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55 Things About America You May Not Know

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The American Dream blog,

Is America the greatest nation on the planet?  Before you answer that question, you might want to check out the statistics that I have shared in this article first.  The reality is that the United States is in a deep state of decline, and it is getting harder to deny that fact with each passing day.  Mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually and financially we are a train wreck.  Many that are “patriotic” attempt to put a happy face on our growing problems, but the truly patriotic thing to do is to admit just how bad things have gotten so that we can start finding solutions. 

If you truly love this country, then you should know that this nation needs a huge wake up call.  We have abandoned the values and the principles that early Americans held so dear, and as a result our society is a giant mess.  The following are 55 things about America that you may not know…

#1 We are supposed to have a government “of the people, by the people, for the people”, but only 25 percent of all Americans know how long U.S. Senators are elected for (6 years), and only 20 percent of all Americans know how many U.S. senators there are.

#2 Americans spend more on health care per capita than anyone else in the world by far, and yet we only rank 35th in life expectancy.

#3 Only one state in the entire country has an obesity rate of under 20 percent.  11 states have an obesity rate of over 30 percent.

#4 Of all the major industrialized nations, America is the most obese.  Mexico is #2.

#5 Back in 1962, only 13 percent of all Americans were obese, but it is being projected that 42 percent of all Americans could be obese by the year 2030.

#6 According to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 31 percent of all food in the United States gets wasted.  In case you were wondering, that amounts to approximately 133 billion pounds of food a year.

#7 America has the highest incarceration rate and the largest total prison population in the entire world by a wide margin.

#8 In America, we even put 81-year-old women in prison for feeding the birds.

#9 According to a Newsweek survey taken a few years ago, 29 percent of all Americans could not even name the vice president.

#10 Americans spend more time sitting in traffic than anyone else in the world.

#11 60 percent of Americans report feeling “angry or irritable”.  Two years ago that number was at 50 percent.

#12 36 percent of Americans admit that they have yelled at a customer service agent during the past year.

#13 Only 30 percent of all Americans can tell you in what year the 9/11 attacks happened.

#14 There are more “deaths by reptile” in America than anywhere else in the world.

#15 Right now, 29 percent of all Americans under the age of 35 are living with their parents.

#16 Average SAT scores have been falling for years, and the level of education that our kids are receiving in most of our public schools is a total joke.

#17 According to a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, nearly 70 percent of all Americans are on at least one prescription drug.  An astounding 20 percent of all Americans are on at least five prescription drugs.

#18 Americans spend more than 280 billion dollars on prescription drugs each year.

#19 According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doctors in the United States write more than 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants each year.

#20 Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are.

#21 In the United States today, prescription painkillers kill more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined.

#22 America has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.

#23 According to the federal government, the number of heroin addicts in the United States has more than doubled since 2002.

#24 It is hard to believe, but 56 percent of all Americans now have “subprime credit”.

#25 America exports more weapons to other countries than anyone else in the world.

#26 The United States has the most complicated tax system on the entire planet.

#27 Corruption is rampant throughout our society.  In fact, America leads the world in money given to fake charities.

#28 America leads the world in soft drink consumption by a wide margin.  Today, the average American drinks more than 600 sodas a year.

#29 In 2008, 53 percent of all Americans considered themselves to be “middle class”.  In 2014, only 44 percent of all Americans consider themselves to be “middle class”.

#30 70 percent of Americans do not “feel engaged or inspired at their jobs”.

#31 40 percent of all workers in the United States actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968 after you account for inflation.

#32 Back in the 1970s, about one out of every 50 Americans was on food stamps.  Today, about one out of every 6 Americans is on food stamps.

#33 The marriage rate in the United States has fallen to an all-time low.  Right now it is sitting at a yearly rate of 6.8 marriages per 1000 people.

#34 In the United States today, more than half of all couples “move in together” before they get married.

#35 America has the highest divorce rate in the world by a good margin.

#36 America has the highest percentage of one person households on the entire planet.

#37 100 years ago, 4.52 were living in the average U.S. household, but now the average U.S. household only consists of 2.59 people.

#38 According to the Pew Research Center, only 51 percent of all American adults are currently married.  Back in 1960, 72 percent of all adults in the United States were married.

#39 For women under the age of 30 in the United States, more than half of all babies are being born out of wedlock.

#40 At this point, approximately one out of every three children in the United States lives in a home without a father.

#41 In 1970, the average woman had her first child when she was 21.4 years old.  Now the average woman has her first child when she is 25.6 years old.

#42 America has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world by a very wide margin.

#43 Approximately one out of every four teen girls in the United States has at least one sexually transmitted disease.

#44 America has the highest STD infection rate in the entire industrialized world.

#45 According to the latest figures released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there are 20 million new sexually-transmitted infections in the United States every single year, and Americans in the 15 to 24-year-old age range account for approximately 50 percent of those new sexually-transmitted infections.

#46 As I wrote about recently, there are 747,408 registered sex offenders in the U.S. according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

#47 America produces more pornography than any other nation in the world.

#48 America has the most lawyers per capita in the entire world.

#49 If you choose to be a “Constitutionalist” in America today, you may get labeled as a potential terrorist by the U.S. government.

#50 America has the largest national debt in the history of the world.  Back in 1980, the U.S. national debt was less than one trillion dollars.  Today, it is over 17 trillion dollars.

#51 According to the Congressional Budget Office, interest payments on the national debt will nearly quadruple over the next ten years.

#52 Americans spend more money on elections than anyone else does in the world by a very wide margin.

#53 65 percent of Americans are dissatisfied “with the U.S. system of government and its effectiveness”.  That is the highest level of dissatisfaction that Gallup has ever recorded.

#54 Only 8 percent of Americans believe that Congress is doing a “good” or “excellent” job.

#55 70 percent of Americans do not have confidence that the federal government will “make progress on the important problems and issues facing the country in 2014.”

 

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Tue, 03/11/2014 - 22:27 | 4536927 moneybots
moneybots's picture

#55 70 percent of Americans do not have confidence that the federal government will “make progress on the important problems and issues facing the country in 2014.”

 

Yet most will be re-elected, just like last time.

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 22:45 | 4537000 Bunders
Bunders's picture

#6 According to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 31 percent of all food in the United States gets wasted.  In case you were wondering, that amounts to approximately 133 billion pounds of food a year.

I'm embarassed to show my working and state my assumptions and I could easily have confused units that are similar in name only but I figure it's only about a million barrels of oil to produce that wasted food from a national consumption of 18.83 million barrels a day (eia 2011)

 

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 22:55 | 4537035 PennilessPauper
PennilessPauper's picture

#56 who gives a fuck?  The Zionists destroyed us in 1913 when the federal reserve ponzi scheme was created.

China and Russia both have a Rothschild/Zionist central bank ponzi scheme so its up to North Korea and Iran to save the enslaved banking elitist run world?  As they are the only two countries who don't participate in the ponzi? LOL yeah were are  Fucked!

"sticks head in ass while snorting glue"

Smoke them if you got em this ponzi is coming to a crash soon and it ain't fucking pretty.

 

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 22:56 | 4537040 NDXTrader
NDXTrader's picture

Really...this has become the most anti-American site on the web. At least America got it right for a little while before becoming a shit ball country like the rest of you. You stare at your TV, get on your Internet, stare at your porn and play your video games because of the greatest country that once was

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 00:01 | 4537274 CloseToTheEdge
CloseToTheEdge's picture

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html

 

The Great Forgetting

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~blume013/DanielQuinn_Story_of_B_excerpt.htm

 

your an embarrassment to yourself and your weapon is shootin blanks...good luck with that

 

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:01 | 4537060 naughtius maximus
naughtius maximus's picture

#41 In 1970, the average woman had her first child when she was 21.4 years old.  Now the average woman has her first child when she is 25.6 years old.

#42 America has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world by a very wide margin.

 

What does this tell you about the rest of the world?

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:14 | 4537100 Serenity Now
Serenity Now's picture

It should have told you that it's a damn lie.  The link shows births per country, not per capita.  We are a huge country, so it stands to reason that we'd have more teen births than, say, France.

No way do we even come close to highest teen birth rate in the world.  Think of African nations, Middle East, etc.

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:37 | 4537180 naughtius maximus
naughtius maximus's picture

A really bad distortion at least. They should have separated these two points a few more so that people wouldn't see the obvious contradiction here...

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:57 | 4537267 Serenity Now
Serenity Now's picture

I once won a high school debate with 100% made up facts, statistics, and sources.  I learned a huge lesson that day.  I never believe what I read and only half of what I see.  LOL.  

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:02 | 4537064 fencejumper
fencejumper's picture

#23 According to the federal government, the number of heroin addicts in the United States has more than doubled since 2002.

 

Timing coincides approximately with invasion of Afghanistan.

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:39 | 4537186 naughtius maximus
naughtius maximus's picture

It was good for business. Like my home town's slogan, Heroin is Marion's economy. 

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:02 | 4537065 DOGGONE
DOGGONE's picture

Hey! If it's not too much trouble, get your head out into the light and realize this:
The Public Be Suckered
http://patrick.net/forum/?p=1230886

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:17 | 4537112 drendebe10
drendebe10's picture

Hey, no worrues. Tge arrogantnnarcissistic lying illegal alien sociopathic turd is on it. Change e Forward!

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:21 | 4537123 luckylogger
luckylogger's picture

I dunno but you sound like a crybaby to me and there should be a category for complainers and crybabies...............

So you got lucky and have a good life. you want little kids eating out of dumpsters? If we cannot help people out of poverty then what kind of country are we?

By the way- I used to be diehard republicanl but now I am libertarian but you gotta help the people that will use it to get back on their feet. I am not talking about looser welfare people that do not want to do better, but about people that got totally fuked up and are trying to get it back together.

Any of you crybabies ever been paralyzed from the neck down and been fuked with by workman's comp doing one of the most dangerous jobs out there?

Do not cry to me if you just sit around and do nothing but bitch about somebody trying to get back on their feet.

A bunch of crybabies that have never had it tough.............

lets see how many down arrows i can get..............

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:25 | 4537134 Idi_ocracy
Idi_ocracy's picture

Im getting tired of these 'List' articles. Every single one says the exact same thing

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:39 | 4537187 Serenity Now
Serenity Now's picture

Ok, let's start our own:

 

99 REASONS WHY LIST ARTICLES ARE STUPID:

I'll start.

1.  They never get to the point.

 

Take it away.....

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:40 | 4537192 naughtius maximus
naughtius maximus's picture

 

1. we're doomed

2. we're doomed

3. we're doomed

4. we're doomed

5. we're doomed

6. we're doomed

 

Tue, 03/11/2014 - 23:59 | 4537272 Serenity Now
Serenity Now's picture

Now, that's a good article.  ;)

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 00:02 | 4537282 NDXTrader
NDXTrader's picture

You know...if you back out the non-Europeans in America from these stats they look a lot different. The "whites" in America are doing quite well

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 00:19 | 4537320 Downtoolong
Downtoolong's picture

#4 - Of all the major industrialized nations, America is the most obese.

#56 – Only 1% of the obese people in America believe that they have a weight problem. The other 99% believe a lot of other people do too so it doesn’t matter anyway.  

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 00:21 | 4537334 DaveA
DaveA's picture

It's called "streamlining evolution" -- the loss of abilities that don't confer a reproductive advantage. To quote Idiocracy, "With no predators to thin the herd, the race for survival no longer went to the fastest or the smartest, but simply to those who had the most offspring." Just as cave salamanders have lost their eyes, humans who live in welfare states are losing their brains.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 07:36 | 4537826 kurt
kurt's picture

"Steaming evolution" When a pile of crap on a cold morning steams until it doesn't anymore. After that its just crap, like this article.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 00:23 | 4537340 kellycriterion
kellycriterion's picture

The US is the world leader in unintentional humor. As exemplified by this thread the intentional humor is weak. Well except for the unintentional component.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 00:29 | 4537356 Schmuck Raker
Schmuck Raker's picture

HOLY SHIT!!! I'm like a genius or sumpin...... I KNEW ALL 55 TINGS!!!!!

"What does he win Alex?"

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 03:19 | 4537585 Fred123
Fred123's picture

Remove the black population and recompile the statistics. What do you get?

Remove the black and hispanic population and recompile the statistics? What did you get?

Yeah, I thought so.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 06:01 | 4537712 22winmag
22winmag's picture

Very true... but how did those populations get to be that way?

 

Hint- segregation, liberal welfare, prison-industrial complex, and so on.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 09:43 | 4538265 Kobe Beef
Kobe Beef's picture

r-selection for a million years, low IQ, low impulse control, high time preference...

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 10:54 | 4538696 headhunt
headhunt's picture

22

Not really they got that way compliments of the Dept. of Education and the Teachers union.

If you are taught to be a dumb ass most people will pass that course.

The teachers Union has been teaching generations of children to be a dumb ass and they have passed with straight A's. Not their fault, it is the fault of the teachers union teaching stupidity squared.

I suggest we give reparations from the multi-billion dollar teachers pension fund, to these lost generations of 'useful idiots'.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 12:07 | 4539122 Accounting101
Accounting101's picture

Apparently, you were taught to be a dumbass. As for useful idiots, I'm sure the Oligarchs appreciate the work you are doing for them. While middle class Americans are tearing each other part, they continue to consolidate economic power.

Stop being part of the problem.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 17:06 | 4540377 headhunt
headhunt's picture

Obviously a teacher and not even a useful one

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 03:56 | 4537620 zionhead101
zionhead101's picture

America leads the world #1 in 'screwing the pooch", think TACOMA-WASHINGTON, THINK USA.

Synder should focus on  the shit that make's America 'Exceptional'.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 06:26 | 4537733 Setarcos
Setarcos's picture

" We have abandoned the values and the principles that early Americans held so dear, and as a result our society is a giant mess. "

And what were those principles?

Well the the Founding Fathers were a bunch of land-owning oligarchs who never intended that THEIR freedoms from King George should trickle down to such common folk who, today, write in ZH about loss of freedom.

Suckers!  Your founders - perhaps especially George Washington - were elitists who wanted a republic, NOT a democracy.  So why be surprized that the Constitution, etc. has zero relevance for the average Joe and Jane?  It was never meant to apply to you folks, but I guess that generational Joes and Janes never noticed when it manifestly never applied to native people anywhere on the planet, as the burgeoning Washington Empire expanded since day one after your local oligarchs seized power from King George.

Nothing has been lost.  Present-day USA is the logical and inevitable outcome of thoroughly corrupt and violent beginnings.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 07:39 | 4537831 Debt Slave
Debt Slave's picture

Heh.

 

#56 Murdered a million people based on the phony claim of "weapons of mass destruction". One of the chief liars Dick Chaney purportedly said "Deficits don't matter". I guess not when it means keeping Israel safe. America, fuck yeah.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 08:12 | 4537893 deerhunter
deerhunter's picture

yes and people are getting on leaky boats and risking their lives to flee America to reach Iran, Cuba, Nigeria and N Korea.  Love it for fucking leave it.  If you don't want to leave it better or build it better than when you found it then just leave it.  Second place is first loser.  When you pay people to make illegitimate kids with no responsiblity on the fathers,  when you pay people not to work,  when you pump up your 13 year olds with condoms because after all they are just little animals and are going to fuck around anyway,  when you pervert everything that is possibly true and good and encourage illicit behavior,  when you put no value on human life but worship animals and trees and snail darters and spotted owls and you still wonder why when you look around and see a country on the decline then maybe you have been looking at consequences for your actions.  Nothing more, nothing less.  This isnt the country it was 30 years ago or 100 years ago but then no country on earth is.  America was once more than American Idol,  The Kardashians and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  Sadly America has slowly become what it has been chasing and worshipping.  And here we are,  nothing more and a lot less.  It is called consequences.  When you hide the truth and hide from the truth you live with the lies.  If you sleep with dogs you get fleas.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 10:46 | 4538634 headhunt
headhunt's picture

Welcome to the USSA brought to you by the Dept of Education and the Teachers Union.

 

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 12:01 | 4539098 Accounting101
Accounting101's picture

Wow! Your comment is Exhibit A for how the Oligarchs maintain power. Bring on the dumb.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 17:08 | 4540387 headhunt
headhunt's picture

said the teacher representing what is wrong with unions today

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 08:39 | 4537986 Took Red Pill
Took Red Pill's picture

Oh Michael, you and your lists. You should be happy that 74 percent of U.S. adults say they believe in God. "America produces more pornography than any other nation in the world." At least we do something right!

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 09:10 | 4538119 Rikky
Rikky's picture

>>You should be happy that 74 percent of U.S. adults say they believe in God.

i hear that a lot from people.  it's put out there like some self-righteous statement like it's going to save them in the end.  here's a hint.  the devil believes in God also, does anyone think it's going to do him any good?

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 09:37 | 4538245 Took Red Pill
Took Red Pill's picture

I was being sarcastic. The author is a very religous person. I'm not.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 09:08 | 4538112 Rikky
Rikky's picture

Did anyone ever bother to look at this from a religious perspective. Such rebellion is exactly what God warned us about if we turned our backs on him. You can't have the blessings and not have the fellowship. Romans 1:18-32 sums it up quick nicely.

http://biblehub.com/niv/romans/1.htm

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 09:15 | 4538141 Smiley
Smiley's picture

Interesting list of random trivia.  Not sure if it is of any value though.

Thu, 03/13/2014 - 04:29 | 4542078 Serenity Now
Serenity Now's picture

It could be of value, if the author had any critical thinking skills to put together an essay to answer the questions of "How did we get here?" and "What should we do?"

But that would take (1) time, (2) intellectual honesty, and (3) a true desire to make the country better.

Meanwhile, it's nice that we have this thread to give voice to those questions.

Wed, 03/12/2014 - 10:43 | 4538611 headhunt
headhunt's picture

The decline of the USA rest squarely on the shoulders of the leftists and government unions starting with the Department of Education and Teachers unions. They have failed entire generations by stealing any real education from them and have taught them that they 'deserve' to have anything that they yearn for and if they do not receive these items it is due to their twisted version of 'social injustice' aka communism.

When the left and teachers unions scream 'What about the children!' (insert Hillary scream here) they really mean that they want a raise and retirement pension at full salary by the age of 40, all by confiscating more money from your paycheck in the form of taxes.

If all your mentors are communists, so are you.

Welcome to the USSA.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!