← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · xmetalhead
Thread ID: 17494 | Posts: 12 | Started: 2005-03-24
2005-03-24 13:58 | User Profile
[I]America morphs quickly into 'Merikkuh right before our eyes. Or, as they say on VNN 'welcome to the 'Kwa'.[/I]
[SIZE=3][B]America No. 1?[/B][/SIZE]
[B]America by the numbers[/B]
by Michael Ventura [url]http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8191.htm[/url]
02/03/05 "ICH" - - No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:
* The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
"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).
Women are 70 percent more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (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).
Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).
"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).
No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close.
The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.
Reprinted from the Austin Chronicle. [url]www.citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp[/url]
2005-03-24 14:14 | User Profile
I wonder how all those figures look if you take blacks and browns out of the equation.
In other words, how do white Americans stack up against white Europeans?
I suspect that a lot of the discrepancy relates directly to black and brown failure.
I also think that we don't have the social welfare system that Europeans have because whites (rightly) don't want to subsidize black and brown failure, and so we choose to leave things like medical insurance in private hands. The tax cutting rhetoric of the GOP was carefully designed marketing aimed at white voters. Congressman Rangel said something to the effect that they used to wear sheets and burn crosses, now they just cut your funding. And he's right. The "cut federal spending" movement was always motivated by white racial defense. It's why Bush I lost in 1992 - the GOP was invested in keeping taxes on the white middle class low, and when Bush I broke his "read my lips" pledge fewer whites turned out.
As Europe browns we'll see the reverse process: white Europeans will move to cut taxes and rein in spending. They'll suddenly "discover" Adam Smith!
It's really all so transparent.
Anyway, I suspect that if one actually did that analysis white Americans would compare favorably to other whites and indeed with Asians, in terms of education, medical care, and general living standards. Maybe we'd be on the low side of the European and Japanese average, but we wouldn't be #54 in anything, that's for sure.
Not that anybody's actually going to publish such a report.
2005-03-24 14:20 | User Profile
Walter, you are absolutely right. When figures like these are published to show the abysmal state of "amerikan" failure, they are never broken down by race. Gosh, I wonder why not! Could it be that the numbers would show something we're not supposed to know?
2005-03-24 14:32 | User Profile
Excellent point, Walter. I'd even go further to say that if you look at the governmental officials, elected or otherwise, in Europe and Asia, you'd find... voila! Europeans and Asians running the show! For instance, there's not one non-White in the French Senate and only a few women. In Japan's parliament, I would think that, well, they're all Japanese!!
In the 'kwa, disproportionate representation is all over the place in local, state and federal levels. With that crooked policy in place, the minority rules the majority and America descends further and further down the path to Third World status.
2005-03-24 15:01 | User Profile
[QUOTE]"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"[/QUOTE] The European Union also has more people, and that could be the response to many items on this list. I remember last summer some Europeans tried a similar schtick with a line that "The EU won more Olympic medals than the USA". Well, a large group of countries which sent more total athletes won more medals than one individual country, and they consider that more impressive.
[QUOTE]I wonder how all those figures look if you take blacks and browns out of the equation.[/QUOTE] I was thinking the same thing myself, about how the stats would look if non-whites were de-aggregated from the total. In that case, American crime rates are comparable to that of Europe, and are even sometimes better than individual states. There was a recent study about obesity which concluded that some of Europe had higher rates for certain demographics. There have also been studies suggesting that the much hyped American ignorance of geography is not significantly higher than a number of European countries.
There is really not even one non-white in the French Senate? If there isn't, this is probably because they aren't directly elected, so it is not exactly an indication of the rejection of non-white legislators on the part of the French voter. What about French Guiana? That is an integral part of the French Republic, as some might know, in other words, it is considered the equal of any other department of France . French Guiana and other overseas departments even send representitives to the European parliament, in addition to all the legislative branches of the French government. Are there any non-whites in the rest of the French Parliament? I would be very surprised if there aren't.
2005-03-24 21:20 | User Profile
Walter, I'd bet the trade deficit you're right.
There needs to be a study commissioned on the failure of the multiracial economy. How many billions do we spend in the U.S. on criminal law enforcement and incarceration, too-high insurance, too-high (and wasted) taxes, lawsuits springing from black and brown shenanigans, money for "special education," money for unneeded regulation, education for the ineducable, higher product prices because of black and brown unproductiveness on the job, etc. Outside my office there was a van from a graffiti removal company. It had a 1-800 number. Great, I thought. There's a business opportunity for the new economy. Only, it's nothing that adds to the value of our lives, because we wouldn't need it in the first place without you-know-how. Or think of how huge the private prison industry is.
The multiracial society is a failure in general, but I think it's an economic failure, as well. Without the common purpose that comes from racial cohesion, you have everyone going in many different directions, all bumping into each other and trying to rip each other off. The cost of free riders is extremely high, and who wouldn't want a free ride from "the man" when you've been told all your minority life that you deserve it? Also, think of the steeply higher transaction costs of the multiracial society. The friction of the multiracial society creates lots of them. I think this has been mentioned on Vdare, via a study. In other words, it's harder to do business if you don't have a certain level of trust in your business transactees. Extra costs are flooded in, like background checking, lawyers, more complex contracts to govern breakdowns, expensive insurance, and so on.
2005-03-24 21:57 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Hugh Lincoln]The multiracial society is a failure in general, but I think it's an economic failure, as well. Without the common purpose that comes from racial cohesion, you have everyone going in many different directions, all bumping into each other and trying to rip each other off. The cost of free riders is extremely high, and who wouldn't want a free ride from "the man" when you've been told all your minority life that you deserve it? Also, think of the steeply higher transaction costs of the multiracial society. The friction of the multiracial society creates lots of them. I think this has been mentioned on Vdare, via a study. In other words, it's harder to do business if you don't have a certain level of trust in your business transactees. Extra costs are flooded in, like background checking, lawyers, more complex contracts to govern breakdowns, expensive insurance, and so on.[/QUOTE]
You're right on target here, Hugh.
The MultiCult can be maintained only by huge inter-ethnic wealth transfers and all the enormous investments in complexity that entails.
It's all very, very inefficient, and at some point we'll reach a point (if we haven't already) where additional investments in complexity result in diminishing or even negative returns. Then the laws of nature require that the thing collapse down to the next economically viable quanta of complexity.
This is the crux of Joseph Tainter's thesis set down so brilliantly in his [URL=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/052138673X/qid=1111701389/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-3858053-2995340?v=glance&s=books]Collapse of Complex Societies[/URL].
2005-03-24 22:05 | User Profile
Two classes: parasites and producers.
Producers are stratified somewhat, those at the high end and those at the middle and low. Regardless, all are being squeezed to pay for the parasites, but the lower end of the producers are more likely to slide off into the parasite class, either through giving up the struggle or dropping out of the system entirely. Now, with the middle class being phased out, there's no one to parasitize except the rich, who have seen their incomes are insulated from such indignities for the most part.
Basically, when there are nothing left but parasites, cannibalism will be on the FDA's approved methods of getting the USRDA of protein. Things are getting interesting in New Brazil.
expensive insurance
Uninsured driver insurance is a great example. Let's see, who drives without insurance the most?
2005-03-24 23:52 | User Profile
Very True! [QUOTE]I wonder how all those figures look if you take blacks and browns out of the equation. In other words, how do white Americans stack up against white Europeans? I suspect that a lot of the discrepancy relates directly to black and brown failure.-Walter Yannis [/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Walter, you are absolutely right. When figures like these are published to show the abysmal state of "amerikan" failure, they are never broken down by race. Gosh, I wonder why not! Could it be that the numbers would show something we're not supposed to know?-arkady[/QUOTE]
2005-03-25 02:04 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Two classes: parasites and producers.[/QUOTE] And two corresponding political parties. Depsite the corrupt Republican Party leadership, the Republican electoral base consists of producers. The Democratic Party's electoral base consists of parasites ... plus producers who have been convinced that the parasites have a moral claim to what the productive produce. It's that simple.
2005-03-25 02:08 | User Profile
Excellent commentary folks! :thumbsup:
A related issue: [url]http://www.originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17507[/url]
2005-03-25 14:53 | User Profile
[QUOTE=mwdallas]And two corresponding political parties. Depsite the corrupt Republican Party leadership, the Republican electoral base consists of producers. The Democratic Party's electoral base consists of parasites ... plus producers who have been convinced that the parasites have a moral claim to what the productive produce. It's that simple.[/QUOTE]
Yes, but the Democrats at least represent their base in their desire to steal, while the Repugs mouth all the correct sayings the producers want to hear while working hand-in-hand with the Dems to steal them blind. They're both nests of theives, but at least the Dems are honest enough to say it outright, though cloaking the theft in pretty language about "fairness."