Why You Should Root for Nigeria (or Brazil, Mexico or Ghana) (New York Times)

From the article:

Most of the world considers soccer’s quadrennial World Cup to be the most important sporting competition of all. A growing number of Americans have embraced the event, but many are only vaguely aware of it, and, aside from the United States, not so sure for whom to root.

I am offering an alternative, utilitarian guide to help Americans choose a country to support. This guide can also be used if the Americans lose, to help decide whom to root for among the remaining teams.

The basic principle is simple, drawn from utilitarian principles: Root for the outcome that will produce the largest aggregate increase in happiness. So I came up with a simple index, calculated by a country’s passion for soccer multiplied by its average level of poverty multiplied by its population. It’s perhaps a bit crude, simply to multiply these factors by each other, but the exercise highlights some important truths about the world.

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