On 8/31/2010 11:32 AM, Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> A college-teacher friend starts class tomorrow and would like some
> brisk current stats on how badly the US does in the comparative
> rankings in education, health, etc. (and also, if handy, how it has
> fallen over last few decades since the golden years). Does anyone have
> something nice handy? Or any suggestions for the best places to round
> them up? Many thanks.
>
[This is from some crank on the internet.]
http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Awfulness.html
How American awfulness stacks up
Americans may be some of the least healthy people in the rich part of this world, but we sure do feel good about ourselves!
That’s one of the more interesting revelations in the 2009 edition of the OECD’s Social Indicators. Americans lead the world in obesity, lag the world in life expectancy and infant mortality—yet 89% of us report ourselves to be in excellent health, just behind the world’s biggest health-boasters, New Zealanders, who beat us by a point in self-reported health, but who outlive us by more than two years.
This report got some coverage in our surviving newspapers, but most of the stories focused on the not-uninteresting news that the French spend more time than Americans sleeping and eating. But, of course, that shows what layabouts and sensualists they are. What the stories didn’t disclose is that we look like an overworked people with a dim future—aside from being some of the least healthy people in the richer neighborhoods of planet earth.
[...]