This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
10 Disturbing Facts About "Exceptional" America
Presented with no comment...
1. 65% of Americans say news organizations focus on unimportant stories rather than on important ones (28%).
2. More express concern over civil liberties (47%) than protection from terrorism (35%) for the first time in Pew Research Center polling.
3. 3% of Americans still connect to the internet at home via a dial-up connection.
4. During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%.
5. For the first time in more than four decades of polling on the issue, a majority (52%) of Americans favor legalizing the use of marijuana.
6. 15% of American adults do not use the internet or email.
7. 56% of U.S. adults say they would not want to undergo medical treatments to slow the aging process and live to be 120 or more, but roughly two-thirds (68%) think that most other people would.
8. In 23 of 39 nations surveyed, a majority or plurality of the people say China either already has replaced or eventually will replace the U.S. as the top superpower.
9. One-in-ten (7.7 million) children were living with a grandparent in 2011. Approximately 3 million of these children were being cared for primarily by that grandparent.
10. In 2012, 36% of the nation’s young adults ages 18 to 31—the so-called Millennial generation—were living in their parents’ home.
»
- 35151 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
These are the ones rapt with attention at what the teaser told them could be a "matter of life and death" (whether or not your yoga pants are manufactured by underaged children in a facility that processes peanuts).
Those damn graphs are taking forever to load over my 2400 bps modem...
Ahhh... the good ole days! AOL was the only game it town back then. Download speeds were agonizing.
Want an upgrade? I probably have a 19.2K modem collecting dust somewhere. It's external, of course. Does your PC even have a serial port, or is it an old one?
#12 76% of Americans don't have any education regarding statistics, and the other half don't care.
Well, one fact is sure and it is not on this list.
If we had just a small amount of the real reporting from the many real people out there, there may be more REAL truth told, than lies and dis/mis-information purposely meant to mislead the people in a nation where lying has become legalized, and corruption rewarded by greater and greater criminals that get away with murder and evil in the faces of the world's people.
Here is a small sampling of some things to ponder for those who care.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui4wTYyDNRA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbYXl42o1eQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9510kyqXCM
http://investmentwatchblog.com/12-facts-about-the-epic-obamacare-launch-...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSX49qfPFo4
Just a smidgen of a smattering of truth for those who find an interest. Truth is healthy for the heart, mind, and body. Believe it, or not.
I'm now seeing gold most places for ~$60-$80 over spot. Unreal.
The say the biggest issues are the apathy and ignorance of people. Someone recently asked me about this. All I could offer was "I don't know and I don't care."
Here's a disturbing fact: 65% of Americans will wish to see 90% of the politicians swinging from a tree. By 2014 80% Americans (excluding the darkies) will be happy to see that 0bama has been removed from office for being a fraud.
Our system was exceptional. And will be again once the ship has been righted. China #1? Have you people lived with your typical Asian? They don't think like we do, they don't work like we do, and when it comes down to them or their countrymen (or cold, hard cash) you can bet they will abandon their countrymen.
Don't you have a head to shave or something?
Are you a darkie?
Our "exceptionalism" came from our freedom and liberties.
Those no longer exist, now we have an iSheepledom....
As far as I'm concerned...There's no redeeming value in any aspect of our status quo society/establishment/country. Exceptional...LOL!
I've come to the conclusion that it never was what it was purported to be from almost it's very beginnings(1787).
Put that in your down arrow pipes and smoke it...bitchez.
How are these folks going to sign up for Obamacare?
I suspect the uninsured that created such a crisis greatly overlap this percentage who can't even sign up.
There are these things (people?) called Navigators. You go and tell them every detail of your lives, they send in the forms for you, and if you're lucky you get enrolled in an overpriced plan and if you're even luckier the Navigator doesn't sell your info to some identity thief.
Of course, making someone go to a Navigator doesn't inconvenience them, as would, in contrast, making someone get a picture ID to be able to vote legally.
I had an executive of a large company looking at a proposal and had to use a calculator to figure out 13,273,000 x .001. An MBA with multiple other degrees on the wall. I have been in straight commission sales the better part of 20 plus years. MBA but I would bet the readership here could do that in their head after several shots of Makers Mark. I truly don't think we have been teaching anything resembling a worthwhile education in our country in 30 plus years. In business meetings people use to get together and be asked what they think. Now, we are asked what we feel. Feelings don't run the real world. What is exceptional about America is that we can spend 13K per public school student to graduate 50% of them. The ones that do graduate almost need remedial English classes to be able to write at a college level. Do that math a quick second. 13K times 35 kidlets in a class. 415K for 35 kids a school year. You could rent an office space buy them all laptops, hire a non union teacher for 65K, pay a janitor/maintenance man 45K with rent and utilities 20K and the three months of summer rent it out as a dance studio or something. Add them up. I dare you. Add 20 K for retirement for your two employees and another 20 K for liability and other insurance. Add them up. You are still under 200K. We are broken. That is just the education system. The cops are fully militarized. There is no regard for individual rights. Don't cross the cops it won't go well with you. Government and taxes/regulations are broken. Now helthcare becoming a total government takeover. Shutting veterans out of national memorials. Shutting citizens out of national park land. Those guards don't own that park land. By the way, they most likely make twice the income and pension you ever will. We are fed up. We are the quiet ones. I have worked summers since 12 and full time paying taxes since 18 years old. That is for me 40 years of full time taxation. I raised three daughters and put them through college and they are all married and all six of them are full time tax payers. The government doesn't and hasn't cared about you for decades. Government employees in general have an almost in your face sneer any more when you deal with city hall. I have needed permits for my business for years and dealt with them on a weekly basis. I say the truckers have the right idea. How about we all change the number of dependants we claim to 20. Perfectly legal. Set aside your federal taxes. Starve the beast. They will wake up. When will we?
All I can say is, I'm glad Microsoft included a calculator in Windows. All that math you asked us to do!
Your opening sentence reminded me of a story in Analog Magazine many decades back. The story was about a city-wide math contest wherein students were judged on the ability to program a computer to solve math problems. The winning student exceeded the theoretical maximum score. Asked about it, he replied "My grandfather taught me the times table." Another example of life coming to immitate art.
Seems a lot of you assholes need to try living elsewhere. And i wonder what you buttheads drive and how large the house you live in is. Hate that we don't drill here and have to keep the flow of oil coming? I do. But who's the first to bitch about gas prices? Usually the guy with the biggest car or truck.
We only invade brown skinned countires? WOW! Moronically simple comment to a very complex issue. Before you make idiotic comments like this, tell us how energy efficient you are and what you are doing as an individual to use less energy. Tell us what happens when the flow of oil stops from the middl east? Idiots. Hypocrites.
None of these are particularly disturbing. Although the 3% dial-up is curious because - why even put that on a list of 'disturbing' facts? My in-laws only switched to broadband in the last month. Why? Because they only checked email and dial-up was much, much cheaper. Given they are on a fixed income, I actually tried to convince them to stick with it, but they are starting to want to see what's on the internet. So they went from paying $9.95 to about $35 for whatever service they are using (most likely Comcast).
I'm sure they are pretty typical of the 3%, though. If I was over 75, I doubt I'd give a rat's ass about the internet, which is most likely why 15% of the people don't even use email. My brother (53 years old) only uses email for work. Other than that, he's rarely on the internet. Can't blame him. Minow was right, only many years too early. The internet, in some ways, can be a 'vast wasteland'.
The China comment? Weird why anyone fears a nation building empty cities, apartment blocks out onto highways and is generally pissing their money down the central-planning hole. I was worried a few years ago, but then I started going there, and let's just say it's nothing to fear. If they freed up more, closer to Hong Kong's old situation, then I'd fear them. As it is, they are laughably inept in almost every way. Oh, I know "they are taking our jobs." No they aren't. They are taking jobs nobody here wants to get paid a mediocre wage for. We've grown so full of ourselves, we think we can legislate wealth from the top to the bottom. It reminds me of my son, who I told "get a job" while he's in college. He didn't. We go to the local supermarket to stock up his kitchen and I ask the manager if there are openings. "I am always hiring and I love college kids." My son? "Dad, it's all townies here, I don't want to work there." Yup, typical American. I kicked his ass, told him to take the minimum wage and stop smoking pot every day. He's learning what it takes to be a real American by working and paying his dues. Speaking of which - you never 'pay your dues', you're always paying them. Even at my age. We think we're entitled to shit, and we're not. Part of the reason we're no longer "exceptional" (though I say we are for the time being) is because we're tired of doing what we have to do to BE exceptional.
Gimme free health care, some benefits, and a place to live and let me get drunk/high and watch football/baseball.
I'm all for legalization of pot - been pushing for it for years. It's likely the ONLY way we'll get these kush-heads off the dole and paying their way, because we can tax that shit.
So yeah, most of this stuff on the 'list' isn't surprising or disturbing. It just is. Other nations have their issues, too.
Here's another disturbing US exceptionalism: Obamacare
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1739732-what-exactly-is-so-objectionable...