I know you don't have much respect for the UN, but they issue a Human Development Index which shows according to their rubric which countries are highest on the human development scale. We do not come in Number 1. That honor goes to Norway, followed by Australia, Canada, Sweden, Belgium, then the US.
hdr.undp.org
Actual index is the first option, needs Acrobat Reader.They then explain how they develop the Index.
There are other statistics we might not want to be so proud of. For example, infant mortality. We have a relatively high rate for highly developed countries. Not only do countries such as France, Sweden, Switzerland, etc. have lower infant mortality than we do, but so, surprisingly to me, do Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Greece, not countries I would have associated with highly advanced health care systems. And a number of countries have higher life expectancies than we do.
infoplease.com
Not that any of this makes the US a bad country to live in. We aren't. But they do indicate that there are more social issues we should be addressing than perhaps are commonly accepted. |
