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Comment by general_failure | Hacker News Reader

And yet they are the worlds leading economy and tech center of the word. Can some explain this paradox?

Their (good) universities are very good and not all their schools are bad. A percentage of kids in the US do go to genuinely great schools, and then there is another group that due to various factors manage to get a decent basic education despite the school system. Due to the large US population, in absolute terms these two groups are quite large. Now feed these people through a genuinely world class higher education system and you end up with a quite large number (again in absolute terms) of genuinely smart and and well educated people.

Add to this the fact that the US has historically been very good at attracting the best and the brightest from around the world to move there and you end up with probably the largest collection of 'leading' people in the world.

I think there's also an important bit of learning attached to independent thinking and problem solving. Some programs, like many Asian countries, overly-rely on rote learning. The schools that I went through - NJ public schools in the 80s and 90s - had many teachers that focused on teaching me/us how and why to learn in good balance with factual rote learning.

Now with all of the focus on standardized testing, I worry the focus on independent thinking and problem solving is all but destroyed. Teachers now have what I consider "mandatory sentencing" with no room to inspire - only time to teach the test and shuffle kids through.

You might see some of that US magic fade away this generation. I hope not.

1) The big issue is inequality. America is a terrible place to be poor. A fairly large majority get a fairly decent education by European standards. But a large minority get a terrible education. America's engineering and business schools aren't filled up with kids from impoverished backgrounds.

2) Our post-secondary education is the best in the world.

3) Even counting poor schools, the American education system isn't even that bad. America is better than Italy, Spain, Austria, and even Sweden. It's about as good as the UK.

American's just think we have to have the best system.

Not to mention that even with all the H1B nonsense the US is still able to attract many of the worlds best-and-brightest (or nearly so) from other countries. There are definitely large network effects in play as well.

Easy access to capital helps a lot. In Europe, we've plenty of good schools and universities, but capital is so much more readily available across the pond that entrepreneurs who need it readily flock to the SV or NYC in order to get it.

It also helps a great deal to have a consumer society that is on a constant lookout for the latest or greatest gadget, product or service. This helps to quickly identify the better options amongst the gazillions that see the day and die each year.

I imagine it is because all the other countries close to the US in population size are even worse.

Granted, it is not based on very much, but i sort of feel that the US has gained the dominance it has today by being really big, and not horribly corrupt or impoverished.

First world country with over 300 million people? As well as several other factors I'm sure.

You aren't doomed to failure just because one facet of your society is sub par (education in this case, allegedly).

Coasting on 40 years of doing things right after WWII.

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