Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015
Stephan: Here is the truth about the U.S. everyone should know, yet almost nobody does. Certainly you would be hard pressed to learn it from corporate media. Tuesday, when I am writing this, and for most of the preceding week, there has only been one story on news programs, as I am sure you have noticed: Donald Trump.
I find it fascinating, Trump is the personification of the Randian worldview. And part of it is he has enough money to be a candidate simply because he chooses to be. He is a brilliant marketeer and leads in the polls because he appreciates that only about 11 per cent of Americans support and approve of our government. The great majority have nothing but contempt for it, as all polls show, and can appreciate a television character plutocrat come to life, who says what they think.
But while we are lost in this opium dream of the national ego, a deeper uglier truth thrums. This is the America profit as the first social priority has created.As this report makes clear, it is a failing model.
The data is equally clear that we must make wellness at every level our new social priority. We must reorder our world. This is what my friend Rick Ingrasci calls "The Decisive Decade." The 2016 election is going to seal our fate. The decisions made over the next five years are going to set our path into climate change.
This is who we are. It is up to us to decide who we want to be.
Let me also note that this report came out in Fortune, an iconic example of conservative mainstream corporate business media. That's a message by itself.
The United States Capitol – Washington DC
When it comes to a few key indicators, Ireland, the UK, Canada and even Albania and Greece are surpassing America.
America is declining, in large and important measures, yet policymakers aren’t paying attention. So argues a new academic paper, pulling together previously published data.
Consider this:
- America’s child poverty levels are worse than in any developed country anywhere, including Greece, devastated by a euro crisis, and eastern European nations such as Poland, Lithuania and Estonia.
- Median adult wealth in the US ($39,000) is 27th globally, putting it behind Cyprus, Taiwan, and Ireland.
- Even when “life satisfaction” is measured, America ranks #12, behind Israel, Sweden and Australia.
Overall, America’s per capita wealth, health and education measures are mediocre for a highly industrialized nation. Well-being metrics, perceptions of corruption, quality and cost of basic services, are sliding, too. Healthcare and education spending are funding bloated administrations even while human outcomes sink, the authors say.
“We looked at very broad measures, and at individual measures, too,” said co-author […]
