Microsoft Workers to Form Company’s First Union in the U.S.

Re:Microsoft Workers to Form Company’s First Union in the U.S. by camgunz on Wednesday January 04, 2023 @10:35AM (#34246771)

Incomes are generally lower, but EU residents generally have a higher standard of living than US residents according to Human Development Indexes. Life expectancy is also better, infant and maternal mortality are lower, test scores are higher, etc.

This is because of the prevalence of socialism, which came about because labor broadly won in Europe. I think Europe's example makes the benefits of unions clear.

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Re:Microsoft Workers to Form Company’s First Union in the U.S. by jandrewrogers on Wednesday January 04, 2023 @10:59AM (#34247113)

The EU has a higher quality of life. The US has a higher standard of living. Quality of life and standard of living are only loosely correlated.

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Re:Microsoft Workers to Form Company’s First Union in the U.S. by camgunz on Thursday January 05, 2023 @05:39AM (#34258105)

The EU has both a higher quality of life and standard of living. Here's Investopedia's list of stuff [0] you'd measure for standard of living (FWIW it also mentions HDI as a good measure of standard of living, which the EU generally beats the US at, especially IHDI):

- Life expectancy

- Inflation rate

- Number of paid vacation days

- Class disparity

- Poverty rate

- Quality and affordability of housing

- Hours of work required to purchase necessities

- GDP

- Affordable access to quality healthcare

- Quality and availability of education

- Incidence of disease

- Infrastructure

- National economic growth

- Economic and political stability

- Political and religious freedom

- Environmental quality

- Climate

- Safety

Generally other than the GDP/economic growth points, the EU beats the US.

[0]: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/financial-theory/08/st...

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Re:Microsoft Workers to Form Company’s First Union in the U.S. by rayiner on Wednesday January 04, 2023 @11:39AM (#34247807)

* * *

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Re:Microsoft Workers to Form Company’s First Union in the U.S. by camgunz on Thursday January 05, 2023 @05:22AM (#34258010)

Oh that was a fun read, thank you!

I don't know that it supports your claim that the HDI delta can be "entirely" (or I would even say sufficiently) explained by slavery/immigration:

- There are quite a few Asian immigrants from developing countries (in 2018 the shares were: 13% from Europe/NA, 28% Asia, 25% Latin America, 25% Mexico [0]) and their scores are literally off the charts.

- A lot of states with small Black/Latino population portions have pretty low AHDIs [1]; the bottom 3rd includes Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Idaho, Indiana, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Ohio. On the other hand, DC, North Carolina, and Maryland have very high Black population portions (44%, 32%, and 22% respectively) and they're ranked 5th, 19th, and 20th.

- A more parsimonious explanation of the AHDI rankings is that states with better social safety nets and more labor protections do better than those without. For example, of the 11 states that decline the ACA's Medicaid grant [2], only 2 are in the top half of AHDIs, and the remaining 9 average to rank 39.

- Europe continues to see a huge influx of refugee immigration [3]. If immigration were a part of this story you'd expect this to lower its HDI, but it doesn't. Again it seems pretty clear here that the difference is socialism.

- Just as a matter of course, the AHDI breakdowns don't disambiguate recent immigrants from subsequent generations. There's no doubt the US has a lot of immigration from Central and South America, but they aren't all new, so you can't really make the claim that recent immigration accounts for the lower AHDI amongst them.

- Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) [4] would better address your criticisms because it measures the average person, thereby taking into account recent and historical disadvantages, and here we can see that aside from Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy (somewhat notorious as a grouping) Europe broadly outdoes the US.

[0]: https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2020/08/20/facts-on-u-s...

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_America...

[2]: https://www.kff.org/health-reform/state-indicator/state-acti...

[3]: https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2016/08/02/number-of-refu...

[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequalit...

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