America By the Numbers

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Edan
According to the statistics I could find, the US has a literacy rate of 97%. I don't think it's nearly as serious a problem as the above suggests.

It depends on how you measure literacy. I've seen stats claiming that about 30% of Americans are functionally illiterate. I'm sure you could measure literacy on a scale, so that you could both be literate, but one could be more or less literate than the other.

[GePap]

I think the simple fact is that the distribution of wealth in the US is skewed more than in any other developed country- hence statistics that come from poverty, like infant mortality, are bound to be higher in the US, since we have both more millionaries and more people feeling huger than the Europeans.

[mrmitchell]

Divorce rates
Arkansas: 6.6 per 1,000 (2001)
Russia, the highest in Europe: 3.65 per 1,000 (1999)
England: 2.66 per 1,000 (1999)
France: 1.98 per 1,000 (1999)
Italy: 0.6 per 1,000 (2000)

Poverty rate
32% of AR children under age 18 live in poverty in addition to 18% of the regular 18-65 year old population.
The total German poverty rate is 13.5%.

Hunger
12.6% of Arkansas households have limited access to healthy, safe food. 4.6% of Arkansan households suffer from severe hunger or lack of access to food.
I couldn't even find a percentage for Europe.

Healthcare - Life Expectancy
White males in Arkansas have a life expectancy of 73 years (white females, 79 years.) Black males have a life expectancy of 66 years (black females, 74 years).
Ireland males altogether have a life expectancy of 75 years (females, 80).

Education
20% of Arkansas adults read below a sixth-grade reading level.
Germany has a literacy rate of 99%.

Obviously Arkansas blows away all those fancy pants Europeans.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Oerdin


By your logic I could claim 25% of Americans believe bananas are space aliens yet it must be true. That's about as likely as the bogus claim that 25% of Americans believe the sun rotates around the Earth.

Errr... sounds perfectly plausible in a country where many more people believe in creationism than in evolution...

[Whoha]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
USA! USA! USA!

now propose a solution.

[chequita guevara]

Stop starving the government and believing the market will solve all your problems. Even a mildly social-democratic government like Canada's would be an improvement over what we have.

[Whoha]

So throw more money at groups like the NEA?

[chequita guevara]

Better than throwing money at the military and police.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I guess you aren't much one for grading term papers.

put in the title of the article cited /= hyperlinks

[Pekka]

Whoha, the solution, partial one, is to make US more acrattive again for young prominent people that makes sure the braindomain STAYS in the US. It currently works, but will slowly decline. THis means, stop with the student visa hassles, stop with the visa hassles all together and change it how it used to be. I doubt many terrorists will be caught with these new 'improvements'.

And of course, do better PR and image campagning in the world. The cool US seems to be fading away slowly, when it is gripping itself in terrorism, threats, paranoia, fear and loathing . You know.. what about the cool stuff, that is still there, it's just not promoted anymore. Basically the government should stfu for a while with the fear mongering, and start with the cool mongering. You know... cool stuff. Stop saying freedom and libert 30934 times in a speech, it makes them look like they think every world citizen is somehow retarded so it must be said thousand times. Out with the new and in with the cool.

And I'm not saying it should be liberal leader, heck, continue with conservative ones, however start campagning the cool and the... just stop making the world look every day how this and that and fear and bombs and **** and crap. Even though it happens outside US mostly, the actual flying of crap, you know it's still not cool because the cool factor is gone. At least bring it to the side with it.

Don't believe I'm right? Fine, what ever, of course then again I'm just stating the obvious here. NOTE: I'm not suggesting any changes in actual plans or execution of them. Just marketing. And how the leadership behaves. They should take a vacation or something, so we can focus on the good things, which are there already, but under a blanket now.

[chequita guevara]

Pekka, immigration isn't gonna solve all our other problems. You just want to get in the U.S.

[Pekka]

che, hey, did I say in the first sentence that partial solution to a problem... well I did. It IS a problem, the new arrangement are a problem. Many people will just choose something else instead.

And how nice that you see behind my words some agendas, that actually isn't it. I would have no problems with student visas, plus I do study in here already, in a great school.

Underline the power of getting the top notch scientists etc to work in there and line up is stupid. That's partial reason why US dominates today. Give it away, who knows what happens but it's not something positive.

Basically I don't understand what you are even saying here. You disagree with me? I don't think you really disagree with me. Your racist ways just again thinks you know me and my motivation for all things and that it dictates my opinions. Well FYI I'm sometimes pragmatic too, just like today. And now I'll go eat something.

[Pekka]

underline = undermine

[chequita guevara]

Are you using racist to me, anything disagreeing with Pekka, or is there some assumption I want to keep immigrants out of my country? I'm for reasonably open borders (with safeguards to catch criminals and terrorists.

The big problem is that our public discourse for the last 25 years has been anti-government, antigovernment, antigovernment. The result has been dismantling even the meager protections from the market that we had. This means more ignorance, more sickness, more premature death, more unhappiness, so that a few more people can get richer. America needs social democracy if it wants a future as something other than a land of ignorance and poverty.

It 's funny. My people are choosing to go into their own dark age.

[Pekka]

You are racist because you are against me even though I would save your life if I had the power to do so. You have juvenile angst against me, prolly because you feel my superiority and you need to bash me. I won't be so arrogant to think that I know the exact reasons behind your anger, but then again there's nothing I can do to stop it, because it's your right and I won't be someone else. I am my own ethnicity, race and group. And you hate me because of my race, ethnicity and the group I belong to, thus you are a racist, because I have done nothing bad to you. Simple, and true. But I wish you well anyway, because that's the caliber of a man I am.