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U.S. Only 25th Best Place To Raise Family | Lez Get Real
Posted by: Linda Carbonell on May 9, 2012.
Were #1! Were #1! Favorite chant of the right wing, right? In their minds, the United States of America isnt just Ronald Reagans shining city on the hill, it is top of heap in every imaginable way in this world. That would be wonderful, if it were true. The idea that the United States is the best at everything is a myth perpetrated upon the faithful to keep them from questioning why we arent the best.
The United States ranks #1 in health care costs, but 37th in health care delivery. We rank 22nd in science education, 27th in math and 33rd in reading. We rank 17th for taxation as a percentage of GDP (which kind of puts the lie to us being #1 in taxation). Our personal income tax rate is ranked 22nd in the world, but our corporate tax rate is ranked 2nd. That does not reflect what our corporations actually pay, just what our rate is.
The latest blow to myth of being #1 is the Save the Children State of the Worlds Mothers Report. The United States is ranked 25th best place in the world to raise a family. The rankings are based on parental leave policies, preschool enrollment rates, breast feeding support, teen pregnancy rates, female education rates, maternal death rates, infant mortality rates, support systems for parents including safety nets like welfare and food subsidies, the whole panoply of ways that a nation or culture supports women and families.
Twenty-fifth, huh?
Who beat us on this critical listing of the manner in which nations care for their mothers and children? Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Slovenia, France, Portugal, Spain, Estonia, Switzerland, Canada, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, and Belarus. The top thirty were finished off by the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Croatia, and Japan.
The list is broken into three sections: most developed nations, less developed nations and least developed nations. The countries in the most developed nations list comprise the top 43 ranked nations on all criteria and are almost entirely European and first-level British Empire nations, plus Japan. The middle designation is made up of 80 nations ranging in development from Israel to Zimbabwe. The bottom 42 are primarily African, marginal Asian nations like Cambodia, and war zones like Yemen and Afghanistan.
We can probably take solace from the fact that the United States rose from #31 in 2011 to #25 in 2012. Still, 25th? Thats one more way in which the United States has slipped over the past thirty years, since, oh, the shift in the Republican Party from the Northeast to the Deep South, since the rise of the conservative movement, since the beginning of the death slide of unions and the middle class ..
Posted by: Linda Carbonell on May 9, 2012.
Were #1! Were #1! Favorite chant of the right wing, right? In their minds, the United States of America isnt just Ronald Reagans shining city on the hill, it is top of heap in every imaginable way in this world. That would be wonderful, if it were true. The idea that the United States is the best at everything is a myth perpetrated upon the faithful to keep them from questioning why we arent the best.
The United States ranks #1 in health care costs, but 37th in health care delivery. We rank 22nd in science education, 27th in math and 33rd in reading. We rank 17th for taxation as a percentage of GDP (which kind of puts the lie to us being #1 in taxation). Our personal income tax rate is ranked 22nd in the world, but our corporate tax rate is ranked 2nd. That does not reflect what our corporations actually pay, just what our rate is.
The latest blow to myth of being #1 is the Save the Children State of the Worlds Mothers Report. The United States is ranked 25th best place in the world to raise a family. The rankings are based on parental leave policies, preschool enrollment rates, breast feeding support, teen pregnancy rates, female education rates, maternal death rates, infant mortality rates, support systems for parents including safety nets like welfare and food subsidies, the whole panoply of ways that a nation or culture supports women and families.
Twenty-fifth, huh?
Who beat us on this critical listing of the manner in which nations care for their mothers and children? Norway, Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Australia, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Slovenia, France, Portugal, Spain, Estonia, Switzerland, Canada, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, and Belarus. The top thirty were finished off by the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland, Croatia, and Japan.
The list is broken into three sections: most developed nations, less developed nations and least developed nations. The countries in the most developed nations list comprise the top 43 ranked nations on all criteria and are almost entirely European and first-level British Empire nations, plus Japan. The middle designation is made up of 80 nations ranging in development from Israel to Zimbabwe. The bottom 42 are primarily African, marginal Asian nations like Cambodia, and war zones like Yemen and Afghanistan.
We can probably take solace from the fact that the United States rose from #31 in 2011 to #25 in 2012. Still, 25th? Thats one more way in which the United States has slipped over the past thirty years, since, oh, the shift in the Republican Party from the Northeast to the Deep South, since the rise of the conservative movement, since the beginning of the death slide of unions and the middle class ..
