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The astonishing decline of America

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How to go from respected sole world superpower to dangerous third world nation in just a couple generations

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Present day developing/third world nation status

Present day USA status

Expected future developing/third world nation status

Expected future USA status

Economic security: educational and employment opportunity and quality, industrial and commercial infrastructure, debt, crime, pensions, 'safety net'

"Chinese companies spend more on worker training and enterprise-management software [than the USA]."

-- "The China Price" By Pete Engardio, Dexter Roberts, and Brian Bremner; DECEMBER 6, 2004; businessweek.com

"Chile...has chopped its public debt from 54 percent of gross domestic product in 1990 to just 21 percent in 2002."

-- Debt Trouble Could Be Piling Up Overseas By EDMUND L. ANDREWS; September 7, 2003; nytimes.com

-- Nearly two-thirds of Mexican workers lack job benefits, business group says; miami.com

"...I saw a poll that said the right track/wrong track in Iraq was better than here in America."

-- US President George W. Bush, 2004

-- President Bush and Prime Minister Allawi Press Conference; The Rose Garden; September 23, 2004; accessible online on or about 10-10-04; whitehouse.gov

-- Poll: More Iraqis doubt nation's direction By Barbara Slavin and Dave Moniz, USA TODAY; Oct 21, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

-- If America were Iraq, What would it be Like? by Juan Cole, Professor of History at the University of Michigan; September 22, 2004; juancole.com

-- Iraq faces soaring toll of deadly disease by Jeremy Laurance, Independent; October 13th, 2004; occupationwatch.org

"Today they fear being attacked in their bedrooms; power, water and telephones are routinely unavailable."

-- How America Created a Terrorist Haven By JESSICA STERN; August 20, 2003; nytimes.com

-- Many Iraqi Intellectuals Seek Exile By OMAR SINAN; Oct 18, 2004; AP; story.news.yahoo.com

Baghdad's Green Zone is the most heavily protected area in the entire occupied country of Iraq, with everything the USA circa 2004 can wield there in a practical manner militarily. But despite this (or because of it) the people there are still being killed.

-- Explosions in Baghdad's Green Zone Kill 8 AP; story.news.yahoo.com; Oct 18, 2004

-- Base hit by daily attacks told no GIs available for patrols By Tom Bowman; Baltimore Sun; story.news.yahoo.com; Oct 18, 2004

"I heard an educated Iraqi say today that if Saddam Hussein were allowed to run for elections he would get the majority of the vote. This is truly sad."

-- Wall Street Journal Reporter on Iraq; jrobb.mindplex.org; 10/1/2004

-- Iraq: US Attack in Fallujah Killed Only Civilians ;VOA News; 20 Jun 2004

-- Iraq remains ultimate welfare state Virtually everyone is still dependent on handouts of free food by Erik Eckholm; iht.com; September 14, 2004

"The war in Iraq has made the entire population of 27 million dependent on food aid, leaders of aid programmes say."

-- Everyone Now Needs Food Aid by Ricardo Grassi; ipsnews.net; accessible online 10-20-04 (original posting date was earlier)

US taxpayers subsidizing Iraqis by $1.50 per gallon of gas-- leaves gas costing Iraqis only a nickel a gallon.

-- Yahoo! News - Iraqis Paying 5 Cents a Gallon for Gas By JIM KRANE; Associated Press; story.news.yahoo.com; Jun 06, 2004

Economic security: educational and employment opportunity and quality, industrial and commercial infrastructure, debt, crime, pensions, 'safety net'

"[Aside from aircraft and semiconductor exports in the US-China trade relationship]...the U.S. looks like a developing nation. It runs surpluses in commodities such as oil seeds, grains, iron, wood pulp, and raw animal hides."

"...91% of U.S. plants are more than a decade old, vs. 54% in China."

-- "The China Price" By Pete Engardio, Dexter Roberts, and Brian Bremner; DECEMBER 6, 2004; businessweek.com

"I wish the U.S. had better public transportation, because public-transit cultures seem to have more advanced mobile technology..."

-- Asian Phone Explosion!; 12.22.04; pcmag.com

"The ILO has created an economic security index (ESI) which ranks Scandinavia, western Europe and Canada at the top, well ahead of the United States..."

"The US is in 25th place, in spite of being one of the richest countries on earth."

-- Fear infects flexible workplaces ILO says globalisation has helped to create a world of unhappy employees, with the US scoring high on labour force unease by Ashley Seager; September 2, 2004; The Guardian; guardian.co.uk

"We're a superpower with a Third World grid"

-- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, past energy secretary

-- System's Crash Was Predicted By Peter Behr; August 15, 2003; Page A01; washingtonpost.com

-- Report Blasts American Infrastructure U.S. Transportation, Water and Energy Systems Get Grade of D-Plus in Civil Engineers' Report The Associated Press; abcnews.go.com; found on or about 9-4-03

"There hasn't been a new gasoline refinery built in the U.S. in decades."

-- Better Get Used to Gas-Price Spikes By Christopher Palmeri; AUGUST 29, 2003; businessweek.com

"Whenever there's a shortfall there is little slack in the system to deliver extra supply."

-- D.J. Peterson, chief author of a Rand Corp report on the US oil industry.

-- Better Get Used to Gas-Price Spikes By Christopher Palmeri; AUGUST 29, 2003; businessweek.com

"...Europeans still enjoy free health care for all, cradle to grave; free education through university level; comparatively generous retirement for their elderly; an average of five weeks paid annual vacation, more sick leave, parental leave, and a shorter work week with comparable wages for their workers...Social spending in Europe runs some 50 percent above that in the United States...."

-- The Ups and Downs of European Politics by Steven Hill; AlterNet; December 21, 2002

"...a view among U.S. executives that the quality of American workers is deteriorating."

-- Implored to 'Offshore' More By Paul Blustein; washingtonpost.com; Jul 02, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"U.S. Trails Other Nations in Paid Leave"

-- Paid Leave for All? With California Taking the Lead, States Consider Paid Family Leave By Catherine Valenti; printerfriendly.abcnews.com; the date stamps on this saved-to-disk article are October 9 and 2002; the article was found online and saved 8-6-03.

"The U.S. economy provides less mobility for low-wage earners...than the economies of France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Finland or Sweden"

-- Four Myths, 30 Million Potential Votes By Beth Shulman; washingtonpost.com; August 17, 2003; Page B04

-- Study: US to Lose More Than 400,000 Jobs This Year; Agence France Presse; October 16, 2004; commondreams.org

"Americans...have adopted a policy of mass imprisonment of replace the social controls elsewhere exercised by communities- which unregulated market forces have weakened or destroyed in their country. The US incarceration rate in five times that of Britain and 14 times that of Japan.[sic]"

-- What kind of capitalism? By Juan T. Gatbonton; July 6, 2003; manilatimes.net

-- US notches world's highest incarceration rate csmonitor.com By Gail Russell Chaddock; August 18, 2003 edition

-- Why Some Politicians Need Their Prisons to Stay Full By BRENT STAPLES; December 27, 2004; nytimes.com

-- Market calls the shots in America by Frank Rich NYT; March 19, 2004; iht.com

"Our resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too long...in too many cases, mandatory minimum sentences are unwise or unjust."

-- US Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, 2003

-- Justice Criticizes Sentencing Guidelines; Associated Press; washingtonpost.com; August 10, 2003; Page A08

-- Federal Deficit Surges to Record $413B By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press; story.news.yahoo.com; Oct 18, 2004

-- Study of College Readiness Finds No Progress in Decade By KAREN W. ARENSON; October 14, 2004; nytimes.com

Economic security: educational and employment opportunity and quality, industrial and commercial infrastructure, debt, crime, pensions, 'safety net'

Economic security: educational and employment opportunity and quality, industrial and commercial infrastructure, debt, crime, pensions, 'safety net'

-- Our Place in the World: U.S. mortgages its sovereignty By KENNETH H. TORP; December 3, 2004; seattlepi.nwsource.com

-- U.S. Rogue Nation Image Hurts Dollar in Asia: William Pesek Jr.; December 19, 2004; quote.bloomberg.com

-- The Dollar's Long-Term Direction Down; nytimes.com

-- Fiscal Doomsday in the Offing (washingtonpost.com) By David S. Broder; October 5, 2003; Page B07; washingtonpost.com

-- The Fruit of Victory: A Lingering Anxiety The distinct possibility of more Iraq-style conflicts has investors jittery about the huge deficits that will be needed to pay for them By Christopher Farrell; APRIL 4, 2003; businessweek.com

"The day of reckoning is not now, but maybe five years from now,"

-- James W. Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management

"Mortgage foreclosure rates, personal bankruptcies and credit card delinquencies have been rising steadily and are at record levels."

-- Greenspan Shifts View on Deficits By EDMUND L. ANDREWS; March 16, 2004; nytimes.com

"The C.B.O. report is confirmation that the Bush administration has locked us into long-term structural deficits that will take some very tough decisions to wipe out."

-- Thomas S. Kahn, Democratic chief of staff, House Budget Committee

-- Deficit Study Disputes Role of Economy By EDMUND L. ANDREWS; March 16, 2004; nytimes.com

"We do not really have a fiscal problem of moment until we get beyond the end of this decade, [even under the president's budget plan]"

-- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, early 2003

-- Greenspan-U.S. economy better able to support war; Reuters, 02.12.03; forbes.com

-- The Debt Explosion Among College Graduates By Heather Boushey; April 3, 2003; cepr.net/

-- Yahoo! News - U.S. Faces Record Borrowing Requirement; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Yahoo! News - Gen-X in Financial Trouble; story.news.yahoo.com

-- No Way to Plan, Thanks to Uncle Sam (washingtonpost.com) By Ric Edelman; July 6, 2003; Page B01

"...3.3 million U.S. jobs will be shipped overseas by 2015..."

-- Casualties Of the Recovery Jobs Cut Since 2001 Are Gone for Good, Study Says By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post; September 5, 2003; Page E01

"...unless...[America]...can deal with the industrial challenge, it will suffer a loss of economic power and influence."

-- "The China Price" By Pete Engardio, Dexter Roberts, and Brian Bremner; DECEMBER 6, 2004; businessweek.com

-- Factories Move Abroad, as Does U.S. Power; nytimes.com

"...the nation’s air transportation system is "in peril," as is the United States’ dominance in world aviation."

-- BETTER COORDINATION NEEDED TO SAVE U.S. AVIATION SYSTEM FROM PERIL, REPORT SAYS Contact: Pam Frost Gorder, (614) 292-9475; Gorder.1@osu.edu; researchnews.osu.edu; accessible online on or around 12-7-04

-- U.S. is urged to plan for air industry 'failure' by Micheline Maynard NYT; iht.com; October 13, 2004

Traffic jams for average US urban commutes worsened by 187 % between 1982 and 2002, due largely to an inadequate and decaying highway infrastructure.

-- Yahoo! News - Nation's Traffic Problems Getting Worse By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press; Sep 07, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

Health security

"Twenty years ago, the US, the richest nation on the planet, led the world's longevity league. Today, American women rank only 19th, while males can manage only 28th place, alongside men from Brunei"

"...America only just scrapes above Mexico and most East European nations...[in the life expectancy rates of citizens 65 and older]"

"For poor Americans, health service provision is little better than that in third world nations. 'People die younger in Harlem than in Bangladesh,' report Jacobs and Morone"

-- Lifespan crisis hits supersize America by Robin McKie; September 19, 2004; The Observer; observer.guardian.co.uk

-- Yahoo! News - In China, no money means no treatment By Michael A. Lev; Chicago Tribune; story.news.yahoo.com; Nov 12, 2004

-- Yahoo! News - Unsafe Abortions Kill 70,000 Women a Year -Report; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Yahoo! News - 1,000 women hospitalised in Portugal after backstreet abortions; story.news.yahoo.com

"Only a decade ago, Zimbabwe's public health system was, with South Africa's, head and shoulders above those of most of the 40-odd other nations of sub-Saharan Africa."

"[now it is]...apparent that health care -- like the rest of Zimbabwe's economic and social fabric -- is dissolving."

-- With Health System in Tatters, Zimbabwe Stands Defenseless By MICHAEL WINES; February 5, 2004; nytimes.com

-- Zimbabwe to Outlaw Groups That Promote Human Rights By MICHAEL WINES; December 10, 2004; nytimes.com

"The highest levels of health were found in free countries, followed by the partially free countries, and the worst levels of health were in countries that were not free....These results did not change after a country's wealth, level of inequity, and the size of its public sector were taken into account."

-- Democracy is good for your health; 16-Dec-2004; Contact: Emma Dickinson edickinson@bmj.com 44-207-383-6529 BMJ-British Medical Journal

"Lack of healthcare facilities, a high rate of illiteracy and susceptibility to superstitions make villages easy prey to charlatans."

-- After stones, boy sheds thorns from eyes; Indo-Asian News Service; 123bharath.com; August 2, 2004

Health security

"Our systems are so bad that unless terrorists admit it, we could be poisoned and not know it was intentional."

-- Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director, the Center for Science in the Public Interest

"The United States lags far behind Europe in its ability to trace the source of food contamination..."

-- Shared Nightmare Over the Food Supply By ELIZABETH BECKER; December 11, 2004; nytimes.com

-- U.S. Urges Rationing of Flu Shots as Supply Is Slashed By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; October 5, 2004; nytimes.com

-- Americans Give Up on Flu Vaccine, Survey Shows By Maggie Fox; Reuters; Dec 17, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Chicken Soup Replaces Flu Vaccine AP; Oct 18, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"On any given day, 50 to 80 drugs, many of them life-saving, may be difficult or impossible to find....drug supply disruptions in the United States have become routine."

"In Europe, where governments play a much larger role in managing health care, shortages are much less common."

-- In American Health Care, Drug Shortages Are Chronic By GARDINER HARRIS; October 31, 2004; nytimes.com

-- A Plague of Health-Insurance Scams By Brian Grow; Businessweek; AUGUST 9, 2002; businessweek.com

-- Health Care: One Sick Scam Bogus health insurers prey on small companies By Kate Murphy; JULY 5, 2004; businessweek.com

-- Health insurance scams leave thousands with large medical debts and no coverage; Eurekalert!; 28-Aug-2003; Contact: Mary Mahon; mm@cmwf.org; 212-606-3853; Commonwealth Fund

In places where matters of health security seem uncertain and unreliable, people are more vulnerable to costly health-related scams, plus will often experiment with even the riskiest of remedies (and so possibly worsen their conditions, or even die).

-- Fatally wounded by Isabel Hilton; May 22, 2003; The Guardian

-- It's Enough To Make You Sick Scams are proliferating as more families scramble for affordable health coverage By Brian Grow; SEPTEMBER 13, 2004; businessweek.com

"An estimated 18,000 Americans die each year because they lack health insurance..."

-- More Adults Lack Health Insurance By Paul Simao; Reuters; Jul 01, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"...Europeans still enjoy free health care for all, cradle to grave..."

-- The Ups and Downs of European Politics by Steven Hill; AlterNet; December 21, 2002

"Unlike Canada and some other Western nations, the United States does not offer universal health insurance to its citizens."

-- More Adults Lack Health Insurance By Paul Simao; Reuters; Jul 01, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"...the United States was the only one of the five countries that showed asthma mortality rates on the rise."

-- U.S. Lags in Key Health Care Areas By Amanda Gardner; May 4 (2004 is the copyright year given); forbes.com

-- Childhood Ailments: Stress and Asthma, Hand in Hand By ERIC NAGOURNEY; December 7, 2004; nytimes.com

"...this nation's patchwork of public health laws, many 100 years old and possibly unconstitutional, has left the United States ill-prepared to handle a major epidemic."

-- Laws Not Up to SARS Epidemic By Ceci Connolly; April 26, 2003; Page A01; washingtonpost.com

Health security Health security

"...a steady decline in the number of the nation's workers and their families receiving employer health care coverage."

-- Cost of Insuring Workers' Health Increases 11.2% By MILT FREUDENHEIM; September 10, 2004; nytimes.com

"Twenty percent of large, private-sector U.S. employers will probably terminate health insurance benefits within the next three years for workers when they retire..."

-- More Firms to End Health Benefits for Retirees (washingtonpost.com) By Bill Brubaker; washingtonpost.com; January 15, 2004; Page E04

"If these trends continue...every year the share of Americans who have employer-sponsored health coverage will fall."

-- Drew Altman, president, chief executive of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

-- Higher Costs, Less Care By Ceci Connolly, Washington Post; Sep 28, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"The highest levels of health were found in free countries, followed by the partially free countries, and the worst levels of health were in countries that were not free....These results did not change after a country's wealth, level of inequity, and the size of its public sector were taken into account."

-- Democracy is good for your health; 16-Dec-2004; Contact: Emma Dickinson edickinson@bmj.com 44-207-383-6529 BMJ-British Medical Journal

Corruption

Of the 133 nations monitored for corruption, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Haiti were rated the most corrupt, while Finland, Iceland, Denmark, and New Zealand were rated the least corrupt. The USA tied with Ireland for 18th place among the least corrupt.

-- In global survey of corrupt nations, Bangladesh is worst, Finland best; U.S. ranks 18th from top by BRUCE STANLEY, AP; sfgate.com; October 7, 2003

Corruption

-- Yahoo! News - To an alarming degree, America has become a scofflaw nation; story.news.yahoo.com

"We've gone from following the rules to playing the odds."

-- The Innovators' Ball: Why Business Isn't as Fun as it Used to be By Robert X. Cringely; SEPTEMBER 4, 2003; pbs.org

-- US insurers sued for rigging bids AFP; story.news.yahoo.com; Oct 18, 2004

-- Monsanto stole patented wheat from Indian farmers posted by Cory Doctorow; October 13, 2004; boingboing.net; citing EPO revokes patent on Indian wheat; 05 October , 2004; sify.com

-- Yahoo! News - No-Bid Defense Contracts Found to Be Common By Renae Merle, Washington Post Staff; Oct 01, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Pentagon Spends Without Bids, a Study Finds By LESLIE WAYNE; September 30, 2004; nytimes.com

"I'm almost continually appalled at not so much the frequency but the magnitude of these major corporations' restatement of financials."

-- Ian MacKinnon, chief of Vanguard Group fixed-income

-- The View from Vanguard's Bond Guru By Robert Barker; APRIL 10, 2003; businessweek.com

-- Yahoo! News - Report IRS Audits of Businesses Decline; story.news.yahoo.com

Of the 133 nations monitored for corruption, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Haiti were rated the most corrupt, while Finland, Iceland, Denmark, and New Zealand were rated the least corrupt. The USA tied with Ireland for 18th place among the least corrupt.

-- In global survey of corrupt nations, Bangladesh is worst, Finland best; U.S. ranks 18th from top by BRUCE STANLEY, AP; sfgate.com; October 7, 2003

Corruption Corruption

Present day developing/third world nation status

Present day USA status

Expected future developing/third world nation status

Expected future USA status

Population health status/trends

High quality surgery and dentistry are available in Asia for a fraction of their prices in the USA.

-- Over The Sea, Then Under The Knife Patients worldwide are heading to hospitals in Asia for affordable, high-quality surgery By Frederik Balfour, Manjeet Kripalani, Kerry Capell, and Laura Cohn in London; FEBRUARY 16, 2004; businessweek.com

By one measure, the total healthcare monies spent in the US annually per person around 2000 amounted to $4,187. By contrast, Costa Rica spent only $226. The US also enjoyed twice as many doctors per person as Costa Rica. Some results of this vast resource disparity include higher life expectancies at birth for Costa Rican men than US men-- with expectancies for women just a bit less in Costa Rica than the US.

-- The slowing pace of progress By Phillip J. Longman, US News & World Report, found on or about 12-30-2000

-- Nepal, one of the poorest nations in Asia, also has one of the highest child mortality rates; 123bharath.com

Population health status/trends

"...foreign-born children are healthier when they arrive in the United States than those of the same age who were born here...the longer immigrant children stay in America...the unhealthier they are likely to become..."

-- Study Shows Health Benefit for Immigrants By NINA BERNSTEIN; October 6, 2004; nytimes.com

-- America can be bad for your health by Jeff Fleischer; motherjones.com; found on or about 10-6-04; citing Growing up in America is bad for health of immigrant children; Knight Ridder; October 6, 2004; smh.com.au

"More than 75 infants die each day across the USA...The USA ranks 29th in the world in infant mortality."

-- USA in a fragile state of health, report says By Robert Davis, USA TODAY; Nov 8, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Stress can make pregnant women miscarry by Andy Coghlan; 12 November 04; newscientist.com

-- Yahoo! News - Chronic Kidney Disease Soars in United States - CDC By Paul Simao; Reuters; Oct 18, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

-- One in 6 chronically ill adults skip Rx drugs due to cost eurekalert.org; 6-Oct-2004; Contact: Kara Gavin kegavin@umich.edu 734-764-2220 University of Michigan Health System

Despite spending lots more on healthcare, Americans don't live as long as the citizens of most other industrialized nations today. One clue as to why may be the presence of universal healthcare in those other nations (like Canada).

-- Why No One Lives Forever By Thane Peterson, interviewing professor Jay Olshansky, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, co-author of The Quest for Immortality: Science at the Frontiers of Aging; JULY 1, 2003; BusinessWeek Online

"The American health care system is at once the most expensive and the most inadequate system in the developed world, and it is uniquely complicated"

-- The New England Journal of Medicine, 1999

-- "Journal Calls U.S. Health Care Expensive, Inadequate" By Gene Emery, 1-7-99, Reuters Limited/Yahoo; US Health System Most Expensive in World, citing The New England Journal of Medicine January 7, 1999;340:48, 70-76; and other sources like NEJM -- The American Health Care System Revisited -- A New Series; Journal Calls U.S. Health Care Expensive, Inadequate; and US Has Most Expensive Health System

"...the United States wastes more money on health bureaucracy than it would cost to provide health care to the tens of millions of uninsured Americans"

-- Yahoo! News - Bureaucratic Waste Dogs U.S. Health Care, Study Says By Gene Emery; Aug 21, 2003; Reuters; story.news.yahoo.com

Twice as many Americans are dying of infectious disease today than did in 1980.

-- New age for germs By Seth Borenstein and Robert S. Boyd; Mercury News; May. 13, 2003

-- Yahoo! News - Immigrants Outlive U.S.-Born Residents By JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press; May 27, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

The world's healthiest people are the Japanese, while France appears to possess the best health care system overall. The United States spends more per person on health care every year than any of the other 190 countries in the study, yet ranks only 37th in terms of health care quality, and 24th in the World Health Organization's Disability Adjusted Life Expectancy.

-- Controversial study finds France has world's best health-care system By LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press, June 20, 2000, http://www.nandotimes.com

"...the United States has fewer doctors, nurses and hospital beds than many countries that spend less on health care."

-- Studies Show U.S. Spending Doesn't Get Best Health By Maggie Fox; May 04, 2004; Reuters; story.news.yahoo.com

Population health status/trends Population health status/trends

"The highest levels of health were found in free countries, followed by the partially free countries, and the worst levels of health were in countries that were not free....These results did not change after a country's wealth, level of inequity, and the size of its public sector were taken into account."

-- Democracy is good for your health; 16-Dec-2004; Contact: Emma Dickinson edickinson@bmj.com 44-207-383-6529 BMJ-British Medical Journal

Present day developing/third world nation status

Present day USA status

Expected future developing/third world nation status

Expected future USA status

Widespread consumer access to state-of-the-art technologies and media

-- Getting The Best To The Masses A wave of innovation is yielding high-quality goods that India's poor can afford. By Manjeet Kripalani; OCTOBER 11, 2004; businessweek.com

Ratios of phone lines per people in the world:

Developed nations: About 50 per 100 persons.
Developing nations: Less than two per 100 persons.

-- Computers Deepen Divide between World's Haves, Have-Nots by Anthony Shadid, found 1-27-2001, The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe/

Widespread consumer access to state-of-the-art technologies and media

"Why is Asia so far ahead of the U.S.?"

"Americans seem to lack a thirst for new technologies."

"In the U.S., things move more slowly."

-- Asian Phone Explosion!; 12.22.04; pcmag.com

"These days, the latest, greatest, smallest and sexiest new technologies debut in Europe or Asia first....Just look at Japan and Europe, where they're already using stuff we can only dream of"

-- Checking the Gadget Pipeline by Jim Louderback - ExtremeTech; story.news.yahoo.com; May 14 (accessible online on or about Oct 10, 2004 ).

"TV over phone lines, also known as TV over Internet protocol (TVIP), is already taking root in Europe..."

-- Next-Generation TV Streams Over Phone Lines By Adam Pasick; Sep 26, 2004; Reuters; story.news.yahoo.com

"Why is the United States, No. 10 in a ranking of countries by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a broadband laggard?"

-- Bandwidth roundtable; July 26, 2004; news.com.com

In 2003 the US was 11th worldwide in terms of the percentage of its population having broadband internet access.

-- S. Korea leads world in Net speed - Sep. 16, 2003; Associated Press; cnn.com

"The United States already lags behind much of the industrialized world in terms of how many of its people currently use broadband Internet service. For example, in Hong Kong, 66 percent of Internet homes have high-speed access, compared with just 17 percent in the United States."

-- Wrong turn in the Net's future By Yale Braunstein; July 16, 2003; news.com.com

-- Broadband Duopoly Calms Cable, Telecom Battles By Justin Hyde; Reuters; Oct 18, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"When did we become the village idiots of the broadband universe? Apparently since 2003, when...the U.S. had dropped from third to tenth in broadband penetration; behind countries like Belgium."

"...Canada...not only offering faster speeds than American providers, but consumers pay less, and Canada rivals South Korea when it comes to broadband penetration."

-- Broadband Envy Fixing American broadband by Karl Bode; broadbandreports.com; accessible online 12-5-04

-- Behind In Broadband New policies are needed to help the U.S. catch up By Catherine Yang, Moon Ihlwan, and Hiroko Tashiro; SEPTEMBER 6, 2004; businessweek.com

The numbers of privately owned planes (and phones!) in America are going DOWN rather than up.

-- WhyFlying It's Pretty Darned Close to Free Aerial Broadband By Robert X. Cringely; July 29, 2004; pbs.org

-- The Little Engine That Could By Robert X. Cringely; MAY 27, 2004; pbs.org

"The horrible British continue to get new "Battlestar Galactica" installments before god-fearing Americans..."

-- LoneGunMan Gives 5 Stars To GALACTICA_1.3! Now With Richard Hatch!; November 2, 2004; aint-it-cool-news.com

"The United Kingdom is one of the most innovative countries and creates a lot of original formats...The reality is that the United States is often among the countries which launch the least new shows."

-- Franck Si-Hassen, Eurodata TV of Médiamétrie manager

"Europe was the original incubator for reality television in the late 1990's..."

-- In Europe, Reality TV Turns Grimmer By DOREEN CARVAJAL, International Herald Tribune ; December 27, 2004; nytimes.com

Widespread consumer access to state-of-the-art technologies and media Widespread consumer access to state-of-the-art technologies and media

"...the United States could drop even further behind other nations in the implementation of broadband, damaging our economy, increasing consumer Internet bills..."

-- Wrong turn in the Net's future By Yale Braunstein; July 16, 2003; news.com.com

Economic efficiency and freedom

"...corruption of institutional purpose was one of the reasons the Soviet Union fell."

-- Corruption In The Corps?; On War #79 By William S. Lind; found on or about 8-6-04

-- From cells to bells, 10 things the Chinese do far better than we do A comparative list compiled by JAN WONG @ workopolis.com; October 23, 2004; aolnetscape.workopolis.com

"South America has...increased productivity levels beyond those in the United States and Europe, challenging their traditional dominance of the global farm trade."

-- South America Seeks to Fill the World's Table By LARRY ROHTER; December 12, 2004; nytimes.com

Economic efficiency and freedom

"...Europeans still enjoy free health care for all, cradle to grave; free education through university level; comparatively generous retirement for their elderly; an average of five weeks paid annual vacation, more sick leave, parental leave, and a shorter work week with comparable wages for their workers...Social spending in Europe runs some 50 percent above that in the United States. Environmental, food safety and labor laws are the envy of activists in the U.S."

-- The Ups and Downs of European Politics by Steven Hill; AlterNet; December 21, 2002

-- Canada displaces Netherlands as best place to do business: report - 16 Jul 2003; eubusiness.com

The USA ranked third in economic freedom in 2003.

-- HK, Singapore, top 'economic freedom' index By Jim Lobe; Jul 10, 2003; atimes.com

"Contrary to conventional wisdom, Western European productivity growth outpaced that of the United States in the last 30 years...In some countries, including France, productivity now exceeds that in the United States."

-- Love of Leisure, and Europe's Reasons By KATRIN BENNHOLD, International Herald Tribune; Elisabetta Povoledo contributor; nytimes.com; July 29, 2004

"High US productivity hasn't been translated into higher incomes as efficiently as other OECD countries."

-- John Robb's Weblog; July 08, 2004; jrobb.mindplex.org, citing the Wall Street Journal

"US 'Productivity' Mostly a Function of Longer Hours, More Two-Income Families...Americans now are...working fierce hours...usually with both parents working, to make the same income that a European makes in a 35-hour week with 7 weeks' paid vacation."

-- October 24, 2004 REMAINDERS, by Dave Pollard, How to Save the World blog; citing OECD Employment Outlook 2004 How does the United States compare? [PDF]; oecd.org

"Europe has less child poverty, a lower incidence of illiteracy and a smaller prison population than the United States..."

-- Love of Leisure, and Europe's Reasons By KATRIN BENNHOLD, International Herald Tribune; Elisabetta Povoledo contributor; nytimes.com; July 29, 2004

"...the gap between rich and poor in America is approaching its worst point in fifty years and is the largest such gap among eighteen industrialized nations; average weekly wages, in real dollars, have declined 19% since 1973...America has more children living in poverty (14.3 million) than any other industrial nation; 43 million Americans are without health insurance (the worst performance since records have been kept) and the number has increased by more than one third since 1970..."

-- Economic vs. Social health: it’s not the economy, stupid!; N. 26, July 2002; Rationally Speaking by Massimo Pigliucci; Department of Botany, University of Tennessee

"Americans now work 350 hours more per year than the typical European – almost nine full weeks"

-- Frank Talk on Free Trade by Jeff Gates, President of the Shared Capitalism Institute; SustainAbility Radar March 2000

"...today the American worker is working longer hours by far than the people in any other industrialized country"

-- We Are the Majority by Bernie Sanders; February 2004; progressive.org

-- America's incredible shrinking vacation By Ellen Goodman, 8/7/2003; boston.com

"...Americans still lead the pack for working the most hours, followed by the French, British, Australians and Germans."

-- Around The Weird: Bizarre News Briefs; 2004-06-30 - Wireless Flash Weird News; ncbuy.com

"...annual work hours for the middle quintile of income earners-households that had a mean income of $64,832 in 2000-rose by 20 percent from 1979 to 2000. That adds up to one more full day per week."

-- RUSH HOUR ON THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY By Clive Thompson; Issue 445: April 8-15, 2004; timeoutny.com

"Sweden, with a lower per capita income than the US, has on average more functionally literate adults and fewer people living in poverty"

"Ranked according to their national levels of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and life expectancy, Sweden tops the list of rich countries, with the US at the bottom"

-- World poverty fight 'in danger' By Alex Kirby; 8 July, 2003; news.bbc.co.uk

"Some compare it to working under the old Soviet system of five-year plans"

-- The 'Zero Dropout' Miracle: Alas! Alack! A Texas Tall Tale By MICHAEL WINERIP; August 13, 2003; nytimes.com

"The Pentagon now controls the world’s largest planned economy."

-- Quote from a slide presentation seen inside the Pentagon.

-- Corruption In The Corps?; On War #79 By William S. Lind; found on or about 8-6-04

-- The Corporation as a Command Economy by J. Bradford DeLong, Professor of Economics University of California at Berkeley; 5/10/1997; j-bradford-delong.net

"You and I, my fellow Americans, have become the unpaid laborers of a do-it-yourself economy...the average American now spends an extraordinary amount of time doing work that once paid someone else's mortgage."

-- The do-it-yourself economy Outsourcing labor abroad is cheap; outsourcing it to you is free by Ellen Goodman; 02.03.04; workingforchange.com

"Sixty-one of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies."

-- America, Wake Up to the European Dream (washingtonpost.com) By Jeremy Rifkin; October 31, 2004; Page B04

"The average U.S. motorist spends 46 hours each year or nearly two full days stuck in rush-hour traffic jams."

-- It's a Bumper-To-Bumper Life...; Oddly Enough - Reuters; Sep 08, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Yahoo! News - Nation's Traffic Problems Getting Worse By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press; Sep 07, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"In 1982, 30 percent of urban highways and arteries were congested. Twenty years later, drivers were delayed on 67 percent of those roads."

-- Yahoo! News - Travelers Spend More Time in Traffic Jams By LESLIE MILLER, Associated Press; Sep 07, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"America...has always...been an economic paradise for the middle class--at least until now."

"...when the hidden welfare state is counted along with the visible welfare state, the United States has a system of social provision as generous as those in Western Europe--though in this country much of that system extends only to the middle class and the professional elite."

-- The Atlantic | January/February 2004 | Are We Still a Middle-Class Nation? | Lind by Michael Lind; theatlantic.com

"The United States may spend twice as much on health care as other rich countries but it is not getting results to match..."

-- Studies Show U.S. Spending Doesn't Get Best Health By Maggie Fox; Reuters; May 04, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

Economic efficiency and freedom Economic efficiency and freedom

Present day developing/third world nation status

Present day USA status

Expected future developing/third world nation status

Expected future USA status

Technological Expertise

-- Iran: Coping With The World's Highest Rate Of Brain Drain By Golnaz Esfandiari; 08 March 2004; rferl.org

"It's like a dream come true"

-- Cyrus Papan, a senior postdoctoral researcher from Caltech, about he, his four kids, and his wife's (also a scientist) move from the US to better opportunities in Singapore.

"The environment...was better here. So I severed the link with Harvard"

-- Mark Seielstad in Singapore: a genetic epidemiologist previously working at the Harvard School of Public Health in the US.

"I'll have better funding, better equipment and better facilities than I have here, without writing grants"

-- Davis Ng, a cell biologist working at Pennsylvania State University, who is moving to Singapore with three members of his college staff in January.

-- A Candy Store for Scientists By Charles Piller; Dec 09, 2004; Los Angeles Times; story.news.yahoo.com

Technological Expertise

"...an intellectual reverse migration away from the United States...to Asia's fast-rising life science tigers."

-- A Candy Store for Scientists By Charles Piller; Dec 09, 2004; Los Angeles Times; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Yahoo! News - Intel Chairman Says U.S. Is Losing Edge By Jonathan Krim; Oct 10, 2003; washingtonpost.com; story.news.yahoo.com

"...so few young Americans are becoming physicists and engineers that the nation is on its way toward becoming 90 percent dependent on Asia for new energy expertise."

-- Small Thoughts for a Global Grid By BARNABY J. FEDER; September 2, 2003; nytimes.com

"We used to be third in the world, behind Japan and Finland, in the percentage of our students who became scientists and engineers. Now we're 23rd."

-- A CONVERSATION WITH ROBERT C. RICHARDSON The Chilling of American Science By CLAUDIA DREIFUS; July 6, 2004; nytimes.com

"...the United States now ranks 17th among nations surveyed in the proportion of its 18-24- year-olds earning natural science and engineering degrees. In 1975, the United States ranked third."

-- United States still leads in science and engineering, but uncertainties complicate outlook; eurekalert.org; 4-May-2004; Contact: David Hart dhart@nsf.gov 703-292-7737 National Science Foundation

"...41% of scientific papers originate in Europe (compared with 31% in America)..."

-- Access all areas; Aug 5th 2004; economist.com

"...The USA grants only about 6% of the world's engineering degrees, behind China, the European Union, Japan, Russia and India..."

-- Fewer college students choose computer majors By Michelle Kessler, USA TODAY; 8/8/2004; usatoday.com

-- Endangered species: US programmers By David R. Francis, The Christian Science Monitor; Oct 18, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"...upward of 60 percent of Americans ages 16-25 are 'functionally illiterate'..."

-- Why Don't Americans Care? Do you know who Halliburton is? Dick Cheney? How about Karl Rove? Alas, most Americans don't By Mark Morford, SF Gate; October 6, 2004; sfgate.com

-- Less-than-risky business? The United States is not boldly going where no one has gone before By Ed Frauenheim; August 6, 2004; news.com.com

-- Some say U.S. supercomputing needs a jump-start - Computerworld by Patrick Thibodeau; JULY 29, 2004; computerworld.com

-- U.S. Plays Supercomputer Catch-up by Matthew Swibel, 07.28.04; forbes.com

-- Fall Comdex canceled due to shortage of key exhibitors - Computerworld by Todd R. Weiss; JUNE 23, 2004; computerworld.com

-- US stem cells tainted by mouse material | New Scientist by Celeste Biever ; 01 November 04; newscientist.com

-- U.S. lags on renewable energy; denverpost.com

As of 2004 American space shuttles are too flawed to fly and unsafe American space suits have to be replaced with Russian suits to perform critical maintenance work on the international space station. Ultra-expensive space probes crash due to literally backward designs, and even leading edge US companies are stumbling in efforts to advance their technologies.

-- Astronauts Succeed in Risky Spacewalk By MARCIA DUNN; Jul 02, 2004; AP; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Oxygen Generator on Space Station Fails; nytimes.com

-- Backwards Drawings May Have Doomed Genesis By JOHN ANTCZAK; Oct 18, 2004; Associated Press; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Intel Cancels 4-GHz Pentium 4 Plans By Syndication; October 16, 2004; newsfactor.com

-- U.S. Automakers Lag in Survey (washingtonpost.com) By Greg Schneider; October 8, 2003; Page E02

-- Ford and G.M. Lose Ground to Imports; nytimes.com

-- Detroit Is Over A ($50) Barrel The Big Three aren't ready to compete with foreign rivals on fuel economy By David Welch; SEPTEMBER 13, 2004; businessweek.com

-- Chrysler, Ford Recall Over 1 Million Vehicles By Tom Brown; Reuters; Dec 10, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"...DaimlerChrysler AG said Friday it is recalling 600,000 Dodge Durango SUVs and Dakota pickup trucks because of a defect that can cause their wheels to fall off."

"In March, General Motors Corp. announced it was recalling nearly 4 million trucks because their tailgates could fall off."

-- DaimlerChrysler Recalls 600,000 Vehicles By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press; Dec 10, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Delta 4 Leaves Satellite In Wrong Orbit; December 22, 2004; local6.com

-- New US rocket fails first mission By Michael Cabbage; December 22, 2004; theage.com.au

"People in Hong Kong are making reliable transcontinental video calls to folks as far away as the UK. In much of the U.S., we can't even make reliable voice calls to someone next door."

-- Asian Phone Explosion!; 12.22.04; pcmag.com

"...Osaka, Japan with robotics-related patents and many more working on robotics technology. The city has become the center of robot technology in Japan and possibly the world."

-- Osaka Emerging as Robot City 2 May 2004; robots.net

"There are 73 major android projects around the world - 34 are in Japan, 10 in the US, 7 in Germany, 5 in Korea, 3 in China, 3 in the UK..."

-- Where is the Robot-Valley? by Dimitar Vesselinov; divedi.blogspot.com; October 28, 2004; citing http://www.androidworld.com/prod01.htm

"Worldwide at least 800,000 units (possibly the real stock could be well over one million units), of which 350,000 in Japan, close to 250,000 in the European Union and about 112,000 in North America."

-- Where is the Robot-Valley? by Dimitar Vesselinov; divedi.blogspot.com; October 28, 2004; citing a PDF file located here.

Technological Expertise

"54% of Chinese companies cited innovation as one of their top objectives, while only 26% of U.S. respondents did."

-- "The China Price" By Pete Engardio, Dexter Roberts, and Brian Bremner; DECEMBER 6, 2004; businessweek.com

-- Yahoo! News - Asia May Develop Alternative to Windows; story.news.yahoo.com

-- China to help Europe develop GPS rival by Will Knight; 19 September 03; newscientist.com

-- Japan, China, South Korea agree to develop non-Windows software The Associated Press; 9/5/2003; usatoday.com

Technological Expertise

"...the U.S. military...could see its vast technological superiority erode [due to reduced competition in mil-industrial complex]"

-- Defense-Industry Goliaths by Michael Rich, John Birkler, & Mark Lorell; Headlines Over the Horizon Analysts at the RAND Corporation lay out ten international-security developments that aren't getting the attention they deserve; The Atlantic Monthly | July/August 2003; theatlantic.com

"It's going to cause a steady weakening of U.S. leadership in technology and related fields"

-- Gary Bloom, CEO of Veritas, 2004

-- Teachers Concerned for Science Education By BEN FELLER; AP; Jul 03, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"The U.S. may not be able to lead all areas of biosciences anymore...It may be Japan, the U.K., China or even Singapore."

-- Yongmin Kim, Bioengineering chair, the University of Washington

-- A Candy Store for Scientists By Charles Piller; Dec 09, 2004; Los Angeles Times; story.news.yahoo.com

Equality of income opportunity/distribution

"The situation in India is alarming. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening"

-- Yahoo! News - At 5, Rina already has back-breaking job By Terry Friel; Reuters; Sep 05, 2004

"In a generation, China's ascetic, egalitarian society has acquired the trappings and the tensions of America in the age of the robber barons."

"A wide income gap, like that in Britain and the United States at the end of the 19th century..." -- China's Elite Learn to Flaunt It While the New Landless Weep By JOSEPH KAHN; December 25, 2004; nytimes.com

Equality of income opportunity/distribution

"...A growing body of evidence suggests that the meritocratic ideal is in trouble in America.... The past couple of decades have seen a huge increase in inequality in America."

"...with dynastic ties proliferating, social circles interlocking, mechanisms of social exclusion strengthening and a gap widening between the people who make the decisions and shape the culture and the vast majority of ordinary working stiffs."

-- Meritocracy in America Ever higher society, ever harder to ascend; Dec 29th 2004; economist.com

"...America's skewed income distribution is rapidly making the U.S. resemble Argentina or Mexico"

-- President George Bush and the Gilded Age by Yoshi Tsurumi, Professor of International Business; March 1, 2004; glocom.org

"Income inequality in the United States is now not only at a record level and not only the greatest since we began measuring it -- it is also on a par with that of a Third World country"

-- Inured to Inequality By Steven Rattner; Washington Post; June 16, 2003; Page A23

"...take-home pay, as a share of the economy, is at its lowest level since the government started keeping track in 1929."

-- The Sluggish Wage Recovery; July 3, 2004; nytimes.com

"...adjusted for the rate of inflation--a standard calculation to make--real wages have been dropping..."

-- Fuzzy math and the minimum wage by Bradford Plumer; June 21, 2004; motherjones.com

Equality of income opportunity/distribution Equality of income opportunity/distribution

Present day developing/third world nation status

Present day USA status

Expected future developing/third world nation status

Expected future USA status

Equality of distribution of wealth/assets

"In Indonesia, 61.7% of the stock market’s value is owned by the nation’s 15 richest families. The comparable figure for the Philippines is 55.1% and 53.3% for Thailand."

-- Frank Talk on Free Trade by Jeff Gates, President of the Shared Capitalism Institute; SustainAbility Radar March 2000

Equality of distribution of wealth/assets

"In terms of wealth distribution...the United States ranks 24th in the world; all 18 of the most developed European countries rank higher..."

-- America, Wake Up to the European Dream (washingtonpost.com) By Jeremy Rifkin; October 31, 2004; Page B04

"Williams argues...that..."massive maldistribution" of wealth has severely weakened U.S. political institutions and democracy"

-- Disparity in wealth is killing democracy, scholar warns; eurekalert.org; 27-Aug-2003; Contact: Steven Goldsmith sgolds@u.washington.edu 206-543-2580 University of Washington

"...the top 10 percent of income earners owned 70 percent of directly held equities..."

-- Do Jobs Not Matter Anymore? By E. J. Dionne Jr.; August 29, 2003; Page A23; washingtonpost.com

"...the wealthiest 1 percent of the population owns more wealth than the bottom 95 percent."

-- We Are the Majority by Bernie Sanders; February 2004; progressive.org

"...President Bush's ownership society could become more of an Asian phenomenon than an American one."

-- Debt, Where Is Thy Sting? The sting is right here, Mr. President, which is why your "ownership society" idea is in trouble. By Daniel Gross; Sept. 1, 2004; slate.msn.com

"America...has always...been an economic paradise for the middle class--at least until now."

"...when the hidden welfare state is counted along with the visible welfare state, the United States has a system of social provision as generous as those in Western Europe--though in this country much of that system extends only to the middle class and the professional elite."

-- The Atlantic | January/February 2004 | Are We Still a Middle-Class Nation? | Lind by Michael Lind; theatlantic.com

Equality of distribution of wealth/assets

"...President Bush's ownership society could become more of an Asian phenomenon than an American one."

-- Debt, Where Is Thy Sting? The sting is right here, Mr. President, which is why your "ownership society" idea is in trouble. By Daniel Gross; Sept. 1, 2004; slate.msn.com

Equality of distribution of wealth/assets
Citizen happiness and satisfaction

"China had 22 suicides for every 100,000 people. The global average is 15 per 100,000."

"...suicide and other consequences of depression cost China at least $3.5 billion a year, placing it second only to the U.S."

-- Suicide: China's Great Wall of Silence Despite the high rate of such deaths, depression is still largely ignored. But Beijing may slowly be waking up to mental-health issues By Bruce Einhorn; NOVEMBER 2, 2004; businessweek.com

"Millions of children...are growing up without one or both parents...Grandparents...care for the children."

-- Rural Exodus for Work Fractures Chinese Family By JIM YARDLEY; December 21, 2004; nytimes.com

-- Iranian Youths Seeking to Escape Bleak Prospects Lead Some Toward Border, Others to Drugs By Afshin Molavi; The Washington Post; September 7, 2003; Page A25; washingtonpost.com

-- Zimbabwe to Outlaw Groups That Promote Human Rights By MICHAEL WINES; December 10, 2004; nytimes.com

Citizen happiness and satisfaction

"...one-third of all Americans no longer believe in the American Dream, either because it has failed them, or because they believe that in an increasingly interdependent world, it no longer works."

-- America, Wake Up to the European Dream (washingtonpost.com) By Jeremy Rifkin; October 31, 2004; Page B04

"China had 22 suicides for every 100,000 people. The global average is 15 per 100,000."

"...suicide and other consequences of depression cost China at least $3.5 billion a year, placing it second only to the U.S."

-- Suicide: China's Great Wall of Silence Despite the high rate of such deaths, depression is still largely ignored. But Beijing may slowly be waking up to mental-health issues By Bruce Einhorn; NOVEMBER 2, 2004; businessweek.com

"[In the total numbers of suicides within nations worldwide] The United States was fourth with 31,000 in the year 2000."

-- Suicide Around the World Every 40 Seconds-Experts By Robert Evans; Sep 08, 2004; Reuters; story.news.yahoo.com

"The ILO has created an economic security index (ESI) which ranks Scandinavia, western Europe and Canada at the top, well ahead of the United States..."

"The report finds that the most important determinant of happiness within countries is not income levels - although there is a link - but income security, measured in terms of income protection and a low level of inequality in pay levels."

"The US is in 25th place, in spite of being one of the richest countries on earth."

-- Fear infects flexible workplaces ILO says globalisation has helped to create a world of unhappy employees, with the US scoring high on labour force unease by Ashley Seager; September 2, 2004; The Guardian; guardian.co.uk

"...19.5 million Americans used illicit drugs in 2002. This works out to 8.3 percent of the population age 12 or older."

-- Yahoo! News - Survey Finds Millions of New U.S. Drug Abusers By Maggie Fox; Sep 06, 2003; Reuters; story.news.yahoo.com

"...measures of happiness in the America and Japan has been flat over the last 30 years, while they have been rising in most Western European countries."

-- Love of Leisure, and Europe's Reasons By KATRIN BENNHOLD, International Herald Tribune; Elisabetta Povoledo contributor; nytimes.com; July 29, 2004

"...the U.S. ranks 5th as far as quality of life, behind Canada, France, Spain and Germany...it ranks No. 8 as far as quality of environment is concerned."

-- Europeans Admire U.S. Economy More Than Quality Of Life; 2004-06-30 - Wireless Flash Weird News; ncbuy.com

"...Europeans still enjoy free health care for all, cradle to grave; free education through university level; comparatively generous retirement for their elderly; an average of five weeks paid annual vacation, more sick leave, parental leave, and a shorter work week with comparable wages for their workers...Social spending in Europe runs some 50 percent above that in the United States. Environmental, food safety and labor laws are the envy of activists in the U.S."

-- The Ups and Downs of European Politics by Steven Hill; AlterNet; December 21, 2002

"America...has always...been an economic paradise for the middle class--at least until now."

"...when the hidden welfare state is counted along with the visible welfare state, the United States has a system of social provision as generous as those in Western Europe--though in this country much of that system extends only to the middle class and the professional elite."

-- The Atlantic | January/February 2004 | Are We Still a Middle-Class Nation? | Lind by Michael Lind; theatlantic.com

Citizen happiness and satisfaction Citizen happiness and satisfaction
Educational opportunity and quality Educational opportunity and quality

-- Heaven and Helsinki Today's international league tables for education will show that Finland leads the world. John Crace went to find out what Britain could learn from the Finns' success by John Crace; September 16, 2003; The Guardian; education.guardian.co.uk

"America...has always...been an economic paradise for the middle class--at least until now."

"...when the hidden welfare state is counted along with the visible welfare state, the United States has a system of social provision as generous as those in Western Europe--though in this country much of that system extends only to the middle class and the professional elite."

-- The Atlantic | January/February 2004 | Are We Still a Middle-Class Nation? | Lind by Michael Lind; theatlantic.com

-- Truancy Due to Fear Rises, Study Finds By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; July 30, 2004; nytimes.com

-- Yahoo! News - 48 school deaths highest in years By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY; Jun 28, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

Educational opportunity and quality Educational opportunity and quality

Present day developing/third world nation status

Present day USA status

Expected future developing/third world nation status

Expected future USA status

Voting/election validity/credibility/fairness

-- Iranians Go to the Polls, With Little Doubt of the Outcome By NEIL MacFARQUHAR; February 21, 2004; nytimes.com

-- Rigged Ballots in Iran; January 13, 2004; nytimes.com

"Totalitarian nations hold elections, but what sets democracies apart is offering real choices in elections."

-- Elections With No Meaning; February 21, 2004; nytimes.com

Voting/election validity/credibility/fairness

-- Yahoo! News - Poll Shows U.S. Distrust of Politicians 'Epidemic' By Gail Appleson; Reuters; Oct 18, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"Our legislators have reached the point of declaring that, when it comes to apportionment, 'We are in the business of rigging elections.'"

-- APRIL 2004: U.S. NO LONGER FREE, NOR A DEMOCRACY by Dave Pollard; April 30, 2004; blogs.salon.com/0002007/ citing the New York Times here.

"Both parties have succeeded in drawing district lines in ways that cement their power by eliminating contested elections."

"In recent years, contests for the House of Representatives and state legislatures have looked more and more like the Iraqi election in 2002, when Saddam Hussein claimed 100 percent of the vote for his re-election."

-- Elections With No Meaning; February 21, 2004; nytimes.com

"Every year the number of truly competitive congressional seats is smaller, public interest in politics is lower, and elections become more like a ratification of the inevitable."

-- On the road again; August 15, 2003; iht.com

"...from 1945 to 1998 voting turnout in the U.S. ranked 139th of 171 countries...Our turnout rate of about 50 percent compares to the 73 percent average for the 36 established democracies."

-- Q. Is it true that our voter turnout is much lower than that of other democracies? Don’t Americans care enough to vote? by David Morris, Vice President of the Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. based Institute for Local Self-Reliance; The American Voice 2004 - Ask Dr. Dave - Answer - One Vote; 08/05/04; americanvoice2004.org

"The American vote-count is controlled by three major corporate players -- Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia...These companies...have been given billions of dollars by the Bush Regime to complete a sweeping computerization of voting machines nationwide by the 2004 election. These glitch-riddled systems -- many using "touch-screen" technology that leaves no paper trail at all -- are almost laughably open to manipulation..."

-- Global Eye -- Vanishing Act By Chris Floyd; Sep. 19, 2003. Page XII; themoscowtimes.com

"Nearly one-third of voters nationwide cast their ballots on electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper trail."

-- Lessons of the Ballot Box; nytimes.com; November 4, 2004

"...the machines used by one-third of the population were prone to error."

-- Yahoo! News - Voters Report Problems with Computer Systems By Andy Sullivan; Nov 03, 2004; Reuters; story.news.yahoo.com

-- E-voting 'success' unverifiable -- and that's the problem Without a paper trail, there's no way to verify e-voting's accuracy - Computerworld by Sharon Machlis; NOVEMBER 03, 2004; computerworld.com

-- Yahoo! News - Millions Blocked from Voting in U.S. Election By Alan Elsner; Reuters; Sep 22, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com [AUTHOR'S NOTE: Practically everything about this article was changed by 10-20-04: the title, author, and content, to "Democrats, Republicans Charge Vote Improprieties" By Jill Serjeant; Reuters; Oct 20, 2004. END NOTE]

"The observers said they had less access to polls than in Kazakhstan, that the electronic voting had fewer fail-safes than in Venezuela...and that no other country had such a complex national election system."

-- Global monitors find faults By Thomas Crampton International Herald Tribune; November 3, 2004; iht.com

-- Foreign monitors 'barred' from US polls; November 03 2004; iol.co.za

"...it may well be the case that massive voter fraud has put many of the wrong candidates in office, meaning we aren't a nation of laws at all"

-- Voter Flawed: A Follow-Up on Several Back Columns and Can Diebold Voting Machines Really Be Hacked? By Robert X. Cringely; JULY 17, 2003; PBS I, Cringely; Archived Column

Voting/election validity/credibility/fairness Voting/election validity/credibility/fairness

Present day developing/third world nation status

Present day USA status

Expected future developing/third world nation status

Expected future USA status

Cross-cultural access/openness/creativity

"Chile, which is Latin America's most open economy as well as one of its most prosperous..."

-- Debt Trouble Could Be Piling Up Overseas By EDMUND L. ANDREWS; September 7, 2003; nytimes.com

"...in countries like China and Cuba, books, music and movies from other countries are often banned."

-- World Music Artists Shut Out of U.S. Borders By Yvonne Wong; May 4, 2003; wiretapmag.org

Cross-cultural access/openness/creativity

"As one scientist advised his colleagues in an e-mail quoted by The New York Times: "Assume you are living in Stalinist Russia when communicating with the United States government."..."

-- What Americans know With his six-year-old son enrolled in Californian state school, Andrew Gumbel finds its roots in a conformist education system ill at ease with dissent or critical thought; 08 September 2003; news.independent.co.uk

-- Border Net Has Become a Noose, U.S. Firms Say By Evelyn Iritani; Los Angeles Times; Oct 18, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

-- World Music Artists Shut Out of U.S. Borders By Yvonne Wong; May 4, 2003; wiretapmag.org

-- Foreign Enrollment Declines at Universities, Surveys Say; nytimes.com

"Sweden tops the United States on this measure, with Finland, the Netherlands, and Denmark close behind. The United Kingdom and Belgium are also doing well. And most of these countries, especially Ireland, are becoming more creatively competitive at a faster rate than the United States."

-- Creative Class War How the GOP's anti-elitism could ruin America's economy By Richard Florida; January/February 2004; washingtonmonthly.com

-- Yahoo! News - U.S. Struggles in War of Ideas, Panel Says By Paul Richter; Los Angeles Times; Jul 26, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"Some compare it to working under the old Soviet system of five-year plans"

-- The 'Zero Dropout' Miracle: Alas! Alack! A Texas Tall Tale By MICHAEL WINERIP; August 13, 2003; nytimes.com

Cross-cultural access/openness/creativity

-- Why 'open R&D' is the future - Tech News - CNET.com By strategy+business; July 4, 2003; news.com.com

-- Are we doomed yet? The computer-networked, digital world poses enormous threats to humanity that no government, no matter how totalitarian, can stop. A fully open society is our best chance for survival. By Sheldon Pacotti; March 31, 2003; salon.com

Cross-cultural access/openness/creativity

Present day developing/third world nation status

Present day USA status

Expected future developing/third world nation status

Expected future USA status

Total tax burden distribution

Total tax burden distribution

"Americans are paying the full cost of national health insurance through taxes but not getting the benefits,"

-- Steffie Woolhandler, Harvard associate professor of medicine

-- Study: U.S. health care taxes world's highest -The Olympian; July 9, 2002; theolympian.com

"Health insurance premiums rose five times faster than U.S. workers' salaries this year..."

-- Health Insurance Costs Soar, Workers Hit By Kim Dixon; Reuters; Sep 09, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"There are at least 5 million fewer jobs providing health insurance in 2004 than there were in 2001..."

"This year, 63 percent of firms offered health benefits to workers, down from 68 percent in 2001."

-- Health Care Premiums Jump 11.2 Percent By THERESA AGOVINO; Sep 09, 2004; AP; story.news.yahoo.com

"This is the worst example of the influence of special interests that I have ever seen,"

-- Arizona Republican Senator John McCain

-- Corporate 'Tax Reform:' Rich Get Richer While Taxpayers Get Screwed By DOUG THOMPSON; Oct 12, 2004; capitolhillblue.com

Total tax burden distribution Total tax burden distribution
Environmental safety and security

"...less developed nations "have such urgent current problems" that worrying about long-term problems is a low priority."

-- Sounding the Alarm on a Tsunami Is Complex and Expensive By JOHN SCHWARTZ; December 29, 2004; nytimes.com

Environmental safety and security

"...some 60,000 U.S. residents die from heart attacks and respiratory problems each year because of the effects of airborne dust at concentrations within federal pollution limits..."

-- Air Sickness How microscopic dust particles cause subtle but serious harm by Janet Raloff; sciencenews.org; Week of Aug. 2, 2003; Vol. 164, No. 5 , p. 72

-- Two-thirds of U.S. population has increased cancer risk due to pollution; canada.com

-- Air pollution may cause and speed up artery disease; eurekalert.org; 7-Nov-2004; Contact: Carole Bullock carole.bullock@heart.org 214-706-1279 American Heart Association

-- Smog Clogs Arteries: Pollution does lasting harm to blood vessels by David Shiga; Dec. 11, 2004; Vol. 166, No. 24 , p. 372; sciencenews.org

-- Study reveals link between cardiovascular risk and cognitive decline 9-Nov-2004; eurekalert.org; Contact: Jennifer O'Brien jobrien@pubaff.ucsf.edu 415-476-2557 University of California - San Francisco

"...the U.S. ranks 5th as far as quality of life, behind Canada, France, Spain and Germany...it ranks No. 8 as far as quality of environment is concerned."

-- Europeans Admire U.S. Economy More Than Quality Of Life; 2004-06-30 - Wireless Flash Weird News; ncbuy.com

-- Yahoo! News - 159M Americans Live in High-Smog Regions By JEREMIAH MARQUEZ, Associated Press; Apr 29, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Yahoo! News - Lax U.S. Power Plant Rules Killing Thousands-Study By Chris Baltimore; Reuters; Jun 10, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"I fear for the safety of our nation's drinking water...Apparently, it's a real crapshoot as to what's going to come out of the tap and whether it will be healthy or not."

-- Jim Elder, 1991-1995 head of EPA's drinking water program

-- Yahoo! News - Lead Levels in Water Misrepresented Across U.S. By Carol D. Leonnig, Jo Becker and David Nakamura, Washington Post; Oct 05, 2004

-- Internal study faults EPA clean water enforcement One-fourth of treatment plants violate limits by Guy Gugliotta, Eric Pianin, Washington Post; June 6, 2003; sfgate.com

-- EPA: Few Fined for Polluting Water (washingtonpost.com); washingtonpost.com

-- Yahoo! News - 'High Levels' of Bacteria Found in Bottled Water; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Toxic fuel traces found in some grocery lettuce By Miguel Bustillo; Apr. 28, 2003; LOS ANGELES TIMES; bayarea.com

"Coastal freshwater wells could be sucking more pollution from the ocean than previously thought..."

-- Seawater 'salt pump' threatens drinking water by Nicola Jones; 08 May 03; newscientist.com

"These chemicals are everywhere-in electronic equipment, television sets and upholstery...They cause great damage to the thyroid and can short-circuit the brain."

-- California Gov. Gray Davis, 2003

"The median level in the breast milk of California women is 3 to 10 times as high as the level in the milk of European women..."

-- California to Ban Chemicals Used as Flame Retardants By JENNIFER 8. LEE; August 10, 2003; nytimes.com

"...the U.S. levels were higher than both[Spain and Japan's], according to the Texas study."

"The researchers recently reported high levels of PBDEs in breast milk of 47 women in Dallas and Austin -- the highest levels found in the world to date."

"...they have been associated with cancer, endocrine disruption and impaired brain development in animal studies..."

"The European Union has banned two types of PBDEs...and is currently considering a ban on a third type...Officials in the United States are still debating the fate of flame retardants..."

-- Flame retardants found on supermarket shelves; eurekalert.org; 1-Sep-2004; Contact: Michael Bernstein m_bernstein@acs.org 202-872-6042 American Chemical Society

-- Pollutants cause huge rise in brain diseases Scientists alarmed as number of cases triples in 20 years by Juliette Jowit; August 15, 2004; The Observer; observer.guardian.co.uk

-- EPA said to avoid studies conflicting with White House by Jennifer 8. Lee, New York Times; July 14, 2003; sfgate.com

"...Social spending in Europe runs some 50 percent above that in the United States. Environmental, food safety and labor laws are the envy of activists in the U.S."

-- The Ups and Downs of European Politics by Steven Hill; AlterNet; December 21, 2002

Environmental safety and security Environmental safety and security

Present day developing/third world nation status

Present day USA status

Expected future developing/third world nation status

Expected future USA status

Poverty and the plight of the worst off in the society

"That in a nutshell is why Africans are poor: their leaders keep them that way."

-- Africa Earned Its Debt By ROBERT GUEST; October 6, 2004; nytimes.com

Poverty and the plight of the worst off in the society

"...a far larger number of Americans die each year from poverty, hunger, pollution, dangerous jobs or poor access to high-quality health care than terrorism."

-- Yahoo! News - Nader: Social Ills Deadlier Than Terror By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press; Sep 12, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

-- One quarter of working Americans live in poverty: study AFP; Oct 18, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Nearly 36 Million Americans Living in Poverty by Andrea Hopkins; commondreams.org; citing August 26, 2004 Reuters article originally located here.

-- 39M Americans in Working Poor Families By GENARO C. ARMAS; AP; Oct 18, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"...Europeans still enjoy free health care for all, cradle to grave; free education through university level; comparatively generous retirement for their elderly; an average of five weeks paid annual vacation, more sick leave, parental leave, and a shorter work week with comparable wages for their workers...Social spending in Europe runs some 50 percent above that in the United States. Environmental, food safety and labor laws are the envy of activists in the U.S."

-- The Ups and Downs of European Politics by Steven Hill; AlterNet; December 21, 2002

"The national disgrace of the United States having the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world must be eliminated."

-- We Are the Majority by Bernie Sanders; February 2004; progressive.org

"More than 33 million Americans -- almost 12 million of them children -- are poor...Contrary to public perception...the majority of poor in the United States are members of established family households who work full-time and are white. No other economically advanced country tolerates such a level of poverty."

-- Richard Estes of the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work at the Fifth International Conference of the International Society for Life Quality Studies

-- U.S. ranks 27th in world social progress; Africa in dire straits; 21-Jul-2003; eurekalert.org; Contact: Ron Ozio ozio@pobox.upenn.edu 215-898-8658 University of Pennsylvania

"...30% of American workers earn poverty or near-poverty wages."

-- Who's Losing? (apparently the web site of Bernie Sanders, Vermont's Independent Representative); accessible online on or about 10-10-04; bernie.house.gov

"Americans in the lowest income brackets have living standards that are 13 percent below those of low-income Germans and 24 percent below the bottom 20 percent of Swedes."

-- Four Myths, 30 Million Potential Votes By Beth Shulman; washingtonpost.com; August 17, 2003; Page B04

"While Norway, Iceland and Sweden are the top three countries in the index, the US is placed 7th and the UK 13th [in one measure of human development]"

-- India Slips Three Notches On HDI by OUR ECONOMIC BUREAU; July 09, 2003; financialexpress.com

"The Bush White House is pushing federal agencies to slash the dollar value they place on human life..."

-- Bush weighs life's worth, cost of rules by JIM BARNETT; 03/17/03; oregonlive.com

"America...has always...been an economic paradise for the middle class--at least until now."

"...when the hidden welfare state is counted along with the visible welfare state, the United States has a system of social provision as generous as those in Western Europe--though in this country much of that system extends only to the middle class and the professional elite."

-- The Atlantic | January/February 2004 | Are We Still a Middle-Class Nation? | Lind by Michael Lind; theatlantic.com

-- Slavery abounds in U.S., rights group says by Rona Marech; September 24, 2004; sfgate.com

Poverty and the plight of the worst off in the society Poverty and the plight of the worst off in the society

-- How U.S. opposition to international court jeopardizes U.S. troops - Sep. 10, 2003 By Marjorie Cohn; September 10, 2003; cnn.com

Nationalism/patriotism and public attitudes towards science, technology, and intellectual pursuits in general, as opposed to religious or political ideology and mysticism

-- Yahoo! News - Serbs in Dispute Over Darwin Vs. Divine; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Beijing Says Only ’Patriots’ Are Fit to Rule Hong Kong; nytimes.com

Nationalism/patriotism and public attitudes towards science, technology, and intellectual pursuits in general, as opposed to religious or political ideology and mysticism

-- Christianist Ayatollahs Bring America To Shame; are a worse threat to the nation than communism ever was. Steps to Confront Them By Rob Kall; accessible online 12-5-04; opednews.com

"If you are cornered, then the only way out is religion"

-- Mohamed Abdel Moneim, editor, weekly political magazine Rose El-Youssef (apparently in Egypt).

-- Egypt's cultural shift reflects Islam's pull By Lisa Anderson; Chicago Tribune; Mar 21, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"Faith and spirituality guide the lives of three out of four American adults..."

-- New Penn/Gallup Poll Measures "Spiritual State of the Union" ; CONTACT: Jacquie Posey at 215-898-6460 or jposey@pobox.upenn.edu upenn.edu; March 4, 2003

"Does the United States have its own problem with fundamentalism, perhaps as serious as the one faced by the Islamic world?"

"[In some matters of late]...U.S. representatives have joined an unlikely voting bloc whose other members are Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Pakistan and the Vatican"

-- Making the world safe for...theocracy? By DOUG SAUNDERS; Aug. 30, 2003; globeandmail.ca

"The ties between Christian fundamentalism in the United States and Jewish fundamentalism in Israel are growing rapidly, with potentially serious consequences for U.S.-Middle East policy and for the people of that troubled region."

-- Allan C. Brownfeld, "Some Fundamentalists Ache for Armageddon," The Orange County Register, May 19, 1987

-- The Bible is their 'Road Map' by Bill Berkowitz; 05.14.03; workingforchange.com

"Religion remains central to American life, and is getting more so, in a way that is true of no other industrialized country..."

"The result is a gulf not only between America and the rest of the industrialized world, but a growing split at home as well."

"...the Islamic world is in crisis today in large part because of a similar drift away from a rich intellectual tradition and toward the mystical."

-- Believe It, or Not By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF; August 15, 2003; nytimes.com

-- Federal Funds to Build Churches; January 28, 2003; nytimes.com

"Just as we've committed ourselves inextricably to a high-tech world...we appear to have become nearly as terrified of technology, of science -- of change -- as the Arab world, or the Vatican."

"...if we look only backward instead of forward, too...That way lies inconceivable horror, a bin Laden future for our grandchildren."

-- Forward, into the past Why are our imaginations retreating from science and space, and into fantasy? By SPIDER ROBINSON; Sep. 8, 2003; globeandmail.com

"Ignorance, self-delusion, free-floating disregard for the facts and an unswerving belief in its own infallibility: such are the hallmarks of today's America....A glimpse into history suggests empires often build up these illusory images of themselves, images that through their deceptive power eventually conspire to bring them down. It happened to the Romans, and to the Japanese, and to the Soviet empire. Could the United States be so very different?"

-- What Americans know With his six-year-old son enrolled in Californian state school, Andrew Gumbel finds its roots in a conformist education system ill at ease with dissent or critical thought; 08 September 2003; news.independent.co.uk

"...the drift toward an engineered one-party Republican state has aroused little press scrutiny or widespread popular protest"

-- Watching the Numbers By Tom Engelhardt, tomdispatch.com, January 26, 2004; alternet.org

-- Science Friction The growing--and dangerous--divide between scientists and the GOP By Nicholas Thompson; July/August 2003; washingtonmonthly.com

-- W. House Guts Global Warming Study by John Roberts; June 19, 2003; cbsnews.com

-- More Junk Science; August 12, 2003; motherjones.com

-- No Substitute for Sound Science (washingtonpost.com) By Henry Kelly; August 12, 2003; Page A13; washingtonpost.com

-- The battle for American science Creationists, pro-lifers and conservatives now pose a serious threat to research and science teaching in the US by Oliver Burkeman and Alok Jha; April 10, 2003; guardian.co.uk

-- Yahoo! News - Seventeen magazine, the girls' fashion bible, adds religion coverage; story.news.yahoo.com

Nationalism/patriotism and public attitudes towards science, technology, and intellectual pursuits in general, as opposed to religious or political ideology and mysticism Nationalism/patriotism and public attitudes towards science, technology, and intellectual pursuits in general, as opposed to religious or political ideology and mysticism

"One-party dominated states and hierarchical, command-driven social systems are notorious for their tendency to make disastrous decisions, in the areas of both domestic and foreign policy"

-- March of the Banana Republicans By John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, AlterNet; April 28, 2004; alternet.org

-- Bush unscathed by investigations. Here's why Special counsels are now a thing of the past, and GOP-controlled Congress has stifled partisan inquiries By Susan Page; USA TODAY; found on or about 9-17-2003

-- Why Bush, GOP can block all inquiries By Susan Page, USA TODAY; 8/12/2003

Of the nine Justices currently serving on the Supreme Court, seven were selected by Republican administrations.

-- Yahoo! News - Politics in the Supreme Court; The Associated Press; 9-8-03

"Some compare it to working under the old Soviet system of five-year plans"

-- The 'Zero Dropout' Miracle: Alas! Alack! A Texas Tall Tale By MICHAEL WINERIP; August 13, 2003; nytimes.com

"History is replete with examples showing that the decline from liberal democracy to ruthless and tyrannical dictatorship can occur quickly...The rest of the world can only watch, and shudder, at how easily and quietly the fall of a once-great country is beginning."

-- APRIL 2004: U.S. NO LONGER FREE, NOR A DEMOCRACY by Dave Pollard; April 30, 2004; blogs.salon.com/0002007/

Justice

Justice

-- It's Way Too Easy to Get Hard Time With more than 4,000 federal crimes alone now on the books, you'd have to be Mother Theresa not to be in jeopardy at some point By Ciro Scotti; DECEMBER 10, 2004; businessweek.com

-- Presumed Guilty: Paying for Piracy in Advance by Anush Yegyazarian, PC World; November 03, 2004; pcworld.com

-- Report: U.S. criminal justice system unfair, unjust for Hispanics; 10/14/2004; Contact: Lisa Navarrete or Angela Arboleda, NCLR, (202) 785-1670; or Gisgie Dávila Gendreau, MSU, (517) 290-5418 or gendrea3@msu.edu; newsroom.msu.edu

-- Ex-Inmate's Suit Offers View Into Sexual Slavery in Prisons By ADAM LIPTAK; October 16, 2004; nytimes.com

-- No-fly list ensnares innocent travelers by Alan Gathright; June 8, 2003; sfgate.com

-- One man's lies enough to convict 38 people; AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN; May 21, 2003; statesman.com

Justice Justice

A massive rollback in individual rights could be orchestrated by a Supreme Court packed with Bush appointees. Indeed, many US states' laws could come to more closely resemble those of theocracies like 2004's Iran.

-- Imagining America if George Bush Chose the Supreme Court by ADAM COHEN; October 18, 2004; nytimes.com

-- Yahoo! News - Plan Would Let U.S. Deport Suspects To Nations That Might Torture Them By Dana Priest and Charles Babington, Washington Post; Sep 30, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

Present day developing/third world nation status

Present day USA status

Expected future developing/third world nation status

Expected future USA status

Global credibility and respect

Global credibility and respect

"...even among traditional friends abroad, America is no longer regarded as a champion of freedom, democracy and human rights, but increasingly as a dangerous aggressor bent on imperial domination and exploitation."

-- No wonder America has so many enemies By ERIC MARGOLIS; September 28, 2003; canoe.ca

"After the official rationales for the Iraq war proved false...and, not least, after Abu Ghraib - the world no longer believes that we are the good guys."

-- America's Lost Respect By PAUL KRUGMAN; October 1, 2004; nytimes.com

-- Polls Show Worsening of U.S. Reputation By BETH GARDINER, Associated Press; Oct 15, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com [AUTHOR'S NOTE: The title of this article changed by around 10-20-04 to U.S. Image Slides, but Americans Popular, and its content seemed to be substantially re-written to put a more positive spin on things. END NOTE.]

-- Slashdot | U.S. World's Foremost Spam Nation In 2004; 12-25-04; it.slashdot.org

-- US leads the dirty dozen spammers by Dan Ilett; ZDNet UK; December 24, 2004; news.zdnet.co.uk

-- Yahoo! News - U.S. Policies Stir More Fear Than Confidence By Jeffrey Fleishman; Oct 18, 2004; Los Angeles Times; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Yahoo! News - U.S. Patriot Act Raises Canadian Privacy Fears By Allan Dowd; Oct 18, 2004; Reuters; story.news.yahoo.com

-- Yahoo! News - Report laments US diplomacy in face of rising anti-Americanism; AFP; Oct 18, 2004; story.news.yahoo.com

"America was our dreamland, the last frontier of freedom...Where do we go now? I can't believe I left the Soviets thirty years ago to end up in Brezhnevland here!"

-- Roman Kaplan, Russian refugee from Brezhnev's USSR now in America

-- Brezhnev, Bush and Baghdad by Nina Khrushcheva; May 5, 2003; thenation.com

Global credibility and respect Global credibility and respect

-- Global Pessimism About US Power - by Jim Lobe; June 5, 2004; antiwar.com

-- Reaping the World's Disfavor (washingtonpost.com) By Harold Meyerson; June 11, 2003; Page A35

-- World rebels against America by HAROON SIDDIQUI; Jan. 26, 2003; thestar.com

-- Tide of anti-US sentiment rises in Russia - theage.com.au by Masha Lipman; April 8 2003

-- Europe's faith in US 'crumbles'4 September, 2003; news.bbc.co.uk

-- US creates African enemies where none were before csmonitor.com By David Gutelius; July 11, 2003 edition

-- Bush's behavior has made Iraq into the threat he always claimed it could be By Steve Chapman; Aug. 07, 2003; philly.com

"The world has good reason to watch what is happening in Washington with fear and trepidation."

-- Reasons to fear U.S. by NOAM CHOMSKY; Sep. 7, 2003; thestar.com

-- It can happen here The Bush Administration's international and domestic slide into totalitarianism by Geov Parrish; 02.11.03; workingforchange.com

"America is no paradise...Get up. Work for 16 hours. Go to bed. Get up again. I was a fool. A machine."

-- a man named Zheng, who lived for seven years in the USA but returned to China for a better life.

"The average person doesn't want to be smuggled into America anymore...The economy is so terrible there."

-- Zhou Xueqing, whose family now regrets their time spent in America.

-- For Many Chinese, America's Allure Is Fading By DAVID W. CHEN; September 7, 2003; nytimes.com

"...the young adults of Europe...[are]...increasingly choosing to remain on their continent rather than migrate to America..."

-- America, Wake Up to the European Dream (washingtonpost.com) By Jeremy Rifkin; October 31, 2004; Page B04

-- Allied use of cluster bombs illegal, minister admits By Paul Waugh; 30 May 2003; news.independent.co.uk

Personal, political, and religious security: Individual citizen access to factual information, freedom of travel, dissent, peaceful assembly and protest, and protection from undue or excessive business or government surveillance

"...your entire family can be purged-taken off to camps, and never heard from again...everybody’s under constant surveillance."

-- Armies of the North; 2003-09-01; Discussion between Philip Gourevitch and Amy Davidson concerning the dictatorship of North Korea; newyorker.com

"...in such a tightly controlled society [as North Korea] there's no hint of a popular uprising brewing from the ground up."

-- Wishful Thinking on Korea By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF; January 10, 2004; nytimes.com

-- Russian editor sacked for attack on Stalin by Nick Paton Walsh; May 24, 2003; guardian.co.uk

"North Korea's repressive state has basically made it impossible for terrorists to function."

-- Guy Dunn, author of World Terrorism Index

The World Markets Research Center's World Terrorism Index "...ranks Colombia, Israel and Pakistan as the only countries with a greater terror risk than the United States..."

-- Report Calls U.S. a Top Target for Terror Attack Within a Year By DON VAN NATTA Jr.; August 17, 2003; nytimes.com

"[the North Korean government is]...one of the most brutal governments on earth."

-- Q & A: Armies of the North 2003-09-01 by Philip Gourevitch; discussion with The New Yorker’s Amy Davidson; newyorker.com

Personal, political, and religious security: Individual citizen access to factual information, freedom of travel, dissent, peaceful assembly and protest, and protection from undue or excessive business or government surveillance

"I advise Internet users to be very, very careful...Committing a felony is very easy; it just takes one click."

-- Browser Hijackers Ruining Lives By Michelle Delio; May. 11, 2004; wired.com

-- Big Brother is watching you 24/7 The roots of America's surveillance culture are deep - and ominous By Brian Gilmore; September 18, 2003; csmonitor.com

-- It's Way Too Easy to Get Hard Time With more than 4,000 federal crimes alone now on the books, you'd have to be Mother Theresa not to be in jeopardy at some point By Ciro Scotti; DECEMBER 10, 2004; businessweek.com

"The U.S.A. Patriot Act, the largest expansion of government search and surveillance powers in U.S. history..."

-- 2 Years Later | Civil Liberties Patriot Gains (& Losses); September 11, 2003; motherjones.com

-- US Patriot Act looks like tentacles of totalitarianism by Barbara Sumner Burstyn; accessible online 12-5-04; nzherald.co.nz

"After 9/11 Mr. Bush gave himself the power to declare anyone, including American citizens, an "enemy combatant" and then jail such people indefinitely without charges or due process."

-- A Very Bad Deal; October 8, 2004; nytimes.com

"Whenever people start locking up enemies because of national security without much legal care, you are coming close [to fascism],"

-- Robert Paxton, author of "Fascism in Action" and emeritus history professor, Columbia University

-- WHY WE HATE BUSH By Ted Rall; Sep 25, 2003; story.news.yahoo.com

-- At year's end, signs of dictatorship abound in Washington By Wayne Madsen; December 30, 2003; onlinejournal.com

-- A Kind of Fascism Is Replacing Our Democracy by Sheldon S. Wolin; commondreams.org; citing July 18, 2003 Long Island NY Newsday at http://www.newsday.com

"America is becoming the Nazi Germany we feared in my childhood."

-- Your Papers, Please by Butler Shaffer; June 9, 2003; lewrockwell.com

-- The Danger of American Fascism By Henry A. Wallace; The New York Times; From Henry A. Wallace, Democracy Reborn (New York, 1944); 09 April 1944

"With a fascist the problem is...how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power."

-- The Ghost of Vice President Wallace Warns: "It Can Happen Here" by Thom Hartmann; July 19, 2004; commondreams.org

"Daily life has become an exercise in counterintelligence just to figure out what's going on...We are...a citizenry treated as if we are the enemy of our own government."

-- I spy with my little eye ... By Richard Thieme; Sep 9, 2003; atimes.com

"Citizens of the old Soviet Union suffered the same information isolation."

-- No wonder America has so many enemies By ERIC MARGOLIS; September 28, 2003; canoe.ca

"The more closely you followed Fox, the more misperceptions you had...No other news outlet came anywhere near that."

-- Clay Ramsay, PIPA research director

-- Study shows TV news viewers have misperceptions about Iraq war by Kay McFadden; seattletimes.nwsource.com

"Eighty percent of Fox viewers were found to hold at least one misperception, compared to 23 percent of NPR/PBS consumers. All the other media fell in between."

-- We report, you get it wrong By Jim Lobe; Oct 4, 2003; atimes.com

-- Study: 80% of Fox Viewers Misinformed on 9-11 and Saddam (PDF); Misperceptions, the Media, and the Iraq War; Oct 2, 2003; Steven Kull; pipa.org

-- The FBI's Pre-Emptive Interrogations Of "Possible" Demonstrators: Chilling Political Speech By BOB BARR; Aug. 25, 2004; writ.news.findlaw.com

Personal, political, and religious security: Individual citizen access to factual information, freedom of travel, dissent, peaceful assembly and protest, and protection from undue or excessive business or government surveillance Personal, political, and religious security: Individual citizen access to factual information, freedom of travel, dissent, peaceful assembly and protest, and protection from undue or excessive business or government surveillance

"Unfortunately, I think we're entering an era of decreased freedoms, liberties, and openness."

"I'd rather accept the slight risk of attack than constantly live in fear. It's much more pleasant."

-- Bruce Schneier, author of the book Beyond Fear and chief technology officer of net-security company Counterpane

-- "We've Made Bad Security Tradeoffs" Author Bruce Schneier discusses why the Patriot Act and other anti-terror measures mean "giving up a lot -- and not getting very much" By Alex Salkever; SEPTEMBER 2, 2003; businessweek.com

"The costs to observe are virtually zero, so it's not a question of will it exist..."

"...an utter lack of privacy, a digital iron curtain descending upon innovation, economic stagnation, social calcification."

"Geer is convinced we're heading toward a broadly surveilled police state."

-- The future of security by Scott Berinato; DECEMBER 30, 2003; computerworld.com

Militarism, cultural propensity towards violence and aggression

-- N. Korea cites Iraq as reason for strong military Associated Press; Apr. 10, 2003; globeandmail.com

Militarism, cultural propensity towards violence and aggression

"...transforming the United States into a country that is more warlike, more brutal, less free, less just, less admirable..."

-- The Neocon Hothouse that William Simon Built by Jerry M. Landay; JUNE 23, 2004; mediatransparency.com

-- U.S. takes border war on the road Boats being sunk near Ecuador By Bruce Finley; December 19, 2004; denverpost.com

"War is becoming sanitized, on our side...By making war more sanitary, one makes it more likely."

-- K.J. Holsti, war historian, professor emeritus, political science at the University of British Columbia.

-- Peace, and war, in our time North Americans often see warfare as rare aberration Truth is it's getting more discreet and even more deadly by OAKLAND ROSS; Apr. 6, 2003; thestar.com

-- Yahoo! News - Defense Spending Drives Economy By Anna Willard; Reuters; Aug 28, 2003; story.news.yahoo.com

"The strongest wave of federal defense spending since the Korean War..."

-- Defense Spending Drives U.S. Recovery By Glenn Somerville; July 31, 2003; reuters.com

"Spending by the federal government on national defense increased at a whopping 45.9 percent rate, the largest increase since the third quarter 1951."

-- Economy Grows at 3.1% in Second Quarter By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS; August 28, 2003; nytimes.com

-- US anti-war activists hit by secret airport ban By Andrew Gumbel; 03 August 2003; news.independent.co.uk

-- They spy How law enforcement is keeping tabs on the new peace movement. By A.C. Thompson; November 20, 2002; sfbg.com

-- The United States is Still #1 in Arms Sales by Tamar Gabelnick; August 10, 2002; CommonDreams.org

-- Arms deals criticized as corporate US welfare By Charles M. Sennott; 1/14/2003; boston.com; page A1 of the Boston Globe, 1/14/2003

-- A Catalogue of Failures: G8 Arms Exports and Human Rights Violations; AI Index: IOR 30/003/2003 19 May 2003 ; web.amnesty.org

Militarism, cultural propensity towards violence and aggression Militarism, cultural propensity towards violence and aggression

-- ALL WAR ALL THE TIME - The battle on terrorism is an excuse to make fighting permanent by Robert Higgs; July 6, 2003; sfgate.com

"In an era in which big government has been under serious intellectual and cultural attack, war is a tool that unites the country around the state."

-- War's Winners and Losers By Christopher Westley; [Posted April 5, 2003]; mises.org

-- US ready to put weapons in space Defence expert says America is likely to ignore treaty ban by Mark Townsend; November 7, 2004; guardian.co.uk

"...being a superpower will bankrupt any nation that attempts it. The Soviet Union's financial demise was proof of concept."

"The real question for all us is: when will the superpower tax overwhelm us financially and we end up with the same fate as the Soviet Union?"

-- John Robb's Weblog; November 04, 2004 by John Robb (citing Warren Buffet among other sources); jrobb.mindplex.org

-- The perfect enemy: Terrorists who can't be caught because they don't exist or because they're CIA assets By John Kaminski; onlinejournal.com; May 14, 2003

"...commencing combat operations chiefly to obtain intelligence"

-- excerpt from new mission proposals by US Defense Department officials

-- Shopping for War By BOB HERBERT; December 27, 2004; nytimes.com

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