I love my country, I would not want to live anywhere else; that is a fact. It is a great place to live. Freedom of speech, press and religion, diversity of jobs and people, entrepreneurship and the list goes on to why the United States is a considerably the greatest place to live. But are we living up to our standards? We pride ourselves on citizens striving for the ‘American Dream’ and telling our kids that anything is possible. We love to wear our colors proving that our team spirit is the best. We mock other countries that do not uphold democracy and laugh at countries that cannot support themselves. We do all these things to make the world hear that the United States is the best, but do we have the support on paper?
During the first episode of HBO’s Newsroom, Jeff Daniels who plays a main news anchor, Will McAvoy, stunned viewers by telling the truth. During an interview at a college, a professor asks McAvoy, “What makes America the greatest country in the world?” His response after trying to avoid the question, “It is not the greatest country in the world, professor, that is my answer.” He continues by saying,
“There is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies.”
A bit deep for the first episode of a TV show, but it got me thinking. We loving yelling, “‘MERICA” and showing our patriotism, but do we actually know what we are cheering for? Many people believe we are a top seeded country in many categories, but did you know what categories? The United States ranks number one in only a handful of categories; we are ranked first in incarceration per capita, the number of super rich, the number of women figure skating olympic gold medals and wine consumption. We are second in approval of drone strikes and third in global competitiveness. And for some fun, we even rank second in ignorance, 17th in happiness, 44th in health care efficiency, 67th in slavery and 26th in child-well being.Everyone loves to drink their Barefoot and Monsanto, but it speaks loudly that we are not even in the top ten for health care efficiency or our children’s well being.
Again, America is great, I am not complaining. But before we start ‘na na na boo boo’ing’ at other countries with what we have and what they do not, look at the real facts first. Yeah, freedom is great and democracy is working, but with a country that is 14th in overall education and 7th in literacy, both in which China and Canada are ahead of us, there is so much to improve on.
After McAvoy’s bold truth to the question he was asked, he took a breath and continued more saying,
“We sure used to be. We stood up for what was right. We fought for moral reasons, we passed laws, struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest. We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and we cultivated the world's greatest artists and the world's greatest economy. We reached for the stars, acted like men.”
We are a different country and different people from before, and that can go in our favor instead of how it has impacted us negatively. With a new generation at our handle, we have so much that we can accomplish to put us back on the top, on top of the world. I believe that we have the power, the technology, the motivation and the ability to be the best country, like we know we are. It is time to change the rankings and show the world our true numbers and prove that we are better than what the rankings say.
