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These stats are thrown off by a number of factors that it would be imprudent to get into here. Control for demographic samples similar to the other countries and you'll see a very different picture.


Singapore is a multi-racial country, and it does better than the US on PISA. So is Canada and it does better.

And if your point isn't race or culture, but of economic disparity, that is sort of my point.


"Multi-racial" is not a homogenous term you can just throw around as though it means the same thing everywhere.


Singapore is full of Chinese people. Now compare Singapore Malays to Chinese-Americans.


So you're saying poor people in the US don't matter because they bring down the average?


I don't think that's what I'm saying. Of course they _matter_, as much as any of us do anyhow.

What I'm saying is that if you actually compare people with similar demographically-expected IQ and socioeconomic situations, Americans stack up fine. It's the extenuating circumstances that drag the overall averages down.

All that really means is that overall averages across 300 million people aren't that useful.


They matter, but they don't negate the statistical extremes.

For what it's worth, I didn't go to any elite universities and I make less than 35,000 per year, so I don't have a horse in this race.




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