I love America but....

I love America. As one journalist asked what other country could topple a foreign government lead by a man named Hussein one year and elect a president for their own country with Hussein as a middle name only a few years later? This is the land of opportunity! As President Obama once noted, “I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible.”

However, were in trouble but not for reasons you might think. I recently read a book called “The Post-American World” by Indian-American Fareed Zakaria. He contends we are currently in a post-American world but not because of anything the USA did wrong, but what we did right. After centuries of pressuring the world to accept capitalism many countries have now caught up to and are surpassing us in countless areas.

Zakaria noted that the “world's tallest building is in Taipei, and will soon be in Dubai. Its largest publicly traded company is in Beijing. Its biggest refinery is being constructed in India. Its largest passenger airplane is built in Europe. The largest investment fund on the planet is in Abu Dhabi; the biggest movie industry is Bollywood, not Hollywood. Once quintessentially American icons have been usurped by the natives. The largest Ferris wheel is in Singapore. The largest casino is in Macao, which overtook Las Vegas in gambling revenues last year. America no longer dominates even its favorite sport, shopping. The Mall of America in Minnesota once boasted that it was the largest shopping mall in the world. Today it wouldn't make the top ten. In the most recent rankings, only two of the world's ten richest people are American. These lists are arbitrary and a bit silly, but consider that only ten years ago, the United States would have serenely topped almost every one of these categories.”

Let’s face it folks, were falling behind and it is beginning to hurt. For example, I love it when people defend our health care system but are completely oblivious to the fact that almost 20% of our population would not be treated even if they had a terminal illness. So, how do we compare to other nations in some important areas? Let’s take a look:

Average Life Expectancy

1. Macau 84.3

2. Andorra 82.7

3. Japan 82.1

4. Singapore 81.9

5. San Marino 81.8

6. Hong Kong 81.7

7. Gibraltar 80.1

8. Sweden 80.6

9. Australia 80.5

10. Switzerland 80.5

Well that’s funny, I thought the awesome health care in the USA would give us a few more years of life than most. Where did we rank?

43. Bermuda 78.1

44. St. Helena 78.09

45. USA 78.06

46. Cyprus 78.0

47. Denmark 77.9

How about something that really matters, the infant mortality rate. If our health care is as fantastic as most Americans think then we should be doing pretty well in this area, right? Let’s see:

Lowest Infant Mortality Per Thousand Births

1. Singapore 2.3

2. Sweden 2.8

3. Japan 2.8

4. Hong Kong 2.9

5. Iceland 3.3

6. France 3.4

7. Finland 3.5

8. Anguilla 3.5

9. Norway 3.6

10. Malta 3.8

As you can see our incredibly expensive health care system can’t even get us in the top ten lowest infant mortality rates. Where do we fall in this very important category?

40. Cuba 5.9

41. South Korea 5.9

42. USA 6.3

43. Faroe Islands 6.4

44. Croatia 6.5

Almost three times the number of infants die in the US than the nations at the top of the list or in other words 41 countries can keep their newborn babies alive better than we can. So, what about the overall picture, the standard of living that looks at socioeconomic, healthcare, and educational factors. We fared better here taking #15 but we were the only country in the top twenty that is currently falling; in fact, we have fallen every year for the past few years. Who’s on top?

Standard of Living Index

1. Iceland

2. Norway

3. Canada

4. Australia

5. Ireland

6. Netherlands

7. Sweden

8. Japan

9. Luxembourg

10. Switzerland

11. France

12. Finland

13. Denmark

14. Austria

15. USA

16. Spain

So, what do you think? Ready to give up on America or start paying more attention to these important subjects? Let’s face it; these problems are not going away? Don’t get me wrong, I love America. Here is a picture of me after I was awarded an Army Commendation Medal at the end of my service in 2005, and last year I was commissioned as a 2^nd Lieutenant Chaplain’s Candidate in the US Army Chaplain’s Corp and I am very proud of my service to my country. But something has got to change and soon! Maybe I’m just worried about Henry’s future. Well, I wish I could say I was overreacting on this one but I’m not. What do you think? What needs to change first?