I notice that a lot of these numbers are "socialist" or "collectivist"
statistics. (Not all, but most.) For instance, on a libertarian list, it
should be a "good thing" that the National Science Foundation has had its
funds cut. WHO is a notoriously socialist organization that measures things
by socialist standards ("fairness of healthcare"???!!!). Yes, I'll bet they
claim Cuba has better health care in certain respects (one of the recent
ones was infant mortality--until some blogger started looking into the
details and discovered things like that US preemies that died were included
and Cuban preemies weren't.) For some more, related info, see:
http://www.techcentralstation.com/032105B.html.
As for the jobs/companies situation, why is company size a measure of
success? Also, the author talks about how many jobs were "lost" as if none
were gained. Fact is that except for the Clinton bubble, we currently have
an unemployment rate that is on the low side--and MUCH, MUCH lower than most
European countries (9-10% unemployment in France and Germany vs. 5.2-5.4%,
here). And our long-term unemployment is lower than nearly ALL European and
developed countries. And our per-capita income is nearly half again as
large as the EU and Japan. I notice that most of the info seems to come
from Jeremy Rifkin--a perennial socialist/environmentalist/lunatic gadfly
whose predictions can generally be counted on to be wrong.
As for all the complaints about the education system, some of it is accurate
and, my understanding is that some of it is a result of "gaming" the
testing--comparing kids from a normal US school to those from a "special" or
"advanced" school in the other countries. And it's pretty tough to have a
"literate" population when 11% of your people are foreign born and from a
third world country ("developed" or not) while you are comparing yourself to
countries that have between 5 and 6% of their population foreign born.
No question the US has problems. But I wouldn't trade them for the problems
of any other country.
Lowell C. Savage
It's the freedom, stupid!
Gun control: tyrants' tool, fools' folly.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
> Behalf Of Frank Reichert
> Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 11:40 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: No. 1? America by the numbers! READ AND WEEP.
>
> Greetings everyone!
>
> Interesting statistics. Wonder how we came to this?
>
> Kindest regards,
> Frank
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: No. 1? America by the numbers! READ AND WEEP.
> Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2005 06:27:55 -0800
> From: William Arthur ; smyth, @ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> City Pages: Print an Article � � Vol 26 � Issue 1264 � PUBLISHED
> 2/23/2005
>
> URL: www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp
>
> HOME: www.citypages.com
>
>
>
> No. 1?
> America by the numbers
> by Michael Ventura
>
> 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). 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,
> Nestl� 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,
> DVD's, 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.
>
> Reprinted from the Austin Chronicle.
>
> � � Vol 26 � Issue 1264 � PUBLISHED 2/23/2005
>
> URL: www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp
>
> HOME: www.citypages.com
>
> City Pages is the Online News and Arts Weekly of the Twin Cities
>
>
> --
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