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Yet another opportunity taken to bash Europe! Try harder next time: Income inequality (Gini coefficient, CIA Gini): EU: 30.4 US: 45 https://en.wikipedia.org/w

by rmxt 12y ago

Yet another opportunity taken to bash Europe! Try harder next time: Income inequality (Gini coefficient, CIA Gini): EU: 30.4 US: 45 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq... Life expectancy at birth: EU: 80.02 US: 79.56 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world... Infant mortality (per 1000 live births): EU: 4.33 US: 6.17 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world... Homicide rate: Europe (as a whole): 3.0 US: 4.7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intention... Freedom of the press index (lower is better): EU (weighted by population): 17.32 US: 18.22 https://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html https://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html

happyscrappy 12y ago
Europe is mostly irrelevant but obsessed with the US. Wake me when they start closing US military bases.
- minot 12y ago
  I don't understand the obsession with being the best in class or the best in history. Why does it matter? We have to try to be good. We have to try to be better than we were yesterday but why do we feel the need to outdo everyone else? When it comes to things like infant mortality rate, it isn't a competition to be the best. If we have an infant mortality of 7 and Sweden has it at 8, it is nothing to boast about. If it is about things like how many polio cases, saying that there is zero case in USA vs a hundred cases in Pakistan does not help anybody. Off topic but just want to note here that I am me. I am not my country. I am not my religion. http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html
  - happyscrappy 12y ago
    It is not about the best in class. Any tiny nation with the public population of a few blocks can have better numbers. Europe and the US are within the margin of error in most metrics but most comparisons are made with some tiny homogenous nation. Why? Because Europeans are obsessed with America's alleged wickedness and yet they complain that it is hard for them to start their business here. Why don't they start their business in Europe if they think it is so much better?
    - minot 12y ago
      Why do we have to insist that we are the best though? Why do we have to say we are number one? Of course, Europe is obsessed with the US. I've got nothing to say to them. Why are we obsessed with calling ourselves the best?

by rmxt 12y ago

happyscrappy 12y ago

Europe is mostly irrelevant but obsessed with the US. Wake me when they start closing US military bases.

minot 12y ago
I don't understand the obsession with being the best in class or the best in history. Why does it matter? We have to try to be good. We have to try to be better than we were yesterday but why do we feel the need to outdo everyone else? When it comes to things like infant mortality rate, it isn't a competition to be the best. If we have an infant mortality of 7 and Sweden has it at 8, it is nothing to boast about. If it is about things like how many polio cases, saying that there is zero case in USA vs a hundred cases in Pakistan does not help anybody. Off topic but just want to note here that I am me. I am not my country. I am not my religion. http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html
- happyscrappy 12y ago
  It is not about the best in class. Any tiny nation with the public population of a few blocks can have better numbers. Europe and the US are within the margin of error in most metrics but most comparisons are made with some tiny homogenous nation. Why? Because Europeans are obsessed with America's alleged wickedness and yet they complain that it is hard for them to start their business here. Why don't they start their business in Europe if they think it is so much better?
  - minot 12y ago
    Why do we have to insist that we are the best though? Why do we have to say we are number one? Of course, Europe is obsessed with the US. I've got nothing to say to them. Why are we obsessed with calling ourselves the best?