Unless I'm talking about something new, I almost never cite sources during informal discussion. I thought it was common knowledge that the US spends more per capita than any other country. I also thought it was common knowledge that the US has a low life expectancy relative to other countries with similar wealth. With that said, I admit I have a problem thinking too many things are common knowledge and don't always cite things when sometimes they should be cited.
The problem with TECSHARE is that he doesn't even believe in widely accepted truths. When I have cited psychology literature, he writes it off because the entire field of psychology is a farce to him. So is Science. When you are talking to someone who has embraces pseudo-science, and simply writes off scientific 97% of scientific citations, there really is no point in citing anything. There is no getting anywhere really. To him, anything that doesn't support his point is deconstructive postmodernism grounded in the same ideology that caused a drought in Ukraine almost a century ago.
"widely accepted truths", often times known as a lot of dumb people in a room reassuring each other. It is a fact that psychology is the least scientific of the accepted sciences, because by their nature they lack empirical requirements such as controls, repeatable results, and direct observation among other things. Your sources had failed methodologies such as being based on surveys. I dismissed your surveys because they are not only a wildly unreliable source of information, but one which is easily manipulable, not just because "psychology is a farce". The point was that even if everything you presented was correct, it would still be of the lowest forms of evidence available. You don't cite anything because you don't have the capability to competently review your sources, and you know that I do. Everything I don't support is not, "deconstructive postmodernism" (its deconstructivist btw), just the vast majority of what you have to offer. Are you insinuating that Holodomor happened because of a drought now? And I am the pseudo-scientist?
TECSHARE is actually extremely on-point.
I really think the subject of this thread should actually read: "Socialism is so bad that it allows poor people to live
in poverty. Horrible true story"; because historically, and presently: This is the truth when seen from an objective eye analyzing past and present data. Many countries that have some socialist policies that people like to mis-represent as socialist today; are actually not socialist, and haven't been for some time.
For instance in California; people actually believe the last "drought" [when it was actually just a water shortage] was caused by "climate change/global warming/etc..." when in fact California simply ran extremely low on water reserves because they local government decided to flush all stocks of water from pretty much all of the reservoirs in the year and a half prior; there was very heavy rains in the preceding years, and they assumed it would continue as such.
These people are driven by the same mentality that the sea level should/will never change; not being understanding of the fact that elevation is based on sea level, and not the other way around.... As a professional land surveyor; I can attest to the face that the ground moves; a LOT more than you would expect.
Not to mention: that pumping mass amounts of water out of the ground for drinking caused the city of Palo Alto to sink pretty far below sea level, and the water district continually pumps mass amounts of water back into the ground to offset and keep it from sinking further. Go ahead; look it up.
But people never wish to factor in aspects that go against their perceived notions when it comes to studying a thing in the first place. Statistics are only as good as the datum inserted and the parameters formed by the person with an objective for a particular result.
Now im not quoting or linking citations, but at least i'm being extremely clear about what is and isn't; in an extremely easy to verify way. It is courteous to do such when speaking in such a manner.