The Last Conformist
Irresistibly Attractive
Ireland the 2nd most unequal country in the world? The US the most? What kind of equality are we talking about? How do you measure it?
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- Thread starter djs488
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Mise
isle of lucy
I think he means the gap between rich and poor is the largest in the US, and second largest in Ireland.
The Last Conformist
Irresistibly Attractive
Isn't it supposed to be much bigger in places like Brazil?
But I guess you can play jollily with definitions - the US is gonna look real bad if you define "unequality" as the quotient between top CEO wages and the minimum wage.
But I guess you can play jollily with definitions - the US is gonna look real bad if you define "unequality" as the quotient between top CEO wages and the minimum wage.
Yeah, I presume it's the richest 5% vs the poorest, or something. You could say that that just means we've super-rich people, what's the problem. But, for instance, there is a quite high functional illiteracy rate in Ireland - about 10%, IIRC. SO the state is failing to educate a serious proportion of it's citizens, and it fails to police black spot areas too. I think even the Crazy Libertarians believe in education and policing for all.
OK, I've checked my facts, as reported here.
It turns out there's 22.3% illiteracy in Ireland - how's that for the world's leading exporter of software.
And the poverty thing: 15.3% of Irish live in poverty, but what that means isn't defined. It's 15.8% for the US, and those are the highest figures, but only for 17 Western countries. So Brazil may not have been in the mix.
It turns out there's 22.3% illiteracy in Ireland - how's that for the world's leading exporter of software.
And the poverty thing: 15.3% of Irish live in poverty, but what that means isn't defined. It's 15.8% for the US, and those are the highest figures, but only for 17 Western countries. So Brazil may not have been in the mix.
The Last Conformist
Irresistibly Attractive
How do they define functional illiteracy? I've seen figures of up to 40% for the US and 25% for Sweden - one heopes they use extremely liberal definitions.
I think it's things like being able to read a newspaper, being able to fill in official forms and such - which could just be bad form design.
My newest favourite disparaging statistic about my country: more golf courses than children's playgrounds.
My newest favourite disparaging statistic about my country: more golf courses than children's playgrounds.
Stratofortress
Warlord
As long the golf courses are not built with taxpayers money, I don't see a problem why there shouldn't be golf courses.Dr Jimbo said:
Cheetah
Deity
As long as there are more children than golf players, there is a problem in that.
Stratofortress
Warlord
Golf courses are funded by private individuals with private funds, but children playgrounds are funded by government taxes. What have these two things anything in common?Cheetah said:
The Last Conformist
Irresistibly Attractive
Assuming the golf courses in question are funded and run without public money, I agree with Stratofortress.
I guess that calls for a celebration:![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
I guess that calls for a celebration:
Cheetah
Deity
It's not neccesarelly a problem, I shouldn't have used that word in my last post. And if private people wants to build golf courses, there isn't really anything basicly wrong with that.Stratofortress said:
But if there are to few playgrounds for the children, and excessive amounts of golf courses, there is a problem which may have one or two reasons:
1. The government doesn't have enough money to pay for more playgrounds, and the problem is therefore that the government have to low taxes.
2. The government has enough money, but is not prioritising playgrounds as much as it should, and therefore the problem is the politicans.
Still, I guess the parents of the children could fund some playgrounds just as they found their golf courses, but I guess playgrounds doesn't make enough profit.
Anyway, children can be annoying, and golf is fun, so who cares.
The government sees fit to give tax breaks to golf course developers - yeah, yeah, they provide employment, but it's a case of looking after those don't really need looking after.Stratofortress said:
If a government is obliged to look after the best interests of its citizens, surely that should extent to things like providing playgrounds for inner-city kids.
The golf courses also (in certain cases) remove access to previously public areas, chop down trees, drain wetland... insert bleeding heart liberal greeny phrase here
Stratofortress
Warlord
Of course they have only right to build a golf course within the limit of the law.Dr Jimbo said:
And favoritism towards golf courses isn't the economic development we like to see.
Blackbird_SR-71
Spying from 85,000 ft
hold on people the U.S.should still be over Japan because it has a higher GDP than Japan does and in the U.S. the average sallary for a person is higher than in japan. also the U.S. is the best place to become a millionaire because every year more and more people are becoming millionaires and its becoming a thread in the U.S. for most people to aim now to become millionaires because its become easier. average families by the time they are near retirement are over millionaires here. i read about it somewhere in the internet but what i say is true.
Well that's the probelm. Like I said, government in Ireland at all levels seems pretty corrupt to me. Which is why I welcome stronger powers at the EU level - it's the only thing that keeps us on the straight and narrow. We're post-colonial infants that could have ended up like Zimbabwe were it not for the substitution of one paternalistic entity (the British Empire) with another (the EU).Stratofortress said:
People in Japan live longer. Maybe they are happier and better off overall. There is more to life than becoming a millionaire, especially if, as you point out, with inflation that term is less of a measure of even financial success than it used to be.Blackbird_SR-71 said:
The Last Conformist
Irresistibly Attractive
On the subject of country rankings, here's the UN's Human Development Index ranking.
Of course, HDI isn't exactly problem-free either, but at least you can see what they're factoring in.
Of course, HDI isn't exactly problem-free either, but at least you can see what they're factoring in.
