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GUEST: Glen Ford, Radio BC

America’s False Image of Itself

Americans are fond of saying that the United States is the greatest country in the world. But most Americans are incapable of explaining how they have arrived at that conclusion of national superiority: by what measurement? Freedom? George Bush stupidly claims that much of the world hates the United States because of its “freedoms.” But one out of every four prison inmates on the planet is incarcerated in the U.S., a very scary statistic that makes America the world’s prison superpower. Is that something to be proud of? Of course not, so let’s scratch “freedom” off the list.

How about life expectancy? After all, if the U.S. is the greatest country in the world, you’d think its inhabitants could expect to hang around a long time enjoying all this greatness. But in fact, U.S. life expectancy ranks 48th in the world, behind Japan, most of western Europe, Canada, Australia – and even Jordan, Jamaica, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. This dismal ranking is no doubt due to the fact that, of all industrialized nations, the United States is the only one without anything that could claim to be a national health care system.

It’s the same story when we look at infant mortality, universally regarded as the best indicator of a nation’s overall health. The United States ranks number 36 in the survivability of its babies. If the object of being born is to actually live for awhile, this is not the best place to exit from the womb. Better to make your entrance to the world in Cuba, or Taiwan – and best of all in Singapore, which is also number one in life expectancy.

The United States does rank fourth in the world in terms of per capita income, behind only Luxemburg, Switzerland and Norway. The problem is, in the U.S. there is far greater disparity of income. The United States has more very rich people than Europe or Japan, and a higher percentage of poor people. And most people have to pay for their own health care – which has made health emergencies the leading cause of bankruptcy among Americans. Poverty afflicts one out of every four African Americans – one reason you don’t hear so many Black folks ranting that the U.S. is the “greatest country in the world.”

And it’s getting worse. New figures show that poverty increased by 20 percent in the U.S. between the year 2000 and 2004. Income for non-elderly households has dropped almost four percent since 2001, while the gap between the haves and have-less classes has widened. There is no end in sight to this trend, which saw the top 20 percent of the U.S. population owning more than half the national wealth. In a world in which countries like Brazil seek to narrow the disparity in wealth, the United States moves relentlessly backward to Brazil’s past. No matter. Americans will keep saying this is the greatest country in the world – even though most of them haven’t been to any other country in their entire lives. Thanks for listening. I’m Glen Ford.