All Americans, read this right now

[SicN Twisted]

I figure I'd post a more comprehensive collection of the same statistics I posted in my argument with Betty. Any American that believes that our system of small government and social conservatism works, you just gotta read this.

INCOME INEQUALITY
As mentioned earlier, America has the greatest inequality of income and wealth in the industrialized world:

Inequality of income (0 = most equal society, 100 = the least equal):

United States 99
Canada 83
Netherlands 82
Switzerland 79
United Kingdom 78
Germany 66
Norway 60
Sweden 60

Average CEO's pay as a multiple of an average
worker's pay:

United States 17.5 (More)
United Kingdom 12.4
Japan 11.6
Canada 9.6
France 8.9
Germany 6.5

Percent of Union Membership in Workforce:

Sweden 85.3%
United Kingdom 41.5
Canada 34.6
Germany 33.8
Japan 26.8
Netherlands 25.0
United States 16.4

Size of Middle Class (More):

Japan 90.0%
Sweden 79.0
Norway 73.4
Germany 70.1
Switzerland 67.2
Netherlands 62.5
Canada 58.5
United Kingdom 58.5
United States 53.7

Poverty level (More):

United States 17.1%
Canada 12.6
United Kingdom 9.7
Switzerland 8.5
Germany 5.6
Sweden 5.3
Norway 5.2

Children under the poverty level:

United States 22.4%
Canada 15.5
United Kingdom 9.3
Switzerland 7.8
Sweden 5.0
Germany 4.9
Norway 4.8

Deaths from malnutrition (per million):

Men Women
United States 7 13
France 4 9
Canada 5 7
Japan 2 1
United Kingdom 1 2
Norway 0 1


HEALTH CARE

Health Care Expenditures (percent of GDP)4

United States 13.4%
Canada 10.0
Finland 9.1
Sweden 8.6
Germany 8.4
Netherlands 8.4
Norway 7.6
Japan 6.8
United Kingdom 6.6
Denmark 6.5



Life Expectancy (years):

Men Women
Japan 76.2 82.5
France 72.9 81.3
Switzerland 74.1 81.3
Netherlands 73.7 80.5
Sweden 74.2 80.4
Canada 73.4 80.3
Norway 73.1 79.7
Germany 72.6 79.2
Finland 70.7 78.8
United States 71.6 78.6
United Kingdom 72.7 78.2
Denmark 72.2 77.9

Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births):

United States 10.4
United Kingdom 9.4
Germany 8.5
Denmark 8.1
Canada 7.9
Norway 7.9
Netherlands 7.8
Switzerland 6.8
Finland 5.9
Sweden 5.9
Japan 5.0


Death rate of 15-to-24 year olds (per community of 200,000 per year):

United States 203
Switzerland 175
Canada 161
France 156
Finland 154
Norway 128
Germany 122
Denmark 120
United Kingdom 114
Sweden 109
Japan 96
Netherlands 90
Note: the murder rate for the above age group is 48.8 per 200,000. Even subtracting this entirely still puts the U.S. near the top of the list.

Premature Death (years of life lost before the age of 64 per 100 people):

United States 5.8 years
Denmark 4.9
Finland 4.8
Canada 4.5
Germany 4.5
United Kingdom 4.4
Norway 4.3
Switzerland 4.1
Netherlands 4.0
Sweden 3.8
Japan 3.3

Percent of people who believe their health care system needs fundamental change (More):

United States 60%
Sweden 58
United Kingdom 52
Japan 47
Netherlands 46
France 42
Canada 38

SEX


Teen pregnancies per 1,000 teenagers:

United States 98.0
United Kingdom 46.6
Norway 40.2
Canada 38.6
Finland 32.1
Sweden 28.3
Denmark 27.9
Netherlands 12.1
Japan 10.5


CRIME


Annual reports of police brutality (per 100,000 people)

United States 92.5
United Kingdom 6.0
France 0.7

Prisoners (per 1,000 people):

United States 4.2
United Kingdom 1.0
Germany 0.8
Denmark 0.7
Sweden 0.6
Japan 0.4
Netherlands 0.4

Death row inmates:

United States 2,124
Japan 38
Europe and Canada 0

Percent of households with a handgun:

United States 29%
Finland 7
Germany 7
Canada 5
Norway 4
Europe 4
Netherlands 2
United Kingdom 1
Looking at the above statistics, one would think that Europe is soft on crime, while the U.S. approach to law and order is based on no-nonsense deterrence. In reality, Europe is relatively crime-free, and the U.S. has the worst crime rate in the world:

Murders committed with handguns annually:

United States 8,915
Switzerland 53
Sweden 19
Canada 8
United Kingdom 7

Murder rate (per 100,000 people):

United States 8.40
Canada 5.45
Denmark 5.17
Germany 4.20
Norway 1.99
United Kingdom 1.97
Sweden 1.73
Japan 1.20
Finland 0.70

Murder rate for males age 15-24 (per 100,000 people):

United States 24.4
Canada 2.6
Sweden 2.3
Norway 2.3
Finland 2.3
Denmark 2.2
United Kingdom 2.0
Netherlands 1.2
Germany 0.9
Japan 0.5

Rape (per 100,000 people):

United States 37.20
Sweden 15.70
Denmark 11.23
Germany 8.60
Norway 7.87
United Kingdom 7.26
Finland 7.20
Japan 1.40

Armed robbery (per 100,000 people)

United States 221
Canada 94
United Kingdom 63
Sweden 49
Germany 47
Denmark 44
Finland 38
Norway 22
Japan 1

POLLUTION

Travel on public transportation as a percent of all travel:



Average price of a gallon of gas:

Sweden $4.85
Denmark 4.46
United Kingdom 3.56
Germany 3.05
Netherlands 3.02
Japan 3.01
Canada 1.40
United States 1.07

Energy Units of oil burned annually:

United States 791.5
European Community 501.4
Japan 234.3
Germany 108.5
United Kingdom 81.3
Canada 80.4
Netherlands 24.1
Sweden 16.3
Finland 11.1
Norway 9.3
Denmark 9.0

Carbon dioxide released per person per year:

United States 5.8 tons
Canada 4.8
Germany 3.2
United Kingdom 2.9
Japan 2.2
OECD Europe 1.8

Total Carbon Monoxide emitted annually:

United States 60,900 tons
Canada 10,100
Germany 8,926
France 6,198
United Kingdom 5,264
Sweden 1,754
Netherlands 1,229
Norway 649
Switzerland 621


Forests cleared (thousands of cubic yards):

United States 808,421
Canada 379,500
France 95,964
Sweden 84,612
Finland 72,864
Japan 57,272
Norway 14,810
United Kingdom 6,600


Debris inhaled per person per year:

United States 81 pounds
Finland 44
Sweden 44
Europe 26
Netherlands 24
Germany 24
Denmark 20
Norway 15
United Kingdom 11
Japan 2

Government spending on pollution control (percent of GDP):

Japan 1.17%
Netherlands 0.95
Canada 0.89
Germany 0.78
Sweden 0.66
United Kingdom 0.62
United States 0.60
Norway 0.54
Finland 0.52

Municipal waste per person per year (kilograms)5

United States 864 kg.
Canada 632
Japan 394
United Kingdom 353
Germany 331
France 304
Italy 301


WORK AND LEISURE TIME
Note the position of economic powerhouse Germany in the next two lists.

Average hours worked per year:

Japan 2,173
United States 1,890
Sweden 1,808
United Kingdom 1,771
Netherlands 1,756
Finland 1,744
Norway 1,725
Denmark 1,699
Germany 1,668

Average paid vacation per year:

Finland 35.0 days
Germany 30.0
France 25.5
Denmark 25.0
Sweden 25.0
United Kingdom 25.0
Netherlands 24.0
Switzerland 22.0
Norway 21.0
United States 12.0



DEMOCRACY
The U.S. may be the oldest existing democracy in the world, but it is also the weakest, and one of the only democracies where voting is not required by law. It shows:


Average number of national referenda per year:

Switzerland 169
Australia 18
Denmark 11
France 10
Ireland 8
Italy 4
Sweden 3
Norway 1
United Kingdom 1
Canada 0
Finland 0
Germany 0
Japan 0
Netherlands 0
United States 0

The United Nations Human Freedom Index (0 = least freedom, 40 = most freedom. More.):

Sweden 38
Denmark 38
Netherlands 37
Austria 36
Finland 36
France 35
Germany 35
Canada 34
Switzerland 34
Australia 33
United States 33
Japan 32
United Kingdom 32

I took out some less important statistics cause of the character limitation. But I hope you all get the general idea.

[BREAK]

Why doesn't Betty move to America if she loves it so much?

(Ha ha - get it? You see, Betty is Canadian, and she doesn't espouse most liberal views. Therefore, I'm putting an ironic "twist" on the oft-repeated mantra of American right-wingers: "Why don't you leave America if you hate it so much?" So you see, it's not actually an insult directed towards her at all, but a satirical swipe at the assholes who make such ridiculous statements as those! I love having to explain myself to make sure nobody gets offended.)

[Betty]

Like me, who is easily offended??? (Hence also a slight swipe at the easily offended... or maybe I'm reading too much into this by being offended? Oh boy...)

But no, I've said I would have no qualms with moving to the US, or else I'd be a hypocrite. Probably will end up doing that someday... I'd enjoy the warmer climate. And I'll probably be able to find a better job. I hear Australia is beautiful too though.

[lousyskater]

wow america sucks. i was expecting america to top most of the negative lists though.

[HornyPope]

Dude stats are gay.

[RXP]

Stats can be used to show anything. For serious.

e.g. just watch a hockey game for an example of how ESPN over analyses shit. And we all know hockey is a euphamism for life.

[Moose]

so wait how many of you live in america?

i do

So how many of u hate america that live in it?

How many of u hate it that dont live in it?

how many of you believe its the best country in the world?

How many of you believe its the best country in the world but have a love/hate relationship with it?

i believe its the best country in the world, but with obvious flaws we need to fix. but its still the best country in the world to me. and i dont have a problem with betty shes cool, and i think she takes each issue on in a different way, it doesnt matter whether its a liberal or conservative view, she doesnt want to constrict herself to that bullshit.

[hereforone]

hmmm, I'm glad everyone takes these stat's for the ultimate truth.

I didn't know there was a resident expert on everything that goes on in the world. I find it surprising that someone who comes to these forums had the time, inclination and ability to traverse the globe collecting stats....

A reference to some sort of web site or othere source would help the credibility of the post.

[wheelchairman]

As mentioned in the beginning, this was posted in another thread, and it had the link.

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/8Comparison.htm

There you go.

[sKratch]

I don't quite understand some of those percentages... like what are they percents of? And I believe the high infant mortality rate is due to birth at older age.