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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 3, 2023

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HDI is a meaningless number. It combines the America I live in with the part of America that lives in third world squalor and violence.

It’s simply a myth that a big chunk of the population living in squalor and violence “doesn’t affect you”. Yes, living in a nice New England suburb with a Danish-level homicide rate is different to living in St Louis, but you’re kidding if you don’t think St Louis being the same country as you doesn’t have a big impact. Redistributive taxes, internal migration, government policy around everything from education to healthcare, college admissions, entertainment and media, all of these things are impacted by the sim of the population, which includes the ‘third world’ parts.

A wealthy Parisian, too, can say that what happens in the squalor of the banlieues “doesn’t affect him”. It still does, and it affects him more each year.