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Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Where are you on it? Interesting list.

http://www.fundforpeace.org/programs/fsi/fsindex2006.php?column=rank&#

Apparently, the US is more of a failed state than Chile? Strange...

rlloydevans · Joined: 23 Jan 2006 Posts: 26 Location: Guayaquil, Ecuador

While the US scores well, the places where it scores poorly tell a lot about the site.

First of all, their explanation of how they came up with a rankings were based on media articles. So any place that has a high media exposure will have inflated scores in some areas. I think it is safe to say the US leads the world in media coverage.

Then of course, the four areas where the US scores rtelatively high are:

Mounting Demographic Pressures
Massive Movement of Refugees and IDPs
Uneven Economic Development along Group Lines
Widespread Violation of Human Rights

Of the four, Mounting Demographic Pressures is clearly a problem.

But massive movement of refugees and IDPs and Widespread Violation of Human Rights? By what standard? True, their are great questions over Guantanamo Bay, the application of the death penalty and other issues, but if these were all the human rights issues in the world this would be an incredibly better planet than what it is now.

And while there is Uneven Economic Development along Group Lines, they are extremely minor compared to 95% of all other countries, so again, by what standard?

It is a typical situation where a group is issuing propaganda using very questionable statistics to further their political cause. It does highlight some important and interesting facts. But like many other things on the Internet, it is only as good as the information and people used to produce it. And many things posted on the Internet are just intellectual garbage.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Yeah, thet Massive Movement of Refugees category caught my eye as being very strange. Best I can come up with is the relation to Americans retiring abroad, but that's hardly a group you call refugees.

I thought it odd to see Chile ranked higher than the US. From other sources, I've read that Chile has the second highest uneven economic development on the planet, after Brazil.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 5:16 pm Post subject:

Good stuff, guys.
And I've always felt that, while I truly enjoy the internet, for research, it often takes second place to a mediocre trip to the library.

But about uneven economic growth- the homework questions:
What percentage of wealth in the US is in the hands of the richest 5% of the population? What percentage is in the hands of the bottom 20%? How is this different than 20 years ago? 100 years ago? The answers show an extremely worrying trend. Division of wealth in the US is a problem, and it's not getting better.

Erm, how this makes a failed state is a little beyond me...

justin

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:19 pm Post subject:

Hmmm. I might be able to argue that the progression of distribution of wealth is worse than in Chile...

I might not, as well. I'm guessing here, and haven't had time to do any research since this thread went up. And I don't know squat about Chile. I won't invent figures, and can't remember exactly the last info I read on this, but the question of where wealth is most divided is one thing, the question of where wealth is most rapidly dividing another.

I wouldn't say that the US is economically more divided than most places I've lived, but my (entirely subjective) impression is that it is more economically divided than it was 20 years ago. This worries me.

Best regards,
Justin

matttheboy · Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Posts: 854 Location: Valparaiso, Chile