We are Losing America Right Before our Blind Eyes (UPDATED)

[Political Heretic]

(NOTE: this entry has been updated, and will continue to be updated with new and current source statistical information in the future. Please click the link for reference material.)

LINK: http://practical-vision.blogspot.com/2009/03/we-are-losing-america-right-before-our.html|We Are Losing America Right Before our Blind Eyes (UPDATED)>

By Political Heretic
Updated March 24, 2010

What is the most non-talked about reality in the United States of America today? The fact that we no longer lead the world in almost any indicator. The United States is no longer the best place for an average person to live. Our health care lags behind our peers, so does our educational system.

I'm going to tell you a fact, then back it up with statistical data, the accuracy of which you can directly verify for yourself, and readers will still have a hard time accepting it as the truth.

Here it is:

Most Americans are relatively worse off in many ways than people in 19 other industrialized powerhouse countries (Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland). These countries are the United States’ industrial peers, and part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Let’s take a look at the details:

Per Capita Income: U.S. Second
Income Inequality: U.S. First (meaning worst)
Overall Poverty Rate: U.S. Highest
Child Poverty Rate: U.S. Highest
Elderly Poverty Rate: U.S. Highest
Infant Mortality Rate: U.S. First (meaning worst)
Leisure Time: U.S. Last (meaning worst)
Maternity Leave: U.S. Last (meaning worst)

Try to let this information sink in if you can. The United States of America, supposedly a shining beacon and the envy of all the world, has the highest infant mortality rate of its 19 other peer industrialized nations. We have the highest poverty rates. We have the highest income inequality of anyone.

Shouldn’t this news shock us? Shouldn’t be reported on every media outlet as the biggest news story around? BREAKING NEWS: Our country is in serious trouble, and falling behind the rest of the industrialized world! Something must be done.

But no, instead I could find only a single published article about the data, from a blog no less, The Village Voice. Here’s some of what they wrote about some of these numbers:

Income inequality: "Despite the relatively high median income in the United States, inequality in the United States is so severe that low-income households in the United States are actually worse off than low-income households in all but four peer countries."

Leisure time: "The average full-time U.S. worker, at 46.7 weeks per year, works more than the average worker in any peer countries, and about one month more than the overall average, which is 42.6 weeks."

Maternity leave: "The United States last among its peer countries in generosity of mandated maternity leave benefits."

Child care: "The United States spent $1,803 per child, which was less than a fourth of what was spent in Denmark, less than a third of what was spent in Norway and Sweden, less than half of what was spent in Finland and France, and well below spending in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.”

On (Not) Getting By in America

The previous statistical information, while deeply troubling, is actually just the tip of the iceberg of unreported and ignored American realities. Let’s look at some others (this section will be continuously updated as new information is located):

Median Income, Black Women: $05.00 (Five Dollars)
% US Wealth Controlled by the Top Fifth of Americans: 93 percent

To those who find great comfort in shouting “I’m proud to be an American” what exactly are you proud of? Shouldn’t we be embarrassed to death about losing out to the rest of the industrialized world in every single one of these categories?

What does “USA #1 Mean?” Number one in what?

[ixion]

1. k/r

for the Truth! :patriot:

[donco6]

2. Not that I dispute the overall message - but,

how can be be first in overall poverty rate? I've been to a lot of other countries . . . and I've seen nothing like that here. Even in the poorest sections of the country. ?? Is it a relative measure?

[Political Heretic]

3. No. We're #1 among OECD nations.

You've seen nothing like that here....

visit East St. Louis.

Were you aware that there are currently tent cities (they were called Hoovervilles during the Depression) outside Los Angeles?

We have a tendency to put blinders on in our own country, and take those blinders off when we travel to someone else's country.

:(

[sendero]

5. We don't .

... put blinders on, the MSM just makes sure we don't see any of that stuff.

[donco6]

10. I've been to East St. Louis. And abandoned sections of Detroit.

But I've seen far, far, FAR worse elsewhere. In fact, I SENT tents there and it was a step up from what the people were living in. They even used the plastic box the emergency tent came in for a bathtub.

But conversely, I haven't been everywhere in the US - Appalachia for one. I know things are bad there, too. It just struck me seeing "last" on the poverty thing. But now I see who we're ranked against, it makes sense.

[conscious evolution]

15. Would you care to name which

of those 19 countries you have visited which had worse conditions?

[donco6]

24. Not of THOSE countries. I think I was quite clear.

On edit: Kenya is where I went.

[hfojvt]

66. that's the thing - Kenya and others are not included in this comparison

the OP says we are the poorest - out of the richest 20 countries in the world. We have a higher poverty rate than England, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, France, ... Not a higher poverty rate than India, Haiti, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, Mexico, etc., etc.

[donco6]

101. Yes, as I said, I see that now. n/t

[Political Heretic]

16. Between anecdotal evidence and hard data, I'll take hard data.

[CanonRay]

71. Yes, in Nigeria, but not in the 19 industrialized nations.

That's his point.

[knitter4democracy]

117. Try visiting a Rez or driving out in rural Midwestern areas.

I've done work in barrios in Central America, and what I saw on the Rez and what my fellow students grew up with (in the late 80s, early 90s) were pretty darn similar, but we have winter to deal with. I went to school with kids who had dirt floors and no running water--in Michigan in the 80s. We're just better at hiding our poverty.

I've done work in the inner cities and seen the crushing poverty there, but at least there, you have buses and free health care clinics. If you're poor in the country, you're looking at walking or riding a bike for miles and miles, and forget any real community-based organizations to help you. The safety net is pretty much non-existent in the country.

[jwirr]

4. This was looking at 19 industrial nations. Of course there are poorer

nations but they are not the top industrial nations.

[Political Heretic]

17. Comparing the U.S. the developing nations is like comparing apples to lawn mowers.

That's why the comparison between other western-industrialized pro-capitalist nations is so compelling. It's fair.

Incidentally, if you visit the link, you'll see some of the source information is from the Economic Policy Institute's bi-annual State of Working American report, which includes a section on international comparisons. What's compelling is that much of the data is from the U.S. Governments own reporting - meaning even our own government says this is true. Further, if you review the methodology, you'll see that measures we taken to adjust for variances in calculations from different countries, normalizing values.

In other worse - is about as accurate a picture as you can get. And its ugly.

[Robb]

61. It's not more "fair," or more "accurate," it merely makes the argument more interesting.

Choosing how (or whether) to weigh each nation is a decision made for a rhetorical purpose.

[Mithreal]

73. I don't understand your distinction regarding fair, seems like nonsense.

Seems dismissive labeling this rhetoric too.

[Political Heretic]

125. An (admittedly kind of crass, given the subject matter) analogy

It's kind of like pointing out that a professional sports team is dead last among all other professional teams in its league, and having the rebuttal be that none of that criticism matters because the team can beat any team in the local childrens football league.

[JDPriestly]

67. European countries do not allow people to subsist on as little as we do.

And, in Europe, virtually everyone who wants it has access to health care at very affordable cost.

Wealthy and upper middle-class Americans live better than their counterparts in Europe, Australia and New Zealand. But lower middle-class and the poor in the United States lack necessities like access to good, affordable health care, dental care, even in some cases good elementary education and housing.

In the United States, many people live in very large single-family homes while the very poor live in homeless shelters, slum apartments or even on the streets.


When I lived in Europe, people in cities in particular generally lived in smaller apartments and houses than middle class and wealthy Americans, but the only people who lived on the streets were either alcoholics who had not responded to the abundant rehab treatments that were available or mentally ill people who were not accepting or seeking medical treatment for their conditions.

It takes forever for a disabled person in the United States to finally get rent assistance and Social Security disability status. I had a friend who lived on the streets and in homeless shelters for years until her name came up on the list for subsidized housing. I used to work in the administration of a homeless services project. That was years ago. We did what we could, but the homelessness problem in the United States is more appalling now than it was then. -- And it is more troubling now because, while so many Americans are homeless, houses stand empty, foreclosed due to bank fraud, lack of government regulation of the housing industry and the misrepresentations of the economist in the Bush administration and news media about the state of our economy during the Bush era.

[residentfan]

68. Not of all countries, just of these....

countries: Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The article was about our standing compared to these countries.

[gmoney]

6. You forgot prison population... I think we're #1 there, too! Woohoo!

[Political Heretic]

18. Find my a statistical source (or I'll try to find one) and I'll update

[gmoney]

30. From the NYTimes, 2008...

The United States has, for instance, 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation, according to data maintained by the International Center for Prison Studies at King’s College London.

China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison. (That number excludes hundreds of thousands of people held in administrative detention, most of them in China’s extrajudicial system of re-education through labor, which often singles out political activists who have not committed crimes.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html

[Political Heretic]

34. Great - will update, thanks!

[sabrina 1]

70. We're #1 in military spending also ~

Prison population and military spending, U.S. #1. I wonder if there is a relationship between militarized and law-and-order type economies and the deteriorating conditions of those countries?

Not to mention the swing to the right and the disdain for social programs.

I remember also a few years ago that our media rated somewhere around #57 in a chart on the world's free press. It has gone up since then. But we're certainly not #1 in that area either.

[defendandprotect]

62. 12% of African Americans in our prisons -- !!!

... and overall re Americans, I think the figure is 1 in 34 citizens in prison?

This is the GOP's "third world America" -- they've been working on it for 50 years and more!

[Demeter]

69. Mental Illness and Drug Addiction, too, I'll Betcha!

USA! Number 1!

[SocialistLez]

85. This site depressed me but opened my eyes

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3233450

I plan to get active in prison reform this summer.

[amborin]

7. K&R but

as far as infant mortality: i read an article saying in many other nations, including United Kingdom, babies are categories as fetuses, and when they pass away, they are not included in the child mortality category

i don't have any links; it might be worth exploring

[Political Heretic]

21. It's been explored. The EPI's data on this is explained in the methodology

section. It is based in part on our government's own comparative reports. But their part of it is based on a normalization of data so that differences in counting are excluded.

Translation: the EPI is reporting that ranking based on comparing identical categories between countries (excluding "fetus" categories.)

One of the things that the right and/or pro-capitalist advocates are notorious for doing when it comes to statistical data they don't like, is immediately going to the data and seeking what I will call a "talking point loophole."

By that I mean, they look for something that will sound great in a sound byte that they know most people won't bother to fact check. So you get this claim that "countries don't calculate IM the same way, so the data is invalid." Of course that sounds great if your goal is to weaken the information being reported. However, what they don't point out is that in this case (and in fact in many cases) these differences are accounted for and the data normalized so that apples to apples comparisons are being made.

[amborin]

38. interesting

[Go2Peace]

46. That is a right wing lie. Amazing how it travels even to DU

[Enthusiast]

56. "That is a right wing lie."

Another one? Geesh, one would think they would run out of breath.

[Warren Stupidity]

84. Totally bogus. nt.

[liberation]

87. No that is not correct, infant mortality rates published by the WHO all follow the same metric

It is not defined on a country by country basis.

Basically it is a metric that measures the number of babies which don't make it between being born and their 1st (or 2nd year I forgot which). The USA has horrible numbers compared to other industrialized nations, the worst rates are found among Indian reservations, some of which have infant mortality rates which rival some 3rd world sub-Saharan nations. It is shameful, to be honest.

[RKP5637]

8. All this, and yet some still think this is the best place to live in the world. Just how

ignorant and backward are some of the citizens in this country... pretty bad IMO.

[liberation]

88. It is still a very nice place to live....

... if you have enough cash.

We still have a very good standard of living, but as a society we are becoming less and less equalitarian.

[indepat]

9. Am I no longer to believe my fundie first cousin when she says the U.S. is the best place in the

world to live? It probably is for the top 10%-15% or so in total income, but unlikely for a major portion of the other 85%- 90% 'cause we live in a RW world wherein government has fostered, championed, aided and abetted, and even rigged and assured that most of the nation's wealth would be accumulated among a relative few to whom government will be beholden. Why is this simple fact/truth so hard for most to grasp and come to grips with? :shrug:

[RKP5637]

11. And on top of this most mainstream media is so US centric. People in the US

really never get world news by default, many just flip the news on and there is Fox News, for example, all distortions for the most part. No wonder so many in this country are so damn ignorant.

[Mithreal]

77. Faux Patriotism? Team Spirit? America as a "religious" experience?

Symbols are immune to facts.

We aren't talking about the same America.

Similar thinking happens on DU. Image trumps facts. Criticism of a politician taken personally. People will fight to protect their symbols and the image of those they love.

Random thoughts, I know.

[Oregone]

12. Social Mobility: Tied for last with the UK

Thats the big kicker

[Political Heretic]

22. Did you get that from my own source data or somewhere else?

I'd like to highly that particular stat, and so far its not in my post...

EDIT - if that sounds funny (uh, you don't know your own source data) - this is an update from the original that I wrote one year ago, so I'm a bit rusty.)

[Oregone]

23. Elsewhere. A lot of studies on it that I found on Google a bit ago

Highest in Canada and Scandinavian countries

[Political Heretic]

28. I'll look myself, but if you can find something concrete post it and I'll update

[Oregone]

31. Check this for a good overview:

http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP%20American%20Dream%20Report.pdf

Graph on page 5 is a good reference from Corak, 2006

Just google "intergenerational mobility"

[Political Heretic]

32. Thanks!

[Oregone]

37. No prob

Its one of those stats that sorta a result of a lot of things you mention, and mostly, wealth disparity (and the poverty it caused)

It was a major, major part of the reason I left the US to raise a family.

[Ignis]

25. Ah, the American Dream in action.

Bootstraps ahoy! :patriot:

[arcadian]

40. The UK? the previous world dominating empire?

That UK?

[Oregone]

42. Thats what happens when you blow you treasury on dumb shit and encourage disparity

[RaleighNCDUer]

103. We are tied for last place with the only industrialized nation which still

maintains a landed aristocracy?

Lovely.

[Cal Carpenter]

13. Fucking excellent and important post

And timely too - this why our so-called HCR and the excuses as to why its 'the best we could do' are UN-FUCKING-ACCEPTABLE.

The inequality in this country is not okay. It's getting worse. It's not fucking okay.

Sorry, this post reveals so much basic truth that it has unleased my potty mouth.

[Political Heretic]

20. I know that feeling.... as the amount of information about US injustice increases, the likelihood

that I will drop the F-bomb approaches 1. :P

[SocialistLez]

86. +1

From one potty mouth to another.

[Starry Messenger]

14. Number one in brainwashing

The public has ingested the message that we deserve very little and that asking for anything more will anger the powers of capitalism. If we're nice to it and make sacrifices to it, it will push some scraps off the table. Then it amuses itself watching us fight over the scraps.

[closeupready]

108. The greatest irony is that the public is financing the elites

for this abysmal treatment. Government contracts, mortgage interest deduction, farm subsidies, defense contracts - these all benefit well-connected elites, not the middle class (by and large).

[Political Heretic]

19. PLEASE HELP ME ADD DATA! I'll be sure to mention your contribution.

If you have access to additional sources of statistical data adding to the documentation of our inequality problems, please post them here and I will add the information, the references for the data, and acknowledge the contribution (I don't steal credit!)

Thanks!

[pundaint]

91. Gun ownership

http://www.mibazaar.com/gunownership.html

[pundaint]

93. Debt position

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html

[Political Heretic]

120. I am out of town this weekend and just got online - but thank you! Will update ASAP

[OhioChick]

26. Rec'd n/t

[Uncle Joe]

27. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Political Heretic.

[LWolf]

29. Appalling. The list needs to include health care data, as well.

Even with the new insurance "reform."

[Stinky The Clown]

33. R

[troubledamerican]

35. No unions = no middle class = no democracy = no General Strike capacity = military coup

[Generic Brad]

36. We're #1 in not leading the world in almost every indicator

We rule!
:woohoo:

[Political Heretic]

39. kick.

[Kitty Herder]

41. We have a lot of work to do.

Unfortunately, few are interested in doing it.

When people say "USA = #1," I think they mean our military is #1. That much is true. I, for one, would gladly give up a little of the overwhelming military dominance in favor of creating a better quality of life for those of us here at home.

[Wednesdays]

99. Oh, and we're also #1 in College Football!

See if any of those wimpy Yurupeen teams can ever beat our BCS winners! :woohoo:

[RaleighNCDUer]

104. Well, we THINK we are #1 militarily.

Of course, it's been two generations since we've tested our military against anyone other than 3rd world dictators.

You have to wonder how we'd do in a REAL fight.

[Jackpine Radical]

112. Here's an old letter to the editor of mine, from almost exactly 2 years ago:

U.S.A. is No. 1 (my latest LTTE, which has already provoked a hate call):
Posted by Jackpine Radical in General Discussion
Thu Mar 27th 2008, 05:51 PM
http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-opinio...

No matter how hard the liberal America-haters try to deny it, the United States is still No. 1. If you doubt it, just reflect for a moment on how many first-place positions we hold in world statistics:

-We are No. 1 in incarceration. We not only have more people per capita in prison or jail, we have more inmates in absolute numbers than countries such as China with four or five times our population.

-We have the highest infant mortality rate among modern industrialized nations.

-We not only devote more money to military expenditures than any other country, we spend more than the rest of the world combined.

-We have a larger portion of our citizenry without health insurance than any other nation.

-We not only have more billionaires than any other nation, we sustain the worlds largest gap in income between the rich and the poor - and furthermore, not content with our brilliant success in this arena, we continue to widen that gap at a rate greater than anywhere else in the world.

-We have the industrialized world's highest rate of unwed teen pregnancies.

In seven years of brilliant conservative leadership, we have soared to the No. 1 position as the most-hated and most-feared nation on earth, as measured in worldwide polls.

Sadly, my friends, if we were to elect Democratic leaders to the White House and Congress this fall, I fear that their proposed policy changes would threaten our proud position of supremacy in every one of these areas. Please do not let America fall into mediocrity. Vote Republican.

[moondust]

43. Yes but the important thing is

that thanks to very pro-corporate attitudes and policies over the past 30 years a handful of people have become fabulously rich! The system works!

:sarcasm:

[Joe the Liberal]

44. Not to mention a pretty high murder rate......

"but... but our guns keep us safe" :eyes:

The US looks "great" when you compare it to third world countries but put up against other industrialized nations the US is is generally worse off. The standards are so low here, I realized this a long time ago. All the bullshit you get fed about how this is the "greatest nation on earth" starts to fall to pieces when you wake up and look at the world around you.

The irony in "land of the free home of the brave" is that the US is neither free nor brave. We have the highest prison population on earth (I know this has been mentioned already) and Americans are pretty cowardly and will give up most of their freedoms for some false sense of security in a minute. 90% of the country seems to always be afraid of something too, fear, fear ,fear is what drives most people. This country and the people in it are nothing special, it takes a pretty big dumbshit to actually believe the "we're #1" crap. We may have been "great" at one point but those days are long over and they are not coming back, at least not in our lifetimes.

[TK421]

116. "Highest prison population"...how many are imprisoned because of

stupid shit like marijuana possession or use? When you narrow that list down to serious offenders like rapists, child molesters and serial killers you'll find a great deal of our prison population is populated by offenders who don't even belong there ( at least, not for the periods for which they have been sentenced to )

[Amonester]

45. #1 in Olympic medals and #1 in avg. number of guns/person.

Also #1 in number of individuals that have been succesfully brainwashed their whole life through.

[Yupster]

59. # 1 in money owed

Means we must have a good credit score.

[mwb970]

47. What a terrible country this is turning into.

When I think of "America" I think of unfairness, lies, and violence. And a doomed future. Costa Rica, anyone?

[Indi Guy]

48. You neglected to mention the offshore banks...

...responsible for the threat.

[JohnyCanuck]

49. But the USA still has by far the world's biggest military budget..

and the most awe inspiring military forces the world has ever seen. Ain't you just prouder than shit?

[Mithreal]

78. would be prouder if they weren't used for empire

[femrap]

50. k and r

I'm not surprised...been watching the nation slide into an abyss of selfishness and inefficiency for a long time now.

[Echo In Light]

51. k/r

[JBoy]

52. Second highest defense spending as % of GDP

US spends 4.06% of GDP on defense. Of your list of countries, only Greece spends higher (4.3%). France is next at 2.6%.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html


Great post!

[Cal Carpenter]

53. Kick for TRUTH over 'truthiness'

and also to mention that my only quibble about your post is that the title implies that we are losing something that we never really had - not in any lasting, universal way. I mean, things have been better for some in the past but have always been many among us who were forgotten (based on race, ethnicity, gender, geography....)

[Enthusiast]

54. Republicans and tea baggers

would tell you the reason for this is because we have the highest corporate taxes in the world and too much big government in our lives.

These same idiots also insist that America has the greatest health care in the world. And the M$M would repeat their explanation and ignore contrary positions entirely.

[Political Heretic]

60. I should add to the list the fact that the effective tax rate on corporations is 11.5%

[laughingliberal]

55. K & R nt

[ChiciB1]

57. And, Once Again I Say... ROME! Maybe NOT Literally, But At Least

figuratively! We've made ourselves "believe" we're the BEST, so it MUST be so!

Well, there are words to define NOT in many ways! Many of them are four letter words!

I've talked/wrote about this "thing" ad nauseum and it really can't be said ENOUGH, but somehow the message IS NOT resonating!

APATHY ABOUNDS!!

[swilton]

58. It is only shocking if you believe the Propaganda

that we are immersed in through the media and its consumerist step-child advertising, the politicians and also through academia.

[blindpig]

124. Like the old man said

'The ruling ideas of any age are the ideas of the ruling class'. To be sure, thanks to bastards like Edward Bernays and Goebbels the 'art' of propaganda has become ever more effective and pervasive, yet it is still the same old shit. All that is required to defeat it is a steady look at reality.

[erpowers]

63. Some Things are Sad

Most of the things on that list are sad, but the leisure time issue is not that big of a deal. Not to make light of the other issues, but some of the other issues would probably be solved by improving education and job attainment abilities. I think some of these problems could be solved by assuring that people have the education needed to gain decent employment.

[Mithreal]

81. Leisure time allows people to vacation more and have more time with their children

other family members and friends, reduces stress and allows people time to recharge. Don't discount it, a lot of people live monotonous lives.

When people here have time to travel, rest and recuperate, and a job to come back to I count that as a good thing. Helps bring us together, enriches us and all sorts of other beneficial effects.

I came back from vacation once and had a phone call I had been replaced. My boss' fiance wanted my job. I love this place. Free the corporation, they aren't free enough already.

[flyarm]

64. K&R..for important info..thank you!! eom

[kristopher]

65. Black women median income $5 should be median WEALTH $5

Good list.

I had this conversation with a winger last week. I was able to drive home the point by packaging the message under the distinct and separate headings of "benchmarks" and "ideals".

What is the ideal that is measured by each of your benchmarks? What ideals are outside of those areas being measured?

[Javaman]

72. #1 in ignorance. nt

[bertman]

74. "USA #1" means number one in killing citizens of other nations; number one in providing

weaponry to the world; number one in military bases all over the world. Just for starters. Makes you proud, don't it?

Thanks for the reminder, political heretic. These are the kinds of statistics I like to have when "debating" a right winger.

Rec.

[rhett o rick]

113. Wonder who is number one at arms sales? nm

[bergie321]

75. So you are saying...

...We need to cut taxes for the rich?



:sarcasm:

[FailureToCommunicate]

76. But we're #1 in great sports and media figures, like Tiger Woods and...what?...oh... never mind.

[dccrossman]

79. K&R

:kick:

[matt819]

80. USA! USA!

There was an article in the NYT this morning about a Mennonite school that for the first time played the national anthem at the start of some athletic event. Until now, they would observe a moment of silence, then play would begin. Now, since the school is almost 50% non-Mennonite, the administration caved to the secular pressure to play the national anthem, which violates many of their religious principles. And there was a picture with the article showing a couple of students with S and A painted on their backs (presumably U was nearby). This blind, and it is blind, USA patriotic fervor is dangerous, and seriously misplaced. It's easy to shout USA USA. It's entirely something else to actually work toward the goal of deserving that pride. Notwithstanding their attendance at a Mennonite school, I suspect students like these will never understand it.

[h9socialist]

82. The Unfortunate Truth is . . .

. . . that this is nothing new. A good read of Michael Harrington's "The Other America" and "The New American Poverty" still has enlightening results, poignancy and worthiness of your time.

[midnight]

83. K&R

[greiner3]

89. It's all the liberals' fault.

[caseymoz]

90. You have to consider . . .

That a great part of our post-WWII wealth came from the fact that the rest of the world was broken down, we had a lot of natural resources, most importantly oil, and we were, covertly speaking, and imperial power that took things from other nations at will.

None of that is true anymore. We're waning as an imperial power, which is not altogether a bad thing, though it initially hurts our quality of life, in the long run, it's a far better thing-- in moral sense especially.

In the sixties, there was no currency in the world like the dollar. Due to arbitrage, the CIA could literally by a dictator for $50 thousand or install him for less than $500 thousand. The strongman would then give the US favorable trade at the expense of his people.

And because we had the Cold War, opposition to anything like Communism grew. Such as universal health care. That's why our medical system lags behind everyone.

I wouldn't worry (too much), as passage of the Health Care bill is very encouraging.

[proReality]

92. K&R n/t

[theFrankFactor]

94. Progressives Need To Unite and Mobilize - I Say "Progressives"...

meaning people that aren't buying in to the DLC bull shit.

Check out:
http://TheFullCourtPress.org
Running Progressives for Office!

[Wednesdays]

95. About the vacation time thing...

There was an online article, originally published on escapemag.com and I think reprinted on msn.com, ca. 1999. It was so jaw-dropping, I copied the entire thing and saved it all this time. Good thing, too, since escapemag is now defunct and MSN has taken down their copy.

The article tells about how the writer went on vacation in Australia, when she encountered a young Dutch man. The man wondered why he never saw very many Americans while he was on holiday.

She replied, "Well, most Americans only have two weeks of vacation. If they get vacation at all." His eyes flew open and his rakishly bearded jaw dropped. "Two WEEKS?!" he screeched. Then he collected himself. "Pardon me, I am hearing wrong I think, perhaps you said two months?"

(snip)

...I'd never before considered how rottenly American vacations compare to the time granted the rest of the developed, G-7ish world. Around the planet, government-mandated days of paid vacation clock in at:

United Kingdom: 28
Japan and Finland: 25
Canada: 26
Australia: 20
France: 37
Italy: 42
Germany: 35

Source: World Tourism Organization and the Travel Association of America

In comparison, the Boston Globe reports that we in the U.S. received an average of 11 paid vacation days per year in 1997, down from 12 days in 1996. Averaged into that figure are a great many people who got fewer than 11 days — or perhaps no paid vacation at all — because unlike other developed countries, “there is no federally mandated minimum vacation time in the United States,” according to Andrea de Majewski of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers.

(snip)

(My comment: and this was during the Clinton era! I'm certain things haven't gotten any better since then, and likely a whole lot worse.)

(I have the entire article for anyone who would like a copy.)

[Odin2005]

96. K&R

[Crunchy Frog]

97. Yes, but we've got freedom!

:crazy:

[rhett o rick]

114. Please use the sarcasm thingy for us slow people. nm

[Chisox08]

98. We're #1 We're #1 We're #1

:woohoo: :woohoo: :patriot: :woohoo: :woohoo:
We're the greatest country in the world. God Bless America and no place else! :sarcasm:

[MissDeeds]

100. It's true

And it breaks my heart. :cry:

[RaleighNCDUer]

102. Hey, we're still #1 in international arms sales. nt

[rhett o rick]

115. I thought so, but do you have a link? nm

[robertpaulsen]

105. We're still number one in bombing the shit out of poor people across the world!

What George Carlin said in 1991 is still true today:


George Carlin - We Like War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaS2bRGS86c

[Vinca]

106. We're also #49 for longevity . . . just beating out Albania by a month.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html

[icee]

107. Important post. You can attribute most of this to Ronald Reagan.

[earth mom]

109. #1 idiots and the rest of the world knows it.

:argh:

[John Q. Citizen]

110. I think we are pretty beat down. It's why we allow the Dems to pass a Repo health insurance bill.

[Bert]

111. Another important point

If you would take off the top 1% of US incomes off of the list you would see the US plummet in median income. This is relflected in that we have the highest disparity in income as well as hinted at in things like health care, education, infant mortality and poverty certainly point to this. This is no accident and it is because of our tax rate in this country since Reagan, which Obama is doing a little to fix already with his budget which raised taxes on upper income earners, his attempts to eliminate the cayman islands corporations and revise the tax law to at least charge corporations something, helthcare reform with everyone requiring coverage and corporations having to spend 80 instead of 50 percent of income on actual healthcare. Financial regulations would also be nice.

This has been going on since Reagan and the most dangerous part of the raygun revolution is the current supreme court 5. Everything republicans do or say is predicated on they're waiting hand and foot on the top 1% as well as certain gods, guns, and gays groups that provide the manpower. Look at the recent deregulation in campaign finance reform and corporate personhood rulings if you want to see what republicans are betting on.

[rhett o rick]

118. I would guess the US is the top OECD country for sex offenders per capita.

I looked but wasnt successful in finding info.

[demo dutch]

119. This is no news to me! People suffer from the America is the greatest syndrome, especially

the wingers!

The problem is the majority of Amercians have no clue and haven't lived in or travelled to Europe so what do you expect, you live in a country that by enlarge is populated by a dumb electorate which votes for a dumb group of politicians. Let's face it you don't even have to be educated in order to be a politician so.....what the hell do you expect!

[democracy1st]

121. kick

[Cal Carpenter]

122. Kick for the weekend crowd

[DailyGrind51]

123. We are losing the American "Right" before our eyes, and good ridance!

[rhett o rick]

126. Can you still update or do you need to start a new thread? nm