Why Is USA Different?(overcomingbias.com)
overcomingbias.com
Why Is USA Different?
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/09/why-us-different.html
5 comments
That's some crafty crappifying. It took me quite some time to translate it back to
We speculate that "survival of the fittest" applies to people.
We speculate that "survival of the fittest" applies to people.
Well, not quite. I don't think the conclusion applies at the scope of individual people. I think it's saying either that
A) Successful behavioral patterns will flourish (which is what Hayek says in The Fatal Conceit, and also reminds me of the ideas of The Selfish Gene); or
B) Societies that display successful behavioral patterns will themselves flourish.
(or both, of course)
A) Successful behavioral patterns will flourish (which is what Hayek says in The Fatal Conceit, and also reminds me of the ideas of The Selfish Gene); or
B) Societies that display successful behavioral patterns will themselves flourish.
(or both, of course)
People's behavior evolves (independent of people's genetics) to suit the surrounding culture, in cultures that permit people to adopt and benefit from new behaviors (I suppose as opposed to formally stratified cultures that would just beat you down for trying to leave / rise above your station).
Seems rather bad. I live in Germany and lots of people I know have separate rooms for their babies, for example.
Also I have been told having the baby sleep in the same room reduces the risk of sudden infant death, so I wonder if the extra room really is a result of an evolved cultural advantage.
Anyway, could it be that the US is simply bigger than most other WEIRD countries? A lot of more people would imply more people of the extreme variety. Also, I think you have a lot of space over there. So bedrooms are cheap, too, which would also explain the extra bedrooms. A lot of families in other countries simply can not afford extra bedrooms for babies.
Also I didn't like the pattern of this article of building up authority by stating some random statistical facts, then using that artificial authority to put forward some random theory of cultural evolution.
Also I have been told having the baby sleep in the same room reduces the risk of sudden infant death, so I wonder if the extra room really is a result of an evolved cultural advantage.
Anyway, could it be that the US is simply bigger than most other WEIRD countries? A lot of more people would imply more people of the extreme variety. Also, I think you have a lot of space over there. So bedrooms are cheap, too, which would also explain the extra bedrooms. A lot of families in other countries simply can not afford extra bedrooms for babies.
Also I didn't like the pattern of this article of building up authority by stating some random statistical facts, then using that artificial authority to put forward some random theory of cultural evolution.
Also, I think you have a lot of space over there. So bedrooms are cheap
That was the first thing I though of as well. My baby doesn't have her own room for the simple reason that we don't have a room to spare.
That was the first thing I though of as well. My baby doesn't have her own room for the simple reason that we don't have a room to spare.
I'm not in the USA, and I think most parents I know want a separate room for their baby - it's only for economic reasons in most cases if that doesn't happen.
The only people I know who don't have their baby in a separate room still have an empty room in their house.
It was a very strange factoid to put into the article, but because it was at the start I immediately skimmed the rest doubting it's research or authenticity.
The only people I know who don't have their baby in a separate room still have an empty room in their house.
It was a very strange factoid to put into the article, but because it was at the start I immediately skimmed the rest doubting it's research or authenticity.
> I live in Germany and lots of people I know have separate rooms for their babies, for example.
Yeah, that was a weird example to talk about. I was immediately thinking, why is that weird? Excited parents are just preparing a separate room for their future, post-infancy child (which isn't unusual at least in the 1st-world, right?) ahead of time.
Yeah, that was a weird example to talk about. I was immediately thinking, why is that weird? Excited parents are just preparing a separate room for their future, post-infancy child (which isn't unusual at least in the 1st-world, right?) ahead of time.
Narcissism of small differences.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism_of_small_differences
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism_of_small_differences
I'm not sure what you want to say with this link. Do you mean that for you the differences between WEIRDos from US and Europe are small ones?
In most any not-too-big group, and a nearly infinite set of dimensional data to compare, shouldn't one be able to come up with a list of dimensions for each specimen (i.e., country in this example) in which that specimen exceptional in some statistical analysis?
With a good amount of American exceptionalism thrown in...
I can't really analyze it one way or another, but selecting the acronym "WEIRD" sure doesn't help their case against Narcissism of small differences.
> In contrast to other large Western industrialized societies, the United States had the highest crime rate, the longest working hours, the highest divorce rate, the highest rate of volunteerism, the highest percentage of citizens with a post-secondary education, the highest productivity rate, the highest GDP, the highest poverty rate, and the highest income-inequality rate; and Americans were the least supportive of various governmental interventions
Perhaps part of the reason the USA is a statistical outlier among WIERD societies is simply its size. It has by fa the biggest population of any WIERD country. This means that most of its cultural influences come from within the country, whereas for a smaller country, a larger proportion of its cultural influences come from outside it -- meaning that smaller countries are less likely to be outliers.
Perhaps part of the reason the USA is a statistical outlier among WIERD societies is simply its size. It has by fa the biggest population of any WIERD country. This means that most of its cultural influences come from within the country, whereas for a smaller country, a larger proportion of its cultural influences come from outside it -- meaning that smaller countries are less likely to be outliers.
The law of large numbers says that larger samplings should be MORE uniform rather than LESS; you've got it exactly backwards.
> ... Americans having the world’s highest worker productivity.
Is that valid?
Here I can see something different http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OECD_Productivity_levels_2...
Although there probably is some measure of worker productivity that US ranks best.
Is that valid?
Here I can see something different http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OECD_Productivity_levels_2...
Although there probably is some measure of worker productivity that US ranks best.
I don't think that is PPP-adjusted. Adjusted for PPP, only Ireland, Luxemborg and New Zealand have higher productivity than the US.
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=LEVEL
(Most the top countries on Wikipedia's chart have a high cost of living. A burger might cost $8 in France compared to $5 in Ireland, but that doesn't make a French burger flipper more productive than an Irish one.)
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=LEVEL
(Most the top countries on Wikipedia's chart have a high cost of living. A burger might cost $8 in France compared to $5 in Ireland, but that doesn't make a French burger flipper more productive than an Irish one.)
I'm guessing if you change the measure from GDP pr. hour worked to GDP per year employed the US will do a lot better. Mainly since people in US tend to work not only more hours pr day, but also more days pr year.
I'm so thankful that I didn't pursue a career that required me to read, write, and possibly take seriously pseudo-intellectual crap like this.