Comment by tzury | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tzury | Hacker News Reader

http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/IL/US

If The United States were your home instead of Israel you would...

  - spend 2.3 times more money on health care
  - use 97.95% more electricity
  - consume 96.7% more oil
  + make 63.38% more money
  - be 5 times more likely to have HIV/AIDS
  - have a 47.24% greater chance of dying in infancy
  - have 29.11% fewer babies
  - have a 25.68% greater chance of being unemployed
  - experience 14.8% more of a class divide
  - die 2.62 years sooner

Q) Would you rather live in The United States?

A) No. I would simply try to find a way to "make 63.38% more money" where I live now, as the rest of list seems like US is not a better place to live.

But US is not San Francisco or New York right?

So perhaps, the comparison should not be made country-wide.

As I would definitely rather live in the bay area than in Tel Aviv where I live right now.

"So perhaps, the comparison should not be made country-wide." I think this is key. Even when talking about small countries like Israel there is much inconsistency regarding the expected quality of living (compare Tel Aviv/Ha'sharon with most places in the Negev, even Be'er Sheva).

By the way, I know I'm being a little cynic here, but "experience 14.8% more of a class divide" is not necessarily a bad thing for an individual. I would argue that if you're on the better end of this divide and won't experience its implosion (i.e. people revolting) in your lifetime that it may be a plus.

I'm surprised that longevity in the US is lower than many other countries (the same is true for Italy as well). I wonder if the food industry and the obesity problem contributed to this problem.

Once you adjust for poor blacks and Mexican illegal immigrants, the US is fine. The poor health care, nutrition choices, and young people being shot skews the statistics.

If you are a "white" person the stats are as good or better.

This post is not racist; other countries have relatively homogeneous populations, the US does not.

IMHO, despite your disclaimer, I still think your post is racist because it's blacks and hispanics who are skewing the statistics, rather than the other way round. There's an assumed perspective -- the white one -- as the default, or proper, perspective.

The parent post mentioned Italy, which has a large percentage of white people in it.

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