An article by Neal Gabler entitled “We are (not) the greatest” opens “The hoariest cliché in American politics may be that America is the greatest country in the world. Every politician, Democrat and Republican, seems duty bound to pander to this idea of American exceptionalism, and woe unto him who hints otherwise…
“There is nothing wrong with national pride. But the incessant trumpeting of U. S. national superiority to every other country is more than just off-putting and insulting. It is wrong. And it might be dangerous both to ourselves and to the rest of the world….”
He continues “…our standard of living as measured by the Human Development Index of the United Nations ranks us only 15th in the world….According to an Educational Policy Institute report, we rank 13th in the affordability of [college] education and we are much less successful with lower education—11th in the percentage of the 25 to 34 population with a high school diploma and 22nd in science education.”
“And though Americans love to crow about the ‘best health care’ in the world, the fact is that according to the World Health Organization Index, we actually rank 37th in the quality of our health care.”
WATCHDOG: Food for thought. A wag of the tail for this ‘heads up.’
