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"How much would we fear any technology, whether A.I. or some other technology, how much would you fear it if we lived in a world that was a lot like Denmark or
by lordnacho 6y ago
"How much would we fear any technology, whether A.I. or some other technology, how much would you fear it if we lived in a world that was a lot like Denmark or if the entire world was run sort of on the principles of one of the Scandinavian countries?"
Would be interesting to hear what HN thinks those principles are. I often find the Scandies are seen in a idealized light, everyone just thinks everything is great there. In many ways, it IS great there.
But consider:
- Margrethe Vestager, that EU lady who talks a lot about the power of tech, is Danish.
- Danes are not entirely convinced that there's a lot if social mobility there. They talk about social inheritance, where it turns out you'll probably do better if your parents did well in terms of getting educated.
- There's no minimum wage law, though de facto there's a sort of social contract between unions and business.
- It's easy to fire people, in contrast to many European countries.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- bbarn 6y agoThey also tend to overlook the fact that most Scandinavian countries are incredibly homogenous, which helps with adoption of socialist practices.
- input_sh 6y agoHow exactly does homogeneity relate to adoption of any policy? Fuck off with that racist rhetoric. Also welfare programs =/= socialism.
- ttt0 6y agoIt obviously does. In countries like America you have to target and pander to multiple communities with different priorities at the same time to get their vote. A homogeneous society makes everything much easier. I live in one and people are complaining about elderly being a voting block anyways. Multiracial society would divide it even further.
- gjulianm 6y ago> In countries like America you have to target and pander to multiple communities with different priorities at the same time to get their vote. Exactly the same as in any other country. Implying that a community is homogeneous just because they have the same skin color is pretty racist.
- ttt0 6y ago> Exactly the same as in any other country. Sure, so let me repeat: > I live in one and people are complaining about elderly being a voting block anyways. Multiracial society would divide it even further. No group is truly homogeneous. We're talking about racial homogeneity. If you don't like that some racial groups are acting as voting blocks then go complain to politicians or those groups, not me.
- gjulianm 6y ago> No group is truly homogeneous. We're talking about racial homogeneity. So you do agree that saying that a country is "homogeneous" just because it is racially homogeneous does not make sense?
- ttt0 6y agoNo, I don't. Since we can't take it literally, it's an acceptable abbreviation to "racial homogeneity". And you all obviously knew what it meant, there wasn't any confusion of what was actually being said here.
- gjulianm 6y agoExactly, we all knew what it meant, that's why I said it's racist. Thinking that people of the same race will vote the same policies in different countries, or that the only division that makes implementing policies harder is the one of race, or that race must be a dividing block, is just a racist way of thinking.
- yorwba 6y agoThere are fifteen different political parties represented in the Danish parliament (plus some independent candidates) the largest of which (Social Democrats) holds 49 of 179 seats (27%). To get a majority for their government, they formed a coalition with six other parties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folketing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folketing Evidently, Denmark is incredibly heterogeneous politically. Meanwhile, the US has only two political parties represented in the national legislature, so much more homogeneous. And yet the US doesn't have a reputation of adopting socialist practices. I think your theory needs some work.
- viklove 6y agoCheck out this video, it helps explain why diversity of thought has little to do with the number of political parties that form in a system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo Dem/Rep are just two big coalitions in the US, and with first past the post voting, it's nearly impossible to have more than two parties in the long term.
- makomk 6y agoI do get the impression, looking in from the outside, that a lot of US media coverage of other countries is basically just propaganda for domestic consumption. Sure, there's usually a few carefully-selected actual facts slipped in when they help the narrative, but the overall impression given has less to do with actual reality than it does with helping to win local political arguments.
- ceilingcorner 6y agoFree speech in US means that anyone can say anything, not that the things they’re saying are true.
- krapp 6y ago>Free speech in US means that anyone can say anything It doesn't mean that and never has. There have always been laws against certain forms of speech in the US[0], many against false and fraudulent speech. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exceptions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_free_speech_exce...
- ceilingcorner 6y agoThis comment was a test to see if someone would inevitably point out the restrictions. Congratulations, you passed.
- krapp 6y agoNeato.
- throwawei369 6y agoHow about you consume your international news from outlets that actually specialize on reporting global news. Such as the BBC world service.