Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs • Hacker News Board

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#121

Post by andyburke » Thu, May 31, 2018, 5:27 PM UTC

jaytaylor wrote: post #96

Diederich wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you believe that exposure to weather is killing a statistically significant number of people in the UK?

Hard to say about the UK for sure without further research. During college in Utah I was sad each winter to regularly read stories in the newspaper about homeless people found frozen to death in parks. After President Jimmy Carter closed the mental institutions in the 70s, the mentally ill people were just let out of the asylums without any plan or further support from the state. Since then, homelessness has grown in…

Not sure why you think Carter closed the mental institutions:

"1980 President Jimmy Carter signs the Mental Health Systems Act to improve on Kennedy’s dream [JFK wanted to create a network of community mental health centers where mentally ill people could live in the community while receiving care.].

1981 President Reagan repeals Carter’s legislation with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. This pushes the responsibility of mentally ill patients back to the states. The legislation creates block grants for the states, but federal spending on mental illness declines."

https://www.kqed.org/news/11209729/did-the-emptying-of-menta...

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#122

Post by dpark » Thu, May 31, 2018, 5:31 PM UTC

purple-again wrote: post #111

dpark wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize that most of California is not the Bay Area, right? Also you sound pretty bitter. I never saw a roach when I lived in Mountain View, though my apartment was pretty small.

Hmm not sure how you could take away such a poor interpratiaton of my comment. I’m actually having a great day and one of the best years of my life. At the time of my comment, very early in the submission, all of the other comments were drawing false conclusions about what is being presented. GDP comparisons tell you nothing about the lives of the people living in those two areas being compared. My original comment w…

Maybe because you made reference to living in a "roach infested box in California" not just once but twice.

If your goal was just to educate people about the shortcomings of GDP as a measure of living standard, the social commentary about California's high cost of living didn't help.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#123

Post by fareesh » Thu, May 31, 2018, 5:33 PM UTC

Hug of death?

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#124

Post by akarma » Thu, May 31, 2018, 5:43 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #115

alehul wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Swede living in the United States, I can agree that the average person has a higher quality of life in Scandinavia! I don't think it's possible to have that in the States, though; the country doesn't seem meant for it. The Scandinavian model relies on many incompatible tenets that could be mentioned, including but not limited to immigration. The Swedish system is already practically collapsing from its first maj…

One example is that all your income tax goes to the local government up until a certain point (~65,000 USD?), and it's redistributed at that level, rather than being siphoned through so many levels of bureaucracy like in the States. A very intriguing idea. I like it on the surface, but it falls down a little bit because local taxation is varied. Some cities have their own income taxes, while others don't. Some states…

Very true! This is only possible through Sweden's standardization of tax rates — it's more like if the federal government directed the taxes they receive immediately to the local jurisdictions, but the federal government still sets the specific tax rate. Local governments won't need other forms of taxation in this model, as the income tax received is more than enough to have perfect infrastructure and all.

It's currently infeasible in the US due to how substantial our federal government is, but it's funny as it's a libertarian dream to minimize the government; Sweden's success is in fact doing so, but also keeping tax rates high in the process.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#125

Post by usrusr » Thu, May 31, 2018, 5:44 PM UTC

pluto9 wrote: post #98

usrusr wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP wasn't specific about absolute vs relative GDP (American performance in QOL per GDPPC may not be terrible, but certainly not beyond all doubt), the Oklahoma/Iraq comparison was.

Yeah, no it wasn't. My comment compared quality of life while failing to account for per-capita GDP. So did GP. How is mine more specific about it?

GP post is open to a benevolent interpretation wherein a cooperative reader fills in the missing "per capita" from the context of talking about quality of life.

Calling Iraq and Oklahoma similar closes that door, because those two are not similar at all per capita.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#126

Post by vkou » Thu, May 31, 2018, 6:01 PM UTC

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #29

themodelplumber wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't see Russia on the map, where did you find it?

It's in the text at the bottom: "The economy of alleged US nemesis Russia is less than 9% as large as the US economy and hasn’t grown consistently in years."

Russia has ~40% of the population of the US, and one major export - oil. Oil in itself, surprisingly, does not contribute much to GDP[1] (Even though the modern world is built on it).

Outside from the major metro areas, Russia does not have a extensive - or expensive service economy, and it has very few exports. Between that, and the petro-ruble suffering from oil shocks/sanctions, its GDP is, unsurprisingly, quite low.

[1] Oil is, for example, 3% of Canada's GDP, but you wouldn't think it, given how hard the federal government is trying to prop it up, at the expense of other industries. Extracting it, like growing food, is an incredibly low-value industry.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#127

Post by pluto9 » Thu, May 31, 2018, 6:01 PM UTC

usrusr wrote: post #125

pluto9 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, no it wasn't. My comment compared quality of life while failing to account for per-capita GDP. So did GP. How is mine more specific about it?

GP post is open to a benevolent interpretation wherein a cooperative reader fills in the missing "per capita" from the context of talking about quality of life. Calling Iraq and Oklahoma similar closes that door, because those two are not similar at all per capita.

It cannot reasonably be interpreted that way. GP made a blanket statement about how in spite of our GDP being higher than many other countries, our quality of life is not. That is obviously false.

I choose to interpret GP's comment to mean what it actually says. You may choose to put words in GP's mouth so that their argument says what you wish it to say, but for me that's a waste of time. If they wish to clarify and restate their argument, they are welcome to do so. But then they will have to provide some evidence that per-capita GDP "goes farther" in other countries than in the U.S. So far nobody has done that.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#128

Post by ReturnUD » Thu, May 31, 2018, 6:04 PM UTC

joeschmoe3 wrote: post #101

WOW... If you add up the population of the "similar GDP" countries its well over a a BILLION people.

Well, of course. It is us, "developing" nations' populace that gets the shortest end of the stick with no hope and redemption in sight.

Honestly, injustice is just too great to bear. All you ever discuss is things like 10% gender-gap in payouts for the people within your arbitrary borders, yet the horrible exploitation inflicted on us by yourself is never ever discussed.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#129

Post by kungtotte » Thu, May 31, 2018, 6:06 PM UTC

alehul wrote: post #41

curiousgal wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I've been to Scandinavia and despite the countries having less GDPs, the quality of life, for the average citizen, is way higher.

As a Swede living in the United States, I can agree that the average person has a higher quality of life in Scandinavia! I don't think it's possible to have that in the States, though; the country doesn't seem meant for it. The Scandinavian model relies on many incompatible tenets that could be mentioned, including but not limited to immigration. The Swedish system is already practically collapsing from its first maj…

I'm a Swede still living in Sweden, and I take issue with some of what you say.

We are nowhere close to collapsing, first of all. I don't know if you've been back recently or if you get your information from social media only, but really things are fine.

Secondly this was hardly the first major influx of immigrants ever. We saw a major influx during the conflicts in former Yugoslavia during the 90s, lots of people came here after the US started wars against Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 00s. And back in the 60s there was a huge amount of workforce immigration, so much so that Finnish people are still the largest non-Swedish group in the country.

Fun fact: the second largest group of people to come to Sweden in 2016 were repatriating swedes.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#130

Post by kungtotte » Thu, May 31, 2018, 6:09 PM UTC

joejerryronnie wrote: post #59

alehul wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Swede living in the United States, I can agree that the average person has a higher quality of life in Scandinavia! I don't think it's possible to have that in the States, though; the country doesn't seem meant for it. The Scandinavian model relies on many incompatible tenets that could be mentioned, including but not limited to immigration. The Swedish system is already practically collapsing from its first maj…

The population of Sweden is 10 million vs 325 million for the US. The issues faced by each country are vastly different in scale and policies which work at one scale will not necessarily work at the other. In this context we should be comparing the policies of Sweden to the policies of New York (but even that doesn't really work because of the vastly more diverse population of NY).

I totally accept the argument that it's not the same thing to run a country of 10 milion versus 325 million, but why does demographics matter so much?

A lot of the differences between Sweden and the US comes down to things like whether health care should be a human right etc. Do you think people are less inclined to want "free" health care if they live in a community that's ethnically mixed? I don't buy it.