4 ms·

Bit similar to how everyone misunderstands the size of Africa. Here's a nice toy to play around with for a couple of hours: https://thetruesize.com https://thet

by sveme 5y ago

Bit similar to how everyone misunderstands the size of Africa. Here's a nice toy to play around with for a couple of hours: https://thetruesize.com https://thetruesize.com So it makes sense to compare the US to Europe as a continent. Got it. What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US?

rootusrootus 5y ago
> What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US? My guess would be population density. The US has ~330M people, Europe has ~748M.
- lovecg 5y ago
  US is more dense though (going by www.worldometers.info). I think these explanations “why we can’t have good things” are too simplistic. Ignore rail and fiber for a second, and look at commuter air travel for example: European market is much more competitive and prices are much lower than for comparable flights in the US.
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    I think you should double check, that sounds reversed. US and Europe have similar area but Europe has quite a lot more people.
    - perardi 5y ago
      Yeah, Europe is way, way more dense. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+density+USA+vs+europe https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+density+USA... United States | 36 people/km^2 Europe | 104 people/km^2
      - lovecg 5y ago
        Huh. I wonder where this data is from: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/europe-population/ https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/europe-popula... “The population density in Europe is 34 per Km^2” Edit: duh. They included all of Russia as “Europe”. I stand corrected.
munificent 5y ago
> What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US? The main one is just not understanding how difficult transit and logistics is here. I've heard British people complain that we should just put high speed passenger rail all across the country like they did while not realizing that their country is literally 1% of the size of the US and more than ten times the population density. The most sadly hilarious one I see fairly often is Europeans planning vacations to the states and intending to drive across the country in a few days so they can see all the big landmarks on the east and west coasts. It takes a lot longer than they realize.

by sveme 5y ago

rootusrootus 5y ago

> What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US? My guess would be population density. The US has ~330M people, Europe has ~748M.

lovecg 5y ago
US is more dense though (going by www.worldometers.info). I think these explanations “why we can’t have good things” are too simplistic. Ignore rail and fiber for a second, and look at commuter air travel for example: European market is much more competitive and prices are much lower than for comparable flights in the US.
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  I think you should double check, that sounds reversed. US and Europe have similar area but Europe has quite a lot more people.
  - perardi 5y ago
    Yeah, Europe is way, way more dense. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+density+USA+vs+europe https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=population+density+USA... United States | 36 people/km^2 Europe | 104 people/km^2
    - lovecg 5y ago
      Huh. I wonder where this data is from: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/europe-population/ https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/europe-popula... “The population density in Europe is 34 per Km^2” Edit: duh. They included all of Russia as “Europe”. I stand corrected.

munificent 5y ago

> What kind of criticism have you read that is wrong due to a misunderstanding of the scale of the US? The main one is just not understanding how difficult transit and logistics is here. I've heard British people complain that we should just put high speed passenger rail all across the country like they did while not realizing that their country is literally 1% of the size of the US and more than ten times the population density. The most sadly hilarious one I see fairly often is Europeans planning vacations to the states and intending to drive across the country in a few days so they can see all the big landmarks on the east and west coasts. It takes a lot longer than they realize.