
Scandinavian Education System Better Than US? - vermapratyush
Link: http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.businessinsider.com&#x2F;finlands-education-system-best-in-world-2012-11?IR=T
There are many articles like the above supporting the same.<p>The education system in most of the Scandinavian and few other European countries have very lenient education system. And they are ranked much better&#x2F;higher than those in the US&#x2F;China&#x2F;Russia (maybe India as well).
If so, why haven&#x27;t they build innovative products or well known in the fields of InformationTechnology&#x2F;Aerospace&#x2F;Mathematics?
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jhellan
It is just Finland. The other Scandinavian countries are in the same league as
the US.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_St...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment#PISA_2012)

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thaumasiotes
It's always worth bringing up that while the US ranks poorly on cross-national
standardized tests like PISA, it is near best-in-class after adjusting for
race: US whites outscore white countries; US asians outscore asian countries,
etc.

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danielvf
Source?

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thaumasiotes
[http://www.unz.com/isteve/overall-pisa-rankings-include-
amer...](http://www.unz.com/isteve/overall-pisa-rankings-include-america/)

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kurren
It's not just Finland.

It's pretty much all Europe, where any decent high school student can easily
outscore any undergraduate US student on pretty much any subjects (knowledge
of anything not-US or not pop culture-related showing possibly the most
embarrassing difference between them).

And indeed they directly built or indirectly facilitated much (most?) of the
innovative products in the fields you are mentioning. It's just that they
work/teach/live in the US because of a more favourable entrepreneurial
framework, easier access to capital, less red tape, higher pay at top
universities.

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JoeAltmaier
So, a well-educated populace results in less favorable entrepreneurial
framework, harder access to capital, more red tape and lower pay? I'm starting
to doubt.

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thaumasiotes
Two gut reactions, without meaning to disagree with you in a significant way:

\- "less favorable entrepreneurial framework" can probably be viewed as the
direct cause of "harder access to capital". Which means the four surprises in
your list are probably better thought of as three or fewer surprises.

\- A well-educated populace probably does result in more red tape compared to
a poorly-educated populace. My argument for this is: a smart populace is
_able_ to handle the load of red tape, whereas a stupid populace encumbered
with a comparable degree of red tape would just see their systems fail, and be
replaced by less complex systems, when nobody could make things work.

Again, I think your general point is a good one.

