Quote for 2011-03-29
ri...@math.missouri.edu
This book is an indispensable road map through the wreckage. The
facts it reveals will startle you. They may depress you. But
ideally they'll fire you up to help rebuild this nation."
-Robert B. Reich, author of The Work of Nations
On back cover of:
_We're Number One, Where America Stands -- and Falls -- in the New
World Order_ by Andrew L Shapiro.
New York, 1992, Vintage Books, a division of Random House.
==================================================================
A kind of "world book of facts" for activists...organized into
sections on health care; religion, sex, et al; education; the economy;
politics; crime & the legal system; the environment, energy, and
transportation; media, arts, and technology.
======================================================================
Here's an overview (got carried away -- an outline of the book really:)
--HB
======================================================================
Of the major industrial nations, the U.S. is
#1 in infant mortality
#1 in death of children under 5
#1 in preschoolers NOT fully immunized
#1 in low birthweight babies
and much more, in full charts, with references/footnotes
==================================================================
AIDS & RACE:
"In per capita terms, we have experienced 3 times as many AIDS cases
as Switzerland, 10 times as many as the UK, and 270 times as Japan.
While [only!] three developing African countries -- Uganda, Malawi,
and th eCongo -- have higher cumulative rates per 100,000 than the
general U.S. population, AIDS has been *more* prevalent in the nonwhite
U.S. populationj than in these three African countries"
#1 in cesarean sections per 100 births (about 25% more than Canada,
which is #2)
#1 in beef consumption per capita
#1 in coronary bypass operations
#1 in junk food consumption
#2 in cigarette consumption (after Japan) per capita
lowest in teacher salary per capita GDP
==================================================================
#1 in billionaires
#1 in children & elderly living in poverty
#1 in real per capita GDP
#1 in unequal distribution of wealth
#1 in homelessness
#1 in %of R&D on military purposes
#1 in foreign MILITARY aid to developing countries
LAST in humanitarian aid to developing countries (%GNP)
#1 in tobacco exports
#1 in bank failures and bailouts
#1 in CEO's pay
#1 in UNEQUAL pay (ratio CEO to worker pay)
LAST in paid vacation days per year
==================================================================
#15 in women's wages as % of mens
#63 in % women in legislatures
#1 in U.N. security council vetoes since 1980
#1 in NOT ratifying international human rights treaties (listed on
page 115)
#1 in per capita in prison (rate for Blacks is *four times* that of
South African Blacks)
#1 in murder
#1 in state-sponsored executions ("capital punishment")
#1 in deaths by gun (see p 123)
==================================================================
#1 in greenhouse gas emissions
#1 in contributing to acid rain
#1 in air pollutants per capita
second-to-last in % of population "very concerned" about Greenhouse<-->CO2
#1 in forest depletion
#1 in garbabe per capita
#1 in junk mail
#1 in hazardous waste per capita
#1 in gasoline consumption per capita
(above pp 140-160, with charts, refs, etc)
==================================================================
#1 in time spent watching TV
last in books published per capita
#1 in spending on Advertising per capita
---- Send good quotes to ri...@math.missouri.edu ----