How Stupid ARE Americans?
The links to the sources of the facts and statistics quoted below listed further down.
# Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
# Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).
# “The International Adult Literacy Survey…found that Americans with less than nine years of education ’score worse than virtually all of the other countries’” (Jeremy Rifkin’s superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).
# Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!
# “The European Union leads the U.S. in…the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised” (The European Dream, p.70).
# “Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature” (The European Dream, p.70).
# Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).
# Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We’re not the place to be anymore.
# The World Health Organization “ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]…37th.” In the fairness of health care, we’re 54th. “The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world” (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.
# “The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens” (The European Dream, p.80). Excuse me, but since when is South Africa a “developed” country? Anyway, that’s the company we’re keeping.
# Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That’s six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
# “U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower” (The European Dream, p.81). Been to Mexico lately? Does it look “developed” to you? Yet it’s the only “developed” country to score lower in childhood poverty.
# Twelve million American families–more than 10 percent of all U.S. households–”continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves.” Families that “had members who actually went hungry at some point last year” numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).
# The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
# The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).
# “Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its workforce in the 1980s…. In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1 percent” (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.
# “Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies” (The European Dream, p.66). “In a recent survey of the world’s 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one were European” (The European Dream, p.69).
# “Fourteen of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European…. In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world’s leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European…. The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world’s top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies…are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top ten. Only four U.S. companies are on the list” (The European Dream, p.68).
# The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).
# U.S. employers eliminated 1 million jobs in 2004 (The Week, Jan. 14, 2005).
# Three million six hundred thousand Americans ran out of unemployment insurance last year; 1.8 million–one in five–unemployed workers are jobless for more than six months (NYT, Jan. 9, 2005).
# Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40 percent of our government debt. (That’s why we talk nice to them.) “By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom” (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.
# Sometime in the next 10 years Brazil will probably pass the U.S. as the world’s largest agricultural producer. Brazil is now the world’s largest exporter of chickens, orange juice, sugar, coffee, and tobacco. Last year, Brazil passed the U.S. as the world’s largest beef producer. (Hear that, you poor deluded cowboys?) As a result, while we bear record trade deficits, Brazil boasts a $30 billion trade surplus (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
# As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
# Bush: 62,027,582 votes. Kerry: 59,026,003 votes. Number of eligible voters who didn’t show up: 79,279,000 (NYT, Dec. 26, 2004). That’s more than a third. Way more. If more than a third of Iraqis don’t show for their election, no country in the world will think that election legitimate.
# One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).
# “Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined” (The European Dream, p.28).
# “Nearly one out of four Americans [believe] that using violence to get what they want is acceptable” (The European Dream, p.32).
# “Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available” (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).
# “The International Association of Chiefs of Police said that cuts by the [Bush] administration in federal aid to local police agencies have left the nation more vulnerable than ever” (USA Today, Nov. 17, 2004).
http://www.informatics-review.com/FAQ…
http://www.washtimes.com/national/200…
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harr…
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion…
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ne…
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/3/…
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/sci…
http://webspace.utexas.edu/cokerwr/ww…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/amer…
http://www.galluppoll.com/content/?ci…
July 29th, 2007 at 4:41 am
I just called KSL and KUTV and asked them if they knew that Michael Moore and Karl Rove have been subpoenaed…
No.
I then asked them if they knew that there were drunken astronauts flying space shuttles.
Yeah!
I then asked them if they knew that many years ago, prominent astronauts had fought hard for their right to override the computers on their spacecrafts in order to survive.
No.
I then asked them “if the astronauts are NOW being denied that right, does it make any difference if they’re drunk or not?”
What’s your point?
In my opinion, it’s not the American people that are dumb, it’s what they’re being fed by the corporate media, and that may include the polling statistics from PEW, ect…
July 29th, 2007 at 4:56 am
We are fighting a battle for truth over fiction, and it’s not the drugged out hippies that created this fucking mess even though they will be blamed.
The war pigs, who won’t even give medical marijuana to people who need it, (yes, it is a medicine), did this!
States rights, MY ASS!
May these SICK BASTARDS who continue to vote for fascism over humanity, ROT, for at least the seven decades they have condemned their foes to suffer, for their, “just because” policies and for-profit prisons!
July 29th, 2007 at 6:15 am
I do hope your final acceptance of American stupidity is the result of teaching children socially biased brainwashing, as opposed to competency in necessary standard academic disciplines. 30th place leads to all the other problems. Public education in its current dysfunctional form leads to more for profit prisons Larry.
The liberal position on education given the current results of what our kids know coming out of public school, is a joke. One that the whole world is laughing at.
Stop teaching kids what to do with their we wees and teach them to READ, WRITE, RECKON and THINK!
Even now the adults that might lead and help our kids are unable to let go of their own agendas, and give them the tools to think for themselves. It is bi-partisan.
Ever notice many cashiers can’t make change without the computer?
July 29th, 2007 at 6:25 am
And as for stupid Larry, I’m with Gumps Mom, “stupid is as stupid does” so consider no one stands up to bush, and dems have supported his war in every possible way, and consider that there is more than enough stupid to go around.
This hasn’t happened in a vacuum. It has occurred with dem compliance. Where is Carville when you need him?, probably got sick of guiding idiot moralizing democrats through the minefields of American politics. He was the dem rove, and a lot more funny.
I like “Snakehead”. His wife ‘aint bad either. Opposites attract? No they are both winners, as opposed to moralizing losers.
July 29th, 2007 at 6:30 am
The United States has lost 1.3 million jobs to China in the last decade (CNN, Jan. 12, 2005).
Cliff didn’t you used to promote this? Wasn’t Friedman your hero back in ‘95 and his silly book about globalization your “bible” around that time?,
July 29th, 2007 at 6:54 am
..and finally, amidst all the statistics you posted up there, is there any reason you didn’t make America alert to the fact that our children(students) rank in 30th @#$%^&* place in international competency testing?
Have to leave that out, due to the politically agenda based concept of public schooling over vouchers for private school, or tax credits for home schooling?
How are we going to brainwash them if they can think for themselves? Once you allow free choice in education, you can claim the mantle of “progressive”
July 29th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
I need to believe that we’re not actually as stupid as the polls and tests say. I don’t think that’s a total stretch when you consider the fact that television goes out of it’s way to show dumb, even FAKE dumb people all the time.
I see no reason why a show like the Jerry Springer should have ever been on the air, let alone for decades. These people don’t exist, they are actors, but most people don’t know that. I never watch the show for more then a couple of seconds, but I know a scam when I see it. I know it makes me sound paranoid, but I have to wonder if this shows purpose is to make people think there are liberal low lives everywhere. Springer isn’t really a liberal. Liberals are concerned about things other then sex and drugs.
Dr. Phil and his pop psychology drama doesn’t help either. I think those are real people on the show, but I guess they are there because of some intervention of the law and were given a choice between going on the show, or something monetarily crippling or possibly jail. It’s obvious that all the myriad television court shows are populated by people who want somebody else to pay for their court judgement.
I guess we love to watch other people in worse situations then ourselves. I think that’s what made Ann Landers so popular. Television seems to only care about looking at car wrecks as opposed to educating it’s populace with entertaining and informative political civics lessons. What a waste!
July 30th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
We may have intelligence, but once you think you are the best, and don’t strive for more, and just accept that you are, then you aren’t. It is what Americans believe that make them stupid, not their IQ.
For example, many Americans believe that our form democracy is superior to a parliament when it might not be true. It is doubtful that in a parliament bush would have survived, the votes of non confidence would have had him out on his ass years ago. In the worst case, in parliament, the dems would have the majority, and bush as the minority “PM” would simply have to stand down, or have an election on him to continue. On the other hand many Americans don’t know what a parliamentary system is, or how it works…soooo, back to the stupid premise.
TV works hand in hand with the elite to keep Americans ignorant. Treat ‘em like mushrooms, keep ‘em in the dark, and feed ‘em shit.
Springer is the equivalent of “social pro wrestling”.
July 30th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Springer is the equivalent of “social pro wrestlingâ€
Exactly glenn.
I don’t know beans about the parliamentary system, and it may actually work better then ours in this day and age, but never forget that the Republicans stole the 2000 election, which means Bush NEVER WAS
July 30th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Springer is the equivalent of “social pro wrestlingâ€
Exactly glenn.
I don’t know beans about the parliamentary system, and it may actually work better then ours in this day and age, but never forget that the Republicans stole the 2000 election, which means Bush NEVER WAS president and still isn’t.
July 30th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
DAMN the preemptive enter button! And thank god for the spell checker for telling me how to spell preemptive.
July 30th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
You know?
I’m having second thoughts about Bush.
He has given the “Republicans” more then enough chances to openly reject him.
Prove me wrong in a court of law in the 21st century in America. (yeah, right!)
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:18 am
Well this article takes the cake for proving how stupid Americans actually are. There is no escape, stupid is, as stupid does…on the level of selling ice to eskimos.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/01/1435240
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:39 am
We lead both China and Russia in the total number of people we have behind bars as well. We are busted in so many ways…
August 2nd, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Further about the US prison population. The source is the Home Office of the Brits.
Compared with other countries, the United States has among the highest incarceration rates in the world. More people are behind bars in the United States than any other country, according to available official figures. As of 2006, a record 7 million people were behind bars, on probation or on parole. Of the total, 2.2 million were incarcerated. China ranks second with a reported 1.5 million followed by Russia with 870,000. Note however that China’s true prison population has been speculated to be considerable higher by activists such as Harry Wu. The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s incarcerated population.[2]
August 3rd, 2007 at 12:33 am
In the 60’s we had a space race.
Now, it seems, we have a prison race.
Let’s put all of the people responsible for this in prison and turn the rest into big dance halls.