have you.
- jdietrich 10y ago
  >France is closer in composition to New Hampshire than the US as a whole. Does New Hampshire have any cities where 30-40% of the population are Muslim? http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/resentment-growing-christians-muslims-marseilles/ http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/resentment-growing-christians... To describe France as homogeneous is utterly, profoundly ignorant.
  - brianwawok 10y ago
    Compared to the United States, it is. If you want actual numbers, you can start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_ranked_by_ethnic_and_cultural_diversity_level https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_ranked_by_et... It is not a huge difference, but it's there. I wouldn't consider religion the top factor to pivot on, I would consider things like native language a better model. Here is data that suggests infant mortality ranges from 9.6 in Mississippi to 4.2 in MA. So by this metric, infant mortality is in fact LOWER for many people than in France (or many parts of Europe). http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/infant-death-rate/?currentTimeframe=0 http://kff.org/other/state-indicator/infant-death-rate/?curr...