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Land of opportunity...
Some interesting findings about the Land of Opportunity in case anyone is interested - summarised in today's Independent:
"The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday. The American Human Development Index has applied to the US an aid agency approach to measuring well-being – more familiar to observers of the Third World – with shocking results. The US finds itself ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in survival of infants to age. Suicide and murder are among the top 15 causes of death and although the US is home to just 5 per cent of the global population it accounts for 24 per cent of the world's prisoners. ............ Despite the fact that the US spends roughly $5.2bn (£2.6bn) every day on health care, more per capita than any other nation in the world, Americans live shorter lives than citizens of every western European and Nordic country, bar Denmark." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...cy-869736.html Original report here: http://www.measureofamerica.org/2008...port/factoids/ |
Re: Land of opportunity...
Originally Posted by Elvira
(Post 6580294)
Some interesting findings about the Land of Opportunity in case anyone is interested - summarised in today's Independent:
"The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday. The American Human Development Index has applied to the US an aid agency approach to measuring well-being – more familiar to observers of the Third World – with shocking results. The US finds itself ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in survival of infants to age. Suicide and murder are among the top 15 causes of death and although the US is home to just 5 per cent of the global population it accounts for 24 per cent of the world's prisoners. ............ Despite the fact that the US spends roughly $5.2bn (£2.6bn) every day on health care, more per capita than any other nation in the world, Americans live shorter lives than citizens of every western European and Nordic country, bar Denmark." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...cy-869736.html Original report here: http://www.measureofamerica.org/2008...port/factoids/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_YI3SQAJzE |
Re: Land of opportunity...
Originally Posted by Elvira
(Post 6580294)
Some interesting findings about the Land of Opportunity in case anyone is interested - summarised in today's Independent:
"The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday. The American Human Development Index has applied to the US an aid agency approach to measuring well-being – more familiar to observers of the Third World – with shocking results. The US finds itself ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in survival of infants to age. Suicide and murder are among the top 15 causes of death and although the US is home to just 5 per cent of the global population it accounts for 24 per cent of the world's prisoners. ............ Despite the fact that the US spends roughly $5.2bn (£2.6bn) every day on health care, more per capita than any other nation in the world, Americans live shorter lives than citizens of every western European and Nordic country, bar Denmark." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...cy-869736.html Original report here: http://www.measureofamerica.org/2008...port/factoids/ |
Re: Land of opportunity...
Originally Posted by Caligirl4ever
(Post 6581391)
BLAH BLAH BLAH, and the point is?
As we've all moved to America to live then I think this kind of article will be of interest to many. |
Re: Land of opportunity...
Originally Posted by Caligirl4ever
(Post 6581391)
BLAH BLAH BLAH, and the point is?
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Re: Land of opportunity...
Originally Posted by tonrob
(Post 6581420)
That's a tad rude, isn't it?
As we've all moved to America to live then I think this kind of article will be of interest to many. It seems that some folks on here all moved to America to constantly piss and moan about the place, the people, the culture and how miserable life is. If it's such an awful place - go somewhere else FFS. |
Re: Land of opportunity...
Originally Posted by Awesome Welles
(Post 6581596)
Personally, I agree with CaliGirl4Ever.
It seems that some folks on here all moved to America to constantly piss and moan about the place, the people, the culture and how miserable life is. If it's such an awful place - go somewhere else FFS. |
Re: Land of opportunity...
As a native-born American, I find myself not really caring what this article says either. In every country, there will be large discrepancies between those with money, and those without -that's just a fact. Between those that can afford good healthcare and those that cannot. I grew up poor (lower middle class), but that did not stop me from seeing that a decent education was the way out of poverty, then finding a way to fund my own education and then get a fantastic job. Where there's a will, there's a way.
I suppose that makes me appear rather cold-hearted, but I say if you want to change your family tree, work your a$$ off. If we lived in a more socialist country, maybe that would make a difference in the healthcare by having universal health care, but I think sometimes socialism breeds a bit of 'the government will take care of me", instead you deciding to get what you want by working. I'm glad that 24% is in jail, rather than our streets. |
Re: Land of opportunity...
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Re: Land of opportunity...
Originally Posted by sunflwrgrl13
(Post 6581637)
As a native-born American, I find myself not really caring what this article says either. In every country, there will be large discrepancies between those with money, and those without -that's just a fact. Between those that can afford good healthcare and those that cannot. I grew up poor (lower middle class), but that did not stop me from seeing that a decent education was the way out of poverty, then finding a way to fund my own education and then get a fantastic job. Where there's a will, there's a way.
I suppose that makes me appear rather cold-hearted, but I say if you want to change your family tree, work your a$$ off. If we lived in a more socialist country, maybe that would make a difference in the healthcare by having universal health care, but I think sometimes socialism breeds a bit of 'the government will take care of me", instead you deciding to get what you want by working. I'm glad that 24% is in jail, rather than our streets. Not everyone is blessed with an intellectual ability, does that mean they deserve to be left to rot? And have you ever considered the fact that the system creates the criminality, not the other way around?? You are right though, there are poverty gaps everywhere, America's is by far the worse though - hardly surprising is it. |
Re: Land of opportunity...
Complain...Complain....I thought you already left "the great Satan" and refound profound happiness back in the UK. A country is what you've made of it...I've been here 32 years. No place is perfect but I'd reather be here than some ****hole.
Originally Posted by Elvira
(Post 6580294)
Some interesting findings about the Land of Opportunity in case anyone is interested - summarised in today's Independent:
"The United States of America is becoming less united by the day. A 30-year gap now exists in the average life expectancy between Mississippi, in the Deep South, and Connecticut, in prosperous New England. Huge disparities have also opened up in income, health and education depending on where people live in the US, according to a report published yesterday. The American Human Development Index has applied to the US an aid agency approach to measuring well-being – more familiar to observers of the Third World – with shocking results. The US finds itself ranked 42nd in global life expectancy and 34th in survival of infants to age. Suicide and murder are among the top 15 causes of death and although the US is home to just 5 per cent of the global population it accounts for 24 per cent of the world's prisoners. ............ Despite the fact that the US spends roughly $5.2bn (£2.6bn) every day on health care, more per capita than any other nation in the world, Americans live shorter lives than citizens of every western European and Nordic country, bar Denmark." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...cy-869736.html Original report here: http://www.measureofamerica.org/2008...port/factoids/ |
Re: Land of opportunity...
Originally Posted by sunflwrgrl13
(Post 6581637)
I grew up poor (lower middle class), but that did not stop me from seeing that a decent education was the way out of poverty, then finding a way to fund my own education and then get a fantastic job. Where there's a will, there's a way.
A typical scenario for people such as yourself who end up on the wrong side of the healthcare system is this: -You fall too ill to work -Because you can't work, you lose your health coverage (COBRA only lasts for 18 months. You may not be able to afford the premiums, and no carrier will cover what are now "pre-existing conditions.") -Meanwhile, with a serious condition, your insurer stalls, refuses expensive treatment and allows your condition to worsen -Finally, you end up in bankruptcy, once you've either lost your insurance or else have discovered that it didn't cover all that much, after all This "I got mine, Jack" attitude is simply appalling, and one of the reasons that I continue to think about emigrating. Indecency and selfishness have become acceptable and admirable traits in America. The middle class s*its on the poor, even though most of them are two or three paychecks away from joining them. They want to feel rich because they have nice car leases and massive adjustable rate mortgages, when most of them are really serfs who are up to their eyeballs in debt, living lifestyles that are supportable only through excessive debt. Ronald Reagan made this meanspiritedness acceptable, and I will never forgive him for it. He put us on the path of being a debtor nation with a bad attitude and a Pollyanna outlook, when we really need better healthcare, a higher savings rate and less consumption. |
Re: Land of opportunity...
Originally Posted by sunflwrgrl13
(Post 6581637)
As a native-born American, I find myself not really caring what this article says either. In every country, there will be large discrepancies between those with money, and those without -that's just a fact. Between those that can afford good healthcare and those that cannot. I grew up poor (lower middle class), but that did not stop me from seeing that a decent education was the way out of poverty, then finding a way to fund my own education and then get a fantastic job. Where there's a will, there's a way.
I suppose that makes me appear rather cold-hearted, but I say if you want to change your family tree, work your a$$ off. If we lived in a more socialist country, maybe that would make a difference in the healthcare by having universal health care, but I think sometimes socialism breeds a bit of 'the government will take care of me", instead you deciding to get what you want by working. I'm glad that 24% is in jail, rather than our streets. To reflect on what TF says, in order for a community (the US) to work efficiently you need people to work at all levels; therefore there will always be people who get screwed by the US system of healthcare. The really, really poor get help from Medicare (never remember if that's the right one), but those who do work and work hard for low wages, even middle income families, are the ones who really get screwed hard by the system. Also, of those in jail, how many really need to be there? It's another case where the system is far from ideal, and with privatised prisons where is the incentive for them to try to rehabilitate when there's money to be made making sure they stay on the same track? |
Re: Land of opportunity...
I'm not sure it's fair to go on about how much the US spends on healthcare *if* they include murders in the life expectancy results!
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Re: Land of opportunity...
Originally Posted by Caligirl4ever
(Post 6581391)
BLAH BLAH BLAH, and the point is?
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