STANDARD_OF LIVING - US Decline Is Showing Everywhere
55 Things About America You May Not Know 03-11-14 Michael Snyder of�The American Dream blog, via ZH
Is America the greatest nation on the planet?��Before you answer that question, you might want to check out the statistics that I have shared in this article first.� The reality is that the United States is in a deep state of decline, and it is getting harder to deny that fact with each passing day.� Mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually and financially we are a train wreck.� Many that are “patriotic” attempt to put a happy face on our growing problems, but the truly patriotic thing to do is to admit just how bad things have gotten so that we can start finding solutions.�
If you truly love this country, then you should know that this nation needs a huge wake up call.��We have abandoned the values and the principles that early Americans held so dear, and as a result our society is a giant mess.� The following are 55 things about America that you may not know…
#1�We are supposed to have a government “of the people, by the people, for the people”, but only�25 percent�of all Americans know how long U.S. Senators are elected for (6 years), and only�20 percent�of all Americans know how many U.S. senators there are.
#2�Americans spend more on health care per capita than anyone else in the world by far, and yet we only�rank 35th�in life expectancy.
#3�Only�one state�in the entire country has an obesity rate of under 20 percent.��11 stateshave an obesity rate of over 30 percent.
#4�Of all the major industrialized nations, America is�the most obese.� Mexico is #2.
#5�Back in 1962,�only 13 percent�of all Americans were obese, but it is being projected that42 percent�of all Americans could be obese by the year 2030.
#6�According to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture,�31 percent�of all food in the United States gets wasted.� In case you were wondering, that amounts to approximately 133 billion pounds of food a year.
#7�America has�the highest incarceration rate�and the largest�total prison population�in the entire world by a wide margin.
#8�In America, we even put 81-year-old women in prison for�feeding the birds.
#9�According to a�Newsweek survey�taken a few years ago, 29 percent of all Americans could not even name the vice president.
#10�Americans spend more time�sitting in traffic�than anyone else in the world.
#11�60 percent�of Americans report feeling “angry or irritable”.� Two years ago that number was at 50 percent.
#12�36 percent�of Americans admit that they have yelled at a customer service agent during the past year.
#13�Only�30 percent�of all Americans can tell you in what year the 9/11 attacks happened.
#14�There are more “deaths by reptile” in America than anywhere else in the world.
#15�Right now,�29 percent�of all Americans under the age of 35 are living with their parents.
#16�Average SAT scores�have been falling for years, and the level of education that our kids are receiving in most of our public schools is a�total joke.
#17�According to a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, nearly�70 percent�of all Americans are on at least one prescription drug.� An astounding 20 percent of all Americans are on at least five prescription drugs.
#18�Americans spend�more than 280 billion dollars�on prescription drugs each year.
#19�According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doctors in the United States write�more than 250 million prescriptions�for antidepressants each year.
#20�Children in the United States are�three times more likely�to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are.
#21�In the United States today, prescription painkillers kill more Americans�than heroin and cocaine combined.
#22�America has�the highest rate of illegal drug use�on the entire planet.
#23�According to the federal government, the number of heroin addicts in the United Stateshas more than doubled�since 2002.
#24�It is hard to believe, but�56 percent�of all Americans now have “subprime credit”.
#25�America�exports more weapons�to other countries than anyone else in the world.
#26�The United States has�the most complicated tax system�on the entire planet.
#27�Corruption is rampant throughout our society.� In fact, America leads the world in�money given to fake charities.
#28�America leads the world in soft drink consumption�by a wide margin.� Today, the average American drinks�more than 600 sodas�a year.
#29�In 2008, 53 percent of all Americans considered themselves to be “middle class”.� In 2014, only�44 percent�of all Americans consider themselves to be “middle class”.
#30�70 percent�of Americans do not “feel engaged or inspired at their jobs”.
#31�40 percent�of all workers in the United States actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968 after you account for inflation.
#32�Back in the 1970s,�about one out of every 50 Americans�was on food stamps.� Today, about one out of every 6 Americans is on food stamps.
#33�The marriage rate in the United States has fallen to an all-time low.� Right now it is sitting at a yearly rate of�6.8 marriages per 1000 people.
#34�In the United States today,�more than half�of all couples “move in together” before they get married.
#35�America has the highest�divorce rate�in the world by a good margin.
#36�America has the highest percentage of�one person households�on the entire planet.
#37�100 years ago, 4.52 were living in the average U.S. household, but now the average U.S. household only consists of�2.59 people.
#38�According to the Pew Research Center, only�51 percent�of all American adults are currently married.� Back in 1960,�72 percent�of all adults in the United States were married.
#39�For women under the age of 30 in the United States,�more than half of all babies�are being born out of wedlock.
#40�At this point, approximately�one out of every three children�in the United States lives in a home without a father.
#41�In 1970, the average woman had her first child when she was�21.4 years old.� Now the average woman has her first child when she is�25.6 years old.
#42�America has the highest�teen pregnancy rate�in the world by a very wide margin.
#43�Approximately�one out of every four�teen girls in the United States has at least one sexually transmitted disease.
#44�America has the highest STD infection rate�in the entire industrialized world.
#45�According to the latest figures released by�the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there are�20 million�new sexually-transmitted infections�in the United States every single year, and Americans in the 15 to 24-year-old age range account for�approximately 50 percent�of those new sexually-transmitted infections.
#46�As I wrote about�recently, there are�747,408 registered sex offenders�in the U.S. according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
#47�America produces�more pornography�than any other nation in the world.
#48�America has the most�lawyers per capita�in the entire world.
#49�If you choose to be a “Constitutionalist” in America today, you may get labeled as�a potential terrorist�by the U.S. government.
#50�America has the largest national debt in the history of the world.� Back in 1980, the U.S. national debt was�less than one trillion dollars.� Today, it is over 17 trillion dollars.
#51�According to the Congressional Budget Office, interest payments on the national debt�will nearly quadruple�over the next ten years.
#52�Americans spend more money�on elections�than anyone else does in the world by a very wide margin.
#53�65 percent�of Americans are dissatisfied “with the U.S. system of government and its effectiveness”.� That is the highest level of dissatisfaction that Gallup has ever recorded.
#54�Only�8 percent�of Americans believe that Congress is doing a “good” or “excellent” job.
#55�70 percent�of Americans do not have confidence that the federal government will “make progress on the important problems and issues facing the country in 2014.” |