By Zach Baker
This video is a clip from a TV show called The Newsroom staring Jeff Daniels. He goes on a rant about how America is not the greatest country in the world anymore. Here are the stats he points out that prove America is not the greatest. We are 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 7th in literacy, 3rd in median household income, 4th in exports, 4th in labor force, 178th in infant mortality, 1st in number of adults who believe in angels, 1st in military spending, and 1st in incarcerated citizens. I wont be talking about all of these statistics but I will focus on a few major ones that I believe to be important.
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First I would like to focus on where we are number one. Military spending accounts for almost 700 billion dollars out of our GDP(Gross Domestic Product). I hope those reading will not think I am anti-military. I have many friends who are in right now and I give them my full support. I do, however, feel that this massive amount of money we spend on developing ways to better kill people could be lessened. With the current stockpile the US Armed Forces has at their back, we are unstoppable. The warheads and WMD's that we posses could send everyone in the world back to the Stone Age twice over. This is not even counting how many guns and how much ammunition the civilian population in the US owns. In 2007 there were an estimated 88.8 small firearms per 100 residents. If someone is going to try and invade this country all I have to say is "you are not gonna get far". So why do we spend so much on military? This country is fully protected from just the firearms the civilians have. It comes down to foreign politics. In order to be the biggest player in foreign affairs we need the biggest military. Foreign politics and policies will be something I'll cover in the future.
Incarceration in the US is the highest in the world. The US spent 74 billion dollars on corrections in 2007.