Something to keep in mind, an egalitarian/equal society is equally important to happiness of society.
Excerpts from Article
While the US ranks among the least equal and mobile countries in the developed world, recent work shows that it contains places that span the global mobility distribution.
Persistence in income from one generation to the next is higher in unequal societies like the UK and the US, and weakest in the relatively equal Scandinavian countries (the ‘Great Gatsby curve’)
Would would this map out similarly in South Asia, I think yes)
For example, equality and mobility are highest in the Midwest, where Scandinavian ancestry is common. The same goes for every group we study – for example, income mobility is lowest in areas where the population has Italian or British roots.
From Comments (read them too, please).
One should point also out the common observation that all that Scandinavian solidarity is built on a great deal of ethnic homogeneity. The US problem has always been getting the melting pot to melt.
My mother, life-long Republican and descendant of Swedish grand-parents, blamed the “socialist” bent in MN on the dumb Ole-and-Lena’s who maintained their village mind-set of caring-through-conformity post-immigration. In her opinion, worldly-wise people knew better than to just hand money out to strangers. I thought about that a little when reading Tuesday’s piece about trust in society, and cat sick’s comment that keeping business (or wealth) within networks is a way to mitigate risk.
We need to be clear on one thing
The relationship between income equality and homogeneity depends on the people. Burundi May be homegenous but neither equal or rich. Nor is equality a precursor to growth. Economic growth always causes inequality, but equality does not imply growth.
Consider, say, Bihar. Inequality is less but everyone is poor. Homogeneity, growth and inequality are a tangled mess, and Japan/ Scandinavia are not examples, just points. Often, these examples are used to argue for racial exclusivity.
Is equality such a good thing?
I think we should avoid Tall Poppy syndrome but also corporatism
i’m a libertarian..
Agree re Homogeneity, growth and inequality are a tangled mess.
Anyway was referring to happiness, not growth
However,
Burundi: Not homogeneous. Hutu, Tutsi
Bihar: Less unequal but homogeneous (castes and tribals).
Bhutan,quite happy less inequality, not homogeneous, no single large major ethnicity.
Finland,
sbarrkum, America has greatly deterioriated from the 1960s, 1980s, 1990s in many ways. What can be done about this?
For example in 1950 black Americans had a very low rate of divorce and out of wedlock birth. Today the statistics for both (for non immigrant blacks) is 77%. [By contrast caucasian females with college degrees have 12% divorce rates and 4% out of wedlock births.]
In NY City the top public high school is Stuyvesant High School. All admission is by testing and merit. In her latest incoming 9th grade class:
—895 students
——7 blacks
——33 Latino
——194 caucasian [bet many of these are caucasian Latinos but don’t know]
——661 others (likely almost all Asian)
By contrast New York’s 2019 demographics are:
—44.6% of the population is white
—25.1% is black
—11.8% are of Asian descent.
—Hispanics of any race represent about 27.5% (almost all are likely de facto white)
Note that this is a recent phenomenon. Non immigrant blacks use to represent a larger percentage of America’s elite in K-12, college, business, upper middle class in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s.
There has been a collapse in non immigrant black education outcomes since the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. A massive rise in committing violent crimes too. [If the 1960 rate of black non immigrant Americans committing violent crimes had continued to the present . . . black incarceration rates would have remained low since 1960.]
We see similar trends among America’s growing caucasian underclass that have been outlined in many studies. [For example “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010” by Charles Murray.]
Non college educated multigenerational non immigrant Latinos also have growing dysfunction.
In the long run, this poses a great danger to future generations of Asian Americans too. Dysfunctional culture spreads.
What do you think America can do about this collapse among large segments of America’s population?
An interesting twitter thread i came across today regarding elite influence in their nations over generations –
https://twitter.com/Rjrasva/status/1112502349808001024