The elite of any nation are high performing educated individuals.
That comment is referring to the average joe walking down the street that went to a “no child left behind” HS and has the reading comprehension of a 6th grader. The average joe in Switzerland or Denmark is much more educated and cultured than the average American.
No one throws shade at the American Elite
It’s simply not true. When you control for race american whites outcompete their European counterparts in education. Switzerland is 6 places behind us. Denmark is 13th.
Is it a competition worth winning though? European work life balance seems nicer in a lot of ways than the American hyper competitive start-up cut through grind culture. I don’t really want to grind to boost gdp. I want to work enough to have a nice community and place to raise kids. I’d happily be 3rd in iq or math competitions if it meant that I got to live in a safe homogenous culture with tradition and culture vs being in heterogeneous fiat mining town outpost of burger punk highways, strip malls and parking lots with a bunch of overworking new-rich american who try to buy culture and status—and who unfortunately grant status and praise to those with nothing but wealth.
Most of Europe is not safe or homogeneous any longer
very true unfortunately… I wish there was still a country where the white boys could go… to run and play.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sYOjRxhfp10
But those high trust homogenous societies are gone or very very expensive now. A lot of Europeans I talk to wish the could live in their European home countries but ended up moving to America to mine fiat hoping to one day get enough money to retire in a non-dangerous area of Europe.
"Yo, but like, what’s the deal with those rankings tho? How ya breakin' it down to say we outshine Europe? 🤔 #Curious"
Educational testing results
So we are moving the goal post from American to white American?
I have traveled both within the US and Europe. If my life depended on how well someone off the street did on a test, I’m picking Swiss or Scandinavian every time.
How top performing white Americans compare to their European counterpart is a whole different conversation.
It’s just comparing like for like across cultures. Not explicitly white. African Americans outperform Africans on educational test results as well. Same with Chinese Americans
That’s not how you framed the initial post, but fine. Yes, people have better outcomes in the country with the biggest capital markets and the most freedom.
I doubt that’s what foreigners have in mind when they say “Americans are dumb”
They are likely referring to the average Walmart goer that barely graduated HS and doesn’t know the 3 branches of government.
