[carpediem]

America by the numbers
No. 1?

Image by Jane Sherman

by Michael Ventura
February 23, 2005

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).
Advertisement


The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).

"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.
"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).

"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).
The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).

U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).

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).

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.
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).
As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

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.
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).

"Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined" (The European Dream, p.28).
"Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable" (The European Dream, p.32).

Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).

"Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).

"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 we're 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: http://www.citypages.com/databank/26/12 ... e12985.asp

[AmericanCentury2]

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/fac ... os/us.html



Now look at that!

[AmericanCentury2]

American dominance is not simply military. The U.S. economy is as large as the next three – Japan, Germany and Britain – put together. With 5 percent of the world’s population, this one country accounts for 43 percent of the world’s economic production, 40 percent of its high-technology production and 50 percent of its research and development. If you look at the indicators of future growth, all are favorable for America. It is more dynamic economically, more youthful demographically and more flexible culturally than any other part of the world. It is conceivable that America’s lead, especially over an aging and sclerotic Europe, will actually increase over the next two decades.

Given this situation, perhaps what is most surprising is that the world has not ganged up on America already. Since the beginnings of the state system in the 16th century, international politics has seen one clear pattern – the formation of balances of power against the strong. Countries with immense military and economic might arouse fear and suspicion, and soon others coalesce against them. It happened to the Hapsburg Empire in the 17th century, France in the late 18th and early 19th century, Germany twice in the early 20th century, and the Soviet Union in the latter half of the 20th century. At this point, most Americans will surely protest: “But we’re different!” Americans – this writer included – think of themselves as a nation that has never sought to occupy others, and that through the years has been a progressive and liberating force. But historians tell us that all dominant powers thought they were special. Their very success confirmed for them that they were blessed. But as they became ever more powerful, the world saw them differently. The English satirist John Dryden described this phenomenon in a poem set during the Biblical King David’s reign. “When the chosen people grew too strong,” he wrote, “The rightful cause at length became the wrong.”

Has American power made its rightful cause turn into wrong? Will America simply have to learn to live in splendid isolation from the resentments of the world? This is certainly how some Americans see things. And it’s true that some of the opposition to the United States is thinly veiled envy. “Scratch an anti-American in Europe, and very often all he wants is a guest professorship at Harvard or to have an article published in The New York Times,” says Denis MacShane, Britain’s minister for Europe.

But there lies a deep historical fallacy in the view that “they hate us because we are strong.” After all, U.S. supremacy is hardly a recent phenomenon. America has been the leading world power for almost a century now. By 1900 the United States was the richest country in the world. By 1919 it had decisively intervened to help win the largest war in history. By 1945 it had led the Allies to victory in World War II. For 10 years thereafter America accounted for 50 percent of world GDP, a much larger share than it holds today.

Yet for five decades after World War II, there was no general rush to gang up against the United States. Instead countries joined with Washington to confront the Soviet Union, a much poorer country (at best comprising 12 percent of world GDP, or a quarter the size of the American economy). What explains this? How – until now – did America buck the biggest trend in international history?

To answer this question, go back to 1945. When America had the world at its feet, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman chose not to create an American imperium, but to build a world of alliances and multilateral institutions. They formed the United Nations, the Bretton Woods system of economic cooperation and dozens of other international organizations. America helped get the rest of the world back on its feet by pumping out vast amounts of aid and private investment. The centerpiece of this effort, the Marshall Plan, amounted to $US120 billion in today’s dollars.

Not least of these efforts was the special attention given to diplomacy. Consider what it must have meant for Franklin Roosevelt – at the pinnacle of power – to go halfway across the world to Tehran and Yalta to meet with Churchill and Stalin in 1943 and 1945. Roosevelt was a sick man, paralyzed from the waist down, hauling 10 pounds of steel braces on his legs. Traveling for 40 hours by sea and air took the life out of him. He did not have to go. He had plenty of deputies – Marshall, Eisenhower – who could have done the job. And he certainly could have summoned the others closer to him. But FDR understood that American power had to be coupled with a generosity of spirit. He insisted that British commanders like Montgomery be given their fair share of glory in the war. He brought China into the United Nations Security Council, even though it was a poor peasant society, because he believed that it was important to have the largest Asian country properly represented within a world body.

The standard set by Roosevelt and his generation endured. When George Marshall devised the Marshall Plan, he insisted that America should not dictate how its money be spent, but rather that the initiatives and control should lie with Europeans. For decades thereafter, the United States has provided aid, technical know-how and assistance across the world. It has built dams, funded magazines and sent scholars and students abroad so that people got to know America and Americans. It has paid great deference to its allies who were in no sense equals. It has conducted joint military exercises, even when they added little to U.S. readiness. For half a century, American presidents and secretaries of State have circled the globe and hosted their counterparts in a never-ending cycle of diplomacy.

Of course, all these exertions served our interests, too. They produced a pro-American world that was rich and secure. They laid the foundations for a booming global economy in which America thrives. But it was an enlightened self-interest that took into account the interests of others. Above all, it reassured countries – through word and deed, style and substance – that America’s mammoth power need not be feared.

[Ruxpercnd]

AmericanCentury2 - That's an incredible piece of writing. Did you write that up yourself?

I heard a joke a while back about folks that hate America, who say: "Get the hell out of my country... and take me with you!" That seems to fit some Canadians, don't you think?

President Bush does present a problem though. When he first ran for office, he admitted that foreign policy was not his strong suite. And, here he is up to his eyeballs in foreign problems. Course, that happens to all presidents. Can't we get him to charm school or something? His hair is curled a little too tight!

[RUEZ]

Ruxpercnd Ruxpercnd:

I heard a joke a while back about folks that hate America, who say: "Get the hell out of my country... and take me with you!" That seems to fit some Canadians, don't you think?

Why do you say Canada hates america? Because we sometimes criticize your governments actions? At the end of the day were all the same anyway. Here's to us.

[Ruxpercnd]

Oh yea, I did say "some Canadians"... and yes, we are pretty much the same, that's the reality I see.

[RUEZ]

Ruxpercnd Ruxpercnd:

Oh yea, I did say "some Canadians"... and yes, we are pretty much the same, that's the reality I see.

My bad, i didn't see the "some Canadians" part.

[Canadaka]

The American Dream is to be sucessful

The Canadian dream is to be happy

[carpediem]

Anti-American is a label that the right wing in the U.S use to describe anyone who questions the Bush administration. The U.S is the only country you see that considers anyone who oppose the government, as anti-american. Name another country that uses that label as much as them. Anti-European, Anti-Canadian, Anti-China. etc.... Sadly enough even an American gets that label at times.

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.

Don't all dictatorships berate those who oppose him. The Bush admin may not kill them like other countries, but he has the tools to degrade anyone who oppose him. It's safe to assume Fox news is one of those tools used.

All I can say is I love America, probably as much as I love Canada. Why? Because I believe there are things in common between Americans, and Canadians which is neither Canadian, nor American. There are universal values, that say's we all should love one another, help one another, and respect one another.

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).

Is this the demoracy or freedom that the U.S is trying to spread? Even if their trying to spread the 'good' aspects of the U.S system, does it justify, or is it salutary for those who have to suffer.

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).

Ironic, considering the religious right are behind the Republicans who make this problem worse.

"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).

Where's the money going?

I know I can probably find just as many Canadian problems, however, the topic here is the U.S. Because some people refute any questioning of the Republicans, denying they do have a negative track record. At least many Canadians do admit government fault, and will say anything they want against the government. Without being anti-canadian. What can I say, that's democracy.

Kevin

[RoyalHighlander]

in Canada we have rights protected under the chatrer.. the right to pick what ever beer we want while we sit and watch our hockey in French OREnglish...

[Johnnybgoodaaaaa]

To me, anti-american isn't just some right-wing label, it's when people go out of there way to make post pointing out every single negative thing in the US. We all know the US has problem, but when all you can do is spew out negative stats about the US, it really leads people to wonder how you aren't anti-american. I mean, if I spewed out anti-canadian stats(probably hard to find as many as the US )what would you all think? That I'm just being critical, or that I have some pre-occupation with how terrible things in the Canada are? So the US isn't number one in everything, that doesn't mean it's a bad place to live. Anyways, I don't want to piss anyone off, it's just I see these types of post thrown out there all the time, and it gets to a point where you wonder what peoples motives are for telling all the negatives, and not giving any solutions. It's easy to point out the negative, but if you don't know how to fix it, I don't see the point, unless you are trying to put down a country. US, Canada, all just countries with government/rich people making decisions for all of us.

One last thing: something I don't get is why people always compare the US to Canada or European nations. To my knowledge, European nations governments and systems are sometimes set up different, and the population ratios are often different. It's like comparing apples and oranges to me. While we all practice democracy(some might beg to differ)there are still differences between countries which can often explain the negative stats.

[EyeBrock]

I agree Johnny.

Unfortunately some people on these forums are just way too bitter and have extremely large chips on their shoulders about the Yanks. They tend to forget that Canada was built by US refugees and the odd Brit.
I always find it odd that Ontario doesn’t celebrate its Upper Canada identity as the founding Province. (You can’t count Lower Canada/Quebec as they have never been enthusiastic about being part of this Federation).

Personally as an immigrant in Canada I see a country split on its direction and a culture that would rather forget its history and embrace political correctness to fill the cultural void.
Besides that, it’s a pretty good place to be.

Don’t take some of these extreme views to heart Yanks, lots of us up here respect you and are glad the US has the balls and ability to act against the tyrannies still very active about the globe.

Keep it up despite the whiners.

[Ruxpercnd]

I bet there are as many Anti-American-Policy folks in America as there are in Canada. Voices of dissent are important in our system, as painful as it is for us to hear it.

America is an extremely complex country, a population of about 290 million (that probably includes about 20 million illegal immigrants), every ethnic group in world, highly educated, lowly educated, rich, middle class, poor. And I think we are doing a damn fine job of muddling through it all. Always self correcting.

America has held the world together through de-royalization, de-colonialization, de-nazification, de-communizing, still picking off a few despots. Yea, America is number 1!

How nice it will be when the center of civilzation shifts back to Europe or China (China was once the center, nobody else knew it though) and then we can de-globalize and let good old America go back to sleep. Then we can be just like Canada with no responsibilities! Yea, like that will ever happen.

[Ruxpercnd]

... and I think that the Canadian voices in this forum are just as hard on Canada as they are on the U.S.. We are all one big healthy, critical family!

[Scape]

$1:

... and I think that the Canadian voices in this forum are just as hard on Canada as they are on the U.S.. We are all one big healthy, critical family!

Well we try to be but America is a huge and powerful nation so the criticism toward Canada seems dwarfed by the criticism (both good and bad) for America. Problem is there hasn't been a heck of a lot that America has done in recent memory that has had many Canadians reason to cheer. They have been reacting but they haven't been really leading. Now it's not expected that America leads anyway and if Americans truly cared about all this 'anti-Americanism' in the 1st place you would think they would throw a yipping dog a bone to get it to shut the hell up if it was such a nuisance. I truly doubt the majority of Americans give a dam what anyone else thinks at all. It is important to note however, that although we do criticize Americans rather harshly we still think of them as family.