Is Progress Obsolete? U.S. Is Now An 'Un- Developing Country': UN Ranking of Nations, No. 41
- 'Is Progress Obsolete? The United States Is Now an 'Un-Developing' Country,' by Richard Eskow, Sept. 17, 2020. - Ed.
- The rankings include the absence of poverty and hunger, good health & education, gender equality, clean air and water, & reduced inequality.
The United Nations' latest annual ranking of nations by "sustainable development goals" will come as a shock for many Americans.
Not only aren't we "Number 1," we're not even close. The top 4 countries are Scandinavian democracies. The U.S.ranks 41st, just below Cuba (that's right, below our Communist neighbor). Countries that outrank us include Estonia, Croatia, the Slovak Republic, Romania, and Serbia.
The goal of the report is to measure countries' progress, or development, toward a civilized and sustainable future.
Every ranking contains some element of subjectivity. But the 17 "sustainable development goals" (SDGs) developed by economist Jeffrey Sachs and his team are well chosen. They include the absence of poverty and hunger, good health and education, gender equality, clean air and water, and reduced inequality. The goal of the report is to measure countries' progress, or development, toward a civilized and sustainable future. As historian Kathleen Frydl points out, "Under this methodology- the U.S. ranks between Cuba and Bulgaria. Both are widely regarded as developing countries." Frydl's essay was widely circulated under the headline, "US is becoming a 'developing country' on global rankings that measure democracy, inequality."
To Frydl's point, the US picture does look like that of a developing country. But how, exactly, does a country that was once "developed" become "developing"? The phrase "developing country" implies that there are countries that have achieved development, and countries that are on their way. It leaves no room for the possibility that a nation, once it developed, can "un-develop" itself. It's like saying that a "growing child" can become "un-grown." And yet, that's exactly what is happening to the U.S. The language of "developed" and "developing" countries carries with it the idea that Western European & North American countries reached an endpoint in the 20th century, one that other nations naturally aspire to and are on the road to achieving.
It is the language of post-colonialism (which suggests the U.S. is now colonizing itself). The words are heavily freighted with assumptions about globalism, capitalism, & liberal democracy.
Among them is the idea that these forces bring with them a stability, the kind of benign stasis that Francis Fukuyama once called "the end of history." He has since renounced that idea, & understandably so. The declining status of the U. S. undermines the historical assumptions about progress that have guided political & financial elites for many decades. Countries like the U.S. & UK look less & less like the end-state of history and more & more like declining world powers.. Progress isn't like rain. It does not, as the Bible says of rainfall, "fall on the just & unjust alike." Progress, real progress, is made by people working together for the common good. If they don't work together it slows down, or stops, or reverses itself....https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/09/17/progress-obsolete-united-states-now-un-developing-country
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