- categories: Book, Political Science
- status: Completed
Book explicitly showcased how the US shared commonalities with the “failed states” it militarily intervened in, and how the US was becoming increasingly a danger to itself and its citizens. This was not some sudden fall from grace - people have been cataloguing it for decades.
The US was lagging behind in quite a few important metrics before Trump, with many politicians across the board placing little importance on these systemic failings. Of course, there is diversity in their approaches (with Trump/ the modern GOP being genuinely terrifying), but resistance to really address these issues and implement the strong change needed is widespread. Just getting Trump out of office isn’t enough to tackle some of the false American exceptionalism and need for change.
Here are some metrics in which the US is lagging behind (per capita):
Following the blueprint of a 2016 report by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
The US has the second-highest rate of poverty among rich countries (This includes standardized poverty measure, adjusted for country)
According to a 2012 UNICEF study, 23.1% US kids live in poverty. Other studies place the number a little lower, at about 20%, but both numbers are much higher than in other advanced countries. For black and Hispanic American children, the poverty rate is even higher, at 36% and 31%.
Obesity is a primary indicator of poor diet, and although the US isn’t the fattest country in the world (several Pacific island countries, as well as Qatar and Egypt, precede it), it leads OECD countries in obesity.
Americans spend nearly 17% of GDP on health care, with a yearly per capita cost of over 1,600 more than the second-highest spender, Luxembourg, and more than double the OECD average.
The US has fewer physicians, hospital beds, and psychiatric care beds than most other economically advanced countries, ranking towards the bottom in each of these parameters. The US is also the only advanced economy in the world not to have full health coverage of its population.
Child mortality is higher in the US than any other advanced economy (even adjusted for reporting differences), and adult Americans also live shorter lives: Average US life expectancy is 78.8 years, nearly two years less than the OECD average. For comparison, Japan has the longest life expectancy in the OECD, at 83.7 years.
The US also stands out as one of the only countries in the world where maternal mortality has increased, rather than decreasing, over the past 15 years.
In the US, early childhood education is attended by fewer children (55% versus an OECD average of 84% attendance), at an older age (four years old, versus three years old), and can be administered by untrained professionals.
US women’s political representation also leaves much to be desired, with less than 20% of congressional seats occupied by women. Sweden, the OECD leader, has nearly 45% in its national parliament, and the global average is nearly 27%. Female representation on the boards of publicly traded US companies is also below OECD average. To top it off, the gender wage gap is also bigger in the US.
The US is also, with Lesotho, one of only two countries in the world that do not mandate paid maternity leave.
Only 12% of US energy output is renewable, far below the European, world and OECD average.
Current US investment in infrastructure is only 75% of the average OECD nation.
The US has the highest income inequality of all rich countries. Income inequality is calculated by the OECD combining several indexes, including a ratio of the income of the highest 10% and of the lowest 10%.
Deaths by assault are almost five times as high in the US as the OECD average
When it comes to democratic institution, the US has one of the lowest turnouts among high-income countries. (The US is one of the few countries where eligible citizens aren’t automatically registered to vote.) [edit: countries like Belgium, Sweden, and Denmark regularly get 80+% of their voting age population voting, while the US gets around 50%, plus has 6+ million felony disenfranchised in 2016, in addition to many other means of voter suppression]
https://qz.com/879092/the-us-doesnt-look-like-a-developed-country/
The average American worker works 400 hours more per year (10 40 hour weeks) than average workers in Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, etc. Americans do not have not have mandated vacation time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_average_annual_labor_hours_in_OECD_countries
Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands all have ~30+ days of paid vacation + paid public holiday.
The United States does not currently require that employees have access to paid sick days to address their own short-term illnesses or the short-term illness of a family member. 24% of civilian workers in the United States, or roughly 33.6 million people, do not have access to paid sick leave. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/12/as-coronavirus-spreads-which-u-s-workers-have-paid-sick-leave-and-which-dont/
In addition, overall economic mobility is [low](low.
These are just some metrics that show where the US can, and should, improve. Additional metrics would include: racial wealth/income gaps, Deaths of Despair (worrying trend showing massive increases of suicides, drug OD, alcohol deaths, etc, over the last 20 years), collective bargaining (see OECD rankings on that with the US ranking near or at dead last), student debt, etc.
Edit:
One key metric that should not be omitted: the United States has 25% of the world’s prisoners, despite only having 4% of the world’s population. 2.2 million people incarcerated. 1 in 150 Americans are currently incarcerated - the highest per capita rate in the world. ~1 in 10 voting age Americans have a felony charge - many for nonviolent drug possession, and millions are prevented from voting due to this.
There are more people incarcerated today for drug crimes than for all crimes in 1980. There has been a 500% growth in the prison population since 1980, while the overall US population has only grown 45%. Even as crime rates fell, more were incarcerated. As has been seen, this large, close quarter prison population has many coronavirus implications. https://www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/