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If we lived in a world where journalists knew the slightest bit about critical thinking: Hmm, I wonder if the cardboard box cuts Finland's infant mortality. May
by schoper 13y ago
If we lived in a world where journalists knew the slightest bit about critical thinking: Hmm, I wonder if the cardboard box cuts Finland's infant mortality. Maybe I should look up infant mortality for Norway and Sweden? Oh, it's exactly the same as Finland's? Can't be the box then.
I'm willing to bet that U.S. infant mortality is the same or even lower -- for people of Finnish descent.
- jeremysmyth 13y agoI'm willing to bet that U.S. infant mortality is the same or even lower -- for people of Finnish descent. Why?
- dalke 13y agoI believe that comment is supposed to be an allusion to the following: A Scandinavian economist once stated to Milton Friedman: "In Scandinavia we have no poverty." Milton Friedman replied, "That's interesting, because in America among Scandinavians, we have no poverty either." Indeed, the poverty rate for Americans with Swedish ancestry is only 6.7%, half the U.S average. Economists Geranda Notten and Chris de Neubourg have calculated the poverty rate in Sweden using the American poverty threshold, finding it to be an identical 6.7%. (Quoting from http://www.newgeography.com/content/001543-is-sweden-a-false-utopia http://www.newgeography.com/content/001543-is-sweden-a-false... )
- vacri 13y agoSounds like Friedman stopped at the first 'why' instead of going to the usual 5+.
- codeulike 13y agoIt doesn't say the box cut infant mortality, it says that in the period 1940 to 1960, a combination of the box, encouraging visits to doctors and the national health insurance system cut infant mortality.
- krichman 13y agoI've done a small study and it turns out a combination of documenting, preparing unit tests, and cardboard boxes improve my source code quality by quite a bit.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- pavlov 13y agoDuh. It's obviously not the box itself that has reduced mortality. The "cardboard box" is a rhetorical shortcut that refers to the contents of the box and all the associated materials such as the written guides on infant care. There's a strong autistic trait in HN discussion sometimes...
- ars 13y ago> contents of the box and all the associated materials such as the written guides on infant care None of that did anything either, since other countries didn't have them and infant mortality went down there too.
- eitland 13y agoFood for tought: if Norway has the same infant mortality rate and is substantially richer, does that mean something? I am not exactly a socialist but the Finnish people still impress me again and again. (Happen to have a few friends and/or relatives from Finland. )
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- czr80 13y agoIt means Norway found oil and gas.
- mercurial 13y agoIf we lived in a world where HN readers read thoroughly the articles they comment on...
- simias 13y agoI took it as a synecdoche, the cardboard box itself is obviously not very significant.