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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35581 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 20, 2023

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(1). Why should the US be poorer? Is it just because we are such an outlier on income compared to everyone else?

Not that we are an outlier compared to other countries but compared to other countries with the same SAT*

(2) Russia has already been gutted of a lot of the intelligentsia. Not sure there’s much left. Vietnam I’ve gotten curious about. I heard they have really high test scores and didn’t know that. But what great scientist has ever been from there or tech developed? Might be a population to target.

Tbh the specific countries aren't important here, they were randomly picked. There are supposedly 40 countries ranked higher than the US on SAT*, many of which have lower development, like Brazil, China, etc.

For why some country’s go free market with more immigration I think a lot of that is a native backlash to giving more to poorer communities. In America it’s the blacks and some immigrants. If America wasn’t diverse then I think we probably would be more socialist.

I agree, I assume class unity is a lot easier to accomplish in countries that don't also have ethnic divisions.

On the other hand, the Netherlands and Belgium developed very comprehensive welfare states while riven by pillarization.

My Netherlands history is almost non-existent and my Belgian history is non-existent, but I don't think that Catholics were a notably economically dependent community in the Netherlands, nor Protestants in Belgium?

I don’t know much about the Netherlands but in Belgium the Dutch and French (or Flemmings and Walloons if you prefer their Dr. Seuss names) have had pretty tense relations; pre ww2 the Dutch were poorer and had their language repressed in schools, now they’re richer (and have a a bit of an ethno-nationalist movement). I think they’re all mostly Catholic

Fair counterpoint tbh

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