Drawing distinctions

In the United States, it is the official job of the government to make distinctions of various sorts, between schools, between communities, between state economic systems and legal codes. Not only the census bureau but also the education department and the commerce department develop various lists ranking this or that aspect of American society. Everyone in the U.S. knows to take these lists with a grain of salt, not to put too much faith in them, and yet we use them, find them interesting and informative, and they can be a source of motivation since they spark a competitive drive. I was talking to my cousin about this last night, and it turns out the Icelandic government does not participate in these sorts of comparisons, does not make official lists for instance of which elementary schools are "the best" in Iceland. And yet these rankings are made, in conversations here and there between parents, the slow accumulation of word of mouth. I'm terribly bad at conversations like that, since I never know what basis is being used to make judgments. So being here is forcing me to reserve judgment, which actually isn't a bad thing.