I’ve been thinking about several comparisons which display the United States in a very unfavorable light.
First, the prison-industrial complex.
We have, by all accounts, the highest incarceration rate in the world. Simply put, we imprison more of our citizens than any other country, and at a rate 5-8 times that of other western industrialized countries, including Canada, England, Germany, and France.
Meda likes to quote Sen. Jim Webb:
With so many of our citizens in prison compared with the rest of the world, there are only two possibilities: Either we are home to the most evil people on earth or we are doing something different–and vastly counterproductive. Obviously, the answer is the latter.
Then there’s the health care system. We spend more on health care than any other country in the world, but are well short of having the best health outcomes.
This chart helps visualize the situation using just one health variable–life expectancy. I think the picture would be much the same choosing some other variable. It plots per capita health care spending against life expectancy. You would think this would be a simple relationship. More spending, better health, live longer. But it doesn’t seem to work that way.
You can see the dot representing the US way out on the right, showing we spend more than others. But despite our investment in health care, many countries exceed our average life expectancy.
![[text]](http://ilind.net/misc /2011/health_spending.gif)
Again, paraphrasing Jim Webb, either we are the sickest and unhealthiest population in the world, or we are doing something very counterproductive.
I would also say there’s something similar going on in national security spending. We have by far the largest military budget. Underscore–by far–according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. It looks like we spend more than all the rest of the world combined.
Has it bought us peace? To the contrary, it appears that we are less secure and involved in more military actions than most others.
So how do we sort out the common thread underlying our seeming inability to use our resources effectively in the interests of all Americans?
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I agree. Seems to me an allocation of resources issue. But it’s not just a national issue; it’s local, too. Like committing to spend over $5 BILLION for a 20 mile choo choo while restricting access to food for the hungry.
Thing is, the money spent on war and military bases and mall trains all comes out of the same pocket. Those pockets went empty and we now borrow to fill them again, just to spend on the same foolishness.
Scroo’d up priorities methinks.
WRT health care, that could also be related to lifestyle issues as well, e.g., high obesity rates related to eating habits and sedentary lifestyle.
I’m going to guess that a significant factor in the incarceration rate is our approach to non-medical drug use.
To be fair, we are #1 in gun ownership. And we have Lady Gaga.
USA! USA! USA!
Bob Dylan is 70 years old today. He wrote several powerful songs about prisons during his career. For whatever it’s worth, here are a few verses of “Walls Of Red Wing”:
Oh, the age of the inmates
I remember quite freely:
No younger than twelve
No older ’n seventeen
Thrown in like bandits
And cast off like criminals
Inside the walls
The walls of Red Wing
The night aimed shadows
Through the crossbar windows
And the wind punched hard
To make the wall-siding sing
It’s many a night
I pretended to be a-sleepin’
Inside the walls
The walls of Red Wing
Oh, some of us’ll end up
In St. Cloud Prison
And some of us’ll wind up
To be lawyers and things
And some of us’ll stand up
To meet you on your crossroads
From inside the walls
The walls of Red Wing
But, Ian … there must be something wrong with your thinking. After all, the Republicans keep assuring us that we’re the greatest country in the world. (And to prove it, they all wear those little flag lapel pins and condemn those who don’t.)
The same observation can be made about the welfare system. We keep spending more on it, but the poverty rate keeps rising. Paraphrasing Jim Webb, either we are the poorest most downtrodden population in the world, or we are doing something very counterproductive.
The same observation can be made about our education system. We keep spending more on it, but the dropout rate keeps rising and the competitiveness of our students against other nations keeps falling. Paraphrasing Jim Webb, either we have the dumbest kids in the world, or we are doing something very counterproductive.
It could simply be the size of the United States that leads to certain dysfunctions. In terms of health care, one will notice that countries that have a high life expectancy coupled with low costs are Singapore and Cuba, two countries with very different political and economic systems, but which are relatively small — and ruthlessly organized.
Health care, education, welfare — these are all issues usually written about by female journalists. These topics have become feminized in our national discourse, and are in some ways off the map compared to war and money. (Perhaps the same is true with prisons?) But the fact that these issues (and prisons?) can be related to women in the public consciousness shows that there could be a link between these issues and things like emotional development and nurturing and other things related to women.
We don’t do community well in the United States — in fact, there is no ‘we’. Related to this, we don’t do culture too well either. We do war and money well — or at least we used to. Well, we build houses well. … Um, okay, we don’t do anything well any more.
So thank goodness we live in Hawaii, the last normal place in the United States for its residue of community and culture. Enjoy it now, it’s going fast.
Conklin seems to be living in some alternative universe. Expenditures on welfare and education have been in decline since St. Reagan was in office. The results being an increase in poverty rates and a decline in quality education. This, of course, was entirely predictable.
And yet so many people are literally dying to come to the US, despite our many shortcomings.
Some industrialized countries simply do not share our challenges.
And life in so many other places is poor, nasty, brutish and short.
We can surely do better. But we could certainly do worse.
Most people who live in our counterparts, developed industrialized countries, are not “dying” to come to the U.S.
Many of those countries spend much more on welfare, the social safety net, public transportation (trains, buses, bikes, and shuttles), and public service salaries than we do.
And many (Japan comes to mind) are able to do so under the expensive blanket of security we provide, and without welcoming nearly as many from the less developed world, where plenty are indeed dying to come to the US, and where Americans who take for granted our freedoms, opportunities and standard of living are rightly regarded as soft, spoiled fools.
We can surely do better. But we could certainly do worse.
Such a good article Ian, mahalo. Much to think about.
On community and Hawaii, check out the film, ‘The Economics of Happiness’. The Hawaii Peoples Fund offered two showings. It was really inspiring. Viewings in neighborhoods would be really positive.
We can definitely do better.
Kanu Hawaii is asking members to meet their neighbors three doors down on all sides and share their experiences. I can’t because we are all friends already 🙂 I am lucky to be surrounded with wonderful neighbors. Yes, aloha is real.