I am quoting verbatim from a response to this question in Quora by Kevin Dolgin, because we need to be aware that according to available statistics, America has been falling behind other countries in many respects — such as income, health, quality of life, while remaining pre-eminent in other respects.
Promising improvements, Donald Trump plagiarized the slogan "Make America Great Again." But America has never been great for everyone. What we need to do is to change this, to try our best to make changes that "Make America Great For Everyone" (MAGFE), and to do this we need to be aware of areas where we can do better.
With this in mind, pointing out areas where other countries have proved that better is possible, I quote verbatim the article from Quora by Kevin Dolgin, which is one of the answers to the following question:
QUESTION: My friend from Germany says America is not the greatest country in the world. How can I convince him otherwise?
ANSWER BY: Kevin Dolgin, Entrepreneur, writer, musician, humanist
No problem, I can help.
I’m not German, but I do spend a lot of time there (I’ll be there next week, in
fact). I think it’s safe to say that German culture is pretty rational. If you’re going
to succeed, you’ll need to be systematic and provide some hard facts. I’ve
brought some together for you.
First, we need to establish what exactly we mean by “best”, otherwise we don’t
know what data to provide. As I see it, our idea as Americans has tended to be
that we’re the richest, most powerful, freest country in the world, the place
where it’s best to live. So let’s focus there.
Let’s get right to it: we’re the richest. The United States has the highest GNP at
over $20 trillion. China is second.
However, that might not be the best to lead with, because it’s more a question of
GDP per capita. Unfortunately, the USA is only 20th by that measure. The top
country is Liechtenstein. In fact, even Ireland is higher .
But then, it’s not just about wealth, it’s about the ability to better your situation.
The United States was always about the “Cinderella story”, the ability to pull
yourself up by your bootstraps. This is known as social mobility, and obviously
the United States is tops in that, right?
’Fraid not. In fact, it comes out as 16th, after Argentina. Most of Europe,
including the “socialist” Scandinavian countries provide better environments for
“making it from nothing” .
But certainly, it’s not just that, it’s also about not being poor. So let’s consider the
percent of people living in poverty. Unfortunately, the USA comes in at 42nd
, right below Morocco.
But there’s freedom. The USA is definitely number one in freedom! Except that it
isn’t. According to the Cato institute it comes in at 17th, which is all the same one
better than Albania . Ah, but there’s the United States’ vaunted economic
freedom. The USA doesn’t regulate companies to death like so many other
nations. Well, there it comes in at 11th, tied with Canada, and behind most other
English speaking nations (UK, Ireland, New Zealand) .
But we’re healthy! We have access to the world’s best healthcare, right? Actually,
the USA lags in just about every health indicator, including life expectancy
(45th), where once again, we are just ahead of Albania , who we absolutely
trounce when it comes to infant mortality… although we do only rank 56th ,
well behind pretty much all of Europe (and of course Cuba, which beats the US in
most health measures).
But we can of course be proud of our history. The United States made the
greatest sacrifice at the beginning of the 20th century and saved the world from
tyranny in the second world war. 420,000 Americans gave their lives in that war.
Their valor will honestly never be forgotten. It must, however, be put into
context… the USSR lost between 20 and 27 million people in that war, China lost
15 to 20 million. In fact, among the allied nations, the United States came in 12th
in casualties. Both the UK and France lost more people, and of course much
higher percentages of their populations .
OK, but happiness. Down to earth happiness: where is the best place to live?
Turns out it’s Finland. The United States comes in 18th .
There is one measure, though, that the United States definitely leads every single
other country by: guns per capita. 1.01 guns per inhabitant. The number two
country, Serbia, doesn’t come close, with only 0.58 . So, if your German friend
is really into guns then that might sway him.
Or, you can perhaps just understand that the United States is a great country for
people who like American culture. Some people would only feel comfortable
there, nowhere else. Most people who were not raised there, though, would find
very few objective measures by which the country is better than theirs, assuming
they come from the developed world, therefore by definition it can not be “the
greatest country” by any objective measure.
I would point out that pretty much every one of those measures shows the much
derided, “socialist” Scandinavian countries outperforming the United States.
Interestingly, Ireland does as well. So if you happen to be of Irish or
Scandinavian descent, maybe you can take solace in that.
EDIT (TL:DR)
So, after about twelve hours up, this has received many comments and views,
and a couple of things were pointed out, so I thought I’d add an addendum.
First, thank you to all the people who seem to have appreciated the post. I have
in the past received rather scathing comments on a number of posts and support
is always appreciated.
For those who stated that I cherry-picked, all I can say is that as a researcher I try
very hard not to do that. I was aware of many of these stats before I looked for
them, but I tried as hard as possible to find unobjectionable sources (the CIA is in
there for many) and I always post the first, best source regardless of whether it is
in line with my pre-established ideas. Perhaps the most contentious stat was
people below the poverty line because yes, it is relative, but frankly, I’ve travelled
to over sixty countries and it is very true that you can live a hell of a lot better on
ten dollars a day in Cameroon than in Switzerland, that’s why I took that
measure. If, though, you want to look at percent of the population living with
less than $5.50 a day then the United States still comes out at 20th, behind
pretty much all of Western Europe, Australia, etc .
A number of people pointed out that I didn’t say anything about safety, and that
was an oversight. The United States has a higher incarceration rate than any
other country save one, the Seychelles. The USA has 666 people per 100,000 in
prison, the next highest country, El Salvador, has only 586 . As for the
Seychelles, it’s not really that the country is all that keen on throwing its citizens
in prison, it’s just that it’s a tiny country with a slew of Somali pirates in jail,
since it’s the closest lawful country to where they tend to be captured, so the USA
is pretty much alone in its incredible enthusiasm for jailing its citizens (typically
on relatively minor drug charges) . In comparison, France, where I live, has
about 100 prisoners per 100,000 in people.
In terms of safety, the United States is far more violent than many other nations.
The intentional homicide rate in the United States places it 99 out of 194
countries, once again, just edging out Albania! And, of course, every nation in
Western Europe has much lower homicide rates .
As for those who pointed out that despite all that, it’s still the greatest country
because “there aren’t long lines of people trying to get into Germany”…. well,
nope. In fact, there are. It’s hard to get immigration figures, but asylum seekers
are logged. Germany actually has more people asking for asylum than does the
United States, many more, over 722,000 compared to 262,000. In fact, if you
adjust for population, the United States comes in at 12th in terms of the most
sought-after destination (i.e. asylum seekers per population) after Germany,
Austria, Greece, Switzerland, Hungary, Sweden, Italy, France, Australia, the
Netherlands, and Turkey, and just in front of Canada . In case you’re tempted
to say this is because of Trump’s restrictions I’m afraid not, these are 2016 data,
before he became president.
Lastly, please keep in mind that I’m not saying the USA is a bad place. I love my
home country, but this quasi-religious need to consider it superior to everyplace
else, even for someone who is not from the States (as implied by the OP) is
unique to the United States. Really, I’ve spent my life travelling, I’ve been to well
over sixty countries (I kind of lost count) and have worked in many… even
created companies in at least six or seven - the United States is unique in its
citizens having this need to consider the country objectively superior. The only
two objective things you can say that make it “superior”, though, is that it has the
largest absolute GDP and the most powerful military. However, I’m sure you
wouldn’t say that the most worthy person in school is the strongest and richest of
the lot. If you as an individual think it’s best for you, then great, I have no issue
with that at all, but don’t think that it’s some kind of objective nirvana that every
other country should emulate.
The facts aren’t with you.
Edit number two:
A gajillion views later and a lot of comments and I’d like to add one more thing…
A number of people have pointed out that the United States has the best
universities. There are excellent schools in the United States, truly world-class.
However, this comparison is a little difficult to make. For example, I have an
undergraduate degree from an American university and two graduate degrees
from Europe. The two systems are not comparable. When an American thinks
“university” he or she thinks about applying to colleges, as well as the research
carried out there. Many European systems are subtly (or not so subtly) different.
For example, I teach part-time at the Sorbonne (and have a master’s degree from
the school). Americans think “the Sorbonne is a great school” but in reality, it’s
just a building, broadly shared by some of the many parts of the University of
Paris (Paris I and Paris III really). Also, research is largely carried out outside of a
strict university setting, particularly on the continent, where universities per se
are more focused on teaching.
Anyway, to try to look at this, I thought I’d consider overall country rankings in
terms of research, as well as institutional rankings. To do that I turned to the
universally respected scientific journal “Nature”, which comes out with a rating
known as the “Weighted Fractional Count” (WFC) to determine academic output.
Researchers tend to measure success by how much they are published and cited
in peer-reviewed journals, and the WFC is a measure of that.
Nature publishes a country and an institutional comparison of WFC. The United
States indeed is number one in WFC, followed by China . For those who look at
“greatness” as absolutes, then like GNP / GDP the USA is therefore on top.
However, in terms of the greatness of a system I think this should be weighted for
population to get an idea of innovativeness. After all, China is number two and
it’s largely (to be frank) because there are so many Chinese. The Chinese system
is not particularly conducive to scientific research (for the moment). As such, I
looked at WFC as compared to population. In that case, the United States comes
out number 4, after Switzerland, Singapore and Israel, and pretty much equal to
the next four countries: Sweden, Denmark, the UK and Germany. Note that these
are excellent results… but they do not support an idea of American
exceptionalism.
In terms of institutions, here is the WFC list straight from Nature, of the top 10 in
the world :
Great, there are three American institutions in the top ten. That’s something to
be proud of. It’s not dominant.
In order to double check this (and I promise I had no idea what I’d find before I
did the analysis) and to make things a little simpler, I looked for pure number of
citable papers. I found the Scimago journal article counts . Once again, the
USA comes out on top. I then, again, looked at this as a function of population.
The United States fares far worse in this case, coming in at 16 (behind, in order,
Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Australia, the UK, Belgium,
Singapore, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Austria, Ireland and Germany).
I have enormous respect for American academic institutions, but I also have
enormous respect for non-American academic institutions (and I’d point out
that on top of my degree from the University of Paris, my MBA from INSEAD
wasn’t bad either: until last year the school was cited by the FT for a number of
years in a row as the best business school in the world - having been edged into
number two by Stanford last year).
Oh, and by the way, my dear, sensitive, Irish friends: I honestly meant no
disrespect in expressing any sort of surprise at Ireland’s very positive measures.
However, if you’re still ruffled then I’ll post something next time I’m going to
Dublin and I’ll take you all out for a Guinness at John Kehoe’s.
One very last edit, definitely too long to read…
Over the last few months, since it was posted, this answer has received
unexpected attention. One of the remaining points that has perhaps received the
greatest criticism was my paragraph about the second world war.
Many people have pointed out, and rightly so, that casualties do not victory
bring. My point, though – and please remember this, it is quite clear if you read
my words – was not that the American contribution to the war was negligible,
but that Americans underestimate the sacrifices of others. I’d point out that my
grandfather, who was my hero throughout my life, fought with the 26th infantry
division in Europe and was wounded in January ’45 near Saareguemines.
However, let’s take a look all the same at the relative impact of the United States
on the war in Europe.
For many Russians, the second world war was their conflict and the impact of the
Western allies was negligible. While my comparison of casualty figures supports
that view, as one commenter pointed out, Patton was right (when he said “No
dumb bastard ever won a war by going out and dying for his country. He won it
by making some other dumb bastard die for his country”). So what were the
causes of German military deaths?
Many sources have calculated that roughly 80% of German military casualties
were inflicted by the Soviets, and I think this is a pretty safe figure. The
Western allies were undoubtedly responsible for a much higher proportion of
civilian casualties, due to the strategic bombing campaign, but I am thoroughly
unconvinced of the impact of these civilian casualties and I doubt that even my
detractors would make an argument for American greatness by pointing out that
we killed more women and children. Of the remaining 20% of German military
casualties that occurred outside of the Eastern front, these include all the battles
before June, 1941, as well as losses in the Balkans and North Africa pre-Torch, in
which the United States played no role. According to OKW numbers, Western
front casualties from these campaigns in which the United States was not
present represent roughly half of German killed and wounded in the West.
Therefore the United States was present and contributing directly to casualties
for only 10% of German casualties (i.e. North Africa post-Torch, Italy, and
Western Europe post Overlord). If American forces were responsible for half of
all casualties during those campaigns, a rather high estimate, then the United
States produced 5% of German military casualties, compared to 80% for the
Soviets.
What then, of the impact of the strategic bombing campaigns, and of lend-lease?
I’m not going to hazard a guess about the impact of strategic bombing. I’ve been
an avid student of military history all my life and I have read a great many
diametrically opposed views about the impact of the British and American
bombing campaigns, ranging from “they won the war” to “they were utterly
pointless”. It’s a fascinating topic that is far too broad to be addressed here, and
I’m going to throw my hands in the air and say I don’t know. If you can
demonstrate that daylight bombing was the single greatest contributor to victory
then yes, the United States defeated Germany, but that will be extremely hard to
demonstrate.
As for lend-lease, yes, it had an important impact. It is impossible to say what
would have happened without it, but I would point out that lend-lease
shipments to the Soviets began relatively late and had virtually no impact in
1941. The Russians stopped the German assault on Moscow entirely on their
own. As of mid-1942, shipments were substantial, particularly of industrial goods
and much-needed food, and amounted to 4% to 7% of Soviet production for 1943
and 1944. This is enormous, but no one will ever be able to say that what would
have happened without it. Note as well that the Soviets themselves were well
aware of the fact that the actual weapons they received, whether tanks or
aircraft, were obsolete and inferior in quality to their own weapons (such as the
T-34 and the Yak-3), but they were very welcome all the same. Lastly, remember
too that before the entry of the United States into the war, lend-lease goods were
paid for, notably the exchange of British bases for obsolete destroyers.
Once again, I am in no way trying to denigrate the effort of the United States in
the war, nor by any means deny its impact and most certainly not question the
nobility of the cause or the bravery of the soldiers, including my grandfather. I
never said anything like that. I’m simply trying to put things in a bit of context.
When I was growing up, I was pretty much taught that the second world war was
won by the United States and this deserves to be seen in the context of the efforts
of other nations.
Sources for this bit…
Don’t forget how the Soviet Union saved the world from Hitler
https://www.historians.org/about...
https://histrf.ru/uploads/media/...
Did Russia Really Go It Alone? How Lend-Lease Helped the Soviets Defeat the
Germans
Russian historian: Importance of Lend-Lease cannot be overestimated
WWII lend-lease: was the US aid that helpful? (I) | OrientalReview.org
German casualties in World War II - Wikipedia
Footnotes
[1] Central Intelligence Agency
[2] https://inequality.stanford.edu/...
[3] List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty - Wikipedia
[4] Human Freedom Index
[5] https://www.fraserinstitute.org/...
[6] http://worldpopulationreview.com...
[7] Central Intelligence Agency
[8] World War II casualties - Wikipedia
[9] Overview
[10] Estimated number of guns per capita by country - Wikipedia
[11] List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty - Wikipedia
[12] Ranking: most prisoners per capita by country 2017 | Statistic
[13] The Somali pirates 'jailed in paradise'
[14] All countries compared for Crime > Violent crime > Murder rate per million
people
[15] Infographic: The Countries Receiving the Most Asylum Applications
[16] 2016 tables: Countries
[17] 2016 tables: Institutions
PS(1) Under the www.quora.com/terms of service reposting Quora articles does not require permission.
PS(2) Quora is a great source of politically relevant information.