2013 ranked us #3. just behind norway and ausUzique The Lesser wrote:
it needs an extra colour, because the scandinavian countries are ahead of you americans in almost every single way by quite a sizable margin. and yet it makes it seem like all of the dark-blue are 'equally developed'. there's a huge gap.Macbeth wrote:
my personal favorite map thing is the U.N.'s Human development index.
feels good to be part of the developed world
yeah you get religious lunatics pitching up outside people's funerals and saying they deserved to die of cancer because they were "fags".Macbeth wrote:
well considering that Europeans put folks in prison for calling people niggers on the internet or denying the holocaust, I think our free speech laws are great and much better than the alternative.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
yeah i would say with all the openness of the press you have in the US, you are reallllly enlightened.Macbeth wrote:
They measure political freedoms like openness of the press, enfranchisement rates etc. hardly meaningless
freedom to think alex jones has a point. freedom to think fox news gives a reliable worldview. a whole lot of freedom in the american south.
enfranchisement i can agree with, but i don't necessarily think it follows that an all-voting democracy leads to a fairer system, or a higher quality of life. really is hard to draw a direct line of causation like that. aren't there plenty of political scientists that still link the stressing of the equality and empowerment of women is a major cause in the disintegration of the family? and hence as a corollary the increase in domestic violence, drug/sexual abuse, mental illness, etc.? you are just taking empty idealisms and projecting them into concrete fact. america has more 'freedom' than anywhere else, but you aren't world-leaders in much worth bragging about.
every day in america a small miracle.
how do you get #3 with your rates of violent crime, incarceration, poverty, demonstrably terrible secondary education, and health-care only for the privileged? that puts you below most european states immediately. pretty sure estonia is better.Macbeth wrote:
2013 ranked us #3. just behind norway and ausUzique The Lesser wrote:
it needs an extra colour, because the scandinavian countries are ahead of you americans in almost every single way by quite a sizable margin. and yet it makes it seem like all of the dark-blue are 'equally developed'. there's a huge gap.Macbeth wrote:
my personal favorite map thing is the U.N.'s Human development index.
feels good to be part of the developed world
also about 3 people have been put in prison for racist abuse on twitter. all very short terms.Macbeth wrote:
well considering that Europeans put folks in prison for calling people niggers on the internet or denying the holocaust, I think our free speech laws are great and much better than the alternative.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
yeah i would say with all the openness of the press you have in the US, you are reallllly enlightened.Macbeth wrote:
They measure political freedoms like openness of the press, enfranchisement rates etc. hardly meaningless
freedom to think alex jones has a point. freedom to think fox news gives a reliable worldview. a whole lot of freedom in the american south.
enfranchisement i can agree with, but i don't necessarily think it follows that an all-voting democracy leads to a fairer system, or a higher quality of life. really is hard to draw a direct line of causation like that. aren't there plenty of political scientists that still link the stressing of the equality and empowerment of women is a major cause in the disintegration of the family? and hence as a corollary the increase in domestic violence, drug/sexual abuse, mental illness, etc.? you are just taking empty idealisms and projecting them into concrete fact. america has more 'freedom' than anywhere else, but you aren't world-leaders in much worth bragging about.
how many american males are in prison? how many black males? yeah i guess europe is the place where freedom is so inhibited and so many are penalized.
no one should go to prison for remarks period.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
also about 3 people have been put in prison for racist abuse on twitter. all very short terms.Macbeth wrote:
well considering that Europeans put folks in prison for calling people niggers on the internet or denying the holocaust, I think our free speech laws are great and much better than the alternative.Uzique The Lesser wrote:
yeah i would say with all the openness of the press you have in the US, you are reallllly enlightened.
freedom to think alex jones has a point. freedom to think fox news gives a reliable worldview. a whole lot of freedom in the american south.
enfranchisement i can agree with, but i don't necessarily think it follows that an all-voting democracy leads to a fairer system, or a higher quality of life. really is hard to draw a direct line of causation like that. aren't there plenty of political scientists that still link the stressing of the equality and empowerment of women is a major cause in the disintegration of the family? and hence as a corollary the increase in domestic violence, drug/sexual abuse, mental illness, etc.? you are just taking empty idealisms and projecting them into concrete fact. america has more 'freedom' than anywhere else, but you aren't world-leaders in much worth bragging about.
how many american males are in prison? how many black males? yeah i guess europe is the place where freedom is so inhibited and so many are penalized.
adjusted for inequality U.S. moves to #16, still beats the U.K. ranked at #19. Unadjusted the U.K. is at #26Uzique The Lesser wrote:
how do you get #3 with your rates of violent crime, incarceration, poverty, demonstrably terrible secondary education, and health-care only for the privileged? that puts you below most european states immediately. pretty sure estonia is better.Macbeth wrote:
2013 ranked us #3. just behind norway and ausUzique The Lesser wrote:
it needs an extra colour, because the scandinavian countries are ahead of you americans in almost every single way by quite a sizable margin. and yet it makes it seem like all of the dark-blue are 'equally developed'. there's a huge gap.
completely meaningless stat. and yes, the UK is very unequal. i am not vouching for the UK anywhere here. notice i said america is far behind most 'european' states, specifically the scandinavian states. i am not turning this into a pissing contest between 'my country vs. yours'. just saying you posting all these meaningless 'go usa!' images are pretty dumb. just like your remarks that syria and iraq are better off now they are toasted craters with 'a constitushun'.
it is not my fault the facts say the USA is a great place to live compared to most of the rest of the world. give it a few generations and the Iraqis and Syrians will be better off. it just takes time. the same way the Japanese are better off and so are the Germans. I am sure a lot of them missed the glory days too right after their wars. And now look at them.
god bless japan
god bless japan
Last edited by Macbeth (2013-06-17 04:27:30)
I had a social life once.
Maybe I'm pessimistic, but I don't see Iraq booming in 50 years like Germany or Japan. We lost a boatload of money there, but it still wasn't exactly a Marshall Plan. Also Mac, you don't want any chick with a pixelated vag.
Who said it has to be 50 years? Why not a 100? All I'm saying that getting rid of Saddam was the first and necessary step along that road to inevitable progress. It had to happen eventually. Considering all the ways it could have happened, it worked out as best it could.
Maybe, but what about the people?Macbeth wrote:
Considering all the ways it could have happened, it worked out as best it could.
"road to inevitable progress". you sound like a liberal from 1880. i hope you realize no historian or political scientist has ever spoken of "inevitable progress" since about 1950. the idea of progress is outdated in almost every single intellectual discipline. 'progress' is a shibboleth. i literally CANNOT believe a polisci major is sat there waxing lyrical about iraq's 'inevitable progress'. my fucking god.
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-06-17 04:39:48)
I think they just asked people - on a scale of 0-5, with 0 being angry entitled veteran/hipster, how happy are you?Uzique The Lesser wrote:
for someone who talks about art and taste's infinite regression into subjectivity and indeterminacy, you sure are a paid-in scientific believer to ideas of a 'happiness index'. which i think is very funny. happiness means different things to english people and french people. it is very culturally and materially specific. an african is happy with their day if they get some clean water from a well. an american is happy if they get the latest nike jordan trainers. but okay, let's put all that abstract 'happiness' into a giant world-spanning graph.Dilbert_X wrote:
So negative, why don't you shoot up already?Uzique The Lesser wrote:
now correlate the countries with the highest suicide rates and mental illness rates with that image of those 'living below poverty' line.
???
profit
There is a better correlation here:
did the researchers go around measuring people's happiness with calipers? putting probes on their tongues? i'm sure it was all very scientific.
It doesn't need someone to write a 100,000 word essay to describe it.
Fuck Israel
yeah so scientific. world happiness levels. whatever next.
positive vs. negative liberty. we just happen to think that people being free from racist or ideological abuse is more important than someone's enshrined right to spout that dumb abuse. in a utilitarian sense, our system is more ethically fair. read a book.Macbeth wrote:
no one should go to prison for remarks period.
you called roc a nigger. don't lecture about protecting people from racist abuse.
you are just a hypocrite who can't follow through with the strong positions he takes.
post some more nude pictures of objectified women you don't care about beyond your penis and tell me about how you are so compassionate and integral.
and i don't think you need to invoke hypocrisy, following your laughable comments on animal cruelty and individual rights...
and i don't think you need to invoke hypocrisy, following your laughable comments on animal cruelty and individual rights...
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-06-17 05:09:45)
In terms of happiness what else is there other than how happy people feel?Uzique The Lesser wrote:
yeah so scientific. world happiness levels. whatever next.
Fuck Israel
i think that's the whole point... christ how are you this dense. i already expanded on why it's problematic up above. go read.
Its not problematic, if its all relative, just as the suicide index, not sure why you'd bring that up if its meaningless.
Last edited by Dilbert_X (2013-06-17 05:27:27)
Fuck Israel
how is suicide relative? suicide is a social fact. happiness is not a fact. people kill themselves - they're dead. it happened. record it in the books. people say they "feel happy". uuuh? ask them a week later? ask them when the sun's not out? ask them after an argument with their spouse? it's completely fucking meaningless. what does 'happiness' or 'contentedness' mean in japan? where family and corporate culture are central? what does happiness mean to a tribe living in ghana? happiness is nebulous and illusory - a poorly defined subjective concept. it's like "pain". suicide is something that happens - an empirical fact. hence why you get a 'suicide rate'. hence why nobody really speaks of a 'happiness counter'.
cannot believe this has to be explained to you.
cannot believe this has to be explained to you.
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-06-17 05:50:37)
unless youre the king of bhutanUzique The Lesser wrote:
how is suicide relative? suicide is a social fact. happiness is not a fact. people kill themselves - they're dead. it happened. record it in the books. people say they "feel happy". uuuh? ask them a week later? ask them when the sun's not out? ask them after an argument with their spouse? it's completely fucking meaningless. what does 'happiness' or 'contentedness' mean in japan? where family and corporate culture are central? what does happiness mean to a tribe living in ghana? happiness is nebulous and illusory - a poorly defined subjective concept. it's like "pain". suicide is something that happens - an empirical fact. hence why you get a 'suicide rate'. hence why nobody really speaks of a 'happiness counter'.
cannot believe this has to be explained to you.
actually most buddhist concepts of happiness and contentedness are specifically said in the scripture to transcend words and language. bhutan is small enough and homogeneous enough to apply that sort of weird scheme.
science and psychology cannot even agree on what 'causes' or 'comprises' happiness. or sadness, either. it hasn't been 'determined'.
but yay let's extrapolate this murky category to a worldwide chart. it's statistical, so it must be true.
science and psychology cannot even agree on what 'causes' or 'comprises' happiness. or sadness, either. it hasn't been 'determined'.
but yay let's extrapolate this murky category to a worldwide chart. it's statistical, so it must be true.
Last edited by Uzique The Lesser (2013-06-17 06:05:23)