# The Diverse Body Politic Excuse for America’s Failures (Part 1 of 2) Date: 2026-03-25 Next Part: https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/the-diverse-body-politic-excuse-for-america-s-failures.part2.md --- --- ### The Diverse Body Politic Excuse for America’s Failures We are told that America’s diverse genetic mix is why our social safety net fails to keep up with European nations. Is it true? ![Image](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/the-diverse-body-politic-excuse-for-america-s-failures-5e0241124b.png) Below education funding is used for a rough sense of the stinginess of a place. A deeper study would get into more detail of segregation by income, how funding is shared among schools, rate of private schools, etc. This is just a first approximation. ![From Gemini using mostly 2024 and 2025 data](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/the-diverse-body-politic-excuse-for-america-s-failures-d2c213c0a2.png) *From Gemini using mostly 2024 and 2025 data* Idaho has no significant history of slavery, but Maryland and Texas do. There are of course real limitations to studying racism this way, but no you cannot solely use demographics to explain the difference in stinginess between Vermont and Idaho or New York and Texas or Maryland and Texas. Nor can we use demographics to explain the difference between Idaho and France or Germany. (Excluding tax revenue per capita since can’t compare states and countries on that.) **France** (significant history of colonialism and participation in the transatlantic slave trade) * **Demographics:** ~85% White/European descent (France legally prohibits collecting official census data on race, so this relies on independent demographic estimates). * **Education Funding:** ~$13,500 per pupil — above the OECD average. * **GDP per capita (PPP adjusted):** ~$62,000 to ~$67,600 *(depending on World Bank vs. IMF estimates)* **Germany** (history of overseas colonialism and Nazi work / slave camps, but limited transatlantic slavery) * **Demographics:** ~85% White/European descent * **Education Funding:** ~$15,767 per pupil — well above the OECD average. * **GDP per capita (PPP adjusted):** ~$63,000 to ~$73,000 (depending on the specific World Bank or IMF 2024 estimates). Can Idaho’s stinginess be explained by unemployment? Not really: **Germany: ~77%** This high rate is partially sustained by a very high prevalence of part-time work, particularly among women, which brings the total number of individuals employed up even if the total hours worked per person is lower. **Idaho: ~73%** Idaho boasts a robust labor market that consistently tracks slightly above the national average. **France: ~69%** France’s employment rate has historically lagged behind both the United States and Germany. What about urban density? Doesn’t explain why Idaho is so much stingier than Vermont or Texas so much stingier than Maryland. **Urbanization Rate** **New York** ~88% **Maryland** ~87% **Texas** ~84% **Idaho** ~70% **Vermont** ~39% **France** ~82% **Germany** ~78% What about religion? Participation in church seems to do better than any other single factor we casually looked at: ![From Gemini using mostly 2024 and 2025 data](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/assets/the-diverse-body-politic-excuse-for-america-s-failures-9053cf5389.png) *From Gemini using mostly 2024 and 2025 data* Racism has, of course, had and continues to have a profoundly negative affect on American politics. Admitting the existence and affects of racism is not the same as concluding the driver of stinginess between America and more reasonably governed European nations is our ethnic diversity. If white nationalists had there way, there is no particular reason to believe that American’s unwillingness to give to others will reduce. Given the correlation with religion, there is an equally strong argument that the resulting higher level of white Christians would be even stingier. We **can argue that without our diversity America would be much, much worse.** Think of an empire with very little diversity, say 19th century Britain: > Charles Booth’s monumental study of London (published starting in 1889) revealed that **30.7%** of the city’s population lived in abject poverty. A decade later, Seebohm Rowntree’s study of York (1899) found almost identical numbers, with **27.8%** of the population living below the basic poverty line. > The New Poor Law of 1834 centralized relief into the dreaded “workhouse” system. It operated on the principle of “less eligibility” — meaning conditions inside the workhouse had to be intentionally worse than the lowest standard of independent labor outside of it. Families were strictly segregated upon entry, meaning husbands, wives, and children were separated. By the mid-to-late 19th century, roughly **2.5% to 4.5%** of the British population was receiving some form of poor relief in any given year, with hundreds of thousands confined to these penal-like institutions. > The disparity in health between the classes was staggering. According to the 1842 Chadwick Report on sanitary conditions, the average age of death for a “gentleman” in the rural district of Rutland was 52. For a laborer in the industrial slums of Manchester, the average age of death was **17 years** (a statistic heavily driven by massive infant mortality rates in the slums, where upwards of 25% of children died before age five). There is every indication that America’s diversity, far from holding us back politically, saved us from the unrestrained cruelty that so called “conservatives” push towards. Are racists famously willing to dig up a public swimming pool rather than share it with black people — yes they are. Are racists willing to constrain FDR’s public programs to white people — yes they are. But that doesn’t tell us anything about what American society would look like without black people and other ethnic groups. > FDR’s administration was groundbreaking because it included an informal but highly influential advisory group known as the Federal Council of Negro Affairs, widely dubbed the “Black Cabinet.” > It was led by the brilliant educator and activist Mary McLeod Bethune, alongside figures like Robert C. Weaver (who later became the first Black cabinet secretary under LBJ). > This group consisted of dozens of Black professionals working across various executive departments. They fiercely lobbied the President and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (who was a staunch ally) to ensure New Deal relief programs, like the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the National Youth Administration (NYA), actually reached Black communities. What about claims that as France and Germany became less white they also became more stingy? **Simply not true** — resistance to immigration is not the same as attempting to withdraw social programs from existing non “white” citizens. > While the programs themselves remain popular, the growing diversity has fueled a different political phenomenon known as **“welfare chauvinism.”** Right-wing populist parties in both countries — such as the National Rally (RN) in France and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) — do not typically campaign on slashing the welfare state. Instead, they campaign on “national preference.” They argue that robust, generous social programs must be protected and maintained, but that access to them should be strictly limited, delayed, or outright denied to immigrants and non-citizens. #### What does it mean for America to have no obvious excuse for treating its people poorly? The pre compromised version of politics we are all fed is likely more a product of wealthy donors and rich Americans that don’t want to pay taxes than any underlying difficult to alter voter reality. Just as 67% of Americans now favor gay marriage, there could be an equally sudden turn around on educational spending and social safety nets in general. Yes there seems to be a correlation between not wanting to pay taxes and religious attendance, but there was that same correlation for gay marriage also. --- **[Continue reading Part 2 of 2](https://disrael.github.io/blogs/raw/the-diverse-body-politic-excuse-for-america-s-failures.part2.md)**