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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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 Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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| but I know that US executions are on par with China and Saudi Arabia. |
From Wikipedia:
"China performed more than 3400 executions in 2004, amounting to more than 90% of executions worldwide... The United States performed 60 executions in 2005...Singapore has the highest execution rate per capita, with 70 hangings for a population of about 4 million."
Please explain again what it is that you 'know'. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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If Gopher believes that the U.S. is peaceful and non-violent, without much crime...................he must have fallen down Alice's bunny hole..........Is that where gophers too reside?
Seriously, you are way off base trying to push the case that the U.S. is not a punitive state that does nothing to counter violence but to lock up and punish its own citizenry. Very creative policy..................
If you continue, I can list lots of statistics from the western world, from govts more open then the present U.S. administration --- categorically proving how far ahead the U.S. is in terms of murders/rapes/criminals locked up/abortions/muggings/death by guns/drug use (prescription and "illegal", arms trade, munitions production, political violence.... etc.............
But then again why bother. You will just say it is "anti-american" bias and disregard the whole factual matter. Or you will say -- it is because America is "free"...............LOL.
America's freedom comes at a cost. It, doesn't like looking in the looking glass and neither do you...........
But I do have faith in America over the long term. I believe in the common people's , common sense and especially that much ignored American value of revolt, not taking any bullshit and dissent................which will one day clean house once all the cash has been spent and they run out of new forms of entertainment....
DD |
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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 9:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Gopher, nice move with funny numbers, yes China executes the most people but not that many per capita because of the huge population. The Amnesty International report puts the US in the #4 spot for total executions. So there are still more executions in the US than in Saudi Arabia, according to AI. And we can argue back and forth about the numbers but the fact that 1 in 136 people in the most free and richest country in the world are in prison, points to the fact that there is a serious problem. But in typical Rightwingnutter fashion you mask the problem by attacking the person reporting the facts. Have you been working with the Bush Crime Family, maybe you're Tony Snow's brother? |
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ajgeddes
Joined: 28 Apr 2004
Location: Yongsan
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 9:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Octavius Hite wrote: |
| Gopher, nice move with funny numbers, yes China executes the most people but not that many per capita because of the huge population. The Amnesty International report puts the US in the #4 spot for total executions. So there are still more executions in the US than in Saudi Arabia, according to AI. And we can argue back and forth about the numbers but the fact that 1 in 136 people in the most free and richest country in the world are in prison, points to the fact that there is a serious problem. But in typical Rightwingnutter fashion you mask the problem by attacking the person reporting the facts. Have you been working with the Bush Crime Family, maybe you're Tony Snow's brother? |
It wasn't Gopher, it was Ya-ta Boy |
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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 9:57 pm Post subject: |
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| You're right sorry, I'm big enough to admit a mistake, sorry Gopher. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 11:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Octavius Hite wrote: |
| You're right sorry, I'm big enough to admit a mistake, sorry Gopher. |
You're a class act Octavius.
The statistical figure here was what really grabbed my eye.
Number of U.S. Inmates Rises 2 Percent
By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer
Sun May 21, 10:51 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer.
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As a side note here, who exactly runs the US prison system?
Wackenhut is a big name isn't it? Anyone know much about who George "Wack"-en-hut was?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wackenhut
While most everyone knows the Bush crime syndicate has a LOT invested in banking & oil, drugs, military tech. etc, i wonder how many realize that their BIGGEST stake is said to be derived from harvesting AmeriKa's private prison network.
Locking people behind bars must cleary be quite lucrative.
btw - Anyone clear on what % of these "pieces of meat" are NOT deemed to be dangerous offenders? |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 12:25 am Post subject: |
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Good point about the "prison" industry. I do think this is the key here....
When you look at statistics, the U.S. has about the same per capita "victimization" figures......meaning , the same amount of people (/capita) are being victimized but almost 6x more people are sent to prisons in the U.S.A. ................and especially scary is the amount of women sent to prison (a sore point which Amnesty asterixed and condemned the U.S. for, this past year.).
There are some very insightful reports about the "prison" industry and how they have tried to provide employment in high unemployment areas/regions in the U.S. This has failed by most accounts, in providing long term employment, much like the gambling industry has.......it also has created REAL problems because prisoners are sent 1,000s of miles at times, from families. So they become very ostracized and reform/rehabilitation is substantially hindered.
Seems like with a lot the U.S. does, the bottom line is the bottom line...........this , along with the U.S. 's (and Gopher's ) refusal to see that others really have a point, have valid criticism -- I rank as a systemic problem.
The U.S. does not "dialogue" and "communicate" in the international world. Also, it views people's suffering as a business model --- thus, even with good intentions, they have no wish to solve the problems that occur so long as the money keeps rolling along.......they have commoditized war, suffering, crime and in total misfortune. Pity. .....
DD |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 1:44 am Post subject: |
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nice move with funny numbers, yes China executes the most people but not that many per capita because of the huge population...you mask the problem by attacking the person reporting the facts."
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Ummm...what funny numbers?
Are you saying the numbers taken from Wikipedia are wrong? If so, supply some other, more reliable numbers. Just calling them 'funny' does nothing to support your contention that the number of executions in the US is on 'a par' with China's numbers. (I think you may have a fight on your hands with Mr. Mithridates if you denigrate Wikipedia.)
I got out my calculator and utterly failed to make the numbers come out the way you claim they should. The US population is just short of 300 million; China's is in the neighborhood of 1.2 billion. (Again, if you have other numbers please show us.) That's a ratio of 1:4. The execution rate of 60:3400 does not work out to be 'on a par'. Someone who is better with numbers can do a better job, but it seems to me that if the US had 4 times the population but executed at the present rate, wouldn't that be 60 x 4? If China performed 90% of the executions in the world, how could anyone be 'on a par' with them?
[The most stunning figure in the Wikipedia article was the number of hangings in Singapore--70 in a population of only 4 million--10 more executions than in the US.]
I didn't intend my request for you to explain what you know to be a personal attack. I was hoping for an explanation of how 60=3400, taking into account the disparity of population.
(You will notice that in both my posts on this thread, I have restricted myself to the single topic of executions, because that is the part of your comments that I am questioning.) |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 2:32 am Post subject: |
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China is A LOT better at executing their own .....................also a lot better at selling the skin (for the rich, medical purposes....) and peeling it off................bodies and organ selling are what drive , executions. Not morality or law. China is as good a capitalist nation as America.
Scary stuff their "human" record. And then we keep singing all this stuff about their "new" economy and their future..........I see the future and like Kurtz mumble..."the horror, the horror..."..........
DD |
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bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
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| Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 3:12 am Post subject: |
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| If you continue, I can list lots of statistics from the western world, from govts more open then the present U.S. administration --- categorically proving how far ahead the U.S. is in terms of murders/rapes/criminals locked up/abortions/muggings/death by guns/drug use |
Let's see these statistics then. I think you'll find that besides gun crime, the US is not that much more crime ridden than many European countries. |
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bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
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| Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 3:15 am Post subject: |
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| Also, it views people's suffering as a business model --- thus, even with good intentions, they have no wish to solve the problems that occur so long as the money keeps rolling along....... |
And of course European countries do not engage in such business. They would never think of doing business with Saddam, or selling military equipment to despotic regimes. No, only the evil yankees do that. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 4:32 am Post subject: |
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| And of course European countries do not engage in such business. They would never think of doing business with Saddam, or selling military equipment to despotic regimes. No, only the evil yankees do that |
I wasn't addressing Europe. Of course they also deal with/in this devil and I've shared a table or two with Bulgarian and Ukranian arms dealers.......wasn't my point, wasn't my point when talking about Europe and its amount of media debate/free press and communal knowledge of world affairs. So why bring it up?????
Regarding figures. Here are some 1991 figures which have in total only gotten much worse in the intervening 15 years.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Last time the U.N. did a complete survey and comparison of Western developed nations....
You will see how the U.S. rates.........most figures come from OECD data and I will post some graphs to highlight tomorrow. They are on my work computer, from where i mostly commune...... especially startling are the figures pertaining not to prisons but international aid -- most of U.S. "aid" is tied to business deals and political response. So much for "charity".
These below are from the U.N. Freedom Index.....
A COMPARISON OF THE U.S. TO OTHER RICH NATIONS
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The following statistics are a 1991 comparison of the United States with Northern Europe, Japan and Canada. The comparison is especially revealing because all these nations are more liberal and democratic than we are. Their voter turn-outs are 50 percent higher; their corporate lobbying systems are much less developed; their taxes are higher, their safety nets larger, their societies more equal, their labor unions stronger.
And what may depress many conservatives is that these nations beat us on statistic after statistic after statistic. [my Italics}
Table of Contents:
Standard of Living
Income Inequality
Health Care
Sex
Crime
Pollution
Work and Leisure Time
Democracy
Conclusion
STANDARD OF LIVING
The economic supremacy that the U.S. has enjoyed in the second half of this century owes much to the good fortune it enjoyed in the first half. Two world wars destroyed Europe and Japan, while the prosperity that comes from running a wartime economy turned America into an economic superpower. America held this advantage for decades, but in the last 20 years, Europe and Japan have been rapidly catching up, and in many areas overtaking us. There is a mundane explanation for this: developing nations grow much faster than already developed nations, much like a child grows faster than a teenager. But the fact that they are catching up and often by-passing us with societies that are more equal, democratic, liberal, pro-environmental and pro-labor presents a serious challenge to conservative thought.
First, let's take a look at overall tax rates as a percentage of the GDP. (All statistics are for 1991. See the following footnote for a comment on sources.1) Keep in mind that the two columns measure different things: the first, GDP, the second, personal income.
General rate Top rate
(percent of GDP) (percent of income)
Sweden 53.2% 45.0
Denmark 48.3 40.0
Norway 47.1 23.0
Netherlands 47.0 72.0
Germany 39.2 56.0
Finland 37.7 51.0
Canada 37.3 29.0
Japan 30.9 60.0
United States 29.8 34.0
You might be surprised to learn that the United States has long had the lowest tax rates of any industrialized nation. And how does the level of taxation compare to each nation's standard of living? There are three general ways to measure standard of living: earning power, purchasing power and individual worker productivity. The U.S. has lost its lead in the first and is losing its lead in the other two.
Earning power is defined as GDP per capita, or how much the average citizen earns in a year. It is an important statistic because it measures how advantageously nations trade on the global market. After the Second World War, the U.S. was number one for 40 years. But in the mid-80s, the U.S. suddenly began dropping down the list.
1991 Earning Power2
Switzerland $35,490
Japan 27,300
Sweden 26,900
Denmark 24,230
Norway 24,150
Finland 24,110
United States 22,550
Canada 20,840
Germany 19,830
Netherlands 19,310
Purchasing power, however, is a rather more accurate measure of standard of living. It shows how much each country pays to buy the same item, say, a loaf of bread. With its large, diverse and well-functioning market, the U.S. has generally enjoyed the lowest real prices in the industrialized world. But, as the chart below shows, it is also true that the purchasing power of other nations has been growing more rapidly than the U.S.' For this reason we should also look at each nation's percentage of the US purchasing power in 1970, and again in 1991.3
Purchasing Percent of Percent of
Power, 1991 US, 1970 US, 1991
United States $22,204 -- --
Germany 19,500 75% 88
Canada 19,178 72 86
Japan 19,107 57 86
Denmark 17,621 71 79
Norway 16,904 54 76
Sweden 16,729 77 75
Netherlands 16,530 72 74
Finland 15,997 58 72
The third measure is individual worker productivity. The following chart shows how other nations have been catching up to the U.S. over the decades:
Percent of U.S. individual worker productivity (U.S. = 100%)
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990
United States 100% 100 100 100 100
Canada 77.1 80.1 84.2 92.8 95.5
Italy 30.8 43.9 66.4 80.9 85.5
France 36.8 46.0 61.7 80.1 85.3
Germany 32.4 49.1 61.8 77.4 81.1
United Kingdom 53.9 54.3 58.0 65.9 71.9
Japan 15.2 23.2 45.7 62.6 70.7
Unfortunately, the above figures give only a crude measurement of how well each nation lives. There are severe problems with measuring a nation's well-being by productivity alone; perhaps the best analogy is that of a millionaire who wastes all his money on cocaine, compared to an average person who spends it on food, clothing, shelter, education, etc. (More) When one considers exactly how each nation spends its GDP, the weakening of the U.S.' number one position in the world becomes even more apparent.
Where We Stand publishes an index of economic prosperity that takes into account all the following factors: productivity, salaries, equitable wealth distribution, luxury-goods consumption, trading strength, poverty, personal and national indebtedness, inflation control, business strength and credit-worthiness. And the best-off nations are:
Germany 1382
Japan 1363
Switzerland 1332
Canada 1216
United States 1178
Netherlands 1087
Sweden 1079
Norway 1061
United Kingdom 1049
Denmark 920
Finland 910
But let's break down these broad comparisons into their components. Perhaps the most appropriate statistic to begin with is home ownership, the central part of the American Dream: (More)
Home ownership:
Ireland 82% Japan 60
Spain 80 Portugal 59
Luxembourg 77 United States 59
Norway 73 Finland 58
Belgium 72 Sweden 55
Greece 72 France 54
Italy 68 Netherlands 46
United Kingdom 67 Germany 40
Canada 64 Switzerland 29
Denmark 60
America's decline in home ownership is symbolic of a larger erosion in living standards, which Americans have met in two ways. The first is that America has gone deeply into debt to maintain its lifestyle. The second is that families have been able to hold ground only because wives have joined their husbands in the work force. (Note: this is a comment on the difficulty of making ends meet, not on working women!) Europe and Japan suffer much less from either of these problems:
Percent of families earning two paychecks:
United States 58%
Japan 33
France 33
Italy 20
Germany 18
Netherlands 16
Average Household Debt
United States $71,500
United Kingdom 35,500
Germany 27,700
France 27,650
Netherlands 5,000
Switzerland 800
Average Household Savings
Japan $45,118
Switzerland 19,971
Denmark 18,405
France 17,649
Germany 17,042
Norway 15,196
Netherlands 14,282
Finland 12,387
Sweden 10,943
United Kingdom 7,451
United States 4,201
Percent of income spent on credit cards:
United Kingdom 12%
United States 10
France 8
Japan 4
Switzerland 3
Netherlands 2
Germany 2
Government debt per person:
Belgium $16,423
Japan 14,049
United States 12,433
Sweden 9,541
Netherlands 9,368
Canada 8,597
Norway 5,498
United Kingdom 4,635
Finland 2,798
Germany 977
Trade Balance (millions):
Japan +$77,110
Germany +76,713
Netherlands +7,990
Canada +5,047
Norway +3,769
Denmark +2,426
Finland -250
United Kingdom -37,958
United States -113,240
Current Account Balance (millions):
Japan +$56,783
Germany +55,477
Netherlands +6,962
Norway +226
Denmark -1,402
Finland -4,895
Canada -16,593
United Kingdom -34,065
United States -105,900
Investment (percent of GDP):
Japan 30.6%
Norway 28.8
Switzerland 26.6
Finland 24.8
Canada 22.0
Netherlands 21.4
Germany 19.9
Sweden 19.7
United Kingdom 19.2
Denmark 18.0
United States 17.1
INCOME INEQUALITY
As mentioned earlier, America has the greatest inequality of income and wealth in the industrialized world:
Inequality of income (0 = most equal society, 100 = the least equal):
United States 99
Canada 83
Netherlands 82
Switzerland 79
United Kingdom 78
Germany 66
Norway 60
Sweden 60
Average CEO's pay as a multiple of an average
worker's pay:
United States 17.5 (More)
United Kingdom 12.4
Japan 11.6
Canada 9.6
France 8.9
Germany 6.5
Percent of Union Membership in Workforce:
Sweden 85.3%
United Kingdom 41.5
Canada 34.6
Germany 33.8
Japan 26.8
Netherlands 25.0
United States 16.4
Size of Middle Class (More):
Japan 90.0%
Sweden 79.0
Norway 73.4
Germany 70.1
Switzerland 67.2
Netherlands 62.5
Canada 58.5
United Kingdom 58.5
United States 53.7
Poverty level (More):
United States 17.1%
Canada 12.6
United Kingdom 9.7
Switzerland 8.5
Germany 5.6
Sweden 5.3
Norway 5.2
Children under the poverty level:
United States 22.4%
Canada 15.5
United Kingdom 9.3
Switzerland 7.8
Sweden 5.0
Germany 4.9
Norway 4.8
Deaths from malnutrition (per million):
Men Women
United States 7 13
France 4 9
Canada 5 7
Japan 2 1
United Kingdom 1 2
Norway 0 1
Head Start (percent of age group enrolled in preschool)
2-year olds 3-year olds 4-year olds
France 35.7% 96.3 100
Norway 22.8 31.6 44.1
Finland 20.2 16.0 19.6
Germany 9.1 32.3 71.6
United Kingdom 1.3 25.9 69.2
United States 0.0 28.9 49.0
HEALTH CARE
Health Care Expenditures (percent of GDP)4
United States 13.4%
Canada 10.0
Finland 9.1
Sweden 8.6
Germany 8.4
Netherlands 8.4
Norway 7.6
Japan 6.8
United Kingdom 6.6
Denmark 6.5
Doctors' incomes:
United States $132,300
Germany 91,244
Denmark 50,585
Finland 42,943
Norway 35,356
Sweden 25,768
Percent of population covered by public health care:
ALL NATIONS (except below) 100%
France, Austria 99
Switzerland, Spain, Belgium 98
Germany 92
Netherlands 77
United States 40
Average paid maternity leave (as of 1991; this changed with Clinton's signing of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act):
Sweden 32 weeks
France 28
United Kingdom 18
Norway 18
Denmark 18
Japan 14
Germany 14
Netherlands 12
United States 0
Life Expectancy (years):
Men Women
Japan 76.2 82.5
France 72.9 81.3
Switzerland 74.1 81.3
Netherlands 73.7 80.5
Sweden 74.2 80.4
Canada 73.4 80.3
Norway 73.1 79.7
Germany 72.6 79.2
Finland 70.7 78.8
United States 71.6 78.6
United Kingdom 72.7 78.2
Denmark 72.2 77.9
Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births):
United States 10.4
United Kingdom 9.4
Germany 8.5
Denmark 8.1
Canada 7.9
Norway 7.9
Netherlands 7.8
Switzerland 6.8
Finland 5.9
Sweden 5.9
Japan 5.0
Death rate of 1-to-4 year olds (per community of 200,000 per year):
United States 101.5
Japan 92.2
Norway 90.2
Denmark 85.1
France 84.9
United Kingdom 82.2
Canada 82.1
Netherlands 80.3
Germany 77.6
Switzerland 72.5
Sweden 64.7
Finland 53.3
Death rate of 15-to-24 year olds (per community of 200,000 per year):
United States 203
Switzerland 175
Canada 161
France 156
Finland 154
Norway 128
Germany 122
Denmark 120
United Kingdom 114
Sweden 109
Japan 96
Netherlands 90
Note: the murder rate for the above age group is 48.8 per 200,000. Even subtracting this entirely still puts the U.S. near the top of the list.
Premature Death (years of life lost before the age of 64 per 100 people):
United States 5.8 years
Denmark 4.9
Finland 4.8
Canada 4.5
Germany 4.5
United Kingdom 4.4
Norway 4.3
Switzerland 4.1
Netherlands 4.0
Sweden 3.8
Japan 3.3
Percent of people with normal body mass:
Men Women
Germany 53% 37
Finland 51 37
United Kingdom 46 38
Canada 52 29
Switzerland 49 30
France 44 30
Denmark 44 25
United States 47 22
Sweden 44 25
Percent of people who believe their health care system needs fundamental change (More):
United States 60%
Sweden 58
United Kingdom 52
Japan 47
Netherlands 46
France 42
Canada 38
SEX
Percent of all children born out of wedlock:
Sweden 46.4%
Denmark 41.9
United States 21.5
United Kingdom 19.2
Canada 12.1
Germany 9.4
Netherlands 8.3
Switzerland 5.6
Japan 1.0
Having children out of wedlock, however, does not mean that the father is not living at home and offering support. Here is the actual percentage of families headed by single parents:
United States 8.0%
Germany 6.7
Netherlands 6.7
Canada 5.6
Denmark 5.1
France 5.1
United Kingdom 4.0
Sweden 3.2
Japan 2.5
Sex education is more prevalent in Europe than America, where conservatives oppose it on the grounds that it condones sexual behavior. The statistics show the unintended consequences of this policy:
Sexually active teenage population:
Norway 66%
United States 65
United Kingdom 57
Germany 56
Canada 53
Italy 34
France 34
Percent who have not had intercourse by age 20:
Boys Girls
Belgium 61 63
Netherlands 58 62
Germany 33 28
Norway 33 25
United Kingdom 24 23
France 9 25
United States 12 16
Percent of sexually active single 15 to 19-year olds using birth control:
Germany 95%
United Kingdom 92
Netherlands 88
Norway 87
Sweden 79
Denmark 70
United States 56
Teen pregnancies per 1,000 teenagers:
United States 98.0
United Kingdom 46.6
Norway 40.2
Canada 38.6
Finland 32.1
Sweden 28.3
Denmark 27.9
Netherlands 12.1
Japan 10.5
Total teen abortions per 1,000 teenagers:
United States 44.4
Norway 21.1
Sweden 19.6
Denmark 18.2
Finland 17.9
United Kingdom 16.9
Canada 16.2
Japan 5.9
Netherlands 5.5
CRIME
People per police officer:
Sweden 328
Canada 358
United Kingdom 400
United States 459
Netherlands 553
Japan 556
Denmark 594
France 632
Finland 643
Norway 661
Annual reports of police brutality (per 100,000 people)
United States 92.5
United Kingdom 6.0
France 0.7
Prisoners (per 1,000 people):
United States 4.2
United Kingdom 1.0
Germany 0.8
Denmark 0.7
Sweden 0.6
Japan 0.4
Netherlands 0.4
Death row inmates:
United States 2,124
Japan 38
Europe and Canada 0
Percent of households with a handgun:
United States 29%
Finland 7
Germany 7
Canada 5
Norway 4
Europe 4
Netherlands 2
United Kingdom 1
Looking at the above statistics, one would think that Europe is soft on crime, while the U.S. approach to law and order is based on no-nonsense deterrence. In reality, Europe is relatively crime-free, and the U.S. has the worst crime rate in the world:
Murders committed with handguns annually:
United States 8,915
Switzerland 53
Sweden 19
Canada 8
United Kingdom 7
Murder rate (per 100,000 people):
United States 8.40
Canada 5.45
Denmark 5.17
Germany 4.20
Norway 1.99
United Kingdom 1.97
Sweden 1.73
Japan 1.20
Finland 0.70
Murder rate for males age 15-24 (per 100,000 people):
United States 24.4
Canada 2.6
Sweden 2.3
Norway 2.3
Finland 2.3
Denmark 2.2
United Kingdom 2.0
Netherlands 1.2
Germany 0.9
Japan 0.5
Rape (per 100,000 people):
United States 37.20
Sweden 15.70
Denmark 11.23
Germany 8.60
Norway 7.87
United Kingdom 7.26
Finland 7.20
Japan 1.40
Armed robbery (per 100,000 people)
United States 221
Canada 94
United Kingdom 63
Sweden 49
Germany 47
Denmark 44
Finland 38
Norway 22
Japan 1
POLLUTION
Travel on public transportation as a percent of all travel:
Japan 18%
Finland 16
Denmark 15
Portugal 14
Germany 11
Norway 9
United Kingdom 8
Netherlands 8
United States 1
Annual air miles per person:
United States 1,698
Canada 1,105
Netherlands 1,014
United Kingdom 902
Norway 829
Sweden 575
Finland 506
Denmark 476
Japan 425
Germany 344
Average price of a gallon of gas:
Sweden $4.85
Denmark 4.46
United Kingdom 3.56
Germany 3.05
Netherlands 3.02
Japan 3.01
Canada 1.40
United States 1.07
Energy Units of oil burned annually:
United States 791.5
European Community 501.4
Japan 234.3
Germany 108.5
United Kingdom 81.3
Canada 80.4
Netherlands 24.1
Sweden 16.3
Finland 11.1
Norway 9.3
Denmark 9.0
Carbon dioxide released per person per year:
United States 5.8 tons
Canada 4.8
Germany 3.2
United Kingdom 2.9
Japan 2.2
OECD Europe 1.8
Total Carbon Monoxide emitted annually:
United States 60,900 tons
Canada 10,100
Germany 8,926
France 6,198
United Kingdom 5,264
Sweden 1,754
Netherlands 1,229
Norway 649
Switzerland 621
Total chlorofluorocarbons emitted annually:
United States 332 million tons
Japan 95
Germany 71
United Kingdom 67
Canada 34
Netherlands 17
Switzerland 10
Denmark 6
Finland 6
Sweden 4
Norway 1
Major oil spills (1976-89):
United States 16
France 6
United Kingdom 5
Japan 4
Canada 2
Sweden 2
Finland 1
Germany 1
Forests cleared (thousands of cubic yards):
United States 808,421
Canada 379,500
France 95,964
Sweden 84,612
Finland 72,864
Japan 57,272
Norway 14,810
United Kingdom 6,600
Acid rain (the lower the pH number, the worse the acidity):
Japan 3.9 pH
Sweden 4.1
United States 4.3
Canada 4.3
Norway 4.4
Denmark 4.5
Finland 4.5
Netherlands 4.9
United Kingdom 5.1
Energy Units of coal burned annually:
United States 458.0
European Community 299.0
Germany 73.9
Japan 73.2
United Kingdom 64.0
Canada 27.6
Netherlands 8.1
Denmark 5.5
Finland 4.1
Sweden 2.5
Norway 1.0
Debris inhaled per person per year:
United States 81 pounds
Finland 44
Sweden 44
Europe 26
Netherlands 24
Germany 24
Denmark 20
Norway 15
United Kingdom 11
Japan 2
Government spending on pollution control (percent of GDP):
Japan 1.17%
Netherlands 0.95
Canada 0.89
Germany 0.78
Sweden 0.66
United Kingdom 0.62
United States 0.60
Norway 0.54
Finland 0.52
Municipal waste per person per year (kilograms)5
United States 864 kg.
Canada 632
Japan 394
United Kingdom 353
Germany 331
France 304
Italy 301
Percent of all glass recycled:
Netherlands 50.3%
Japan 49.6
Germany 41.2
Sweden 40.0
Denmark 31.0
Finland 30.0
United Kingdom 27.0
Norway 21.1
United States 20.0
Percent of all paper and cardboard recycled:
Netherlands 62.0%
Japan 54.4
Germany 37.0
Denmark 32.0
United Kingdom 13.0
United States 8.4
WORK AND LEISURE TIME
Note the position of economic powerhouse Germany in the next two lists.
Average hours worked per year:
Japan 2,173
United States 1,890
Sweden 1,808
United Kingdom 1,771
Netherlands 1,756
Finland 1,744
Norway 1,725
Denmark 1,699
Germany 1,668
Average paid vacation per year:
Finland 35.0 days
Germany 30.0
France 25.5
Denmark 25.0
Sweden 25.0
United Kingdom 25.0
Netherlands 24.0
Switzerland 22.0
Norway 21.0
United States 12.0
Average hours spent watching TV per day:
Japan 9:12
United States 7:00
Canada 3:24
United Kingdom 3:10
Germany 2:13
Sweden 2:00
Finland 2:00
Denmark 1:54
Netherlands 1:42
Switzerland 1:34
News as a percent of all TV programming:
Denmark 43%
Sweden 35
Canada 32
Netherlands 25
Germany 20
United Kingdom 17
Japan 6
United States 2
Annual employee turnover in manufacturing:
United States 40%
Finland 35
Germany 25
United Kingdom 20
Sweden 18
Japan 18
France 14
How employers rate their employees (100 = strong identification with company objectives):
Japan 84.7
Switzerland 70.8
Denmark 68.4
Germany 64.3
Norway 60.7
Finland 60.4
Netherlands 58.5
France 57.9
United States 56.4
Sweden 56.0
Canada 52.2
United Kingdom 48.1
Percent of employees fired for cause:
United States 52%
European Community 43
DEMOCRACY
The U.S. may be the oldest existing democracy in the world, but it is also the weakest, and one of the only democracies where voting is not required by law. It shows:
Voter participation:
Germany 87%
Sweden 86
Norway 83
Netherlands 80
Finland 76
United Kingdom 75
Canada 75
United States 49
Average number of national referenda per year:
Switzerland 169
Australia 18
Denmark 11
France 10
Ireland 8
Italy 4
Sweden 3
Norway 1
United Kingdom 1
Canada 0
Finland 0
Germany 0
Japan 0
Netherlands 0
United States 0
Number of political scandals since 1945 (More):
United States 53
United Kingdom 42
France 16
Canada 5
Germany 3
Japan 2
Sweden 2
Netherlands 1
Norway 1
Number of politically motivated demonstrations, strikes, riots and armed attacks over 30 years:
United Kingdom 5,136
United States 4,258
France 1,566
Germany 622
Japan 524
Canada 260
Finland 63
Netherlands 57
Denmark 55
Switzerland 39
Sweden 33
The United Nations Human Freedom Index (0 = least freedom, 40 = most freedom. More.):
Sweden 38
Denmark 38
Netherlands 37
Austria 36
Finland 36
France 35
Germany 35
Canada 34
Switzerland 34
Australia 33
United States 33
Japan 32
United Kingdom 32
CONCLUSION
These statistics are shattering to those who believe that greater individualism and less government somehow produce better societies. And they should serve as a wake-up call to every American that this country is headed in the wrong direction.
These statistics evoke two common responses from conservatives and libertarians. The most natural response is to blame them on 40 years of Democratic government. This, however, is a giant non sequitur. The very point of this list is that nations with far more liberal governments than ours have created better societies, even with somewhat less productivity. If liberalism were really harmful to a nation's standard of living, then these nations should be doing worse, not better.
Moreover, as mentioned earlier, America's truly liberal government was replaced in the mid-70s by the corporate special interest system, which introduced a conservative agenda of tax cuts for the rich and massive deregulation of business. Corporate lobbyists, and not the interchangeable "Republicrats," have influenced legislation over the past 20 years.
The second most common response is that minorities drag down America's statistics. Of course, blaming minorities for society's problems is an old game in American politics, but it is especially dismaying in this case because it is not even true. Take infant mortality rates, for example. White infant mortality rates still place America near the very top of the list. (The following chart deviates slightly from the chart above because it is taken from the year before, 1990, and from a different source using different methodology. But it shows the same trend nonetheless.) |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 4:37 am Post subject: |
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May I also ask those who read the statistics to post which they find the most meaningful???? To me, it is th% of TV. programming that is news.....in the U.S. it is a mere 2%.... tells me a lot.
DDe |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 4:52 am Post subject: |
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let's not mix up discussions of executions with incarcerations
and it'd be nice to discuss such issues without getting bogged down with pro- and anti-american rhetoric |
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bigverne
Joined: 12 May 2004
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| Posted: Mon May 22, 2006 5:51 am Post subject: |
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We were talking about crime, and you posted a huge list of largely irrelevant information about pollution, tax rates and infant mortality. There was a little bit in there about crime, but it hardly presented a complete picture. Moreover, those statistics are 15 years old.
Do you have any current statistics that support your claims? |
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