Some embarrassing statistics though!

Here’s a list of statistics that should be an embarrassment to a real patriot:

USA is 49th in the world adult literacy tables.

USA is 41st in the PISA world rankings for Mathematics.

America has 5% of the world’s population, but it generates 20% of the worlds CO².

Its infant mortality statistics are truly appalling: in a table of infant deaths per 10,000 births, the USA (with 6.1) is one of the worst of the industrialised nations. A baby born in the USA is 3 times more likely to die in infancy than say, Finland or Japan. The state of Alabama for example is so bad, that if it were a country, its infant mortality rate would be worse than that of Lebanon!

According to some surveys, more than half the population of America reject the theory of evolution.

In some states, half the population believes that climate change is not caused by human activities.
America has the highest prison populations in the world at just over 2 million (ie. 0.5% of the population). Significantly worse than the second place country China, with 1.6 million in prison (just over 0.1% of the population). Furthermore, penalties for drug use are skewed in favour of white drug users, so not surprisingly, there are 5 times as many blacks in prison than whites.

In terms of foreign aid, America is placed 32nd out of the 37 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) nations, with 0.15% of its gross national income. Sweden and Norway top the list with 1.36% and 1.14%. Britain is 6th with 0.67%.

Food quality: the USA’s food standards are the worst in the industrialised world. The meats have levels of steroids and antibiotics that wouldn’t be acceptable to other OECD nations, and the US diet is dominated by saturated fats and sugars. In and Oxfam report, the USA does quite well in terms of food affordability (21st place out of 125 nations), but in terms of quality and the resulting health issues, the USA is 120th out of 125 nations.

The USA’s diabetes rate in 2019 was 10.8% (only Mexico and Turkey were worse). In addition, 35.9% of USA’s population is ‘clinically obese’ (compared with, say France’s 12.9%)
Homicide rates are the worst of the industrialised nations.

In a recent study of the health of children and young adults in 50 industrialised countries, America was down in 47th place.

A study by the National Endowment for the Humanities found that 42% of high-school students couldn’t name a single country in Asia!

According to an OECD report of member nations, health care costs in the USA are around double the per capita costs of most European countries, and yet a significant fraction of the population can only get rudimentary health care, and ‘medical bankruptcies’ are not uncommon.

In terms of access to water and sanitation the US ranks 36th in the world

In the OECD the US ranks 35th out of 37 in terms of poverty and inequality.

In September 2017, more than one in every eight Americans were living in poverty (40 million, equal to 12.7% of the population). And almost half of those (18.5 million) were living in deep poverty, with reported family income below one-half of the poverty threshold.

It also turns out that even the ‘American Dream’ is a bit of a myth. Sociologists and economists refer to it as Inter-generational Income Elasticity… the relationship between a person’s humble origins, and what they can achieve in later life.