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Originally Posted by alansmithee
Even though the average American might have less scientific knowledge than the average European, America still leads in scientific development.
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This is becoming less and less true on a daily basis. Partially due to the higher average scientific knowledge of Europeans and partially due to the preference for non-science of the administration and its supporters.
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Even if the average state of health is lower, America still has the best medical facilities.
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How does that work ??? If the average state of health is lower, America can't have the best medical facilities. It might have the single best hospital in the world, but if that hospital is only available to a handful of people in America, it can't be said that
America has the best medical facilities.
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I think it comes down to what metric you want to use to measure greatness. If you think greatness is measured by the state that the majority of the population is in, then America will lag behind the EU.
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That sounds like a pretty damn good measurement stick, right there. Most people in America lag behind most people in Europe. Which certainly allows for a small, small group of Americans to have a significantly better life than most Europeans. But that doesn't actually mean anything, now does it? Bill Gates is technically the most successful man on the planet - if he lived in Australia that wouldn't make Australia the most successful country on the planet. The average is the measurement - not the extremely good, but rare.
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But if you think that greatness is measured by having access to the best the world has to offer, then the EU would be behind.
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Access is the issue. All Americans do not have access to the excellent and rare aspects of America. Far more Europeans have access to the far more common and not quite as excellent aspects of Europe.
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It's all a matter of what you define as great.
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Certainly is. And if we define inaccessible things as great, and accessible things as poor, we've pretty much just painted ourselves into a box of miserableness.