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throwaway37585 | 7 years ago
You're going to have to be more specific. What about "all of Western Europe"?
> As much as economics wants to tout itself as a science
Is this going to be a game of definitions? What qualifies as a "science", in your view? Do you consider sociology to be a science? Psychology? Ecology? Geology? Anthropology? Archaeology? History? Linguistics?
> tested in real countries over the past 75 years
Which 75-year-old policies are you referring to, exactly?
> it just retreats into some dressed-up version of American Exceptionalism
What you could possibly mean by economics being a "dressed-up version of American Exceptionalism" is honestly a complete mystery to me.
> to explain the failing of its own prescriptions.
Which prescriptions are you referring to?
knuththetruth|7 years ago
“Do you have any reason to believe that higher taxes and spending will lead to better outcomes, or higher net societal welfare?”
...And the historical example of Western European social democracies like France, Germany, and the Scandinavian states prove this.
>Which 75-year-old policies are you referring to, exactly?
Nationalized healthcare, massive investments in public transportation and education, higher welfare floors and labor protections.
throwaway37585|7 years ago
United States: $10,348
Switzerland: $7,919
Germany: $5,550
Netherlands: $5,385
Austria: $5,227
Belgium: $4,839
France: $4,600
United Kingdom: $4,192
See [2] for a breakdown by country of government/compulsory healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP: https://imgur.com/a/BzaVX6w. The U.S. comes out on top, by far. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe the problems with U.S. healthcare won't be solved by pouring more money into it, but rather by addressing systemic issues with the way it works?
Regarding education:
The United States spends more than other developed nations on its students' education each year... Spending, of course, only tells part of the story and does not guarantee students' success. The United States routinely trails its rival countries in performances on international exams despite being among the heaviest spenders on education... The average first-year high school teacher in the United States earns about $38,000. OECD nations pay their comparable educators just more than $31,000... Among all educators, U.S. payrolls are competitive. The average high school teacher in the United States earns about $53,000, well above the average of $45,500 among all OECD nations. [3]
The United States spent $12,300 per FTE student at the elementary/secondary level, which was 29 percent higher than the average of $9,600 for OECD member countries reporting data... At the postsecondary level, total government and private expenditures on education institutions as a percentage of GDP by the United States (2.7 percent) were higher than the OECD average (1.6 percent) and were higher than those of all other OECD countries reporting data. [4]
Again, has it ever occurred to you that maybe the problems with U.S. education won't be solved by pouring more money into it, but rather by addressing systemic issues with the way it works?
[1] https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...
[2] https://data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm
[3] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-education-spending-tops-glob...
[4] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cmd.asp