Relative to Comparable Nations: How Are We Doing?

Finally a site whose metrics I like. I like it because it gives the end user at least a little control.

If you wonder how the USA is doing relative to other transparent nations, IMAO, the best metric to use is number of deaths per million. I also think you need to stick to Western European nations, the Anglosphere, and their auxiliaries in Asia such as Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore where you can have confidence in the numbers.

In Western Europe, I prefer to look to France as a benchmark. You really can't use island nations with low population density as a benchmark. That takes out Oceania's New Zealand & Australia.

That leaves the UK and France. Italy and Spain are close, but they are simply too chaotic and aspects of their civic culture too apart from the USA. The UK seems attractive, but for a variety of reasons (demographics, population density, etc), I believe France is the better pick. Germany? No. They are doing well because, well, they are Germans. I was joking about this with a German friend over the weekend who has lived in the USA almost two decades and goes home to Hanover every summer. She agrees. A nation full of Germans function, well, like a nation full of Germans. It helps at times like this.

So, that leaves us with France. I have my biases, as I have always felt more at "home" in France and the Low Countries than the UK - but I think that is a reasoned call.

That's my intro, and here is the graph that I think tells the best story.

We are doing fine, and so is France, TBQH.

Go to FT website here and play around some. Of note, I will not entertain arguments from anyone trying to use total numbers as a benchmark. You can't compare a nation of 330 million to one of 5.6 million. To get even close, you need to move that decimal point over one.

Now, everyone go wash your hands.

H/t JBM.