Following issues and politics in St. Louis area from the retired "Steelworker" view. Politics will be the main theme, but news of the group and Steelworkers will also be followed.
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Global rankings study: America in warp-speed decline
Global rankings study: America in warp-speed decline
click link
snip
New Zealand is ranked in first place in social progress.
Interestingly, it ranks only 25th on GDP per capita, which means the
island of the long white cloud is doing a far better job than America
when it comes to meeting the need of its people. In order, the top 10 is
rounded out by Switzerland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden,
Canada, Finland, Denmark and Australia.
Unsurprisingly these
nations all happen to rank highly in the 2013 U.N. World Happiness
Report with Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden
among the top five.
So, what of the U.S? In terms of happiness, we rank 17th, trailing neighboring Mexico.
We
find ourselves languishing for the very fact we have allowed corporate
America to hijack the entire Republican Party, and some parts of the
Democratic Party. This influence has bought corporations and the rich a
rigged tax code that has redistributed wealth from the middle class to
the rich over the course of the past three decades. This lack of shared
prosperity and opportunity has retarded our social progress.
America’s
rapid descent into impoverished nation status is the inevitable result
of unchecked corporate capitalism. By every measure, we look like a
broken banana republic. Not a single U.S. city is included in the
world’s top 10 most livable cities. Only one U.S. airport makes the list
of the top 100 in the world. Our roads, schools and bridges are falling
apart, and our trains — none of them high-speed — are running off their
tracks.
click link
snip
New Zealand is ranked in first place in social progress.
Interestingly, it ranks only 25th on GDP per capita, which means the
island of the long white cloud is doing a far better job than America
when it comes to meeting the need of its people. In order, the top 10 is
rounded out by Switzerland, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden,
Canada, Finland, Denmark and Australia.
Unsurprisingly these
nations all happen to rank highly in the 2013 U.N. World Happiness
Report with Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Sweden
among the top five.
So, what of the U.S? In terms of happiness, we rank 17th, trailing neighboring Mexico.
We
find ourselves languishing for the very fact we have allowed corporate
America to hijack the entire Republican Party, and some parts of the
Democratic Party. This influence has bought corporations and the rich a
rigged tax code that has redistributed wealth from the middle class to
the rich over the course of the past three decades. This lack of shared
prosperity and opportunity has retarded our social progress.
America’s
rapid descent into impoverished nation status is the inevitable result
of unchecked corporate capitalism. By every measure, we look like a
broken banana republic. Not a single U.S. city is included in the
world’s top 10 most livable cities. Only one U.S. airport makes the list
of the top 100 in the world. Our roads, schools and bridges are falling
apart, and our trains — none of them high-speed — are running off their
tracks.