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http://www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp
America No. 1?
America by the numbers
by Michael Ventura
02/03/05 ICH - - 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 (RD) 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
