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Finland has a population that is 70x smaller than the US. They also invest heavily in education. I assume other countries struggle scaling programs from 5 milli
by ranman 9y ago
Finland has a population that is 70x smaller than the US. They also invest heavily in education. I assume other countries struggle scaling programs from 5 million people to 350 million... and that’s why many of the great programs that Finland has don’t scale to elsewhere.
- pedrosorio 9y agoPopulation, education, "homogeneity". Why don't we just leave it at "Have you spent a winter in Finland and Southern California?"
- stefs 9y agothat's always the argument: "doesn't work here because the population size is n times as big". but i don't understand why this should be the case. it's not that the culture in the u.s. is fundamentally different. and it's not like their budget to combat homelessness couldn't also be n times as big. and the problem in the u.s. is pressing (at least compared to other rich countries) and, one would think, warrant drastic measures. i think one of the underlying problems is that homelessness is a very diverse problem - people are homeless for very different reasons and need very different solutions - and mostly a symptom of underlying problems that are actually hard to fix. i.e. fixing the symptom would be easy compared to fixing the many, many root issues, because the solutions may run counter to american cultural values, which aren't a problem in countries like finland (an expanded social safety net, for example). decriminalization of (hard) drugs as seen in portugal might be easier to implement (at least under the next democrat government). on the other hand i fear that a rising income disparity all over the world might actually cause the problem to worsen in other countries that don't have a huge pressing homelessness problem right now and follow americas lead in the latest tent city fashions.