America in Decline: Why Germans Think We're Insane
"As an American expat living in the European Union, I've started to see America from a different perspective.
The European Union has a larger economy and more people than America does. Though it spends less -- right around 9 percent of GNP on medical, whereas we in the U.S. spend close to between 15 to 16 percent of GNP on medical -- the EU pretty much insures 100 percent of its population."
"The U.S. has 59 million people medically uninsured; 132 million without dental insurance; 60 million without paid sick leave; 40 million on food stamps. Everybody in the European Union has cradle-to-grave access to universal medical and a dental plan by law. The law also requires paid sick leave; paid annual leave; paid maternity leave. When you realize all of that, it becomes easy to understand why many Europeans think America has gone insane."
"Der Spiegel has run an interesting feature called "A Superpower in Decline," which attempts to explain to a German audience such odd phenomena as the rise of the Tea Party, without the hedging or attempts at "balance" found in mainstream U.S. media. On the Tea Parties:
Full of Hatred: "The Tea Party, that group of white, older voters who claim that they want their country back, is angry. Fox News host Glenn Beck, a recovering alcoholic who likens Obama to Adolf Hitler, is angry. Beck doesn't quite know what he wants to be -- maybe a politician, maybe president, maybe a preacher -- and he doesn't know what he wants to do, either, or least he hasn't come up with any specific ideas or plans. But he is full of hatred." http://rayjs.newsvine.com/_news/2010/12/27/5719743-america-in-decline-why-germans-think-were-insane-?commentId=50363592
How Democratic? EIU's Annual Index by ask .. Wed Dec 29, 2010
It is year end, and The Economist Intelligence Unit has just released its bi-annual report on the state of democracy around the world. The results, unfortunately, are not uplifting.
According to the study, a full third of the world population lives in totalitarian states - and only 12% live in what is defined as "full democracies". The trend has been negative since the last report issued in 2008.
Not surprisingly, the 5 Nordic countries + Australia and New Zealand form the top seven in the ranking. At the bottom of the list are: Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan, Chad and North Korea.
The United States is ranked 17.
The index score determines whether a country will be characterized as: - Full democracy - Flawed democracy - Hybrid regime - Authoritarian regime
Only 26 nations qualify as full democracies. A disappointing finding is that several European states have fallen from the full to the flawed democracy category - this applies to France, Italy, Slovenia and Greece.
I believe most users of this blog will find it useful to have a quick look at the full report. Here's a choice quote:
Problems in the functioning of democracy in leading Western states diminish the scope for credible external democracy promotion. The US and UK are near the bottom of the "full democracy" category in our index. In the US, there has been an erosion of civil liberties related to the fight against terrorism. Problems in the functioning of government have also become more prominent. In the UK, there has also been some erosion of civil liberties, but the main feature is an exceptionally low level of political participation across all dimensions—voting turnout, membership of political parties and willingness to engage in and attitudes to political activity.
Although almost one-half of the world’s countries can be considered to be democracies, in our index the number of "full democracies" is low, at only 26 countries; 53 countries are rated as "flawed democracies". Of the remaining 88 countries in our index, 55 are authoritarian and 33 are considered to be "hybrid regimes". As could be expected, the developed OECD countries dominate among full democracies, although there are two Latin American countries, one east European country and one African country, which suggests that the level of development is not a binding constraint. Only two Asian countries are represented: Japan and South Korea.
Sadly the world's no 1 democracy is no more. If the general population had more to spend, demand goes up, so more jobs. It seems to me the USA would have a stronger economy and a more vibrant democracy if more of the supra wealthy accepted the social philosophy of Buffett and Gates.
And, if the US had a system of universal healthcare, with no nexus between employment and cover, a higher minimum wage, a safer system of unemployment insurance, and a new ethic in business which would include a desire to give jobs to American's over the maximum profit motive.
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