Is the United States of America the "Greatest Nation?"

It's conditioning.  From the time we are young children in elementary school, we are told repeatedly that we live in the greatest nation on earth.  "The United States of America is the greatest nation."  We are taught that we are so lucky to have been born in the best country there is.  And we believe it.  To say otherwise, or to even question it, is anathema.

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But we ought to question it.  I've questioned it for the last decade.  Off and on for at least ten years my husband and I have both discussed expatriating.  Maybe we eventually will; maybe we won't.  I do not know.  I do know that there are some very horrible nations on this earth in which people must reside, and I'm not in one of them.  I live in the United States, which is a pretty decent place to live.  We enjoy a lot of freedoms and safety, as well as a lot of educational and health advantages.  However, to say we live in the single greatest nation on earth is stretching the truth. Abundantly.

Health and Safety

Let's take, for example, the health of our nation when compared to other nations.  The United States ranked 37th in overall health when WHO assessed the nations in 2000.  A 2014 assessment by The Commonwealth Fund ranked the U.S. last of 11 total nations.  When looking at maternal health alone, we sit at 61st in the world, whereas our child well-being is 42nd in the world, according to the non-profit organization Save the Children.  According to their Mother's Index for the year 2015, the US ranks 33, only because we rank 9th in economic status and 19th in educational status.  The last of five categories that are used to come up with the Mother's Index rating for 179 countries is political status, at which we embarrassingly rank 89th place.

We come in 49th place for life expectancy, at just over 78 years of age, whereas the countries with the two longest life expectancy rates—Monaco and Macau—are just under 90 and nearly 84.5 years, respectively, and the world average is just over 67.

As far as peace and safety goes, the United States ranked 94th place!  That is devastating.  War-torn Syria ranked in toward the very bottom of the list at 162, being labeled the "most violent."  That was the Global Peace Index ranking for 2015.  In 2014, the U.S. came in even worst, at rank 97. 

In 2010, Transparency International published a Corruption Perceptions Index, in which the USA came in 22nd, where 1 is the "cleanest," and 178 is the "most corrupt."  Somalia is last on the list, which is often the case when comparing all the nations on anything.  While the United States ranks fairly well on this list, it's far from the "greatest."

Then there is the homicide rate for the United States.  We come in 98th place for lowest homicide rate, with 3.8 murders taking place per 100,000 people.  The country with the highest homicide rate is Honduras, coming in 218th place with 84.3 murders per 100k people.  There are 58 nations listed whose rate is below 2 people per 100k and 28 nations whose rate is below one person per 100k.

When we look at homicides by firearms, the United States endures 29.7 firearm homicides per one million people, which is outrageously high when compared to other developed nations.

Javier Zarracina/Vox

It becomes an especially stunning shock if one views the various figures Katie Leach-Kemon collected and published in her article on Humanosphere.  It's despairing when various U.S. cities have firearms homicide rates that match the high numbers of firearms homicide rates of such countries as Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico.  

Education

The Pearson Index ranked the United States at 14 overall in the year 2014, which breaks down as 11th for cognitive skills and 20th for educational attainment.  Nations like Japan, Canada, Denmark, and Germany, as well as nine others, all beat us.  In the year of 2012 we ranked 17th. While our great USA's students are improving in math and science, we still rank 35th and 27th, respectively, out of 64 countries, according to Pew Research Center.

Employment and Vacation/Holidays

Employment rates are ever-changing, probably more than any other factor I've so far discussed, but in 2011 we suffered an unemployment rate of 9.2%.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it was higher—at 9.8%—in 2010.  Thankfully it's continued to go down, but as of 2015, according to the CIA Factbook, we still possessed a rate of 5.2%, which is 56th place out of 207 nations.  So much for being the greatest nation when 55 nations have higher employment rates for their citizens than we do.

As far as vacation and holidays go, we live in the only developed nation that does not mandate, by law, that citizens receive paid time off.  Nations in the European Union all require at least four weeks of paid vacation.  According to a U.S.A. Today article, "Austria, which guarantees workers the most time off, has a legal minimum of 22 paid vacation days and 13 paid holidays each year. The average private sector U.S. worker receives 16 paid vacation days and holidays. One in four Americans does not have a single paid day off" (Hess, "On Holiday").

Family Life and Happiness 

As if the subpar deal for vacation and holidays isn't bad enough, the U.S. also does not ensure its citizens receive paid leave when a child is born.  It doesn't even give mothers more than twelve weeks of "protected leave," which is to say unpaid leave with a guarantee of being able to return to work at the end of that time.  A nursing mother who works, if she manages to save enough back for her time at home, must return to work in roughly three months, which is far too early to have to leave a child with someone else, especially considering pumping in the workplace is not accommodated well in our nation.  I should think protected leave should last at least six months, and pumping accommodations should be made after the mother returns to work.

The United States did not earn a spot in the top ten happiest countries in the world in the World Happiness Report for 2015.  I do not think it ever has.  Of the happiest cities in the world, ranked just this year of 2016 by Mercer's Quality of Living Ranking, the highest-ranked U.S. city came in at 28th place (San Francisco). 

Environmental Cleanliness 

We sadly cannot expect to place very well in this category due to all the neglectful climate-change-deniers and lazy citizens who don't give a shit about where their trash goes or what chemicals are unleashed into the environment.  As a naturalist who highly appreciates this beautiful planet we call home, this subject provokes a lot of anger in me.

This top ten list of the cleanest nations in the world, derived by researchers at Yale- and Columbia Universities, does not include the United States.  As always, it includes some of the Scandinavian nations, as well as other nations, like Singapore and Switzerland, that often feature in the best lists concerning other categories.

Democratic Ranking

Americans here like to brag about our government and hold it as superior above all other nations of the earth.  While we do practice some good democratic socialistic practices in our nation, we fall short of being the best.  We are well on our way to becoming an oligarchy ruled by the wealthy who would strip liberties and wealth from the nation's main populace, and the pseudo-Christians are assisting toward this direction.

Here is a screenshot from the BlankCAF Democracy Index for 2008:

I wondered how often whether that was updated and looked to see whether I could find an index for the year 2015.  Here it is, with the United States falling from the 18th in the democratic index to 20th:

A dear friend of mine who lives in my area is originally from Denmark, and so I was delighted to read an article a few days ago about the democratic socialist government of Denmark, which I highly recommend.  It was written by an American expat who has lived in Denmark since 1991.

Economic Freedom

The 2016 Index of Economic Freedom by Heritage categorizes countries as free, mostly free, moderately free, mostly unfree, repressed, and unranked.  There are five countries—Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Austria—who are ranked free.  We are ranked in the "mostly free" category in 11th overall place.  On the Heritage website, it says, "Economic freedom is a crucial component of liberty. It empowers people to work, produce, consume, own, trade, and invest according to their personal choices."  We rank well, but we are not ranked #1 in economic freedom.

Children's Rights

I own this wonderful book that I've read to my children.  What is sad is that the United States is the only country, besides lawless, always-ranked-worst-on-everything Somalia, who has not signed on to the U.N.'s treaty on the rights of children.  It is not only embarrassing, it's a terrible disgrace!

I remember hearing about a decade or so ago about this treaty on a popular national pseudo-Christian radio station and how they were strongly opposed to the U.S. ratifying this treaty.  It's disgusting.  The pseudo-Christians want to be able to hurt their children and to not allow them to believe in which religion they choose and so on.  That is the real reason why the U.S. is alone with Somalia, of all countries, to not ratify this very important treaty that has improved the lives of children the world over.  One of the ways in which many children's lives have been improved as a result of this treaty is bringing children out of poverty.  How does the U.S. rank in child poverty?

Among the OECD countries, the U.S. ranked, as of 2010, 30th out of 34 nations!  The "great" nation of the United States ranks 30th in child poverty!  Over 21 percent of U.S. children in 2010 lived in poverty.  Chile, Turkey, Mexico, and Israel were the four that ranked worse than we did.

So, is there anything in which the United States ranks "the greatest" in?  It turns out that there are a few things we win at.

Almost Most Generosity

This is a good thing.  We came in second last year on the World Giving Index, after Myanmar, but  we have come in first before, and we've also tied for first place with Myanmar at least once previously. 

Greatest Wealth (GDP)

Aha!  Finally we rank "greatest" in something, and that, my friends, is that we top the charts in gross domestic product.  In other words, we produce the most and win the "wealthiest" title, even though we're in such deep debt that I'm not quite sure we can accurately be called the wealthiest once that's factored in.  Now, according to something called purchasing power parity (PPP), we rank number two in GDP, following China in first place.  Follow the link to learn more.

Greatest Number of Prisoners


Certainly not something about which to boast, I managed think of something else in which we rank number 1.  We lock up more of our fellow citizens than any other nation in the world.  Although the United States is home to only about 4.5 percent of the world's population, over one-fifth—nearly a quarter—of the entire world's prison population is locked away in prisons in our nation.  This is astounding.  We do not rank toward the top of safest nations, either, or lowest in crime.  Around a quarter of prisoners in the U.S. are imprisoned for drug offenses, around half of those in federal prison, according to DrugWarFacts.Org.  Not only should people not be locked up for drug abuse—they need help—but a large percentage of our population is made up of responsible users (not abusers) of illegal drugs.  Most stats report anywhere from a quarter to a third of adults as users of cannabis, and I'm confident this is accurate.  People from all walks of life are using cannabis.  As for those with serious drug problems, especially those using dangerous drugs like methamphetamine and heroin, our country needs to get these people help and also ban and restrict some of the pharmaceutical drugs that people are becoming addicted to and leads them to heroin use.

Being the biggest producer because we slave everyone to death in the name of celebrating mammon, setting aside vacation and holidays and family leave and using our wealth to look down on everyone else as if we are the best; and locking everyone up for using drugs and refusing to help those who are addicted does not make us the "greatest nation on earth."

If you are one of the many who have believed this lie and feel that everyone else is inferior, it's time to swallow your pride.  Our nation's people need to humble themselves and look to some of these other nations who have a lot of things figured out quite a bit better than we do.  They are setting some good examples for us that we'd be wise to follow.

America's Right Wing is Antichrist

I've pretty well always hated extreme right-wing ideas. I hated them as a Christian, and I hate them presently as an atheist. 

There were two articles I wrote several years ago, as a Christian, that I want to briefly mention.  One pointed out the error of a person being too extreme either to the right or to the left. The other discussed the fact that there are not always moral absolutes, as many self-proclaimed Christians like to insist.  I've grown and learned quite a bit in those six-plus years, so there would definitely be some improvements to those articles if I was to revise them.  Overall, though, I understood the dangers and evils of being an extremist and knew that those who claim that there are always moral absolutes do not follow a loving-heart-led moral code, but rather they stick to a rigid "letter of the law" mentality, therefore keeping the applicable written or oral law while breaking the higher law of mercy, justice, and faithfulness, just as the Jesus of the bible is purported to have said (Matt. 23:23-24).

In the United States we are gearing up for a presidential election, and as always, my husband and I have been watching the debates of both parties before the primary election.  I always find myself getting so angry and disgusted when watching the Republican debates.  I loathe the fact that they even name their party "Republican," for it totally takes away from my ability to proudly say that I am a republican—with a little 'r'—who supports the idea of a democratic republic as a form of government.  I enjoyed watching Ron Paul eight years ago, as he was the only person running on the Republican ticket who was worth voting for.  I was so happy to hear him that I went against my then-religious beliefs of voting and voted for him in the primary!  I didn't vote again after that, though my husband did vote for Obama in the general election.  I didn't love Obama at the time, but I will say that I was relieved that he did beat war-loving John McCain.

Unlike the Republican debates this go-around, the democratic debates are worth watching.  They tend to talk more about issues that matter a lot more, as they are able.  It seems they are not allowed to say much about climate change issues (the most important issue of all, in my strong opinion), because the questions they get do not include that topic.  But when they do manage to fit it in, it's pleasing to hear that some really want to do something about it, unlike the Republicans who will mock the fact we have a serious emergency and simply do not give a shit about doing anything about it.

We've been watching the debates over the last few months, and the Republicans only want to talk about how they want us to murder and destroy, to bulk up our military, to be the strongest warriors in the world, as if we are dominating dictators planning to force our will upon everyone else.  When they're not talking about that, they are literally bickering at each other like immature children.  It's extremely embarrassing, and I find myself wondering each time what citizens of other nations must be thinking if they watch it.

In contrast, there is no childish bickering in the democratic debates.  There may be some disagreements, since it is a debate, but they're respectful of each other and do not bicker back and forth, back and forth.  They debate the issues and point out their differences in opinion without disgraceful name-calling.

I thought the far right-wingers were evil-minded when I was a Christian, and nothing has changed.  It's despicable how they claim to be the "Christian" party, and yet they are nothing but anti-Christ.  They do not even know the Jesus of the bible, the most well-known believed-to-be Jewish "christ" or "messiah."  They certainly do not have his words written on their hearts; if they're programmed into their minds, it's only in a thoughtless memorization sort of way, not in any serious processing of what the words mean and accepting them as good and wise.

I disliked Marco Rubio from the very beginning.  In the very first debate we watched last year, he made it clear that he did not think abortion should even be allowed to save the life of a woman.  The act of imagining that as a reality for even a second gripped me with a feeling of fear and strong defense for my right to life.  Yet I'd be willing to bet he considers himself "pro-life."  Those people do not even know what pro-life means.  One thing is certain; he's very anti-abortion, even when abortion is the only way anyone is going to continue living.  I've known at least two women of whom I'm aware had their pregnancies terminated when their embryos were growing in one of their Fallopian tubes.  I've read numerous real-life stories of women who made the very difficult choice to terminate their second-trimester pregnancies, even those just a mere two weeks from viability, in order to not lose their own lives (and naturally also those of the fetuses).  The stories are very sad.  There are several reasons why a woman would need to abort to save her own life, including hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia that threatens a fatal stroke, or severe hyperemesis gravidarum for just a few examples.  I think most people are at least in support of abortion in life or death cases.  I once considered myself fairly anti-abortion, but I always held that a pro-life decision should be made if a woman's life was in danger—save her life by terminating the pregnancy. Ending one life to save another is better than knowingly letting two lives end.

Marco Rubio looked as if he was possessed by a demon, if such were really a thing, during President Obama's last State of the Union address.  I'd thought if there was really a wicked being called Satan, maybe he was sitting there, going by the name of Marco.  The only thing his eyes and facial features manifested was pure hate.  How a person could sit there with a hateful expression and evil-flashing eyes when Obama said all the good things he did is beyond my comprehension.

I won't even bother talking in depth about Rick Santorum, as I was disgusted that he even ran again; I hated listening to the man the last time he ran.  Why anyone would even consider desiring such a person to preside over our nation boggles my mind.  I'm glad we didn't have to watch him, nor Mike Huckabee, for very long this time.  I could go on and on about Santorum alone.

Ted Cruz isn't a lot better than Santorum.

Then there's the woman who doesn't hide her personality as a bitch, Carly Fiorina.  I'm not sure whether she ever smiles sincerely about anything good.  It's been beyond annoying to listen to her repeat endlessly that we need to "take back our country," whatever that means, while she bobbles her head constantly.

Ben Carson seems like he'd be a real likable individual, to me, just to be able to talk to and get along with, and I love his calm, gentle voice, but he's definitely not president material.  I dislike some of his policy ideas, for sure.  (Update:  I no longer care for Ben Carson much. He ruined his reputation by joining Trump's Cabinet.)

Jeb Bush actually has had a few worthy ideas, like pointing out to the rest of the foolish Republicans that it's asinine to think we can just deport eleven million Mexicans back to Mexico and proposing a fair way for those adults who came over to pay back coming here without going through the legal process.  I don't want to see Jeb as the president either, but if I had to vote for one of the running Republicans, he would be my choice over the others.

Rand Paul is a disappointment. I like his father, but Rand falls severely short.  It disgusted me to hear him discount climate change, and I've heard him talk about other things that caused me to shake his head.  He's better than most of them, in my opinion, but he's infected with a lot of the "conservative" ideals.  (The party is not conservative with going to war, not conservative of the environment, and not conservative with government spending, as war is at the top of government spending.)  I will at least say for Rand that he has seemed to adopt his father's foreign policy ideals, more or less, which earns him my respect as far as that is concerned.

Chris Christie I mostly dislike.  He actually said a few sensible things, but I don't even remember what they were.  However, I do remember one very idiotic thing he said.  He figured we should shoot down Russian aircraft if they fly in a U.S.-demanded "no-fly-zone" in Syria. Well, who are we to impose a no-fly zone in another nation?  Who appointed us as world king dictator?  I don't remember which one, two, or three candidates followed him up in that particular debate and slammed Christie on his stupidity, but I'm glad for it.  We certainly do not need anyone presiding over our nation who would exercise such poor judgment as that.

John Kasich, I thought at first, was ok.  I got to thinking that he was quite a bit different than the others.  He seemed to be independent in his thinking.  But then as more debates occurred, and he said more, I started to really dislike a lot of what he was saying.  Then there's the fact that he has habitually rambled on and on, even when he's been told his time was up.

Then there's Donald Trump.  Trump has really brought out in the open those who are haters in their hearts.  If they hated secretly before, they are not afraid to express that hate in the open now.  I shake my head sadly at the state of the "Bible Belt," which is, ironically, the most antichrist section of the nation.  I will soon write in detail with plenty of factual evidence to elaborate on this statement, in another post.  Donald Trump started out as ridiculous entertainment, but he quickly entered the realm of seriously dangerous behavior.  This billionaire who incites hatred has numerous very loyal followers, which eerily reminds me of Hitler's uprising and others like it.  I can't imagine what it must feel like to be a Muslim right now.  He wants to ban all Muslims—even U.S. citizens who are away visiting or serving in the military—from the U.S. until things are supposedly sorted out with Islam, and he wants every member of Islam to be identified and tracked.

What does it take to get these nutcases to understand that most Muslims are not violent terrorists, just as most Christians are not violent terrorists, despite the fact that some are?  Why do the Republicans only focus on "radical Islamic terrorists" but do not even so much as mention "radical Christian terrorists?"  Why was Dylan Roof's shooting up African Americans in their peaceful church service not discussed, nor Robert Dear's massacre of innocent individuals in a Planned Parenthood clinic?  A quick Google search will reveal that radical Christian terrorists have killed more people, and have carried out more attacks, in the U.S. since 9/11 than Islamic terrorists.   There have also been so many mass gun shootings, but the Republicans lie and will have you believe the government wants to ban all guns, when the truth is that we can simply make it more difficult for violent or mentally ill people to gain access to guns, which would reduce violence and deaths.  It seems it's not terrorism or deaths that these candidates and their followers are against, but rather people who are Muslim instead of Christian.  If all Muslims are automatically evil and dangerous because a small minority are violent terrorists, then all Christians must be automatically the same because of their violent terrorizing minority.  These people lack logic!  They also lack compassion and fair judgment.  Besides all this, most of the victims in the world who are injured, murdered, or otherwise victimized by Islamic terrorists are Muslims!  Chew on that.  Muslims also hate Islamic terrorists more than anyone else, which ought to make fine logical sense.  Christians don't want to be misrepresented by Christian terrorists, and atheists don't want a bad reputation when an atheist carries out an act of terrorism. 

If Jesus was alive and present in the world, he would not be impressed one bit by any of what is going on in the right-wing circus these clowns are running.  He would reject his name being used by these bearers of bad fruit.  He would say things like, "You don't even know me" (Matt. 7:23) and "You people give me lip service while dealing wickedly in your hearts and actions" (Matt. 15:8).

There is no talk of trying to care for the environmental disaster that is going to lead to more and more death and destruction to various species, including us, and ecosystems.  These people are not discussing how they can help people out of poverty and provide them a better education which leads to better parenting and reduced crime.  They're not talking about how they can put a stop to corporate bribes (since they're the ones taking the bribes) to government officials to protect evil corporate interests.  They're not considering how they can pass a law to make the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share of taxes.  They're not deliberating on how they can ban cruel horrors like factory-farming.  They clearly do not give any care to encourage growth in clean technology.  They're not demanding the end of private prisons that encourage more arrests of people who don't need to be locked up so that these people can get richer.  They're not putting an end to the insane "war on drugs" and making moves to decriminalize cannabis and get drug-addicted people help instead of locking them up.  They are not demanding that pharmaceutical companies make their lifesaving drugs affordable to those who need them.  They're not fighting for parents to get a fair family leave package after the birth of a child.  They are not bothered that our healthcare system is embarrassing when compared to those of other developed nations, with citizens spending outrageous amounts of money for much worse results.  They certainly are not making any moves to be the number-one peacemaking country on the planet.

In other words, they don't care about the same things Jesus cared about—helping the poor, the care of the planet, the healing of the sick, generosity, grace, compassion, kind treatment of animals, and peacemaking, among others.

The better portion of America's right-wing, in other words, is anti-Christ.