NYT: We're No. 28! And Dropping!

[teach1st]

We’re No. 28! And Dropping!
New York Times, Opinion, by Nicholas Kristof, 9/9/2020

This should be a wake-up call: New data suggest that the United States is one of just a few countries worldwide that is slipping backward.

The newest Social Progress Index, shared with me before its official release Thursday morning, finds that out of 163 countries assessed worldwide, the United States, Brazil and Hungary are the only ones in which people are worse off than when the index began in 2011. And the declines in Brazil and Hungary were smaller than America’s.

“The data paint an alarming picture of the state of our nation, and we hope it will be a call to action,” Michael Porter, a Harvard Business School professor and the chair of the advisory panel for the Social Progress Index, told me. “It’s like we’re a developing country.”

The index, inspired by research of Nobel-winning economists, collects 50 metrics of well-being — nutrition, safety, freedom, the environment, health, education and more — to measure quality of life. Norway comes out on top in the 2020 edition, followed by Denmark, Finland and New Zealand. South Sudan is at the bottom, with Chad, Central African Republic and Eritrea just behind.

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Edited to add link to the United States scorecard at Social Progress: https://www.socialprogress.org/?tab=2&code=USA

[SamKnause]

1. An orange anus mouthed, lying buffoon has turned the U.S. into a shit hole country and he

was enabled, aided, and abetted by the Congress run by Mitch McConnell !!!

[RockCreek]

2. Shithole Country n/t

[Danascot]

3. Developing country?

If only. We're a devolving country and unless we pull out of the death spiral we're in we're fucked.

[NoMoreRepugs]

4. The Deplorable base believes things have NEVER been better

here in Trumplandia than they are now. NEVER underestimate the utter stupidity of some of your neighbors, friends and family.

[Loge23]

5. Americans have been snookered.

Of course, many Americans are gullible enough to have been snookered. The big lie that Republicans have told for decades is that taxes are bad. Taxes, when used effectively as illustrated in these rankings, provide education, health care, and infrastructure. The problem is, we're a failed capitalist society. We have been brainwashed into thinking that taxes somehow represent the government "stealing" your money. In a case of "if you tell the lie enough, it will become fact", this HAS become fact. American politicians use our tax dollars for their own piggy bank. Oh, they don't actually raid the Treasury per se, but they do manipulate the distribution of tax dollars through the corruption of our economic system. How else can anyone explain the fact that so many politicians go into office as middle class members, and come out as millionaires and billionaires?
But back to the gullible American voter. Politics have replaced religion as the drug of choice for many. No longer content to believe in the great white god, on a cloud, with a long flowing beard - they have supplanted this fantasy with con artists who have told them that they're the "chosen ones". Evangelicals don't give a tinker's cuss about Jesus, or God, or the Bible - those are props; what they're really into is justifying their fantasies through official power. In this way, they can avoid the messy task of applying logic and reason to their arguments and instead point to a mis-placed sense of patriotism and morality.
So yes, we're #28 now and sinking. The rest of the world knows this and has known this for some time now.
We go to the polls on November 3rd with the looming sense of dread that the nightmare will continue. Even if we do prevail, the significant portion of our country that has absolutely no ability to critically think will not disappear and may, in fact, grow.
Does anyone actually believe that you will see the vision of this country that most of us have long held come to be? Not in my lifetime, but hope is really all we have left at this point.
It was a good idea, America, but the execution was a disaster.

[appalachiablue]

6. On the way to Hellhole status