of course, I did understand the likely point, that hard core Trumpists to my mind are out to lunch. When you layer in those who reject science and expertise, those who believe anyone not professing to believe exactly as they believe in a higher power are going to Hell and the sooner the better..., the anti-vaccine nut jobs, the birthers, the racists, the nativists...well, yeah, I start struggling not to "look down dismissively at" some folks. That's a pretty hard core group, certainly not the majority in any region, IMO.cradleandshoot wrote: ↑Sat May 02, 2020 7:19 amAny part that supports Trump.MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 3:28 pmold salt wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 3:08 pmNo. The US is more comparable to Europe in it's entirety, rather than just Germany, In size, dispersal & diversity.MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Fri May 01, 2020 2:47 pm Personally, I like Germany's ratio.
Population of 83 million, 6,623 deaths...so US is 4X pop, 10X deaths.
Of course, this is just round one of this battle, so #'s and ratio could change in future rounds, but right now they have done way, way better than us.
The Germans are the most analogous country in Europe to our own.
In general, they look pretty dismissively at France, worse at Spain, and really down their noses at Italy.
The UK made a tragic error of mirroring Trump's dismissiveness of the threat.
But hey, if we just focus on one piece of the US, New York State. 55k sq miles, pop. 19.45 million ; Germany 138k sq miles, pop 83 million...so, basically NYS is 1/4 the size of Germany, yet has almost 4X the deaths. Want to add in Connecticut and New Jersey?
Or, hey, we could look at our neighbors to the north. Canada is physically larger than the US, but only 37 million people (mostly concentrated in only part), so about 1/9th in pop. 3,387 deaths. So, the US is 9X more people, about 20X deaths.
Look at how much of the US upon which you dismissively look down your nose.
Which part of the US do I look down dismissively at?
Really?
But an area of the country?
Nope. You can find diversity of folks in every region and I consider them all 'fellow Americans'.
But sure, you can find more of those hard core types in some regions than in others. They're attracted to one another, just as those who look more favorably on diversity of opinion and demographics, those who value science and expertise, are more likely to congregate together.
BTW, that tends to be true within regions as well. Whether urban or small town with a higher education institution as its anchor, folks will congregate who value certain 'diversity' whereas others may be uncomfortable or repelled by those same values.
But in general, America is far more alike in its diversity, it's non-homogeneity, than not.
And our population has been very mobile, one region to another, for generations.
The Europeans have far more distinct traditional cultural separation.
Which is also why they are struggling so much with immigration pressures.
When I was referring to the US being most like the Germans, it was to the modern Germany, which relative to its neighbors emphasizes hard work and efficiency, with the most productive economy in Europe, while embracing immigrants more openly than its neighbors. Which isn't to say they don't have many of our issues as well. We'd expect comparable medical excellence in Germany as we would here.