Americans, from President Obama to Sarah Palin, are always saying that the United States is number one for everything. It sure is, but for the wrong sorts of things.
As reported here, America now has the highest poverty rate, both generally and for children, the greatest inequality of incomes, the lowest government spending as a percentage of GDP on social programs for the disadvantaged, the lowest number of paid holiday, annual and maternity leaves, the lowest score on the UN's index of "material well-being of children", the worst score on the UN's gender inequality index, the lowest scores for student performance in math (except for Portugal and Italy) (and far down from the top in both science and reading), the highest high school drop out rate (except for Spain), the highest infant mortality rate, prevalence of mental health problems, obesity rate, portion of people going without health care due to cost, low birth weight children per capita (except for Japan), and consumption of anti-depressants per capita.
It also has the highest military spending as a portion of GDP, the largest international arms sales and the most negative balance of payments (except New Zealand, Spain and Portugal).
This is the kind of exceptionalism Americans can do without. The rest of the world would feel the same way.
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