The USA - We're #1!!!!!!!!!!

[MattShizzle]

Yeah, the right wing assholes here always say the US is #1. Well, they are right in a way. The US is #1 among Western nations in some things. Unfortunately it's things like gap between CEO and employee pay, gap between rich and poor in general, incarceration rate, percentage of citizens experiencing homelessness, military spending (by a shameful ammount - we spend almost as much on the military as the rest of the planet combined), infant mortality, etc. And I see on FB people who say not only the US is the best country but is way better than anywhere in Europe, etc for POOR people. They must be either ignorant, lying or both. The US is probably the best country in the world to be rich in, mediocre to be middle class and worse than anywhere outisde the 3rd world to be poor. Of course when I point this out the idiots say I can always leave. Well, I'm diasbled and on Social Security and even if I could continue to get disability money it would be difficult to afford immigration. If things move any further to the right I'd like to.

[MattShizzle]

I actually had a link but didn't realize you couldn't put them until you had a certain # of posts.

[RedAnarchist]

I actually had a link but didn't realize you couldn't put them until you had a certain # of posts.

I believe the minimum is 25 posts, this is just to prevent spambots and adbots. You can post you link and put spaces in the URL, like www. revleft .com.

[MattShizzle]

Ah, ok

www .alternet .org/news/150691/we're_

[Ocean Seal]

Yeah, the right wing assholes here always say the US is #1. Well, they are right in a way. The US is #1 among Western nations in some things. Unfortunately it's things like gap between CEO and employee pay, gap between rich and poor in general, incarceration rate, percentage of citizens experiencing homelessness, military spending (by a shameful ammount - we spend almost as much on the military as the rest of the planet combined), infant mortality, etc. And I see on FB people who say not only the US is the best country but is way better than anywhere in Europe, etc for POOR people. They must be either ignorant, lying or both. The US is probably the best country in the world to be rich in, mediocre to be middle class and worse than anywhere outisde the 3rd world to be poor. Of course when I point this out the idiots say I can always leave. Well, I'm diasbled and on Social Security and even if I could continue to get disability money it would be difficult to afford immigration. If things move any further to the right I'd like to.

Approximately 4% of Cubans live below the poverty level.
Approximately 12% of Americans live below the poverty level.

[Impulse97]

What is this American exceptionalism Republicans so venerate? After interviewing many Republican leaders, Washington Post Reporter Karen Tumulty concludes it is the belief that America “is inherently superior to the world’s other nations”. It is a widely held belief. Indeed, most Americans believe our superiority is not only inherent but divinely ordained. A survey by the Public Religious Research Institute and the Brookings Institution found that 58 percent of Americans agree with the statement, “God has granted America a special role in human history.”

This is just plain scary. Holy shit. I knew it was bad, but damn. Devine rights? What is this 1630?

[Terminator X]

Approximately 4% of Cubans live below the poverty level.
Approximately 12% of Americans live below the poverty level.

And the American standard for what constitutes "poverty" is complete bullshit, so it's probably closer to 30%.

[tachosomoza]

Also know that they don't account for the masses that live under their noses but off their grid.

[MattShizzle]

Yeah, what the government calls the "poverty level" isn't just poor, it's pretty much destitute. And of course the righties tend to play the "blame the victim" game and say they want to be poor, or they're lazy, etc. Meanwhile the working poor work way harder than the average person for next to nothing, and the exploiter pig class do next to nothing and make more than anyone. The rate of CEO pay to the average worker pay at the same company is disgusting.

from Sam Harris' "Letter to a Christian Nation" in 2006 - and I doubt it's gotten any better since - the ratios of CEO pay to average employee pay in different Western countries

UK 24:1
France 15:1
Sweden 13:1
USA 475:1

And yes, the hyper religiousity in this country is another negative.

[Robocommie]

Approximately 4% of Cubans live below the poverty level.
Approximately 12% of Americans live below the poverty level.

For the purposes of comparison, what's the Cuban poverty level compared to the US poverty level?

[Ocean Seal]

For the purposes of comparison, what's the Cuban poverty level compared to the US poverty level?
I'm not entirely sure but I think that this study compared them on the international poverty level. I tried googling it, but I couldn't find anything.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

from Sam Harris' "Letter to a Christian Nation" in 2006 - and I doubt it's gotten any better since - the ratios of CEO pay to average employee pay in different Western countries

UK 24:1
France 15:1
Sweden 13:1
USA 475:1

And yes, the hyper religiousity in this country is another negative.

Apart from Sam Harris being a total fucking arsehole, I question those statistics. How are they extrapolated? What is the source? I cannot believe that the executive pay is only 13:1 in Sweden. That's preposterous. It must be taking something else into account that skews the ratio and exaggerates the U.S. one while holding the other countries down.

[RedSonRising]

http://i.imgur.com/ebTF6.png

[progressive_lefty]

I guess this has always contributed to the amount of anti-Americanism that exists around the world. All those conservatives are lying to themselves, the US is one of the few first-world countries that refuses to offers it citizens an easy path to University, and also refuses to assist in providing a basic standard of healthcare. I'm pretty sure that more money is spent on healthcare per capita in the US then those baddy baddy countries with socialised medicine (eg. UK, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Australia etc. etc.). Like it has already been mentioned on this thread poor people in the US are heavily looked down upon, and even if you have the good grades - your not guaranteed entry into a good University. I see that as being the symptoms of a flawed society. The richest go to University - not the smartest.

[Q]

...

In the same spirit:

http://pophangover.com/wp-content/themes/arthemia/scripts/timthumb.php?src=//wp-content/uploads/the-usa-number-1.jpg&w=550&h=550&zc=1&q=400

[Dumb]

Apart from Sam Harris being a total fucking arsehole, I question those statistics. How are they extrapolated? What is the source? I cannot believe that the executive pay is only 13:1 in Sweden. That's preposterous. It must be taking something else into account that skews the ratio and exaggerates the U.S. one while holding the other countries down.

It's less preposterous when you take into account the fact that Sweden has 2-3 times as high a proportion of public employees and many more nationalised industries that what one sees in the US.

[Dumb]

I guess this has always contributed to the amount of anti-Americanism that exists around the world. All those conservatives are lying to themselves, the US is one of the few first-world countries that refuses to offers it citizens an easy path to University, and also refuses to assist in providing a basic standard of healthcare. I'm pretty sure that more money is spent on healthcare per capita in the US then those baddy baddy countries with socialised medicine (eg. UK, Sweden, Norway, Canada, Australia etc. etc.). Like it has already been mentioned on this thread poor people in the US are heavily looked down upon, and even if you have the good grades - your not guaranteed entry into a good University. I see that as being the symptoms of a flawed society. The richest go to University - not the smartest.

On top of that, private universities have been shown to inflate student GPAs by about half a grade point on average. My 3.49 at UC Davis could have been a 3.99 at USC! :lol:

That effect just snowballs, as it's easier to get letters of recommendation from professors when you have that 3.99 (especially when you got half a grade point better in that professor's class), and it's easier to qualify for more scholarships and more funding when you try to go to grad school.

[Pretty Flaco]

In the same spirit:

http://pophangover.com/wp-content/themes/arthemia/scripts/timthumb.php?src=//wp-content/uploads/the-usa-number-1.jpg&w=550&h=550&zc=1&q=400

We are #1! :lol:

[MattShizzle]

Apart from Sam Harris being a total fucking arsehole, I question those statistics. How are they extrapolated? What is the source? I cannot believe that the executive pay is only 13:1 in Sweden. That's preposterous. It must be taking something else into account that skews the ratio and exaggerates the U.S. one while holding the other countries down.

He cited a link and I looked at it ( www .nybooks .com/articles/archives/2005/feb/10/europe-vs-america/ )

It's from a book called Europe vs America by Tony Judt.

[Dragovich]

Can one make the case that in some of these things, it's the Southern states that are dragging the US? :(

[MattShizzle]

Not quite sure why Puerto Rico is listed. It isn't a country, it's a US territory.

[MattShizzle]

Can one make the case that in some of these things, it's the Southern states that are dragging the US? :(

I'd say in most if not all of them.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

It's less preposterous when you take into account the fact that Sweden has 2-3 times as high a proportion of public employees and many more nationalised industries that what one sees in the US.

What sort of relation does the public sector employment have to do with CEO pay ratio?

And I'm sorry but, what? Nationalised industries? Like what? The only one that remains that I can think of is the mining industry...

[Le Socialiste]

This is just plain scary. Holy shit. I knew it was bad, but damn. Devine rights? What is this 1630?
It is scary. The fact that so many Americans believe this is disheartening, but it should only spur us all to further action in combatting this belief in "Divine Rights". I would also argue that less and less people will agree with this as time moves on, but we'll see. :(

[L.A.P.]

Approximately 4% of Cubans live below the poverty level.
Approximately 12% of Americans live below the poverty level.

From what I read, 1% of Cubans live below the global poverty line while 20% of Americans live below the global poverty line.

[Atehequa]

Yeah, the right wing assholes here always say the US is #1. Well, they are right in a way. The US is #1 among Western nations in some things. Unfortunately it's things like gap between CEO and employee pay, gap between rich and poor in general, incarceration rate, percentage of citizens experiencing homelessness, military spending (by a shameful ammount - we spend almost as much on the military as the rest of the planet combined), infant mortality, etc. And I see on FB people who say not only the US is the best country but is way better than anywhere in Europe, etc for POOR people. They must be either ignorant, lying or both. The US is probably the best country in the world to be rich in, mediocre to be middle class and worse than anywhere outisde the 3rd world to be poor. Of course when I point this out the idiots say I can always leave. Well, I'm diasbled and on Social Security and even if I could continue to get disability money it would be difficult to afford immigration. If things move any further to the right I'd like to.

Right Wing Assholes here at REVLEFT ?

In my opinion FB detrimental to the human spirit.

I'm Indian and have had the idiots give me that "You can always leave" shit. Most of them are just barkers for their rich masters.
Dumbing down is big business here in America.

[MattShizzle]

Not here, at revleft, "here" in the USA.