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.

The Power of Fear

Note: This was a post I wrote originally on my biblical "Growing in Grace and Knowledge" blog, written shortly after my open apostasy and rejection of the bible as God's word.

Fear.  It's the tactic of any good dictator.  The belief is that people cannot rule themselves, they're inherently bad, and so it's the duty of some individual to wield authority over the masses in a monarchical arrangement.  But who is so much better than any of the rest of us to think he is fit to rule?

I've always been of a republic mindset myself.  I believe in a free society.  I believe that when people work together using reason, there is freedom and happiness.  The helpless are helped, the unrelenting wicked are punished, and the people use the better part of their time to enjoy life with their fellow earthlings and work creatively to make the planet a better place.

And it really does work.  When people are free to search truth and to live their lives unrestricted, so long as they're not harming other persons or their properties, people live together in relative harmony.   It is in an environment like this that things like slavery are abolished.

But there are, unfortunately, people out there who think they need to rule.  They've got to come up with a plan to deceive people to follow them, though.  Oftentimes they bring God or gods into the equation or claim to be a god themselves.

Currently I think there likely is a God. (Note: I believe now there is likely no god, but I did when I first wrote this post on my old biblical blog.) But wow, there are all sorts of ways we, as people, have boxed him up and labeled him.  And then we're all deluded as children, just as those before us were deluded as children, to believe in him this way or that way, whatever way your particular culture teaches it, and then, if that wasn't enough, it's got to be paired up with a teaching that it's heresy to prove it out for yourself, to your own satisfaction.  That means Muslims are forbidden to read the bible, Christians are forbidden to read the Qu'ran, and so on.  And all such peoples think they are right.  They know they're right.  How?  Why, because their holy book says so, that's why!  And how can it be wrong?  So then there's never and peace, because rather than using our Truth and Love Guide (and I don't mean some book that you've got to place blind faith in, since it was written by those who say they saw it and heard it) that resides in us, we rather listen to the little fear leech that tags along.

I've heard from two dear friends today, and fear was brought up in both conversations.

One friend is doing the noble thing by "proving all things," seeing whether what I've said holds any weight.  She, like I, has had questions that she's pushed back in her mind throughout the years, good questions that any sane and rational person ought to have.  She confided in me that she is not ready to say anything to anyone, yet, and she's still searching.  Well, that's wise.  I certainly didn't make my decision overnight.  No, I had to give my kids a lot of game time and such so that I could read, read, read, and meditate, investigate.  Day after day, and week after week.  And then add that to all the wise questions that I've had filed away in my mind over the years.  She may not ever tell some people, she said, because of judgement.  I can't say I blame her at all.   She also said, "I am realizing more and more about the fear religion puts into us.  It's mind boggling."

Yep.  I still have the fear leech saying, "What if you're wrong?"  It's because I've been programmed for soooo long.  But fear should never dominate over truth.

That brings me to the conversation I had with my other friend.  It seemed to me that she may have been ignoring me, rejecting me, over a couple things she disagreed with me about.  I didn't like how she said something, though now as I type this, perhaps even that was not taken exactly the right way, because you can't get an accurate emotional read with something written, which this was.  I did reason that maybe she was just busy (there was evidence available to me there that she was).  I voiced it several times to my Love.  I really was concerned.  I kept telling myself maybe she just didn't have time, and I should just wait longer.  But the fear leech within me said it was because she was pissed at me, and so what I should have done, I didn't do.  What I should have done is asked her directly (I did ask her something in an email about busyness with something, but it was vague) whether she was ignoring me, whether she was mad at me, or whether she was just busy.

The reason I did not directly ask her which it was is because I failed to work up the nerve to do so.  I was afraid of the answer I'd get!  I was afraid of what the truth might be! 

So what do I do, amidst my hurt yesterday, when out of the blue I'm getting all this messaging from her on my iPhone, basically saying she was upset (understandable) and that she couldn't be my friend until I repented?  I lashed out!  In the blog post I made up.  No, I didn't name who it was.  I haven't named anyone regarding anything.  But I nevertheless did what I told myself I would not do, which is accuse her of the assumption I had that was rooted in fear.  Of course, I apologized.  She then told me that I've always been good to be patient, that she's forgotten things before or didn't have time to talk for awhile, and she told me that I've never hated her for it. That's all true.  I've got a good track record of being very understanding when I don't get a fast response.  I'm plenty guilty of the same, and I don't expect anything greater out of others.  But this time, as weeks turned into months, which is quite a long time, and judging by the last things she'd said to me, I let the fear outweigh reason.

How many persons, I wonder, who reacted to me the way they did, truly read my entire blog post before reacting?  I'm personally struggling with how some could react the way they did if they truly read it all.  I think there's a good chance some did not read it all.  I know how the human mind works.  Sometimes when we start reading something that starts upsetting us, we stop reading. We then assume that we know the whole story, we reach our own conclusions quite quickly, and then go on the attack.  Yeah.  That's right.  You know how I know?  Because I've been guilty of it before.  Because I know for a fact that others have done so before.  So that's why I think there's a good chance some didn't read it all thoroughly before reacting.  It's also important not to react right away after reading something, but rather to go spend time meditating on it.  These are things that I've learned in my life, and I'm only 31.

That is also why I think my one friend that I haven't heard from (actually haven't checked my email today, yet) hasn't responded, yet, because she tends to go meditate on things for awhile before deciding how to respond.  I've observed that about her over the years.  And I value it.  She's not quick to get into debates, but I think she sorts wise judgements in her head.  She's a good example in many ways.

Now let's reason together...

It's fearful to think that we might be wrong about something, isn't it?  I can now better understand in a compassionate way how it's difficult for many to turn away from the big Christmas and Easter celebrations and their Sunday churches, etc., because it really is a big thing.  You get judged, some may reject you, you've got emotional attachments to various things, and so on.  People are afraid of the truth.  The fear leech keeps them entangled.

How is it, though, for those who actually did read the blog post, that they can search and find evidence that Christmas and Easter and such originate in terrible pagan customs, yet they won't investigate to see whether I'm telling the truth about the biblical holidays being rooted in bloody and superstitious pagan customs?  How come it's ok that the bible contains holidays accepted from Canaanite and Babylonian religions?  How come it's ok that all the tales are lies, because they're just stories borrowed from older cultures?  We know the Jews also, to this day, have the Babylonian calendar months.  They've got two new year days in a year, just like the Babylonians.  And they've got some of their holy days, as well as some Canaanite ones.

We should ask why so many who are bible scholars have left their faith once they see all the manuscripts.  That's an intelligent and wise question to ask.  Just in the new testament books, there are more inconsistencies and contradictions in all the manuscripts than there are words in the new testament!  And they're not all minor, either.

The oldest gospel manuscripts don't even teach that Jesus as divine.  Some of us have known for years that the last several verses of Mark aren't original and that the words in one of the epistles of John were added to the KJV to "prove" a trinity.  There are, in fact, lots of other big problems.  The story of the woman caught in adultery is not original.  It was added much, much later.   And on and on I could go.  There are major contradictions, not just things that can be reasoned as simple differences in point of view (like how many women were at Jesus' tomb), but much bigger things.  The fact is that there were lots of different "gospels" and such, and people just voted yea or nay at the Nicean Council in the fourth century.  Too bad they didn't pay close attention to the four gospels, because they're terribly contradictory, moreso than I realized before.

It's said that Luke authored Luke and Acts.  The gospel "according to" Luke claims Jesus ascended later the same day he was resurrected.  Read through it carefully.  He met with the disciples, walked with them to Bethany, and then he ascended.  In Acts it was forty days afterward.

Did he truly walk to Emmaus and then meet the disciples later that day in Jerusalem in a room, or did he rather meet them in Galilee?  With the distance in mind, it's impossible both happened.  Which was it?  Did he say they needed to meet him in Jerusalem or Galilee?  If one is true, the other is a lie.

How come history doesn't tell of the mass slaughter of babies by Herod?  Was John the Baptist outside of the region affected (perhaps so, I could argue this myself)?  Rome didn't send people to the towns of their fathers to register in a census, and could you imagine the chaotic mess it would be if that is how it was done?  It wasn't how it was done; you can look it up.  Also, it was a Judean census, so it would not have affected a Galilean.  And finally, the census was taken in 6 CE, when Qurinius was governor of Syria, whereas the other gospel account says it was during Herod the Great's reign, but he died in 4 B.C.  One of them is lying.  I've searched to try to see whether anyone can reconcile it, and no one can satisfactorily do so.

If there is a God, and if there is a judgement, will He judge us justly for using our reason and the evidence we have and by our hearts, by how we react to certain things (like the horrors in the old testament), or for having blind faith?

I know there are some who love using circular arguments, which pretty much states that the bible is true, because it says it's true, but I have never bought into that.  If there is nothing to test the bible's truthhood, then it would be wise to default to not believing it.  I've always made arguments with evidence outside of the bible to try to back the bible, and I've gotten a lot further with people that way than those who use circular reasoning who talked to the same people.  Circular reasoning is not reasoning at all.

No one should be afraid of searching.  If searching brings you fear, what is causing the fear?  It's not healthy.  Fear is not healthy.  We've got scientific evidence that it's not healthy for the mind, nor the body.  Fear is what evil beings use to control people.  Truth and love is what good beings use to free people.  Look around and observe it yourself.  Judge by the fruit you see.  Meditate on it.