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A straightforward lie
May. 7th, 2007 05:31 pmIt is my experience that Thatcherites, neo-liberists et hoc genus omne are pretty free and easy with data. Since they assume that statistics cannot but support their views, their interpretation of events and numbers tends to be, shall we say, loose. But does anything justify this semi-paragraph from the National Review?
While go-go capitalist countries like the United States, Australia, and the UK, and economically dynamic Scandinavian free-traders like Denmark and Sweden rank highest on happiness surveys, the economically sclerotic nations of “Old Europe” — such as Belgium, Austria, Germany, and France — are relegated to second-tier, “less happy” status. Worse still, France lurks at the bottom of the “less happy” nations, doing barely better than the relatively “unhappy” Italians.
"Economically dynamic Scandinavian free traders." Think about it. After a monstrosity of that kind, even to suggest that Italians and French might be "unhappy" for reasons not directly related to the joys of unfettered free enterprise (such as, say, being in the front line of an avalanche of immigration which is poisoning social relations all over the country) is a comparatively minor matter. This is a man who lives in dreamland.
While go-go capitalist countries like the United States, Australia, and the UK, and economically dynamic Scandinavian free-traders like Denmark and Sweden rank highest on happiness surveys, the economically sclerotic nations of “Old Europe” — such as Belgium, Austria, Germany, and France — are relegated to second-tier, “less happy” status. Worse still, France lurks at the bottom of the “less happy” nations, doing barely better than the relatively “unhappy” Italians.
"Economically dynamic Scandinavian free traders." Think about it. After a monstrosity of that kind, even to suggest that Italians and French might be "unhappy" for reasons not directly related to the joys of unfettered free enterprise (such as, say, being in the front line of an avalanche of immigration which is poisoning social relations all over the country) is a comparatively minor matter. This is a man who lives in dreamland.
