[What you get with Fascism]
America by the numbers
http://www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp
No. 1?
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).
- 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.