They tell a story, nevertheless. Unless a form of measurement results in perverse incentives, it's still informative. US cops shoot a lot of people, disproport

They tell a story, nevertheless. Unless a form of measurement results in perverse incentives, it's still informative. US cops shoot a lot of people, disproportionately black. US prisons are stuffed, for a private profit or to keep an institutional flywheel spinning. US high schools that are not in rich suburbs could do a lot better, and the ones that are doing well enough are often complacent. US wars burned trillions of dollars our children will pay back with interest. Eventually large drags like these will pull down our overall national status, and failing to address them will drag us lower, for longer. Everybody has problems, but that's no excuse for not addressing our problems. Even less is it an excuse to pull out the dog whistle and say, in effect, "we can't be like Sweden because... um... we have too many differently pigmented people."