{"id":9937,"date":"2013-02-07T04:22:44","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T12:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=9937"},"modified":"2013-02-07T04:22:44","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T12:22:44","slug":"were-number-one-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/07\/were-number-one-not\/","title":{"rendered":"We’re Number One… NOT!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here in the US, ethnocentrism is rampant.  That is the notion that we are better than everyone else.  This applies particularly to Republicans.  They use it to justify the wars they started in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the wars they want to start in Iran, Syria, and anywhere a progressive government is blocking exploitation by US companies.  The truth is, we are number one in GDP, but that\u2019s all.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"7who'snumber"The Global Competitiveness Report 2012-2013,\u201d by the World Economic Forum, is the latest annual ranking of 144 countries, on a wide range of factors related to global economic competitiveness.<\/p>\n

On each of their many rankings, #1 represents the best nation, and #144 represents the worst nation.<\/p>\n

Gross Domestic Product is the only factor where the U.S. ranks as #1, which we do both on "GDP\u201d and on \u201cGDP as a Share of World GDP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health Care has the U.S. ranking #34 on \u201cLife Expectancy<\/strong>,\u201d and #41 on \u201cInfant Mortality.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Education in the U.S. is also mediocre. On \u201cQuality of Primary Education,\u201d we are #38<\/strong>. On \u201cPrimary Education Enrollment Rate,\u201d we are #58<\/strong>. On \u201cQuality of the Educational System,\u201d we are #28. On \u201cQuality of Math and Science Education,\u201d we are #47. On \u201cQuality of Scientific Research Institutions,\u201d we are #6. On \u201cPCT [Patent Cooperation Treaty] Patent Applications [per-capita],\u201d we are #12. On \u201cFirm-Level Technology Absorption\u201d (which is an indicator of business-acceptance of inventions), we are #14\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Alternet<\/a>><\/p>\n

A solution here requires no rocket science.  Instead of blowing our own horn, we simply need to look at what the leaders are doing in areas where we lag behind, and do what they are doing.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here in the US, ethnocentrism is rampant.  That is the notion that we are better than everyone else.  This applies particularly to Republicans.  They use it to justify the wars they started in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the wars they want to start in Iran, Syria, and anywhere a progressive government is blocking exploitation by […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}