1. The U.S. is near the bottom of the developed world in children’s health and safety. Yes, that is a fact. In things like infant mortality, immunization, and death from accidents, we’re ranked 21 in the OECD nations (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
2.The U.S. betrays the young people we’ve told to stay in school, go to college. College debt is crippling our youth. The U.S. Congress won’t reduce the interest rates, and colleges increase tuition.
3. Home ownership – the main source of middle-class wealth – has mostly been destroyed.
4. Our prisons are more full than any other country. And prisons are there for smoking marijuana. But the robber barons of Wall Street…they keep getting their big pay packages and no prison time.
5. And healthcare isn’t a basic human right in the U.S. Healthcare is in every other civilized country. Here, you get what you pay for. Sometimes it feels like that’s the way the U.S. works: If you can pay for it, you get it. But if you can’t pay for it, you’re screwed.
Read the details in Pal Buchheit’s column, “Common Dreams,” May 19, 2012. “Five Facts That Put America to Shame.” Subscribe to Reader-Supported News.
