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Your 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
by mr_overalls 8y ago
Your 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.