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I can't speak for all those who've made homogeneity arguments, but I've made them before in the context of Norway and will say this: Often, you'll hear people
by anongraddebt 8y ago
I can't speak for all those who've made homogeneity arguments, but I've made them before in the context of Norway and will say this:
Often, you'll hear people say something like, "Norway did X and it works, so we should do X in the U.S." These are typically fairly naive claims. Regardless of the normative dimension of the claim (whether X is worth doing in the U.S. in the first place), there is a non-trivial amount of complexity that is swept under the rug. For instance, NYC has twice the population of Norway. The U.S. really is significantly more demographically diverse than Norway (or, if this claim isn't good, then we can just say they are equally diverse, but at the scale of the U.S. this diversity increases complexity a non-trivial amount). The U.S. has a more fragmented legal system. Etc. Etc. Etc.
If a Martian were asked which nation would be easier to implement new policies in, maintain those policies, and have them bring about the desired end, which do you think they'd choose? I wager they would immediately choose Norway.
- changchuming 8y agoWestern democracies love to talk about Norway, but in my native Singapore, which has a comparable population to Norway, crime rate is way lower than Norway. Yet we have some of the most draconian laws ever which run antithetical to the liberal ideals in Norway. Fact is, a country with a small population is much easier to control than a country the size of US or China. We also have a much more diverse population than Norway, so if anything, US should be looking towards us for inspiration.
- anongraddebt 8y agoInteresting. In the past, I had never considered Singapore in this regard.