The Republican Party's reverse Robin Hood agenda and efforts to create a new Gilded Age where America is of immense concentrated wealth and vast numbers of those barely surviving is bearing toxic fruit. While most advanced nations have expanded access to health care for all, Donald Trump and the GOP continue to strive to kill the Affordable Health Care Act - a move that would leave tens of millions with no health care - and constantly seek to slash the social safety net. Meanwhile, the rich get ever richer. As a consequence, America has fallen on the index of quality of life and now is on a par with Estonia, Czech Republic, Cyprus and Greece. In terms of public education, over all, American children as a whole get an education roughly on par with what children get in Uzbekistan and Mongolia. Trump's MAGA agenda has made things worse without even counting the impact of America's disastrous response to the Covid-19 pandemic. How do we stop America's fall? A good start is defeating Trump and Republicans in November and ending a mindset that views a majority of Americans as disposable trash. A piece in the New York Times looks at this sad state of affairs. Here are highlights:
This should be a wake-up call: New data suggest that the United States is one of just a few countries worldwide that is slipping backward.
The newest Social Progress Index, shared with me before its official release Thursday morning, finds that out of 163 countries assessed worldwide, the United States, Brazil and Hungary are the only ones in which people are worse off than when the index began in 2011. And the declines in Brazil and Hungary were smaller than America’s. . . . “It’s like we’re a developing country.”
The index, inspiredconsequence, America is falling by research of Nobel-winning economists, collects 50 metrics of well-being — nutrition, safety, freedom, the environment, health, education and more — to measure quality of life. Norway comes out on top in the 2020 edition, followed by Denmark, Finland and New Zealand. South Sudan is at the bottom, with Chad, Central African Republic and Eritrea just behind.
The United States, despite its immense wealth, military power and cultural influence, ranks 28th — having slipped from 19th in 2011. The index now puts the United States behind significantly poorer countries, including Estonia, Czech Republic, Cyprus and Greece.
“We are no longer the country we like to think we are,” said Porter.
The United States ranks No. 1 in the world in quality of universities, but No. 91 in access to quality basic education. The U.S. leads the world in medical technology, yet we are No. 97 in access to quality health care.
Americans have health statistics similar to those of people in Chile, Jordan and Albania, while kids in the United States get an education roughly on par with what children get in Uzbekistan and Mongolia. A majority of countries have lower homicide rates, and most other advanced countries have lower traffic fatality rates and better sanitation and internet access.
The United States has high levels of early marriage — most states still allow child marriage in some circumstances — and lags in sharing political power equally among all citizens. America ranks a shameful No. 100 in discrimination against minorities.
The data for the latest index predates Covid-19, which has had a disproportionate impact on the United States and seems likely to exacerbate the slide in America’s standing. One new study suggests that in the United States, symptoms of depression have risen threefold since the pandemic began — and poor mental health is associated with other risk factors for well-being.
The decline of the United States over the last decade in this index — more than any country in the world — is a reminder that we Americans face structural problems . . . . Trump is a symptom of this larger malaise, and also a cause of its acceleration.
David G. Blanchflower, a Dartmouth economist, has new research showing that the share of Americans reporting in effect that every day is a bad mental health day has doubled over 25 years. “Rising distress and despair are largely American phenomenon not observed in other advanced countries,” Blanchflower told me.
[T]his is an election like that of 1932. That was the year American voters decisively rejected Herbert Hoover’s passivity and gave Franklin Roosevelt an electoral mandate — including a flipped Senate — that laid the groundwork for the New Deal and the modern middle class. But first we need to acknowledge the reality that we are on the wrong track.
We Americans like to say “We’re No. 1.” But the new data suggest that we should be chanting, “We’re No. 28! And dropping!” Let’s wake up, for we are no longer the country we think we are.
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