When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat. ~ George Carlin

Welcome to the first official post for the Myth of America blog. The origin of this blog starts with a seed planted while watching the very first episode of the television show Newsroom written by the amazing Aaron Sorkin. There’s a great scene where the main character is asked what makes America the greatest country, here’s the scene:

The Myth of America

His response starts with it’s not and he goes on through an amazing speech to demonstrate why. He finishes with the statement, “the first step to solving any problem is recognizing that there is one.” This idea is absolutely the why of this blog. We have a problem in America, far too many Americans stomp around, thumping their chests chanting things like USA, USA and we’re number one, without ever really giving a thought to if we are, and if we are, how, what justifies the statement you hear so often in America, that this is the greatest country on earth?

What I’m hoping to do with this blog is to challenge that idea and by doing so get people to think on how we might actually climb closer to that ideal. And my guess is that this blog will be universally despised, why, because I’m going to acknowledge the nuance of the answer. In America we’ve devolved into in a country where everything, particularly anything political, is always and simply black or white. Liberal ideology is either brilliant or considered as those on the Right love to say, makes you a libtard. Conservative ideology is considered the realm of the uneducated, uninformed and those who lack empathy. Political discourse in this country is limited to memes, statements of absolutism and name calling.

In this blog I’ll be trying to elucidate the nuances of every position, so both sides will likely be unhappy with what I have to say, and honestly, too fucking bad. This doesn’t mean I won’t adopt a position, because the fact is that there are some absolutes in this world. If you support Nazi’s, you’re just fucking wrong, if you de-value the humanity of your fellow human simply based on a single characteristic, height, weight, gender, color, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, you’re just wrong. The simple fact is if you hate Donald Trump, you should still be able to acknowledge that not everything he did was wrong, the same if you hate Joe Biden. If you can’t agree to that, your opinion is invalid because it’s based solely on emotion, not rational thought. It’s rational thought that will be valued in this blog, not absolutism in thinking.

America is Number One!?

Ok, let’s start with the numbers, how does America rank, in what categories does America rank really highly?

According to a US News article looking at attributes of countries, the United States ranks first in agility, entrepreneurship and power. These all relate in some way to national wealth and I don’t think the idea that America is the wealthiest country on earth has ever been in doubt, we are the kings and queens of capitalism. But the nuance, why, is it because we’re better than others, that we’re chosen by some god. No, the realities, while complex do have some specific roots. First of all, we’re fortunate enough to live in a country that has always had a huge wealth of natural resources, the country, when settled by whites, was settle by people who were focused on creating new opportunities and we’ve always had a government structure more than favorable to a capitalist mindset. Even if that means allowing people to live in slavery in order to facilitate our capitalist goals. If you’ve ever been confused by what people mean when they say the Civil War was fought over state rights, or for economic reasons let me explain exactly what that means. The Confederacy was fighting to keep the ability for states to have the right to continue slavery, for those states economic interests. Although a terrible war, I’m glad this country won that war to the favor of acting against our economic interest and in favor of basic morality and human rights. Unfortunately, that seems to the be exception not the rule, so a country blessed with resources and focused on capitalist principles is not surprisingly wealthy which provides agility, favors entrepreneurship and gives us incredible power both politically and militarily.

According to Knoema.com America is number one in the following areas:

Gross Domestic Product              

Number of Air Passengers Carried          

Military Expenditure

Both incarceration rate and number of people incarcerated

Areas we’re not in the top 10:

Press freedom      Adult Literacy Rates

Civil Liberties       Education Expenditure

Property rights index    Happiness

Really unfortunate rankings

#2 in homicides by gun

#5 in overall homicides

US Infant mortality rate is usually ranked 30th to 50th, behind almost every European Country, Israel and Japan.

Health Metrics

When it comes to health metrics the US National Institute of Health said the following:

More specifically, when compared with the average for peer countries, the United States fares worse in nine health domains:

1. Adverse birth outcomes: For decades, the United States has experienced the highest infant mortality rate of high-income countries and also ranks poorly on other birth outcomes, such as low birth weight. American children are less likely to live to age 5 than children in other high-income countries.
2. Injuries and homicides: Deaths from motor vehicle crashes, non-transportation-related injuries, and violence occur at much higher rates in the United States than in other countries and are a leading cause of death in children, adolescents, and young adults. Since the 1950s, U.S. adolescents and young adults have died at higher rates from traffic accidents and homicide than their counterparts in other countries.
3. Adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections: Since the 1990s, among high-income countries, U.S. adolescents have had the highest rate of pregnancies and are more likely to acquire sexually transmitted infections.
4. HIV and AIDS: The United States has the second highest prevalence of HIV infection among the 17 peer countries and the highest incidence of AIDS.
5. Drug-related mortality: Americans lose more years of life to alcohol and other drugs than people in peer countries, even when deaths from drunk driving are excluded.
6. Obesity and diabetes: For decades, the United States has had the highest obesity rate among high-income countries. High prevalence rates for obesity are seen in U.S. children and in every age group thereafter. From age 20 onward, U.S. adults have among the highest prevalence rates of diabetes (and high plasma glucose levels) among peer countries.
7. Heart disease: The U.S. death rate from ischemic heart disease is the second highest among the 17 peer countries. Americans reach age 50 with a less favorable cardiovascular risk profile than their peers in Europe, and adults over age 50 are more likely to develop and die from cardiovascular disease than are older adults in other high-income countries.
8. Chronic lung disease: Lung disease is more prevalent and associated with higher mortality in the United States than in the United Kingdom and other European countries.
9. Disability: Older U.S. adults report a higher prevalence of arthritis and activity limitations than their counterparts in the United Kingdom, other European countries, and Japan.

So these are the overall numbers and base facts, so what do they tell us? They tell us that while the US is the richest country in the world, it’s not necessarily the best country in the world. The US absolutely has a problem with guns and violence and it’s sad that a country with so much wealth has such poor health metrics when compared to other developed countries. When we fall below some third world countries in health metrics it makes me want to scream, how do we allow that here? And that’s certainly what the greatest country on earth would for it’s people.

America IS the greatest country on earth for some of us!

For some of us, America is the greatest country on earth, and honestly that’s probably fairly accurate for me. Why? Simply because our income is significantly above the national average. The median income in America is roughly $75,000 a year in 2022 according to the US Census Bureau. For those of you who never took or don’t remember your stats class, that means half of America makes more than and half of America makes less than that. The average salary was around $56,000 per year. So for people who earn in the top 10% in this country, (that’s $170,000 and above) this is the greatest country on earth. While with that income you could live like a god in many developing countries, those high level earnings allow you access to all the best things America has to offer.

With that type of income you likely have excellent health insurance, you have access to good food, to live in a safe and secure area. You have access to good attorneys should you have any legal troubles. You have enough expendable income to invest money and reap all of the tax and wealth building benefits the stock market offers. You likely own a nice house that is also building generational wealth in your family. And that generational wealth building is the really big thing. That is really what leads to the rich getting richer and the poor staying poor. This economic split has helped anything resembling a true middle class in America to disappear. And while this is great for those in these income levels, for those not, America is far from the greatest place to live. 

This income inequality can lead to many negative consequences, as reported by De Gruyter:

This review also shows that inequality has been linked on the economic front with reduced growth, investment and innovation, and on the social front with reduced health and social mobility, and greater violent crime.

For people on the lower end of the economic spectrum, they feel these impacts the most.

So it’s obvious that America is not just automatically the best country in the world. The whole idea of the best country on earth is bullshit to start with. There is no such thing and Americans would understand that better if they traveled outside the US more often. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel a lot and whenever you are overseas you inevitably encounter things you wish the US did as well, public transportation and universal healthcare are always at the top of that list for me. And things you encounter that make you grateful for the opportunity to live in the US, most of these have to do with the luxuries we regularly encounter in the US in terms of housing, recreation and entertainment.

What the America is number one sentiment really comes down to are oversimplified ideas of patriotism and love of country. It’s the completely lack of nuanced idea that you can’t love your country if you criticize it, and that’s completely asinine. You can love your spouse/family and still criticize something they do, so surely you can do the same with your country. And patriotism is not my country right or wrong! Patriotism in my opinion should be about standing for the things your country says it stands for. Unfortunately right now it seems are country, based on our spending, stands for power, militarism and pride instead of caring for it’s people’s health and well-being. Let’s work on getting to that place.