America

A Letter to America: Obama vs. Blair

Thu, 11/20/2008 - 13:18

Ames at one of my favourite must-read blogs, "Submitted to A Candid World", recently wrote an article comparing the rise of Tony Blair and New Labour before his election in 1997, with the victory of Obama and what he called the "New Democrats" in 2008. Indeed, the similarities are uncanny. Both came to power after deeply unpopular opposition governments, both achieves stunning victories, both campaigned the simply but effective mantra "time for a change". But not long after Tony Blair took power things began to unravel, and it turned out that under the glossy sheen and behind the 100 watt smile, things were not what they seemed. What had seemed like the greatest victory for the left in a generation began to turn sour. Could the same happen with Obama?

America's Health, Wealth and Education Slump

Thu, 07/17/2008 - 12:50

While the government haemhorrages US$5bn a day on health spending, infant mortality is on a par with Estonia, life expectancy barely reaches Western standards, and 1 in 7 adults don't have the education required to read an average newspaper article or instruction manual, and some states lag 30 years behind others. It has 5% of the world's population, but a staggering 24% of its prisoners. Welcome to the United States of America.

The report looks at a number of different measures of "human development", primarily health, education and income. Taking all factors together, the U.S.A. fell 10 places to 12th in the world, behind 11 nations all of whom have lower GDPs per capita.