Re America Is Now a 'Second Tier' Country

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Richard Bennett <richard () bennett com>
Date: Sat, Jun 24, 2017 at 4:01 PM
Subject: Re: [IP] America Is Now a 'Second Tier' Country
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>


This really isn’t anything new. Life expectancy is a pretty good proxy for
today’s fashionable metrics about happiness and well-being. As data goes,
it has a lot to offer because it has been measured for a very long time -
longer in other countries than in the US actually.

In 1880, the average life expectancy in the US was 39.4 years, but it was
47.6 in Sweden. And in every year since then, Sweden has outperformed the
US. In 1900, the longest-living human demographic was females in Sweden.
See https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy/

Overall, life expectancy in developed nations has doubled since the 19th
century, which mainly comes down to control of childhood diseases by
immunization, healthcare advances in general, food security, and clean
water. In other words, science and technology.

US culture has a strong anti-science element, which probably traces its
roots back to utopians and religious fanatics who immigrated here in the
early days because they found some element of mainstream European culture
unacceptable. As a result, we have large movements opposing science and
technology.

When the smallpox vaccine was introduced in 1798, it was enormously
controversial in the US because many viewed it as tampering with nature and
rebelling against God’s will. When states and cities passed mandatory
smallpox vaccination laws in the 19th century, organized opposition
movements formed and the Supreme Court had to rule in 1902 that states did
in fact have the power to mandate vaccination.

Yet the US is a paradox because we produce most of the world’s science and
technology. This means we also create a lot of Travis Kalanicks who give
tech a bad name.

So maybe the Scandinavians have the right idea: leave all the boundary
pushing to the US and quietly enjoy the benefits without getting embroiled
in the controversies.

On Jun 24, 2017, at 11:26 AM, Dave Farber <farber () gmail com> wrote:




Begin forwarded message:

*From:* Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
*Date:* June 24, 2017 at 12:06:40 PM EDT
*To:* Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
*Subject:* *[Dewayne-Net] America Is Now a 'Second Tier' Country*
*Reply-To:* dewayne-net () warpspeed com

[Note:  This item comes from friend Mike Cheponis.  DLH]

America Is Now a ‘Second Tier’ Country
Some 17 others, including all of Scandinavia, outperform the U.S. by a wide
margin when it comes to well-being.
By Eric Roston
Jun 21 2017
<
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-21/america-is-now-a-second-tier-country
>

America leads the world when it comes to access to higher education. But
when it comes to health, environmental protection, and fighting
discrimination, it trails many other developed countries, according to the
Social Progress Imperative, a U.S.-based nonprofit.

The results of the group’s annual survey, which ranks nations based on 50
metrics, call to mind other reviews of national well-being, such as the
World Happiness Report released in March, which was led by Norway, Denmark,
and Iceland, or September’s Lancet study on sustainable development. In
that one, Iceland, Singapore, Sweden, and the U.S. took spots 1, 2, 3, and
28—respectively.

The Social Progress Index released this week is compiled from social and
environmental data that come as close as possible to revealing how people
live. “We want to measure a country’s health and wellness achieved, not how
much effort is expended, nor how much the country spends on healthcare,”
the report states. Scandinavia walked away with the top four of 128 slots.
Denmark scored the highest. America came in at 18.

The U.S. may be underperforming, but so is the rest of the world. American
progress, like that of other rich nations, has stalled for four years
running. Based on overall world GDP, humanity as a whole could be doing a
much more efficient job taking care of itself. Tough graders, these
social-progress folks.

Of course it’s easy enough to dismiss or belittle these occasional reports,
each with their unique methodologies and almost identical conclusions.
Another approach, however, would be to look at them all together and
conclude that they represent “mounting evidence.” In that case, Houston
(and Dallas, New Orleans, Tulsa, St. Louis, Baltimore, Chicago, and New
York), we have a problem.

SPI produces the report in part to help city, state, and national
policymakers diagnose and (ideally) address their most pressing challenges.
The group’s chief executive, Michael Green, said America “is failing to
address basic human needs, equip citizens to improve their quality of life,
protect the environment, and provide opportunity for everyone to make
personal choices and reach their full potential.”

[snip]

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Richard Bennett
High Tech Forum <http://hightechforum.org> Founder
Ethernet & Wi-Fi standards co-creator

Internet Policy Consultant



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