America #1 ? not after reading this....

Warpy

America by the numbers

No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:

• The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

• The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

• Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

• The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).

• Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

• The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).

• Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).

• Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).

• Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.

• The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.

• The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens" (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a "developed" country? Anyway, that's the company we're keeping.

• Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)

• U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower" (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look "developed" to you? Yet it's the only "developed" country to score lower in childhood poverty.

• Twelve million American families--more than 10 percent of all U.S. households--"continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves." Families that "had members who actually went hungry at some point last year" numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).

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1. The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
2. Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
3. The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).
4. Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s.... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent" (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.
5. Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies" (The European Dream, p.66). "In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European" (The European Dream, p.69).
6. Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European.... In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European.... The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies...are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list" (The European Dream, p.68).
7. The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).
8. U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).
9. Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million--one in five--unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).
10. Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.
11. Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world's largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world's largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world's largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
12. As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
13. Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn't show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That's more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don't show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate.
14. One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).
15. Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28).
16. Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).
17. Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).
18. Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).
19. The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever" (USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004).

No. 1? In most important categories your not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close.

The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.

Source

Vikingod

Isn't it firmly embedded in ANY nations character that their country is number 1? I mean, isn't that nationalism, the oldest trick in the book? I certainly wouldn't say that makes a country filled with egomaniacs and idiots.
IMO, the article is misleading. i mean, really, what would the world be like if one country did everything the best, most productive, etc. I certainly don't know anyone that even thinks the US leads the world in half the stuff the article implies. Also, the idea that some of the views and ideas stated in this article are unique to American's is rediculous. Siting sources doesn't mean shit without telling how an why those figures are the way they are.
It's whiney, unfounded, misleading drivel like this that turns me off to the conventional press. The idea that this is passed off as legitimate is sickening to me.


... does this me I have to throw out my "I'm Number 1" trucker hat?

Warpy

Yes... I'm afraid so..

OldBuzzard

Well, you can post all of that tripe that you want to, but the fact remains that we are still #1 in one very important area.

We can kick your ass anytime that we decide to

Gabriel_Etranil

Cutting funding from research that determines whether or not monkeys get turned on by human porn make America a bad country?

That a very unbiased newpaper right there

Zelig

In recent years, this has been one of the reasons why certain corporations have been outsourcing, since they can more easily find skilled workers in other countries. This also means that the debt of training falls upon the employees, who must spend more money on educating themselves before they're able to be employed.

Well, the European Union has 150 million more people than the US, and a greater combined GDP, so neither of them are surprising.

South Africa is a developed country, they've apparently got a good education system too.

The U.S. has one of the greatest rich-poor divides of any developed nation. This is a very difficult problem to resolve with policies of low taxation though, and any efforts to reduce the gap tends to upset the richer people.

Again, the EU is bigger and has a greater GDP than the U.S... and "best" is subjective.

Unemployment isn't necessarily a bad thing, as total employment causes massive inflation and makes it improbable that new business ventures will succeed. The problem comes when there are too many unemployed people, or unemployed people who have no will to work.

Brazil is only slightly smaller than the U.S. and has more land suited for agriculture than the U.S., so this isn't a surprise either.

blade5545

The idea that America is number 1 is so embedded into the heads of Americans that its laughable, I was born in Poland in a port town and I can still remember even at the age of seven that I could spot an American tourist from a mile away and its all tied down to the number 1 attitude they walked around with such a high regard for themselves that you would think that everybody around them were complete trash. And Americans wonder why everybody in the world hates us the reason is that we think that we are so superior that we are ignorant of the rest of the world without realizing that everybody is passing us by and leaving us in the dust, by the time America wakes up from this cracked out dream it will be too late to catch up and we will become a 3rd world country. Instead of teaching our kids math, history and science we teach them that America is number 1, and then we wonder when we watch Jay Leno on tv and he asks people around the street about our own history for example what Abraham Lincoln did and we get answer that he played for the Lakers.

Senor_Mota

America's time is drawing near...but when the giant monster comes tumbling down, you'll all feel it - whether you like it or not. I can't wait to see the looks on your pathetic faces when Europe's being pushed around by Asia...and what's left of the USA will presumably be Canada. I can see it now...the "war-mongering" USA and the peaceful Canada all formed together on one of the largest inter-contientental land-masses in the world...working together, growing BIGGER AND BIGGER until WE TAKE YOU ALL OVER!!!!! AHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAH!!!!!!

Ah, the Delusions of Grandeur...

pr0digal jenius

Not without borrowing your money first

Gabriel_Etranil

IIf America is such a "war-mongering" country then why are the majority of the wars we have fought are caused by Europe?

pr0digal jenius

Because we tell europe we're coming for a visit....

Warpy

How can you say such a thing when you have no idea what country I am from? I don't doubt that you have a crazy dictator that loves to carpet bomb anyone country that he see's fit, but I don't think you can take out China buddy

Warpy

And that is "Just" your observation... Ohhh and facts are what count here not opinions...

[)arkNova

1. Yes,if Europe is so innocent, why do they create monsters like Hitler? Also,why do they let the Iraqi women and children starve because of the oil for food program. They knew very well saddam was using that money to make his palaces. That's why they didn't what to go to war ,they would be found out. Because of their own greed. Also Saddam owed money,especially to France. They wanted their money back, then in turn keep Saddam there. While Saddam killed ,raped women,made more mass graves,tortured innocent men.
2.If Europe is soooo great why is America the leading economic force in the world? Always if the American economy slumps,the whole word's economy slumps.
3. Today,France's unemployment hit another high. Over 12% and Germany 10%. Crap with all that education you would think you all would have jobs. AMERICANS ONLY NEED HALF THE BRAIN TO GET 5.3%. Hahahahah. Face it,you Europians will never get to the level we are,never.

nitrousoxide52

I know whats going to happen to the world

[WARNING THERE IS VULGARITY IN THIS MOVIE]- http://www.funnyjunk.com/pages/world.htm
-[I WARNED YOU]

Gabriel_Etranil

If America didn't intervine against Japan during World War II, what do you think would have happend?

Exactly what I said about the New York Times.

digerati

What I love about these kind of articles is they sift through all the stuff to make America look bad.

America isn't considered the number one country in the world just because of certain things, it's everything combined. I mean if you were to look at the US and South Africa comparatively across the board we'd come out on top overall, and I think that would hold true for most of the other countries.

I'm not saying we are the best. But we're not some retarded country as that article tries to make us.

blade5545

Ok to all the people which say that Europe has caused more wars and had more wars that America wake up and learn some history how old is America hmm let me think about it about 300 years old and how old is Europe about 1500 years old ok lets do the math folks O yea I forgot thats the two subjects that we suck in, and let me add one more thing about all the people which like to say how low of an unemployment rate America has did you ever think about that majority of the jobs which are patching up those stats are minimum wage jobs that you cant live on, take away all the American minimum wage jobs and we would have the worst unemployment rate in the world, the unemployment stats for Europe are higher beacuse those are REAL JOBS which you can actually put a roof over your head and a hot meal on the table, Europe has laws and unions which prevent such a exploitation of the workforce. American Presidents for years are patching up our unemployment rate with fast food jobs that nobody can live on. And also to add one more thing about that America has helped out other countries in times of war what nobody says is that America will only go to war for another country when its intrest are at stake, and in World War 2 America did not go into that war unit 1942 when the one our ships got sunk by a German sub.

Falstaff

I say America is number one because hey......................I am an American....no further justification required.

Gabriel_Etranil

In the last century how many major wars that America has been involved in been caused by Europe?

That is what I was addressing, sorry for not being clear enough. Anybody comparing the whole history of Europe to the short time America is around is crazy, I was only addressing "modern" times.

America was still dealing the the Great Depression at the time and how many lives would have been saved if FDR was less of a liberal and had more of a stand like GWB. How many lifes would have been saved if we had gotten involved earlier instead of being concerned of the needs of only America. So it was America's fault we didn't intervine and act like we were "#1 in the world" and take out Hitler earlier on.

digerati