3 ms·

A Scandinavian economist once said to Milton Friedman, ‘In Scandinavia, we have no poverty’. Milton Friedman replied, ‘That’s interesting, because in America, a

• robertnn 9y ago
  It's easy to jump to conclusions on why you'd post this quote here.. Instead, maybe you could expand on what this quote means to you (in this context)?
  • mac01021 9y ago
    Does (s)he have to have a point? It's an interesting anecdote related (even if only tangentially) to the discussion at hand.
• _delirium 9y ago
  That's not even true, though. The highest concentration of Scandinavian-Americans is is in North Dakota, where they make up 1/3 of the state's population, and have a poverty rate that is significantly above zero.
  • protomyth 9y ago
    Actually they are a lot less of the North Dakota population[1] being 4.7% of the population. For 2016[2], North Dakota had a poverty rate of 10.7 (10th lowest in the US). Of that 10.7%, 8% were listed as White. Given this, I don't think a significant amount of Scandinavian-Americans in North Dakota are in poverty. I guess any number is not zero, but North Dakota is probably the wrong state to use for a demonstration. 1) http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/north-dakota-population/ http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/north-dakota-populat... 2) https://talkpoverty.org/state-year-report/north-dakota-2017-report/ https://talkpoverty.org/state-year-report/north-dakota-2017-... https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/ND/PST045217#viewtop https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/ND/PST045217#vi...
    • _delirium 9y ago
      > Actually they are a lot less of the North Dakota population[1] being 4.7% of the population. Your reference [1] says that 30.8% of the state's population reports Norwegian ancestry, and 4.7% reports Swedish ancestry. Overall that's pretty close to the 1/3 I ballparked for Scandinavian-American.
      • protomyth 9y ago
        Opps, I forgot the Norwegian[1]. Well, 30.8% of 8% of 10.7% is a pretty low number and assumes that the 8% is an even distribution over the White poverty rate. 1) I might still hold a grudge over the damn lefse and not being told its was potato before eating it. I was not in good shape 30 minutes later.
        • deleted 9y ago
          [deleted]
        • TheCoelacanth 9y ago
          I think you are misreading your source. You seem to be interpreting it as saying that 8% of people in poverty are white, but what it actually says is that 8% of white people are in poverty. Assuming that the poverty rate is evenly distributed over the white population, then the poverty rate for Scandinavians would also be 8%.
          • protomyth 9y ago
            I'm not misreading the source, else 100% of the people in North Dakota would be in poverty. The Native Americans are listed as 35% and that is not their percentage of the population.
            • TheCoelacanth 9y ago
              Then why are you taking 8% of 10.7%? The correct way to interpret the statistics is not "10.7% of people are in poverty and 8% of those are white", it's "8% of white people are in poverty and that 8% overlaps with the 10.7% of all people who are in poverty".
  • yetanotheruser 9y ago
    That is an excellent comeback (by Friedman), but maybe it's something that sounds good but is in fact inaccurate.
• henrikschroder 9y ago
  Obvious counterexample: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swede_Hollow,_Saint_Paul https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swede_Hollow,_Saint_Paul