The richest country in the world
has just released details that it is ranked 42nd in the "development index"
you can read some factoids here, or the full report here but below are some interesting snippets about the civlisation that the whole world is apparently stiving to emulate!
health
The U.S. ranks #24 among the 30 most affluent countries in life expectancy - yet spends more on health care than any other nation.
The U.S. infant mortality rate is on par with that of Croatia, Cuba, Estonia, and Poland;
education
By age three, the children of affluent mothers have vocabularies twice as large as those of the children of low-income mothers.
Twelve percent of Americans lack the literacy skills to fill in a job application or payroll form, read a map or bus schedule, or understand labels on food and drugs.
More than one in five Americans - 22 percent of the population - have “below basic” quantitative skills, making it impossible to balance a checkbook, calculate a tip, or figure out from an advertisement the amount of interest on a loan
wealth
The top 1 percent of U.S. households possesses a full third of America’s wealth.
Households in the top 10 percent of the income distribution hold more than 71 percent of the country’s wealth, while those in the lowest 60 percent possess just 4 percent.
In 1980, the average executive earned forty-two times as much as the average factory worker; today, executives earn some four hundred times what factory workers in their industries earn.
The real value of the minimum wage has decreased by 40 percent in the past forty years.
equality
In every racial/ethnic group, men earn more than their female counterparts.
In 2004, median net worth was $140,800 for whites, and $24,900 for nonwhites.
In 98 countries, new mothers have 14 or more weeks of paid maternity leave. The U.S. has no federally mandated paid maternity leave.
crime
Premature death by homicide is more than five times higher in the U.S. than the OECD average; 68 percent of U.S. homicides in 2006 were committed with a firearm.
In absolute numbers and as a percentage of the population, the U.S. has more prisoners than any other country, including China and Russia.
you can read some factoids here, or the full report here but below are some interesting snippets about the civlisation that the whole world is apparently stiving to emulate!
health
The U.S. ranks #24 among the 30 most affluent countries in life expectancy - yet spends more on health care than any other nation.
The U.S. infant mortality rate is on par with that of Croatia, Cuba, Estonia, and Poland;
education
By age three, the children of affluent mothers have vocabularies twice as large as those of the children of low-income mothers.
Twelve percent of Americans lack the literacy skills to fill in a job application or payroll form, read a map or bus schedule, or understand labels on food and drugs.
More than one in five Americans - 22 percent of the population - have “below basic” quantitative skills, making it impossible to balance a checkbook, calculate a tip, or figure out from an advertisement the amount of interest on a loan
wealth
The top 1 percent of U.S. households possesses a full third of America’s wealth.
Households in the top 10 percent of the income distribution hold more than 71 percent of the country’s wealth, while those in the lowest 60 percent possess just 4 percent.
In 1980, the average executive earned forty-two times as much as the average factory worker; today, executives earn some four hundred times what factory workers in their industries earn.
The real value of the minimum wage has decreased by 40 percent in the past forty years.
equality
In every racial/ethnic group, men earn more than their female counterparts.
In 2004, median net worth was $140,800 for whites, and $24,900 for nonwhites.
In 98 countries, new mothers have 14 or more weeks of paid maternity leave. The U.S. has no federally mandated paid maternity leave.
crime
Premature death by homicide is more than five times higher in the U.S. than the OECD average; 68 percent of U.S. homicides in 2006 were committed with a firearm.
In absolute numbers and as a percentage of the population, the U.S. has more prisoners than any other country, including China and Russia.
posted by Juggling Mother @ 3:55 pm
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Children playing ball. Berkeley 2006. The three on the outside are mine:-)
