02-01-2016, 01:20 PM
(01-31-2016, 10:01 PM)bfine32 Wrote: I posted a comprehensive matrix that had us 2nd in the world only 2 years ago; surprisingly ahead of Jamaica. . Not sure why you have Sarah Palin on you mind this evening or what other criteria you need.
I appreciate the effort, but that list reminds me of pharmaceutical company's marketing brochures for a new med they're pushing. At first glance the presentation is very professional looking, but when you dissect the information the pretty presentation loses some of its luster.
Here are my criticisms.
1) You have switched from the "American way of life" is best to a quality of life index. You can compare the quality of life in the US to Russia, for instance, but are you really comparing the American way of life to the Russian way of life? Not really. The are inherent problems trying to objectively measure a subjective judgment. It's like using a formula to determine which painting is the best. How do you even define the "American way of life"? How do you objectively measure it? How do you objectively compare it to other "ways of life"?
2) At least 3/8ths of the topics used to create the quality of life index come from surveys of visitors to that website, including health.
3) "Traffic" is a topic used to calculate the quality of life index, but education isn't taken into account.
4) Did you look at the formula used to create the quality of life index? The individual topics are weighted differently. Health may be more important to some individuals than purchasing power for instance. That formula doesn't take that into account.
5) Do you know how they quantified "traffic," for instance, into an objective number to plug into the quality of life formula? I don't.
It is very easy for Sarah Palin/Choose your own example to parrot rhetoric and just tell people what they want to hear and talk about American exceptionalsim. It is another thing to back up the hyperbole with objective data. Especially when a political party spends half their time talking about how America is going to hell in a hand basket and the other half talking about how much greater we are than everybody else.
