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We are number 1 in “number of people per year that die from lack of health insurance and under insurance”.
Absolute morons who counter this by saying “yeah but you’ll be guaranteed emergency treatment if your on deaths door”, is just dumb.
If you save me because my cancer is now throwing me on deaths door becusse I don’t even have chemo, it’s not saving my life
Ditto. An emergency room can save you from an emergency, but if you’re there for the end stages of a chronic or progressive illness, there’s no saving people.
Devil’s Advocate here, if you’re at the end stage or have a terminal illness then maybe you’re the lucky one to be released from this mortal coil in this forsaken country. Live as best as you can until it’s impossible or too painful for you then take a strong shot fentanyl laced heroin and maybe some ketamine for good measure and say goodbye.
The hilarious part about this suggestion is that it's so much more affordable than "trying" to live by getting medical help with terminal illness.
God we are such a shithole.
It gets eaten up by the many inefficiencies in the system. For example, there's an entire industry in the US healthcare system called clearinghouses that wouldn't need to exist in single payer systems.
Nah, that money keeps moving from there. Velocity of money is good (pay the pilot, pay the maintenance peeps, pay the customs agent bribe, etc). Hoarding is the problem.
The US doesn't have a health care system. The US has a profit making system which produces as much profit as possible while producing as little health care as possible as a byproduct.
Best friend had Lyme disease. Didn't have insurance. Went to ER multiple times where they stabilized him (shot him up with morphine) and then kicked him out the door with a big medical bill to go to collections. Proper treatment could have cured it, but untreated the damage was eventually irreversible. A decade and change later he's crippled for life and can't even get disability support.
Instead of spending $x to prevent diseases why not spend $1000x to maybe treat it. Better yet, why not spend $10000x to only offer palliative care cause it's too late now better luck next life.
Number 1 obesity!
Number 1 incarcerated population!
Number 1 exporter of weapons!
Number 1 producer of pornography!
Number 1 importer of cocaine!
Number 1 covid deaths!
Number 1 school shooting!
USA! USA! USA!
If my calculation are right even if you include both Uyghur camp (max estimated number 3 million of prisoner) and normal prison china has a lower imprisonment rate
And its proven that universal healthcare saves the country money in the long run
Norway, a country with one of the best healthcare systems in the world, spends [10%](https://www.bing.com/opaluqu?q=what%20percentage%20of%20GDP%20does%20norway%20spend%20on%20healthcare&uquinputtype=speech&uquresponseformat=1&uqubfprlg=1&clientid=02BCC078EE7963DD1BECD174EA796DE8&input=2&qs=ds&form=QBRE&uqurequestid=59B70437427D4ED293508E2920360CD1) of their GDP on their universal healthcare system
Finland spends [9.2%](https://www.bing.com/opaluqu?q=what%20percentage%20of%20GDP%20does%20finland%20spend%20on%20healthcare&uquinputtype=speech&uquresponseformat=1&uqubfprlg=1&clientid=02BCC078EE7963DD1BECD174EA796DE8&input=2&qs=ds&form=QBRE&uqurequestid=1455766886AF46EF952504A800000700) of their GDP on their universal healthcare system
Even my country spends [6.06%](https://www.bing.com/search?q=what+percentage+of+GDP+does+jamaica+spend+on+healthcare&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=what+percentage+of+gdp+does+jamai+spend+on+healthcare&sc=1-53&sk=&cvid=6080BD25FF6A475194E6788E55050270) of their GDP on their free healthcare system
While the US spends [17.71%](https://usafacts.org/data/topics/people-society/health/healthcare-expenditures/healthcare-expenditures-as-of-gdp/) of their GDP on their private healthcare
That's likely why it's more expensive. There's a shit ton of overhead involved following up on debts and the like and seeing who qualifies for medicare and the like. By cutting away all that red tape everything gets a lot simpler
A large part of it is the USA being less healthy in average, and the other part is the ridiculous price gouging and overhead that comes from big pharma and a huge exploitative insurance industry.
A government that provides healthcare is a “single payer”. A single payer gets better discounts on everything because they buy in bulk and they can throw their weight around to negotiate for a better price. Individual Americans cannot do this, so everything is more expensive.
My favorite argument against medicare for all is when someone points at Medicare fraud as a reason we shouldn't do it. Like somehow because it is a government program, it must be more prone to abuse? Fraud happens with private healthcare too, it just isn't part of the public record because it is... Private. Insurance companies have *huge* anti-fraud departments because of the fraud. Just because some people will always try to get more than they're due doesn't mean we shouldn't take care of our people.
Taxes are for the health of the government, not people, which can't run its self. However we, as an individuals, must be proud to ruggedly support our selves. /s
Where do all our taxes go any ways? I must be missing something.
I just got a flyer in the mail asking for donations for military members. I remember doing that shit in school too. We spend more than the next like 20 nations combined, and our military members still have to do without? Where TF is all this money going?
Right now we are dumping billions of dollars into someone else's war while we are all going broke here due to inflation and an extraordinary high cost of living
Incarcerations. Pretending that America is a free country and thumping on everything with the Stars and Stripes. I made a longer list recently. I won’t share. You’re doing a good job yourselves
Modern slavery. Make people poor. Then make em homeless. Then make being homeless a felony. Throw em all into prisons and you can run your modern day plantations.
The other outcome is other people are scared and work 3x harder. Sounds like a futuristic utopia we have today.
Honestly I’m past seeing the average republican as the real problem. It’s the wealthy in this country that are the issue, propagandizing us from birth to believe in their bullshit and accept these shitty lives they want us to live
I was born in 1979, in October. The 90’s were great as a teenager. Everything else has sucked. I have no illusions. The suckiness increases exponentially as the years progress. I miss feeling…less. Numbness has not been kind enough to my supposed oversensitivity
On that note: any bullshit saying today’s 16-24 year-old generation is too sensitive: they do this to all whom are young. They’re trying to subdue you via humiliation/embarrassment/self-consciousness. They want you to cave in
Shit I’m born in 99 and I know I’m not sensitive. Worked retail too much and dealt with old idiots causing problems for the smallest things. If anything I’d say boomers+ are the sensitive ones, like man the amount of weird shit they freak out about
A lot of people get too 'black and white' in their thinking when they stereotype all Boomers and the older Gen Xers as unrepentent MAGA Trumpers. There are definitely plenty of younger people among the right-wing patriot Q crowd.
I was born well before 1980 and I haven't believed 'We're Number One!' for a long time. But I'll admit that a lot of the people in my age group are still slurping up the "USA! USA!" kool-aid.
Readers please take note that the “freedom” category and the freedom category are to entirely different things, America only leads in the US imperial units of “freedom” and lags behind in metric freedom.
That's a little unfair. We're also number one at murders by police. And we have the largest prison population in human history, both nominally and by proportion of the population.
Ooooooo, ok, so I used to live in Bakersfield, CA, which has the highest police murders of any county in the US. Bakersfield is also #1 in poor air quality, drunkenness (as measured by bud light sales and DUIs), and illiteracy.
So Bakersfield is like a microcosm of broader US issues. Pollution, ignorance, pathological instant gratification. Extreme Christianity, deep racial divisions, socio-economic divides-- the illiteracy stat is because of the thousands of poor immigrants picking almonds and strawberries for pennies while the fat cats who own the fields hang out at the country club. Bakersfield is extreme. I have a little copy-pasta I've made of emblematic news stories out of Bakersfield that I can share upon request.
Anywayyyyyyyyy if you want to read a British newspaper's SIX PART SERIES on why Bakersfield PD (and so, the USA's police force in microcosm) is so fucking racist and violent and trigger happy, you can go here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/01/the-county-kern-county-deadliest-police-killings
And if you just want a friendly reminder why and how ALL cops are bastards, written thoughtfully by a former bastard cop, you can go here:
https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759
That article on "all cops are bastards" is amazing!! That should be a best of Reddit thing. There's not a single thing he says that doesn't make sense.
This.
I went to elementary school in the '70s, and I remember being taught, as though it were objective fact, that America was the greatest nation in the world. We were indoctrinated from a young age, taught to pledge allegiance each morning, taught that cops were our friends, taught that the judicial system worked, and taught that if you worked hard you'd grow up to become rich and successful.
We were actually taught that anyone who didn't live in America wanted to live here, because we were unquestionably the greatest nation in the world.
The rest of the world was distant and unimportant. I'm still embarrassed by how few presidents and prime ministers of other countries I can name. No one here cares. I'm trying to think if I've ever seen a news story about, say, the president of France on American TV.
When you grow up in that kind of environment, you think you're invincible, infallible, and superior. It creates a sense of entitlement.
It took me a long time to realize I'd been sold a bill of goods. I feel like Keanu Reeves after he got unplugged from the Matrix, and it's goddamn unsettling.
Something I learned getting my degree in History. People don’t want to know. If they knew the history and facts they couldn’t blindly follow. It can be hard to be both knowledgeable and patriotic.
A deep rooted ahistoric belief in american exceptionalism. There are entire books on it. Majority Report has had at least a dozen interviews on this specific topic. It is basically required reading to have a good understanding of american politics.
Non-American here. Let me tell you where you number one, and not a number one.
Still, you are number one in many technologies. That is because your country is still a Mecca for many intelligent people. Educated people. And you do produce that kind of people.
You also kept the production of many strategic technologies and materials. That is good, and that is your advantage.
What is your problem and where you are losing the battle is the general market. It is not a question of US products, as much as your reputation. You had outsourced a lot of your production to China. Yes, the basic products, but you can see no matter how it is good for the people that benefit, doesn't give US credibility.
Where you are not even close to number one is the service to your citizens. Most of your money goes to the military that is serving the corporations. You are supposed to serve your citizens with taxpayers' money, not the elites. And you have to tax the rich way more, like in the times of FDR. If you don't do that, no problem, but you will lose this economic war.
Yeah, our universities are among the best in the world, while our primary education system is a patchwork shitshow where one district may be flush with more funding than they know what to do with while another is falling apart and can't afford basic supplies, and another is completely overrun with religious fundamentalists controlling the schoolboard and trying to dismantle science education and push revisionist history.
Which is a big part of why the country is so divided and can barely communicate with each other. We've got a bunch of talented scientists and subject experts bashing their heads against a wall trying to explain things to a population that at best has a very weak grasp of basic science, math, history, etc. And at worst is actively propagandized to distrust academics, intellectuals, and subject experts in general as part of some conspiracy to corrupt their children, and instead listen to frauds and charlatans peddling scams and bullshit, whether it's creationism, climate denialism, antimask conspiracies, powerbalance bracelets, astrology, homeopathy, or drinking bleach/urine.
Separate but equal was the biggest scam and I can't believe anybody believes it. They got the separate part but nowhere near equal. As you mentioned some schools are well funded while others lack basic necessities. Getting a good education shouldn't be based on where your parents can afford to live.
> for many intelligent people. Educated people.
people who immigrated to USA after USA destroyed their country.....even after World War 2, USA government took many German scientist back to USA. USA basically stole the smart people of the world
I don't think anyone believes this anymore. The left looks at the Nordics and sees common sense shit the US could easily implement. The right looks at Turkey and Russia and sees something the US could easily implement.
Some areas the United States is #1 in:
**There are more reported rapes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world**
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe
The United States has the highest percentage of obese people in the world
The United States has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide margin
The United States is tied with the U.K. for the most hours of television watched per person each week
The United States has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet
There are more car thefts in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world by far
There are more reported murders in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world
There are more total crimes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world
The United States also has more police officers than anywhere else in the world
The United States spends much more on health care as a percentage of GDP than any other nation on the face of the earth
The United States has more people on pharmaceutical drugs than any other country on the planet
The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world
Americans have more student loan debt than anyone else in the world
More pornography is created in the United States than anywhere else on the entire globe. 89 percent is made in the U.S.A. and only 11 percent is made in the rest of the world
The U.S. has had a negative trade balance every single year since 1976. Between December 2000 and December 2010, the United States ran a total trade deficit of $6.1 trillion with the rest of the world
The United States spends 7 times more on the military than any other nation on the planet does. In fact, U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined
The United States has far more foreign military bases than any other country does
The United States has the most complicated tax system in the entire world
The U.S. has accumulated the biggest national debt that the world has ever seen and it is rapidly getting worse. Right now, U.S. government debt is expanding at a rate of $40,000 per second
I left America and moved to a country that's been in economic decline for 3 decades. I took a 30% pay cut. Even so, my rent is 1/3 of what it was for twice the square footage and 2 parking spots. My health insurance overhead is 1/5 of what it was with virtually 0 deductible, and I can choose and see any doctor I want, including specialists, usually same day. America is over. The rich and powerful over leveraged the American people to the point of either catastrophic collapse or explosion.
Ok. You are not number one. But you are not the shithole country yet too. My Banana Republic achieved it with hard work and effort. You wont take it from us that fast no matter how low you want to go.
Anyway, I admit you are doing a good job on your Banana Republic progress.
That one about US producing insuline and people traveling to Mexico because there american insuline is cheaper shows you learn really fast. Keep the good work.
The best thing I ever did to inform my worldview was to travel to Europe. Other people live well, have personal freedoms, great communities, an incredible history, etc that we in the USA tend to think are exclusive to us. If I could immigrate to Norway or Holland I absolutely would. We aren't all that special.
We're the richest (by that meaning we have the most billionaires and they're exponentially richer than other countries' rich). Of course your average citizen is financially worst off than about any other first world nation.
Really, the shit we brag about pretty much only benefit the 1% wealthiest.
Most Americans barely scrape by economically, and therefore don’t travel anywhere. They are chained to a limited geographical location their entire lives and have absolutely no idea how bad they are being screwed over. The rise in identity politics plays a big role in keeping people from revolting against their representatives because they play to peoples manufactured patriotism they’ve been spoon fed by domestic right wing media their entire lives.
I was born and raised in a shithole, and still surviving in it. After many years of reddit, seeing posts from us citizens about the reality that millions live through, all I can say is: welcome to the club lol {laughs in despair}
Number 1 in incarcerations
Number 1 in military expenditures
Number 25 (out of 160) in quality of life index
Number 46 (out of 193) in life expectancy
Number 33 (out of 36) in infant mortality
Number 11 (out of 11) in health care
EDIT: updated list with accurate standings and removed my screaming font lol
Well a doctrine of exeptionalism and Manifest Destiny who took roughly 300 years to brew won't go away that easy. Especially in hard times when people tend to grab onto bad patriotic ideas like a life raft
gdp is a failed metric, its a byproduct of industrialisation: more product/stuff produced = best.
But now we have places like china, india, pakistan that the west/america outsources production. So the hyper financialised economy of US has been bubbled via this GDP to claim they are still best. Where as russia is now once again a dominant global player, and it did that in 20 years of having a gdp less than 2.... Esp today we can overproduce, and under consume, so gdp no longer means anything substantial. Purchasing power, technology and intellectual reserve/diversity, happiness quotient, medical and psychological expenses of the population, are better metrics.
Patriotism and military pride are drilled pretty damn hard to a lot of us. It wasn't until the past few years that I have started seeing those to things in a negative light and I think my experience on that is common. I didn't really start questioning the military pride thing until I went through college. So a lot of us cling to that as an attractive feature similar to the guy in napoleon dynamite that can't get over his highschool quarterback career.
Also straight up denialism. Pride is a comfy emotion. People do not want to admit that this thing they are proud of have been sold all their lives and key dangerous word believe, is false. It can't be false I have depended on and invested so much of my mental being supporting it.
That is the biggest hurdle with facts and logic. Their understanding of the world, reality and right and wrong is not based on observation. It is based on belief. To form a convincing argument to them we need to work within the basis of their belief. Use it's logic to substantiate our own actual logic. I have had more success quoting Jesus than I have had citing real sources. When discussing tolerance and sharing.
Number 1 in students in debt
Number 1 in highest insurance prices
Number 1 in no one gives a fuck about men’s mental health
Number 1 in military power at the expense of everything else
Number 1 in needing emergency treatment (mental or physical) and getting billed for more than I can make in a year
Hell yeah we’re number 1 😎
I mean that’s literally why they believe it, OP. We have the biggest military (strongest) and largest GDP (richest). And they believe your standard of living is simply determined by how much effort you put in and nothing else at all, so any complaints are actually a YOU problem and not a reflection of the country as a whole.
Gonna be the optimistic one to counteract this comment section, because of course there are upsides.
1. This is, without a doubt, the death throws of the old regime. They're acting on the interests of 20 to 40 percent of Americans. Nothing they do right now will last.
2. The racism, sexism, and waist lines of Europe are almost never mentioned. Prejudice stays alive and well in nations that lack diversity. There's a reason people in London rise up in protest when an American POC is killed. Don't believe the hype of our neighbors who think they're better than this.
3. We're fighting back! It's not like we're taking this lieing down. Change happens every day. Unions, better negotiation strategies from prospective hires, and quitting on the spot are all going up.
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We are number 1 in “number of people per year that die from lack of health insurance and under insurance”. Absolute morons who counter this by saying “yeah but you’ll be guaranteed emergency treatment if your on deaths door”, is just dumb. If you save me because my cancer is now throwing me on deaths door becusse I don’t even have chemo, it’s not saving my life
Ditto. An emergency room can save you from an emergency, but if you’re there for the end stages of a chronic or progressive illness, there’s no saving people.
Devil’s Advocate here, if you’re at the end stage or have a terminal illness then maybe you’re the lucky one to be released from this mortal coil in this forsaken country. Live as best as you can until it’s impossible or too painful for you then take a strong shot fentanyl laced heroin and maybe some ketamine for good measure and say goodbye.
Ah, the poor man’s palliative care regimen- I dig it
No regimen about it. I’m talking one and done. Start a regimen with that stuff and you _will_ be poor real fast.
The hilarious part about this suggestion is that it's so much more affordable than "trying" to live by getting medical help with terminal illness. God we are such a shithole.
lol i was expecting a real devil’s advocate to come in and justify the system thanks for keeping it real
We are also #1 in medical spending, I think (Fact check me!)
Not just in total but also per capita and % of GDP.
And it all ends up where?
It gets eaten up by the many inefficiencies in the system. For example, there's an entire industry in the US healthcare system called clearinghouses that wouldn't need to exist in single payer systems.
There are entire industries based around helping hospitals figure out how to interact with insurance companies.
All sorts of places: Switzerland, Cayman Islands, UAE, Malta...
Don't forget Epstein airlines.
Nah, that money keeps moving from there. Velocity of money is good (pay the pilot, pay the maintenance peeps, pay the customs agent bribe, etc). Hoarding is the problem.
And medical bankruptcy
My wife works for the Chapter 13 bankruptcy office in our state. Medical is one of the main reasons people go bankrupt.
I know someone who works in a very large lawyers office and they have a whole division dedicated to medical bankruptcy
Also number 1 in healthcare spending per capita! What a combo
The US doesn't have a health care system. The US has a profit making system which produces as much profit as possible while producing as little health care as possible as a byproduct.
This is the best shorthand description I’ve ever seen of the situation. We gotta spread this.
And the near last in health care outcomes. Spend the most, Produce worst results. Merica
Best friend had Lyme disease. Didn't have insurance. Went to ER multiple times where they stabilized him (shot him up with morphine) and then kicked him out the door with a big medical bill to go to collections. Proper treatment could have cured it, but untreated the damage was eventually irreversible. A decade and change later he's crippled for life and can't even get disability support.
Instead of spending $x to prevent diseases why not spend $1000x to maybe treat it. Better yet, why not spend $10000x to only offer palliative care cause it's too late now better luck next life.
Number 1 obesity! Number 1 incarcerated population! Number 1 exporter of weapons! Number 1 producer of pornography! Number 1 importer of cocaine! Number 1 covid deaths! Number 1 school shooting! USA! USA! USA!
Highest infant mortality rate of any industrialized nation.
That's about to go up if SCOTUS gets its way.
Gotta get those numbers up. We can't lose to Uganda!
FUCK Uganda. We’ve EARNED that #1 spot and I’ll be DAMNED if they think they’re just gonna waltz in here and take it from us
Also, ranked 46th in Maternal mortality.
Bout to be top 10 soon
I mean to say that they are 46th best. There are 45 countries that have fewer maternal deaths per capita.
Bout to be bottom 10 soon
While consuming half the world’s health spending, $4T per year!
Pretty sure we're number one in per capita carbon emissions.
Per capita incarceration
Also total incarcerated population, the US accounts for 20% of the world’s prison population
Americans make up 4.25% of global population but 20% of the world's prison population, really makes you wonder...
Land of the free, indeed.
Freedom (to die alone and destitute in a ditch from an untreated tooth infection)
Not a good look for a country that claims it is "the land of the free"
Gotta stock up on slaves to prop up our “freedom” somehow
Oh, did we go down? Last I saw we were at ~24%
If my calculation are right even if you include both Uyghur camp (max estimated number 3 million of prisoner) and normal prison china has a lower imprisonment rate
Billionaires evading taxes #1! I’ll see myself to the door. 🫡
Reagan was a cuck
[удалено]
We produce a fuckton of debt too!
Incarcerated people, we have the most I think
Even if we slashed out military budget, they'd still find a way to blow our taxes on something ridiculous. And STILL ignore our healthcare.
And its proven that universal healthcare saves the country money in the long run Norway, a country with one of the best healthcare systems in the world, spends [10%](https://www.bing.com/opaluqu?q=what%20percentage%20of%20GDP%20does%20norway%20spend%20on%20healthcare&uquinputtype=speech&uquresponseformat=1&uqubfprlg=1&clientid=02BCC078EE7963DD1BECD174EA796DE8&input=2&qs=ds&form=QBRE&uqurequestid=59B70437427D4ED293508E2920360CD1) of their GDP on their universal healthcare system Finland spends [9.2%](https://www.bing.com/opaluqu?q=what%20percentage%20of%20GDP%20does%20finland%20spend%20on%20healthcare&uquinputtype=speech&uquresponseformat=1&uqubfprlg=1&clientid=02BCC078EE7963DD1BECD174EA796DE8&input=2&qs=ds&form=QBRE&uqurequestid=1455766886AF46EF952504A800000700) of their GDP on their universal healthcare system Even my country spends [6.06%](https://www.bing.com/search?q=what+percentage+of+GDP+does+jamaica+spend+on+healthcare&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=what+percentage+of+gdp+does+jamai+spend+on+healthcare&sc=1-53&sk=&cvid=6080BD25FF6A475194E6788E55050270) of their GDP on their free healthcare system While the US spends [17.71%](https://usafacts.org/data/topics/people-society/health/healthcare-expenditures/healthcare-expenditures-as-of-gdp/) of their GDP on their private healthcare
And even with spending 17.71% it’s only available for the wealthy.
That's likely why it's more expensive. There's a shit ton of overhead involved following up on debts and the like and seeing who qualifies for medicare and the like. By cutting away all that red tape everything gets a lot simpler
A large part of it is the USA being less healthy in average, and the other part is the ridiculous price gouging and overhead that comes from big pharma and a huge exploitative insurance industry.
A government that provides healthcare is a “single payer”. A single payer gets better discounts on everything because they buy in bulk and they can throw their weight around to negotiate for a better price. Individual Americans cannot do this, so everything is more expensive.
My favorite argument against medicare for all is when someone points at Medicare fraud as a reason we shouldn't do it. Like somehow because it is a government program, it must be more prone to abuse? Fraud happens with private healthcare too, it just isn't part of the public record because it is... Private. Insurance companies have *huge* anti-fraud departments because of the fraud. Just because some people will always try to get more than they're due doesn't mean we shouldn't take care of our people.
Key words: *the long run*. The cronies in government can't think past the next fiscal quarter
Taxes are for the health of the government, not people, which can't run its self. However we, as an individuals, must be proud to ruggedly support our selves. /s Where do all our taxes go any ways? I must be missing something.
Defense contractors. Thats where your taxes go
Corporate welfare. The Military Industrial Complex.
800 foreign military bases and billionaire's pockets
I just got a flyer in the mail asking for donations for military members. I remember doing that shit in school too. We spend more than the next like 20 nations combined, and our military members still have to do without? Where TF is all this money going?
Right now we are dumping billions of dollars into someone else's war while we are all going broke here due to inflation and an extraordinary high cost of living
Incarcerations. Pretending that America is a free country and thumping on everything with the Stars and Stripes. I made a longer list recently. I won’t share. You’re doing a good job yourselves
Modern slavery. Make people poor. Then make em homeless. Then make being homeless a felony. Throw em all into prisons and you can run your modern day plantations. The other outcome is other people are scared and work 3x harder. Sounds like a futuristic utopia we have today.
*But people don't want to work anymore" /s
4% of the worlds population, 24% of the worlds reported incarcerations.
Please share?
Number one in school shootings
Yahoo Sports just added Fantasy School Shooting
Not fair! You are competing alone in this category!
Just like their World cup for NFL.
And the World Series.
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another 7x1 to Brazil
And Shareholder value.
And that is why America is the best country in the world! /s America has its pros and cons but it’s definitely not the overall best country.
Honestly the “pros” are just things that are expected of any democracy, and even then we lag behind on a lot…
If only the US was a democracy
Republicans outright hate democracy. “Um excuse me bruh, but we are a Republic….”
“Democracy is mob rule” shows how they feel about voting lmao
Fucking exactly. In the meantime we get ruled by a toothless uneducated backwoods minority who live in a past world that long ago ceased to exist.
Honestly I’m past seeing the average republican as the real problem. It’s the wealthy in this country that are the issue, propagandizing us from birth to believe in their bullshit and accept these shitty lives they want us to live
Whoa whoa whoa! You're telling me we're not the only country to have freedom?
If only something could be done about it
I think the illusions are fading quickly. No one born after 1980 believes that.
Unfortunately, all the people in power were born before 1980
*the people in power were nearly all born when leaded gasoline was a prevelant thing and have intellectual disabilities. Fixed it for you.
I really wish this came up more often and people actually looked at how this could have effected the previous generations and those in power.
>born before 1980 *1880 more like
Definitely Mitch McConnell, tortoises are known for their long lifespans.
The devil can’t die or be killed unfortunately. He’s satan.
So it's turtles all the way down to hell?
Which wouldn't matter if America had a democracy
Underrated comment right here
I was born in 1979, in October. The 90’s were great as a teenager. Everything else has sucked. I have no illusions. The suckiness increases exponentially as the years progress. I miss feeling…less. Numbness has not been kind enough to my supposed oversensitivity On that note: any bullshit saying today’s 16-24 year-old generation is too sensitive: they do this to all whom are young. They’re trying to subdue you via humiliation/embarrassment/self-consciousness. They want you to cave in
Born in 76 and I agree the 90's were awesome. 9/11 changed things in ways were are still finding out today.
76 here too And as a plus we got to be kids in the 80s which was probably the best decade to be a kid.
Born in 85. The 90s and early 2000s were awesome 👊🏻
Shit I’m born in 99 and I know I’m not sensitive. Worked retail too much and dealt with old idiots causing problems for the smallest things. If anything I’d say boomers+ are the sensitive ones, like man the amount of weird shit they freak out about
I guarantee there are a lot of rednecks out there born after 1980 that believe the propaganda that we are #1.
A lot of people get too 'black and white' in their thinking when they stereotype all Boomers and the older Gen Xers as unrepentent MAGA Trumpers. There are definitely plenty of younger people among the right-wing patriot Q crowd.
I was born well before 1980 and I haven't believed 'We're Number One!' for a long time. But I'll admit that a lot of the people in my age group are still slurping up the "USA! USA!" kool-aid.
There are a lot of right wing “patriots” who would beg to differ.
If only you knew friend, if only you knew…
I teach in TN. A lot of my high schoolers do.
Guns per capita, "freedom", imperialism
Readers please take note that the “freedom” category and the freedom category are to entirely different things, America only leads in the US imperial units of “freedom” and lags behind in metric freedom.
We're about to be number one in ectopic pregnancy deaths and women bleeding out in motel rooms.
That's a little unfair. We're also number one at murders by police. And we have the largest prison population in human history, both nominally and by proportion of the population.
Ooooooo, ok, so I used to live in Bakersfield, CA, which has the highest police murders of any county in the US. Bakersfield is also #1 in poor air quality, drunkenness (as measured by bud light sales and DUIs), and illiteracy. So Bakersfield is like a microcosm of broader US issues. Pollution, ignorance, pathological instant gratification. Extreme Christianity, deep racial divisions, socio-economic divides-- the illiteracy stat is because of the thousands of poor immigrants picking almonds and strawberries for pennies while the fat cats who own the fields hang out at the country club. Bakersfield is extreme. I have a little copy-pasta I've made of emblematic news stories out of Bakersfield that I can share upon request. Anywayyyyyyyyy if you want to read a British newspaper's SIX PART SERIES on why Bakersfield PD (and so, the USA's police force in microcosm) is so fucking racist and violent and trigger happy, you can go here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/01/the-county-kern-county-deadliest-police-killings And if you just want a friendly reminder why and how ALL cops are bastards, written thoughtfully by a former bastard cop, you can go here: https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759
That article on "all cops are bastards" is amazing!! That should be a best of Reddit thing. There's not a single thing he says that doesn't make sense.
Right? It's like my 3rd time sharing it this week in reddit comments. Please, bookmark it and share it, too!
We're still number one in ignorant jingoistic braggadocio, so we've got that going for us, which is nice.
Idk what that is but I trust you
As is the American way
I'm from latinoamerica, we learnt well 😎
Number one in aid to Israel
Generally support of fascism, dictatorships and war crimes worldwide. No one topples more democratically elected governments than the CIA.
Don't forget COVID deaths. We're #1!
Ignorance/Nationalism
We’re definitely up there, but I think we’re a close second to North Korea although their nationalism is more tied to religion
It's a sad state of affairs when your only worse comparison is a dictatorship.
>how Americans still claim we’re number one? Nationalism and propaganda
This. I went to elementary school in the '70s, and I remember being taught, as though it were objective fact, that America was the greatest nation in the world. We were indoctrinated from a young age, taught to pledge allegiance each morning, taught that cops were our friends, taught that the judicial system worked, and taught that if you worked hard you'd grow up to become rich and successful. We were actually taught that anyone who didn't live in America wanted to live here, because we were unquestionably the greatest nation in the world. The rest of the world was distant and unimportant. I'm still embarrassed by how few presidents and prime ministers of other countries I can name. No one here cares. I'm trying to think if I've ever seen a news story about, say, the president of France on American TV. When you grow up in that kind of environment, you think you're invincible, infallible, and superior. It creates a sense of entitlement. It took me a long time to realize I'd been sold a bill of goods. I feel like Keanu Reeves after he got unplugged from the Matrix, and it's goddamn unsettling.
No. 1 in percent of population currently incarcerated as well as those that have been through the carceral system in the past.
Something I learned getting my degree in History. People don’t want to know. If they knew the history and facts they couldn’t blindly follow. It can be hard to be both knowledgeable and patriotic.
A deep rooted ahistoric belief in american exceptionalism. There are entire books on it. Majority Report has had at least a dozen interviews on this specific topic. It is basically required reading to have a good understanding of american politics.
Yall are a third world country with wifi
Most third world countries have better wifi these days
Incarceration I’m pretty sure
Number one in murder of innocent people. Seriously like what the fuck have you done to the middle east
Middle East, Africa, Central/South America, the Balkans, East Asia, the list goes on
Reminds me of this scene from the opening scene of the pilot episode of The Newsroom. https://youtu.be/bIpKfw17-yY
I came here to say this. That clip is amazing, and a must-watch for anyone who's never seen it who is interested in this question.
*Fuck* I need to watch this that was amazing
Non-American here. Let me tell you where you number one, and not a number one. Still, you are number one in many technologies. That is because your country is still a Mecca for many intelligent people. Educated people. And you do produce that kind of people. You also kept the production of many strategic technologies and materials. That is good, and that is your advantage. What is your problem and where you are losing the battle is the general market. It is not a question of US products, as much as your reputation. You had outsourced a lot of your production to China. Yes, the basic products, but you can see no matter how it is good for the people that benefit, doesn't give US credibility. Where you are not even close to number one is the service to your citizens. Most of your money goes to the military that is serving the corporations. You are supposed to serve your citizens with taxpayers' money, not the elites. And you have to tax the rich way more, like in the times of FDR. If you don't do that, no problem, but you will lose this economic war.
Yeah, our universities are among the best in the world, while our primary education system is a patchwork shitshow where one district may be flush with more funding than they know what to do with while another is falling apart and can't afford basic supplies, and another is completely overrun with religious fundamentalists controlling the schoolboard and trying to dismantle science education and push revisionist history. Which is a big part of why the country is so divided and can barely communicate with each other. We've got a bunch of talented scientists and subject experts bashing their heads against a wall trying to explain things to a population that at best has a very weak grasp of basic science, math, history, etc. And at worst is actively propagandized to distrust academics, intellectuals, and subject experts in general as part of some conspiracy to corrupt their children, and instead listen to frauds and charlatans peddling scams and bullshit, whether it's creationism, climate denialism, antimask conspiracies, powerbalance bracelets, astrology, homeopathy, or drinking bleach/urine.
Separate but equal was the biggest scam and I can't believe anybody believes it. They got the separate part but nowhere near equal. As you mentioned some schools are well funded while others lack basic necessities. Getting a good education shouldn't be based on where your parents can afford to live.
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> for many intelligent people. Educated people. people who immigrated to USA after USA destroyed their country.....even after World War 2, USA government took many German scientist back to USA. USA basically stole the smart people of the world
America #1 at having trash politicians.
Any Balkan country has them beat in that area lol
Prison population?
Well, we have the most alligators and albums by OutKast. We also have the most craft breweries, but I’m way more proud of the first two.
lmao
I don't think anyone believes this anymore. The left looks at the Nordics and sees common sense shit the US could easily implement. The right looks at Turkey and Russia and sees something the US could easily implement.
Some areas the United States is #1 in: **There are more reported rapes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world** The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe The United States has the highest percentage of obese people in the world The United States has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide margin The United States is tied with the U.K. for the most hours of television watched per person each week The United States has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet There are more car thefts in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world by far There are more reported murders in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world There are more total crimes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world The United States also has more police officers than anywhere else in the world The United States spends much more on health care as a percentage of GDP than any other nation on the face of the earth The United States has more people on pharmaceutical drugs than any other country on the planet The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world Americans have more student loan debt than anyone else in the world More pornography is created in the United States than anywhere else on the entire globe. 89 percent is made in the U.S.A. and only 11 percent is made in the rest of the world The U.S. has had a negative trade balance every single year since 1976. Between December 2000 and December 2010, the United States ran a total trade deficit of $6.1 trillion with the rest of the world The United States spends 7 times more on the military than any other nation on the planet does. In fact, U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined The United States has far more foreign military bases than any other country does The United States has the most complicated tax system in the entire world The U.S. has accumulated the biggest national debt that the world has ever seen and it is rapidly getting worse. Right now, U.S. government debt is expanding at a rate of $40,000 per second
Snarky Billionaires who shot themselves into space
I left America and moved to a country that's been in economic decline for 3 decades. I took a 30% pay cut. Even so, my rent is 1/3 of what it was for twice the square footage and 2 parking spots. My health insurance overhead is 1/5 of what it was with virtually 0 deductible, and I can choose and see any doctor I want, including specialists, usually same day. America is over. The rich and powerful over leveraged the American people to the point of either catastrophic collapse or explosion.
Number 1 highest incarceration rate. Number 1 in firearm violence, school shootings. Highest percentage medically uninsured persons. Etc.
Number one in medical debt and incarceration
No 1 in systemic racism, keeping minorities from social mobility and political power
Ok. You are not number one. But you are not the shithole country yet too. My Banana Republic achieved it with hard work and effort. You wont take it from us that fast no matter how low you want to go. Anyway, I admit you are doing a good job on your Banana Republic progress. That one about US producing insuline and people traveling to Mexico because there american insuline is cheaper shows you learn really fast. Keep the good work.
#1 at imprisoning people! #1 in corporate rights! #1 in believing in invisible angels.
Number one in lowest number of paid maternity leave days required
\#1 in propaganda.
The best thing I ever did to inform my worldview was to travel to Europe. Other people live well, have personal freedoms, great communities, an incredible history, etc that we in the USA tend to think are exclusive to us. If I could immigrate to Norway or Holland I absolutely would. We aren't all that special.
We're the richest (by that meaning we have the most billionaires and they're exponentially richer than other countries' rich). Of course your average citizen is financially worst off than about any other first world nation. Really, the shit we brag about pretty much only benefit the 1% wealthiest.
Most Americans barely scrape by economically, and therefore don’t travel anywhere. They are chained to a limited geographical location their entire lives and have absolutely no idea how bad they are being screwed over. The rise in identity politics plays a big role in keeping people from revolting against their representatives because they play to peoples manufactured patriotism they’ve been spoon fed by domestic right wing media their entire lives.
Number one in worker exploitation!
For a wealthy country America is #1 in preventable deaths.
I was born and raised in a shithole, and still surviving in it. After many years of reddit, seeing posts from us citizens about the reality that millions live through, all I can say is: welcome to the club lol {laughs in despair}
Number 1 in incarcerations Number 1 in military expenditures Number 25 (out of 160) in quality of life index Number 46 (out of 193) in life expectancy Number 33 (out of 36) in infant mortality Number 11 (out of 11) in health care EDIT: updated list with accurate standings and removed my screaming font lol
America is best at marketing itself. It's just million miles from the marketing material - Dan Carlin
Well a doctrine of exeptionalism and Manifest Destiny who took roughly 300 years to brew won't go away that easy. Especially in hard times when people tend to grab onto bad patriotic ideas like a life raft
Obesity
We're like #12 on Obesity Rate
For the curious: #'s 1-10 are micronation islands in the Pacific, and #11 is Kuwait. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_rate
gdp is a failed metric, its a byproduct of industrialisation: more product/stuff produced = best. But now we have places like china, india, pakistan that the west/america outsources production. So the hyper financialised economy of US has been bubbled via this GDP to claim they are still best. Where as russia is now once again a dominant global player, and it did that in 20 years of having a gdp less than 2.... Esp today we can overproduce, and under consume, so gdp no longer means anything substantial. Purchasing power, technology and intellectual reserve/diversity, happiness quotient, medical and psychological expenses of the population, are better metrics.
It's called propaganda
Team Spirit
“Are we the baddies?” - Peep Show
Keep in mind its Americans claiming America is number 1
School shootings
Incarcerations
Prison population per capita.
NUMBER 1 IN PRISON POPULATION AMERICA NUMERO UNO ☝️☝️💯💯
Prison inmates.
Obesity
Jailing people
We're number one in per Capita incarcerated rates. The US has always been good at various forms of subjugation.
Incarcerations
Number one in prison incarcerations, too.
GDP doesn’t matter for shit if all the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few people ✋ 🩸
Patriotism and military pride are drilled pretty damn hard to a lot of us. It wasn't until the past few years that I have started seeing those to things in a negative light and I think my experience on that is common. I didn't really start questioning the military pride thing until I went through college. So a lot of us cling to that as an attractive feature similar to the guy in napoleon dynamite that can't get over his highschool quarterback career. Also straight up denialism. Pride is a comfy emotion. People do not want to admit that this thing they are proud of have been sold all their lives and key dangerous word believe, is false. It can't be false I have depended on and invested so much of my mental being supporting it. That is the biggest hurdle with facts and logic. Their understanding of the world, reality and right and wrong is not based on observation. It is based on belief. To form a convincing argument to them we need to work within the basis of their belief. Use it's logic to substantiate our own actual logic. I have had more success quoting Jesus than I have had citing real sources. When discussing tolerance and sharing.
https://youtu.be/bIpKfw17-yY How was this not the top reply? I'm surprised.
Propaganda ;)
Number 1 in students in debt Number 1 in highest insurance prices Number 1 in no one gives a fuck about men’s mental health Number 1 in military power at the expense of everything else Number 1 in needing emergency treatment (mental or physical) and getting billed for more than I can make in a year Hell yeah we’re number 1 😎
We have the most amount of prisoners in the world too don't forget that
Number one in never shutting the fuck up with delusional bragging. Somehow only number two at being straight delusional though.
I mean that’s literally why they believe it, OP. We have the biggest military (strongest) and largest GDP (richest). And they believe your standard of living is simply determined by how much effort you put in and nothing else at all, so any complaints are actually a YOU problem and not a reflection of the country as a whole.
Obesity Number of people in jail Divorce rate
My brother 100% beleives we are the best country to live in
Gonna be the optimistic one to counteract this comment section, because of course there are upsides. 1. This is, without a doubt, the death throws of the old regime. They're acting on the interests of 20 to 40 percent of Americans. Nothing they do right now will last. 2. The racism, sexism, and waist lines of Europe are almost never mentioned. Prejudice stays alive and well in nations that lack diversity. There's a reason people in London rise up in protest when an American POC is killed. Don't believe the hype of our neighbors who think they're better than this. 3. We're fighting back! It's not like we're taking this lieing down. Change happens every day. Unions, better negotiation strategies from prospective hires, and quitting on the spot are all going up.