Social Mobility Index

[blackpowder]

This conversation is ridiculous.
After Canada then the US. Only maybe Oz. Any where else, your just talking out your ass. Unless you came from a big urban center.
I encourage my kids to go south if they get a chance.

[dmlfarmer]

Lets deconstruct that index.

Heath, all the medical breakthroughs and research are discovered and pioneered in the US.

Education, best universities and tech schools on the planet all in the US

Technology, every high tech company worth talking about domiciled in US

Work, US unemployment half of any other country on that list. GDP a full point above all of them too.

Protection, well US military wins that hands down.

Institutions, after seeing the dictatorship at work here in Canada and the EU and China, is there any system on the planet better than the US? Not a chance. Power distributed right to the local level. Congress checks the president, state level election of reps, local circuit courts can over turn presidential legislation, the reviews and scrutiny and checks on power are stunning.

Norway? Switzerland? Give me a fing break.

Jazz do you have any idea what social mobility means?

And not just Jazz, but from comments here it is obvious than most of you do not understand the concept of social mobility. It is not what country makes the most discoveries, or has the most companies. It is a measurement of the ability for someone to be able to improve their life. It compares the ability for a middle class person to become wealthy, or a person who is born poor to rise up to the middle class or more. It says a person in Canada has more opportunities to better themselves than US citizens.

You talk about medical breakthroughs are better in the US. What good are they if someone cannot afford to visit a doctor or buy the drugs in the US because they have no health insurance, or affordable insurance or they are born with a condition that makes them uninsurable, or they have to declare bankruptcy to cover the health care bills of a loved one. In a Commonwealth Fund study in 2014, the US actually ranked last out of 11 industrialize nations in health care. "Despite having the most expensive health care system, the United States ranks last overall among 11 industrialized countries on measures of health system quality, efficiency, access to care, equity, and healthy lives, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. The other countries included in the study were Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand Norway, Sweden Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. While there is room for improvement in every country, the U.S. stands out for having the highest costs and lowest performance—the U.S. spent $8,508 per person on health care in 2011, compared with $3,406 in the United Kingdom, which ranked first overall.

You claim the education is the best in the world. By what standard? Certainly not if you look at the PISA test scores which track the testing of 15 year old students around the world in math, science and reading. Canada ranks 8th in the PISA scores, the US is 25th in the world. http://factsmaps.com/pisa-2018-worldwide-ranking-average-score-of-mathematics-science-reading/

Business Insider states: "The US now ranks 27th in the world for its levels of healthcare and education, according to a new study " https://www.businessinsider.com/us-ranks-27th-for-healthcare-and-education-2018-9 https://www.businessinsider.com/us-ranks-27th-for-healthcare-and-education-2018-9

I could provide real stats contesting the technology, work and protection too too. Great motherhood and apple pie statements, but not true except as a military power. But the military does not protect US citizens against gun violence where US ranks 10th in world for firearm related deaths (Canada 33). Protection is more than military.

[blackpowder]

And that is where stats end and a belief system begins.

[jazz]

It says a person in Canada has more opportunities to better themselves than US citizens.

Go check how many millionaires and billionaires are in the world and find out how many live in the US.

Living under socialized spending masking enormous taxation and subsidized central planning is not bettering your lot in life as far as I am concerned.

[dmlfarmer]

Go check how many millionaires and billionaires are in the world and find out how many live in the US.

Living under socialized spending masking enormous taxation and subsidized central planning is not bettering your lot in life as far as I am concerned.

Jazz you should take your own advice. Just checked billionaires numbers and found US ranks 13th when you consider the number of billionaires as a percentage of the country's population. Those terrible social democracies that you belittle all the time - Norway, Sweden, Switerland, and Iceland all have more billionaires on a population percentage basis.

[rumrocks]

Sometimes in European countries which have been around a little longer, wealth has had time to grow longer from one generation to the next, compared to a relatively new country such as the U.S or Canada with less generations.

You can't beat being born into wealth, it's less work. Right Justin.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Jazz you should take your own advice. Just checked billionaires numbers and found US ranks 13th when you consider the number of billionaires as a percentage of the country's population. Those terrible social democracies that you belittle all the time - Norway, Sweden, Switerland, and Iceland all have more billionaires on a population percentage basis.

So are you celebrating that fact, or lamenting it? Does that mean socialism has failed in those countries, or is that proof of its success?

[fjlip]

Apparently Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Iceland are BIGGER capitalist countries than USA?

[jazz]

Apparently Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Iceland are BIGGER capitalist countries than USA?

They aren't, dml was counting European royalty and 1000 yr old families who own castles and the Vatican as part of the billionaires club.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Apparently Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Iceland are BIGGER capitalist countries than USA?

And apparently, the socialist apologists on Agriville don't have an answer to our inconvenient question, judging by the fact that they have moved on to attacking on other threads instead, but gone quiet here.

How do they answer that without contradicting the very foundation of their beliefs?

Apparently George Orwell was right as usual. All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others, as evidenced by the concentration of wealth in the socialist utopias.

Probably safe to suggest that the former CWB apparachiks who come here drumming up support for their latest socialist schemes, see themselves as members of the Nomeklatura due to their past positions, and therefore immune from the hardships the rest of us peasants deserve to endure while they enjoy their privilege of being more equal.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

I've never understood the purpose, or intended audience of rankings of mostly intangible qualities such as this.

Is it just an excuse for the left to pat themselves on the back for once again ( and act surprised) placing the socialist countries at the top?

Is it for prospective immigrants who are shopping the world from their mud hut in Africa while hiding from the civil war outside, to conclude that Sweden is definitely off the list now, since Denmark just overtook them in the happiness index?


I understand rankings about corruption, taxes regulations, productivity etc. being useful for businesses deciding where to set up shop.

[sumdumguy]

Maybe Chuck is looking for a new domicile👍 One without power, I hope.