Hardly Number 1

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_021710/content/01125112.guest.html

Do you ever wonder how it is, and why it became so, that a population at any one time of less than 300 million people created the highest standard of living? Progress, economic, political, education, by any standard you want to measure, the United States of America has been the greatest collection, population of human beings in the history of the world."

America’s number one, America’s number one, America’s number one! I’m sure if you continue to repeat that statement over and over you’ll come to believe it. There’s nothing wrong with an American wanting America to be number one (who doesn’t want their country to be number one?) just stop making the claim that you are number one when the actual numbers say otherwise. The Human Development Index ranks the United States at 13th overall in 2009 (Canada is 4th by the way). The U.S does have the number one economy (based on 2008 statistics) according to the IMF, World Bank, and CIA World Factbook. The runner-up Japan, is not even close and I doubt the recession will hurt America’s standing in this regard. The U.S is undoubtedly wealthy but, GDP isn’t the best measure of the living standards of all the people. Still, I’ll give this one to Rush, as far as economics are concerned America is number one. Politics is an area that can’t exactly be ranked. What is being ranked has to be defined first. When it comes to performing in math and science the U.S doesn’t rank at number one (http://www.realonlinedegrees.com/education-rankings-by-country/).

If we speak of America being number one statistically then when looking at the economy, education system and HDI then the only category by which they are number is the economy. The HDI ranking speaks a different story to the idea that America has the highest standard of living. The idea that America is number one comes from a nationalism that causes one to take pride in their country. There’s nothing wrong with having pride and love for your country, just don’t let it distort reality.