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Comment by assblaster | Hacker News Reader

There is a stark difference in population, density, and economic activity between the United States and every other country in the world. The United States is the global hub of business, it's easy to see why they would be different compared to Norway.

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This vague "America is special so can't be compared" line of argument often gets used to explain away things we compare badly on: residential internet, public education, health care, the coronavirus response... I'm sure I'll think of others, later. Point is, it's a rhetorical thing that distracts from the problems rather than explaining them.

>This vague "America is special

Uh he gave pretty clear reasons why the US is different. the population density of populations hubs like New York, and the level of international economic activity are very concrete reasons why the US would be significantly more affected than some locales

There is nothing concrete in what he said. US cities don’t even make the list of top50 most dense cities. Chinese and Japanese cities where coronavirus was contained are on the list:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/07/11/the-50-...

Beyond that, US cities are usually not dense at all due to people living in single family homes rather than apartments.

Singapore is very much a global hub of business, and it's high population density makes outbreaks even harder to contain. And yet they're doing a much better job.

Not only that, but if you compare the public presentations on the COVID situation given by Trump to those given by Lee (Singapore PM), the difference is stunning. One is nearly incomprehensible and full of unrelated matter (name calling, politicizing, even campaigning), and the other is polite and clear and comprehensive.

Is Singapore's political system suffering from decades of being torn apart by identity politics and being dominated by a small class of people that detests the people that constitute the bulk of the population? Because that's why Trump is president of the US, and why the government can't or won't come together to look out for the people.

t o r n a p a r t b y i d e n t i t y p o l i t i c s

I think "identity politics" are actually just an artefact of commercially driven manipulation of government and media.

If you were to really get to know most people, you will find they have (obviously) the same basic needs and desires. Amusingly, this is even illustrated by the large percentage of Trump supporters who are heavily dependent upon government services (i.e. handouts).

At the end of the day, we all want food, shelter, safety, and some amount of personal privacy and freedom. These things probably comprise at least 70% of our needs and desires. The remaining bits get divided up somewhat, and I daresay only the last 10-20% are "identity". Identity really just means what you and your peers/neighbors think.

Nobody wants to be sick, or hungry, or in pain, or unappreciated, or discarded. Much of the politics we see is thrust upon us by a narrow few (powerful) interests with their own agendas.

>At the end of the day, we all want food, shelter, safety, and some amount of personal privacy and freedom.

That may be the case, but different policies and social norms will result in different people getting more or less of those things.

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