We're NUMBER ONE all right

[Guest guest]

HOME: JANUARY 21, 2005:

Letters at 3AM

No. 1?

BY MICHAEL VENTURA

 

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).

 

• One-third of our science teachers and one-half of our math teachers

did not major in those subjects. (Quoted on The West Wing, but you can

trust it – their researchers are legendary.)

 

• 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% 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%, Indians 51%,

South Koreans 28% (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% 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% 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 work-force in the

1980s. ... In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew

only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1% " (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 was 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 10.

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% 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.

 

2005 Austin Chronicle Corporation. All rights reserved.