America has some of the proudest, most patriotic citizens. It also has some of the most oblivious, egotistical citizens.
I will be among the first to say I love my country, but every time I hear someone say America is the greatest country in the world, I can’t help but shudder. There are dozens of countries ahead of us in major categories.
According to the student performance on the Reading, Scientific and Mathematical Literacy Scales from Geographic, the U.S. is ranked 33rd in reading, 27th in math and 22nd in science. Our national IQ score is 98, behind Sweden, Poland, New Zealand, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Canada, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, China, Austria, Switzerland, Mongolia, Iceland, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
Clearly our academics, which we flaunt on a regular basis, are nowhere near reaching other countries’ levels of student success. The U.S. Census Bureau ranked us 29th in overall adult literacy (41st if you want to only look at adult male literacy).
In addition to failing to educate our population as well as other countries we consistently gloat that we are “better than” (which is a ridiculous claim to make in the first place), our emotional wellness is lacking as well. We are ranked 19th in child well-being, according to UNICEF’s resource center.
We are fifth in death sentences and executions, behind Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and China. We are first in number of incarcerated citizens per capita, more than doubling Russia’s rate only ranked one spot beneath us.
We are ranked behind 95 other countries for being the most at peace, as discovered by the Global Peace Index by the Economist. Several countries that rank above us include Vietnam, Guatemala, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
The categories we rank highest in are debt (second), Internet hosts (first), imported crude oil (third), carbon emissions (third), number of airports (first) and beer consumption (second only behind China, whose population more than triples ours).
Knowing this, are you still proud? Or as proud as you were before knowing these facts? Part of me hopes you’re not.
Everyone knows America’s ego is beyond inflated. We like to brag and wave our flag and shout from the rooftops how perfectly awesome we are as a country, but we don’t like to recognize how far behind other countries we are in areas that really matter.
As Mackenzie MacHale from “The Newsroom” would say, we’re not the best country in the world. But we can try to be.
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