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I find the elephant curve explanation compelling. But I’m not sure it’s fair to then say there’s nothing that can be done to mitigate the impact of that. Rich
by glaugh 8y ago
I find the elephant curve explanation compelling. But I’m not sure it’s fair to then say there’s nothing that can be done to mitigate the impact of that.
Rich Scandinavian countries, for example, have a more redistributive tax system that appears to leave people broadly happier. Fine to argue the relative merits of such an intervention, of course, but worth noting it’s very much an option.
- kryogen1c 8y agoNot really an option. The largest scandanavian country, sweden, is a little larger than Los Angeles and the rest are much smaller. They have little emigration and immigration, and although their gdp per capita is similar, the huge population difference means their economies/gdp are of a totally different scale. Apples to oranges.
- mr_overalls 8y agoYour rationale for the Nordic model being inapplicable to the US is a common one among conservatives, but it baffles me. Of course the Nordics are smaller than the US, but all of the economic variables in question should scale on a per-capita basis. Specifically, what is it about a population difference that makes a strong safety net inapplicable?
- rootusrootus 8y agoPopulation size seems like a red herring. The real difference is that the U.S. has a significant number of non-white minorities.
- kamarg 8y agoCan you explain why that would make a difference in the effectiveness of the policies?
- sunshinelackof 8y agoThat is unnecessarily divisive. Northern European countries trust each other more. They might have an ethnic and cultural history that enables trust while The US doesn't. No one can deny the influences and overlaps of public policy, culture, and economics on each other, but no individual aspect of society justifies inaction. That is more of a red herring than anything.
- pc86 8y agoAh yes, it couldn't possibly be that some people have a (justified or not) ideological opposition to something, or that they believe there are real concrete things that would prevent something working for a country of 9 million also working for a country of 326 million. No, it's definitely that they hate brown people. I expect better from HN, honestly.
- rootusrootus 8y agoWhat I expect from HN is recognition of facts. Denying the role racism plays in any discussion about welfare is intellectually dishonest.
- klipt 8y ago"America is bigger than X" is a thought terminating cliche to make people stop asking awkward questions like "why is quality of life better in X?" Except it's baloney, the EU even has a bigger population than the US and has universal healthcare, public transit, etc.
- mijamo 8y agoThere is more emigration and immigration in Sweden than in the US (relative to the population). I don't see why scale would matter that much. If it works for 12 millions why wouldn't it work for 2times more, or 10 times more ? Or 30 times more ? It would require some real argument about why size matters and prevents the policy from working. Because right now the US has an economic repartition similar to Israel, which is even smaller than Sweden.
- badpun 8y agoAnecdata: I work within a large Scandinavian bank. I've met a lot of people (maybe 20?) from our Copenhagen office, but I've yet to met a single Dane among them. It's a mix of Eastern Europeans, Western Europeans, Southern Europeans, other Scandinavians Indians, Chinese, UK, US etc.
- AndrewUnmuted 8y agoThese Scandinavian countries may be unable to afford this approach if they were required to provide for their own national defense at entirely their own expense. In doing so, many countries with these sorts of nation wide programs may become woefully uncompetitive, not to mention quality of services would go down.
- piva00 8y agoDo you have sources supporting this argument?