America by the numbers No. 1?

Interesting.

It kept quoting things from "The European Dream" and I thought at first that this was something written by a bunch of European Eurocrats, spouting propaganda about the supposed wonders of the E.U.

I then looked on Wikipedia for the author, Jeremy Rifkin, and found that he is an American!

...and quite highly regarded, or so it would seem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Rifkin

Like I said....interesting.


....here are the first ten "facts", just to wet the appetite of anyone browsing who doesn't usually open links....





The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

"The International Adult Literacy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries'" (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).

Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

"The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).

"Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature" (The European Dream, p.70).
Nevertheless, Congress cut funds to the National Science Foundation. The agency will issue 1,000 fewer research grants this year (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).

Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28 percent last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56 percent, Indians 51 percent, South Koreans 28 percent (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004). We're not the place to be anymore.

The World Health Organization "ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was]...37th." In the fairness of health care, we're 54th. "The irony is that the United States spends more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world" (The European Dream, pp.79-80). Pay more, get lots, lots less.


There are quite a few more in there........

Two things, really.........

1. How credible is Rifkin? What I mean to say is, was Rifkin commissioned by the E.U. to write this book, and therefore did he have to "toe the line" in any way?

2. I think that the USA will be OK, as long as oil is still being purchased in dollars only.
If the dollar remains linked to the price of Oil in value, the U.S. Treasury can carry on printing dollars and dollar bonds 'til the cows come home. In true terms, the dollar isn't worth much without this link to oil price, if you look at the massive deficit in the U.S.

If, and it's not such a big "if" as it was several years ago....IF oil ever switches to another currency (Euro, probably), then the USA would have massive problems.

It won't happen for a while, though, so America's OK a this moment in time..........