You can say about the Mormon religion whatever you want, but they are fascinating people, and at least from an outsider's point of view their society seems to work pretty well. Living in Europe I have not met many people from Utah in my life, but those young Mormon missionaries that try to talk to you on the street always seem to be very well mannered, friendly people. If they didn't have that strange religion I could actually imagine becoming a mormon :)
Utah’s Economic Exceptionalism
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Re: Utah’s Economic Exceptionalism
#12You can say about the Mormon religion whatever you want, but they are fascinating people, and at least from an outsider's point of view their society seems to work pretty well. Living in Europe I have not met many people from Utah in my life, but those young Mormon missionaries that try to talk to you on the street always seem to be very well mannered, friendly people. If they didn't have that strange religion I coul…
Speaking as an exmo: you're correct, but also keep in mind that hiding the hurt and putting on a good face are also part of the religion. There's a reason why the cosmetic surgery billboard ads in Utah are omnipresent, and why anti-depressant usage is so high.
There are absolutely some positive things about the faith, but the darker aspects are not as easily visible.
Re: Utah’s Economic Exceptionalism
#13You can say about the Mormon religion whatever you want, but they are fascinating people, and at least from an outsider's point of view their society seems to work pretty well. Living in Europe I have not met many people from Utah in my life, but those young Mormon missionaries that try to talk to you on the street always seem to be very well mannered, friendly people. If they didn't have that strange religion I coul…
Speaking as an exmo: you're correct, but also keep in mind that hiding the hurt and putting on a good face are also part of the religion. There's a reason why the cosmetic surgery billboard ads in Utah are omnipresent, and why anti-depressant usage is so high. There are absolutely some positive things about the faith, but the darker aspects are not as easily visible.
You could say the exact same thing regarding Los Angeles Ca.
Re: Utah’s Economic Exceptionalism
#14> Although few might expect a consistently Republican, low-tax state like Utah to lead the way in [income homogeneity]... One article isn't a showstopper, but I really wish this didn't surprise people so much. Taxes are taking away people's surplus (I've often heard 'they don't need the money' come up in arguments about taxes, for example) and invest it in government. That means that if the government fails to do som…
This patently isn’t true (and if it were then the foundation of capitalism as a theory would be broken). Also all the deep south states would do a lot better in Gini co-efficient rankings. So there’s a reason why people evoke surprise when learning Utah has such low income inequality.
The surprise subsides when they learn about the average age of the population (a young population hasn’t had time to accumulate wealth yet). The propensity for large socialist structures in the state (families) also helps.
Re: Utah’s Economic Exceptionalism
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
If there is a distrust in government misusing taxes, i wonder why the solution is to have less taxes, as opposed to fixing the government? I'm not being snarky I'm just genuinely curious why that is the knee jerk reaction.
There's a major ideological divide over whether fixing the government is possible.
I worked in government for 5 years. I don't think it can be fixed.
Re: Utah’s Economic Exceptionalism
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Speaking as an exmo: you're correct, but also keep in mind that hiding the hurt and putting on a good face are also part of the religion. There's a reason why the cosmetic surgery billboard ads in Utah are omnipresent, and why anti-depressant usage is so high. There are absolutely some positive things about the faith, but the darker aspects are not as easily visible.
You could say the exact same thing regarding Los Angeles Ca.
Society is scratching the surface on toxic power dynamics. Right now we're talking about Mormons.
Re: Utah’s Economic Exceptionalism
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
If there is a distrust in government misusing taxes, i wonder why the solution is to have less taxes, as opposed to fixing the government? I'm not being snarky I'm just genuinely curious why that is the knee jerk reaction.
Fixing the government isn’t a ‘solution’. It’s a generally unsolved problem.
It's a problem that is solved much better in many other similarly-wealthy countries (see Norway, Switzerland) or pretty much all the other first world countries.
It does not have to be perfect, it only has to be better.
Re: Utah’s Economic Exceptionalism
#18You can say about the Mormon religion whatever you want, but they are fascinating people, and at least from an outsider's point of view their society seems to work pretty well. Living in Europe I have not met many people from Utah in my life, but those young Mormon missionaries that try to talk to you on the street always seem to be very well mannered, friendly people. If they didn't have that strange religion I coul…
> and at least from an outsider's point of view their society seems to work pretty well.
Narrator: It doesn't and is heavily subsidized, simultaneously making non-compliance harder to reconcile.
It is impossible to discern if someone is making a satire of their religion, is an actual Mormon, or is an actual Mormon questioning the absurdities of their society.
Re: Utah’s Economic Exceptionalism
#19Homogeneous. High trust. Purpose and meaning from religion. Conservative family centric values.
This is not surprising at all. I wish more Americans had this, I wish I did.
Re: Utah’s Economic Exceptionalism
#20> Importantly, Utah’s success also shows up in health data. Utah’s cumulative case fatality rate—arguably the most important measure of pandemic success—measures 0.63 percent (compared to the national rate of 2.87 percent) and ranks lowest in the nation (as of this writing in October 2020). What in the world is this saying? That somehow Utahns are less likely to die once they have contracted the virus and that this h…
Apparently the average age in Utah is 30, while nationally it's 38 (I assume due to prolific Mormon families?); this probably helps.
Probably true as far as Utah, but a bad assumption to make elsewhere. A high death rate will make that stat true also.