How did we get here…
Americans live shorter lives than citizens of almost every other developed nation, according to a report from several US charities.
The report found that the US ranked 42nd in the world for life expectancy despite spending more on health care per person than any other country
More US babies die in their first year than in most other rich countries
Of the world’s richest nations, the US has the most children (15%) living in poverty
Of the OECD nations, the US has the most people in prison – as a percentage and in absolute numbers
25% of 15-year-old students performed at or below the lowest level in an international maths test – worse than Canada, France, Germany and Japan
So, I guess, We’re #1 should read… “We’re #1*
* The #1 status does not apply to those individuals living in poverty, have sub-standard or no healthcare, are incarcerated, or who are trapped in failing schools. Other than that America is the best.
despite spending more on health care per person than any other country.
Thanks Tom Carper for your tireless advocacy for the drug companies and thier obscene profits.
These stats appalled me. Everyone should be ashamed.
The NYT has a continuing expose on debt in America and how the seeming growth of the past several years has actually been a ponzi scheme by the banks to bleed the less advantaged citizens while their shareholders laughed.
snip
“Not surprisingly, such practices generated dazzling profits for the nation’s financial companies. And since 2005, when the bankruptcy law was changed, the credit card industry has increased its earnings 25 percent, according to a new study by Michael Simkovic, a former James M. Olin fellow in Law and Economics at Harvard Law School.
The “2005 bankruptcy reform benefited credit card companies and hurt their customers,” Mr. Simkovic concluded in his study. He said that even though sponsors of the bankruptcy bill promised that consumers would benefit from lower borrowing costs as delinquent borrowers were held more accountable, the cost of borrowing from credit card companies has actually increased anywhere from 5 percent to 17 percent. ”
snip
Biden, Castle and Carper all voted for the 2005 bankruptcy bill. They are all part of the scheme.
Have you ever seen how these guys live? Don’t tell me it’s not class warfare.
I think what many forget is that many of our problems stem from the fact that America is so heterogenous. This country is a conglomerate of many different cultures, backgrounds, and ethnicities.
Many problems, most notably crime and poverty are far far lower in more homogenous societies. We’re seeing this unfold in the UK as they’ve increasingly become a nation of immigrants and have all but done away with the right to self-defense in the wake of culturally induced crime.
Our prison population we can blame mostly on our “war on drugs.” That war certainly doesn’t help certain members of society advance themselves out of strife and poverty.
I have a friend that lives in London.
Lets say, it has lost it’s identity.
Multiculturalism has decimated proper behavior,
with a similar affect on civil and criminal laws.
The U.S. federal government spent over $19 billion dollars in 2003 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $600 per second. The budget has since been increased by over a billion dollars.
look it up !
State and local governments spent at least another 30 billion.
Many of the problems the drug war purports to resolve are in fact caused by the drug war itself. So-called “drug-related” crime is a direct result of drug prohibition’s
Few public policies have compromised public health and undermined our fundamental civil liberties for so long and to such a degree as the war on drugs. The United States is now the world’s largest jailer, imprisoning nearly half a million people for drug offenses alone. That’s more people than Western Europe, with a bigger population, incarcerates for all offenses. Roughly 1.5 million people are arrested each year for drug law violations – 40% of them just for marijuana possession. People suffering from cancer, AIDS and other debilitating illnesses are regularly denied access to their medicine or even arrested and prosecuted for using medical marijuana.
This is very sad, not ONE politician is willing to step forward and try to end this sutiation which destroyes families
I’m sorry, but our increasing Infant Mortality rate is an obvious indication of how f’ed up our health care is….
And we pay more than anyone else.
Two of these stats don’t belong with the others.
“Of the OECD nations, the US has the most people in prison – as a percentage and in absolute numbers
25% of 15-year-old students performed at or below the lowest level in an international maths test – worse than Canada, France, Germany and Japan”
Frieda is dead right: our incarceration rates are a direct, three-decade rise causally linked to the war on drugs and the suspension of civil liberties there….
The education stats are also misleading: no public education system in a major democracy is so heterogenous, attempts to provide education for all levels of society, or has to deal with problems of scale like the US.
In Germany, Japan, and elsewhere, there is rigid tracking of students even in the elementary grades; it is much easier for schools to completely exclude troubled children, and the schools are ethnically and socially homogenous to a degree not possible (or even desirable) in the US
So if we want to discuss health care as a specific issue, that’s fine, but please let’s not just mix apples and oranges and do another “if only the Democrats were in charge” number, because on the drug war and education counts the Dems have just as many sins to answer for as the GOPers…..
Steve, I wasn’t pointing at a particular party in my post. (Actually, I deleted my smart-ass Republican line before posting!)
Anyway you look at it, the US is lagging behind. Are there extenuating circumstances? Sure. Maybe it’s time for ALL of us to start addressing them.
BTW… will you be attending the DHB’s fundraiser?
pandora
I didn’t think you in particular were pointing towards GOPers, but I’m not sure that the “anyway you look at it, the US is lagging behind” is the approach I’d take.
Given these three issues (health care, incarceration, and education), I think it’s ironic that people on all sides are looking for a simple fix in one or more of these areas
Dems say single-payer health will solve that
GOPers say choice and vouchers will solve ed
Libertarians (just so you know I hit my own people, too) say just make heroin et all legal
The crux of the matter is that none of these problems is that simple, and we’ve built a two-party system that–in a real process sense–has become such a parody of itself that compromise and conversation about dynamics and pragmatic fixes has been ruled out in favor of winning at all costs.
One of the reasons I so strongly advocate expanding into a multi-party democracy is that such a system creates far more intellectual flexibility.
Because most people (not you, dear, I’m hijacking your sentence for my own dire purposes) who say “Maybe it’s time for ALL of us to start addressing them” really mean “Maybe it’s time for my political opponents to realize that the only meaningful discussion will be held on MY terms.”
As for DHB I’m going to try to be there, but there are, let’s just say at the moment some family health problems that might intrude.
However, present or not, you currently have my support….
I’d love a No-party system!
Hope all is well.
If Universal government health care is so bad . Why is it then that all those countries that have it that their citizens live longer than us????
please no smart replies just answer the question if you can
Cuba, France, England, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Denmark, Germany, and yes of course Canada. Just to name a few. Funny how their citizens live longer than us. Seems that us Americans having to put up a $1.60 for one Euro have lost our standing in the world under 8 years of Repuk rule