Alas, this is about the level of analysis I've come to expect from years of reading The New Republic on issues like this. Neither cultural nor legal conditions surrounding employment in the United States are ideal for workers who have the preferences of the author of this article,[1] but neither are they so horrific that the economy is "hurt" in a big way, especially compared to the economies of other countries.
Other comments posted before mine have already pointed out that overall prosperity in the United States is quite high, and I might add that many of the newly industrialized countries of east Asia (which characteristically have high population densities and limited natural resources, and thus are a model of what policies it takes to be prosperous despite a lack of natural advantages) increase steadily in wealth and general prosperity[2] despite ignoring parts of the author's advice.
For me, the crucial fact to keep in mind in any of these decry-America threads on Hacker News is that people vote with their feet. The United States continues to be a highly desired country to immigrate to,[3] so whatever trade-offs the United States economy offers, there are still a lot of people who think they are better trade-offs than the trade-offs in the familiar home country they were born in.
AFTER EDIT: I note the downvotes indicating disagreement, and I am curious about what you disagree with. Please let me know.
And I am amused by this correction to the submitted article: "Correction: This piece originally stated that workers with smartphones spent 72 hours a week on their off time checking work e-mail. In fact, the 72 hours include working hours, and the workers are just professionals, managers, and executives. We regret the error." We are not talking about a strongly numerate analysis here.
> Other comments posted before mine have already pointed out that overall prosperity in the United States is quite high,
I've seen more that people have pointed out that America is prosperous, not necessarily that America is overall prosperous. The US seems to have one of the highest gini coefficients out of the OECD countries.
> For me, the crucial fact to keep in mind in any of these decry-America threads on Hacker News is that people vote with their feet.
Which can't be easily decoupled from how well America has managed to market itself in the last 60 or so years, and marketing does not necessarily reflect reality. While the US hasn't been universally loved in all that time - see for example US foreign policy - it seems to have been able to market itself as a great place to live, also for people from developed countries. How long has there been a noticeable trend of "decry America" w.r.t. living standard on the Web?
Part of the problem is a double standard with regards to America. The other part of the problem, is that America bashers know a lot more about America, than the average person is likely to know about their country, so the basher feels free to attack and never fears their country will be put under a spotlight for its terrible qualities. It's a game of bash and hope for ignorance.
For example, if America doesn't have paid maternity leave, that's considered very backwards, and America frequently gets bashed for such things. If Spain has 34% real unemployment, somehow that isn't considered wildly backwards by comparison, because hey they have paid maternity leave and six weeks of vacation.
Or if Albania (or Nigeria or Congo or Vietnam) has a drastically better gini number than the US, somehow that's considered amazing. Except it's ignorant analysis.
I see this all the time in regards to Europeans bashing the US. They're counting on Americans not knowing enough about most of Europe to lodge a counter response.
> Part of the problem is a double standard with regards to America.
I don't know what that means.
> The other part of the problem, is that America bashers know a lot more about America, than the average person is likely to know about their country, so the basher feels free to attack and never fears their country will be put under a spotlight for its terrible qualities. It's a game of bash and hope for ignorance.
I don't know if that is intentional, but it might be what happens.
But this could easily swing the other way - a lot of non-Americans know about America, so they can discuss it and amplify anything that they think is positive about it.
> For example, if America doesn't have paid maternity leave, that's considered very backwards, and America frequently gets bashed for such things. If Spain has 34% real unemployment, somehow that isn't considered wildly backwards by comparison, because hey they have paid maternity leave and six weeks of vacation.
What? The ridiculous unemployment of young people in Spain is seen as a big problem. Certainly a bigger problem than a small amount of maternity leave.
If it is viewed as barbaric by comparison, then it might be because maternity leave is a matter of social policy, while unemployment is obviously not. It might be a symptom of mismanagement by the government, but no a matter of social policy.
I think Spaniards are more busy with protesting the government than with feeling smug about being better than Americans. On the other hand, a lot of them have a lot of 'free time', so who knows. :)
> Or if Albania (or Nigeria or Congo or Vietnam) has a drastically better gini number than the US, somehow that's considered amazing. Except it's ignorant analysis.
Oh come on. I have never seen America been compared to countries like Congo over stuff like this, except perhaps hyperbolically.
> I see this all the time in regards to Europeans bashing the US. They're counting on Americans not knowing enough about most of Europe to lodge a counter response.
Thankfully for America, there are plenty of prideful Americans willing to take a stand, it seems.
Keep in mind, though, that not all America bashing is from Europeans. Americans can do it, too. And even if a European (or whatever) country is being hailed as better than the US, it might not be people from that country who are saying it.
Other comments posted before mine have already pointed out that overall prosperity in the United States is quite high, and I might add that many of the newly industrialized countries of east Asia (which characteristically have high population densities and limited natural resources, and thus are a model of what policies it takes to be prosperous despite a lack of natural advantages) increase steadily in wealth and general prosperity[2] despite ignoring parts of the author's advice.
For me, the crucial fact to keep in mind in any of these decry-America threads on Hacker News is that people vote with their feet. The United States continues to be a highly desired country to immigrate to,[3] so whatever trade-offs the United States economy offers, there are still a lot of people who think they are better trade-offs than the trade-offs in the familiar home country they were born in.
[1] http://www.newrepublic.com/authors/bryce-covert
[2] http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/17/business/world-rich-list-s...
[3] http://www.gallup.com/poll/161435/100-million-worldwide-drea...
http://www.census.gov/topics/population/foreign-born.html
http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immi...
AFTER EDIT: I note the downvotes indicating disagreement, and I am curious about what you disagree with. Please let me know.
And I am amused by this correction to the submitted article: "Correction: This piece originally stated that workers with smartphones spent 72 hours a week on their off time checking work e-mail. In fact, the 72 hours include working hours, and the workers are just professionals, managers, and executives. We regret the error." We are not talking about a strongly numerate analysis here.