7 ms·

Yeah let's run the country like Alabama instead. They're doing well! /s

voidfunc 5y ago
Maybe we should let each state run the way they see fit... you know kind of like how the Constitution assumed things should be done until the Commerce Clause was used by the Federal Government to hammer every state into submission.
- micromacrofoot 5y ago
  States love independence until their power grid fails or they get hit by a hurricane or an international pandemic.
  - throwaway0a5e 5y ago
    And states love the federal government until they can't get the legislative buy in to enact their pet policies. There's no free lunch.
dionidium 5y ago
Alabama has a higher GDP per capita than Germany, Belgium, Israel, France, Japan, the U.K. and...I could go on. Alabama is doing well. We live in such an enormously wealthy country that it only looks bad by comparison. But not by comparison to basically anywhere else on Earth. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_between_U.S._states_and_sovereign_states_by_GDP_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_between_U.S._states...
- psychometry 5y ago
  Hahahaha no, Alabama is not doing well...at anything. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/quality-of-life-by-state https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/quality-of-...
  - dionidium 5y ago
    In response to my claim that Alabama only looks bad by comparison to other U.S. states because of how rich the U.S. is, but that it's in fact a very wealthy place by comparison to everywhere else -- in response to this you offered...a ranking of U.S. states?
- oblio 5y ago
  GDP is, unfortunately, a flawed metric. Or at least an incomplete one. I greatly doubt the average German, Belgian, Japanese, etc. would want to live in Alabama :-) Edit: Another flawed metric, but probably closer to the truth, tells a slightly different story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_Human_Development_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ... Alabama has roughly the same HDI as Cyprus. Cyprus is a nice place, but it's quite a bit behind the countries on your list. If we try to use the inequality adjusted HDI (which depending on how you look at it, might get us closer to the real situation - or might not), things look even worse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequality-adjusted_Human_Development_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequalit... I can't find the number of Alabama, but considering that it's generally in one of the last places in the US, I can't imagine it being higher than the US average, so I wouldn't be shocked to see it somewhere around Croatia's level.
  - dionidium 5y ago
    Agreed, PPP would be better, but my cursory search didn't turn up a convenient list like the one I linked for GDP. (This is a bit like the old joke about a guy searching for his keys 20 feet from where he dropped them, because that's where the streetlight is.)
  - refurb 5y ago
    You realized you just dismissed GDP per capita, a quantitative metric, as too “flawed”, then instead relied on HDI which entirely a made up metric based on subjective measures?
    - oblio 5y ago
      Yes, because money isn't everything. I know (you seem to be American) that this is probably a strange concept :-p And HDI is still quantitative, it's still a number: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index#New_method_(2010_HDI_onwards) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index#New_me... You might not like the magic numbers in the formula or the things they choose to weigh, but GDP is much, much too coarse to evaluate anything about the greater well-being of a population, especially in developed countries.

Maybe we should let each state run the way they see fit... you know kind of like how the Constitution assumed things should be done until the Commerce Clause was used by the Federal Government to hammer every state into submission.

micromacrofoot 5y ago
States love independence until their power grid fails or they get hit by a hurricane or an international pandemic.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  And states love the federal government until they can't get the legislative buy in to enact their pet policies. There's no free lunch.

dionidium 5y ago

Alabama has a higher GDP per capita than Germany, Belgium, Israel, France, Japan, the U.K. and...I could go on. Alabama is doing well. We live in such an enormously wealthy country that it only looks bad by comparison. But not by comparison to basically anywhere else on Earth. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_between_U.S._states_and_sovereign_states_by_GDP_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_between_U.S._states...

psychometry 5y ago
Hahahaha no, Alabama is not doing well...at anything. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/quality-of-life-by-state https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/quality-of-...
- dionidium 5y ago
  In response to my claim that Alabama only looks bad by comparison to other U.S. states because of how rich the U.S. is, but that it's in fact a very wealthy place by comparison to everywhere else -- in response to this you offered...a ranking of U.S. states?
oblio 5y ago
GDP is, unfortunately, a flawed metric. Or at least an incomplete one. I greatly doubt the average German, Belgian, Japanese, etc. would want to live in Alabama :-) Edit: Another flawed metric, but probably closer to the truth, tells a slightly different story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_Human_Development_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ... Alabama has roughly the same HDI as Cyprus. Cyprus is a nice place, but it's quite a bit behind the countries on your list. If we try to use the inequality adjusted HDI (which depending on how you look at it, might get us closer to the real situation - or might not), things look even worse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequality-adjusted_Human_Development_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequalit... I can't find the number of Alabama, but considering that it's generally in one of the last places in the US, I can't imagine it being higher than the US average, so I wouldn't be shocked to see it somewhere around Croatia's level.
- dionidium 5y ago
  Agreed, PPP would be better, but my cursory search didn't turn up a convenient list like the one I linked for GDP. (This is a bit like the old joke about a guy searching for his keys 20 feet from where he dropped them, because that's where the streetlight is.)
- refurb 5y ago
  You realized you just dismissed GDP per capita, a quantitative metric, as too “flawed”, then instead relied on HDI which entirely a made up metric based on subjective measures?
  - oblio 5y ago
    Yes, because money isn't everything. I know (you seem to be American) that this is probably a strange concept :-p And HDI is still quantitative, it's still a number: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index#New_method_(2010_HDI_onwards) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index#New_me... You might not like the magic numbers in the formula or the things they choose to weigh, but GDP is much, much too coarse to evaluate anything about the greater well-being of a population, especially in developed countries.