{"id":4179,"date":"2012-12-09T13:17:52","date_gmt":"2012-12-09T18:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/?p=4179"},"modified":"2012-12-09T13:17:52","modified_gmt":"2012-12-09T18:17:52","slug":"scandinavians-and-the-quality-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/?p=4179","title":{"rendered":"Scandinavians and the quality of life"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/hours.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4180\" title=\"hours\" src=\"http:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/hours-300x243.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/hours-300x243.png 300w, https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/hours-1024x830.png 1024w, https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/hours.png 1181w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 295px) 100vw, 295px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/patents.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4181\" title=\"patents\" src=\"http:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/patents-300x246.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"295\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/patents-300x246.png 300w, https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/patents-1024x841.png 1024w, https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/patents.png 1181w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 295px) 100vw, 295px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Fareed Zakaria on CNN commented on a recent ranking by The Economist that they called &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/news\/21566430-where-be-born-2013-lottery-life\">the lottery of life<\/a>&#8220;. It measured the quality of life in some eighty countries. The United States, number 1 on similar lists in decades past, is now in a tie with Germany for position 16. (Canada is 9th.) Following Switzerland and Australia, the top of the list is dominated by the usual Scandinavian suspects: Norway, Sweden, Denmark are 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>So, can&#8217;t we all be more like Scandinavians? This is more than just a rhetorical question. As a matter of fact, this is the title of <a href=\"http:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2132939\">a recent study<\/a> by Acemoglu et al. (MIT Department of Economics Working Paper No. 12-22, 2012.) In it, the authors argue that more &#8220;cutthroat&#8221; versions of capitalism, such as that practiced in the United States, while leading to greater inequality, also lead to more innovation. Meanwhile, countries choosing a more &#8220;cuddly&#8221; form of capitalism are in fact enjoying a free ride, as they take advantage of the innovations produced by cutthroat capitalists.<\/p>\n<p>The study was reportedly criticized for using patents as a proxy to measure innovation, but I don&#8217;t think that this criticism truly undermines their main conclusions. Conclusions that seem to be supported by solid mathematics (at least that&#8217;s the impression I got after quickly scanning through the pages of the actual paper). What I find interesting among the study&#8217;s conclusions is that the configuration of a technology leader practicing &#8220;cutthroat&#8221; capitalism and followers who practice &#8220;cuddly&#8221; capitalism is actually a stable, albeit asymmetric, equilibrium.<\/p>\n<p>I cannot help but wonder though&#8230; where does China fit into this picture?<\/p>\n<fb:like href='https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/?p=4179' send='false' layout='button_count' show_faces='true' width='450' height='65' action='like' colorscheme='light' font='lucida grande'><\/fb:like>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fareed Zakaria on CNN commented on a recent ranking by The Economist that they called &#8220;the lottery of life&#8220;. It measured the quality of life in some eighty countries. The United States, number 1 on similar lists in decades past, is now in a tie with Germany for position 16. (Canada is 9th.) Following Switzerland <a href='https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/?p=4179' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-society","category-19-id","category-18-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4179"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4190,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions\/4190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}