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33 Strange Facts About America That Most Americans Would Be Shocked To Learn
Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
Did you know that about one-fourth of the entire global prison population is in the United States? Did you know that Apple has more money than the U.S. Treasury? Did you know that if you have no debt and also have 10 dollars in your wallet that you are wealthier than 25 percent of all Americans? Did you know that by the time an American child reaches the age of 18, that child will have seen approximately 40,000 murders on television? There are some things that are great about the United States, and there are definitely some things that are not so great. Once upon a time we were the most loved and most respected nation on the entire planet, but those days are long gone.
We have wrecked our economy, we have lost our values and we have fumbled away our future. But if you look close enough, you can still see many of the things that once made this country a shining beacon to the rest of the world. This article includes some weird facts, some fun facts, but also some very troubling facts. It has been said that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, and hopefully as people enjoy reading the fun facts in this article they will also take note of the more serious facts. If we are ever going to change course as a nation, we need to come to grips with just how far we have fallen.
The following are 33 strange facts about America that most Americans would be shocked to learn…
#1 The amount of cement that China used from 2011 to 2013 was greater than the total amount of cement that the United States used during the entire 20th century.
#2 In more than half of all U.S. states, the highest paid public employee in the state is a football coach.
#3 It costs the U.S. government 1.8 cents to mint a penny and 9.4 cents to mint a nickel.
#4 Almost half of all Americans (47 percent) do not put a single penny out of their paychecks into savings.
#5 In 2014, police in the United States killed 1,100 people. During that same year, police in Canada killed 14 people, police in China killed 12 people and police in Germany didn’t kill anyone at all.
#6 The state of Alaska is 429 times larger than the state of Rhode Island is. But Rhode Island has a significantly larger population than Alaska does.
#7 Alaska has a longer coastline than all of the other 49 U.S. states put together.
#8 The city of Juneau, Alaska is about 3,000 square miles in size. It is actually larger than the entire state of Delaware.
#9 When LBJ’s “War on Poverty” began, less than 10 percent of all U.S. children were growing up in single parent households. Today, that number has skyrocketed to 33 percent.
#10 In 1950, less than 5 percent of all babies in America were born to unmarried parents. Today, that number is over 40 percent.
#11 The poverty rate for households that are led by a married couple is 6.8 percent. For households that are led by a female single parent, the poverty rate is 37.1 percent.
#12 In 2013, women earned 60 percent of all bachelor’s degrees that were awarded that year in the United States.
#13 According to the CDC, 34.6 percent of all men in the U.S. are obese at this point.
#14 The average supermarket in the United States wastes about 3,000 pounds of food each year.
#15 Right now, more than 200 million people around the planet are officially considered to be unemployed. Meanwhile, approximately 20 percent of the garbage that goes into our landfills is food.
#16 There is a city in Bangladesh called Dhaka where workers are paid just one dollar for every 1,000 bricks that they carry. Meanwhile, the “inactivity rate” for men in their prime working years in the United States is hovering near record high levels.
#17 According to one recent survey, 81 percent of Russians now have a negative view of the United States. That is much higher than at the end of the Cold War era.
#18 Montana has three times as many cows as it does people.
#19 The grizzly bear is the official state animal of California. But no grizzly bears have been seen there since 1922.
#20 One recent survey discovered that “a steady job” is the number one thing that American women are looking for in a husband, and another survey discovered that 75 percent of women would have a serious problem dating an unemployed man.
#21 According to a study conducted by economist Carl Benedikt Frey and engineer Michael Osborne, 47 percent of the jobs in the United States could soon be lost to computers, robots and other forms of technology.
#22 The only place in the United States where coffee is grown commercially is in Hawaii.
#23 The original name of the city of Atlanta was “Terminus“.
#24 The state with the most millionaires per capita is Maryland.
#25 There are more than 4 million adult websites on the Internet, and they get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.
#26 86 percent of men include “having children” in their definition of success. For women, that number is only 73 percent.
#27 One survey of 50-year-old men in the U.S. found that only 12 percent of them said that they were “very happy”.
#28 The United States has 845 motor vehicles for every 1,000 people. Japan only has 593 for every 1,000 people, and Germany only has 540 for every 1,000 people.
#29 The average American spends more than 10 hours a day using an electronic device.
#30 48 percent of all Americans do not have any emergency supplies in their homes whatsoever.
#31 There are three towns in the United States that have the name “Santa Claus“.
#32 There is actually a town in Michigan called “Hell“.
#33 There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. If they were stretched out in a single line, they could go around the planet more than twice.
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Apparently they are shocked to learn they've been using digital currency since 1969....
#34: The US was never supposed to be a Democracy.
....but will become a Cryptocracy.
As a staunch liberal, I am here to remind you Domestic Extremists that this proves the USA under our Dear Leader Obama is EXCEPTIONAL.
I'm confused, is #33 only a fact in America?
There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. If they were stretched out in a single line, you would die horribly, but only in America - everywhere else you're sweet ;)
Did you know that if you took all the economists in the world and laid them end-to-end, they still couldn't reach a conclusion?
Did you know that if you took all the economists in the world and laid them end-to-end, you'd need a lot of viagra?
#16 fuck humping bricks around.
Chinese police only kill 15 people per year? Yeah ok.
"....police in China killed 12 people..."
That's a helluva lot less than died jumping from the roofs of Apple factories.
33? And #9 is 33. And #33 isnt about America, was it just to make 33?
Just as a reminder, USA blatantly arms ISIL, Ukraine, Libya and Mexican drug cartels yet at the same time wants common sense gun laws for US Citizens... ... ...
pool shark and four chan:
"if you took all the girls at the vassar prom and laid them end to end i wouldn't be a bit surprised" - dorothy parker
33......well I certainly feel.....illuminated.
"Just as a reminder, USA blatantly arms ISIL, Ukraine, Libya and Mexican drug cartels yet at the same time wants common sense gun laws for US Citizens... ... ..."
Number one arms dealer in the world!
#35 Johnny 5, is alive.
lol
Chinese police only kill 15 people per year? Yeah ok.
That doesn't count the "secret" police ;-)
Those are the people we should be importing. They work and good workers make jobs competitive and competition drives the human spirit.
Do I get a ribbon for that?
The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.
I didnt know celestial laws could be rewritten or otherwise ignored...saying anything worth a shit with that information, good luck....but at least the underpinnings dont move when someone needs goalposts moved.
#1 Reason. We were all created by the Lord in his image, bitchez. No little worldly Man with political power can ever usurp our God given right. What's this little mans life worth when it can all be taken from him in one last heartbeat.
We were all created by the Lord in his image...
Then the lord was a horrible cunt. But perhaps you don't know what "nemesis" means...
Now that is funny!
...why the hell would someone down arrow you? Great comment..!
Everyone else uses kilometers.
Proportional to volume, Asians have 10-15% less.
"In 2014, police in the United States killed 1,100 people. During that same year, police in Canada killed 14 people, police in China killed 12 people and police in Germany didn’t kill anyone at all."
Proof positive that productivity in the U.S. of A. is way higher than Canada, China or Germany.
in germany its the secret police, that kills...
and in china there are shurely manymanymanymany more, like the ones dying in prison etc (prison police)
we have more people in prison than china or so ive heard. shocking considering the population size difference.
not shocking since we have blacks and mexicans.
Would be an interesting comparison (per 100,000) between prison rates in US, China, and Germany after backing out the US blacks and non-Asian browns.
If you back out Bantu and Aztec murders within the US, its murder rate is less than Sweden's.
Obviously, Sweden is not vibrantly culturally-enrichened diversitized enough yet. They're working on it.
But in China, all those prisoners' organs represent a revenue source.
Gestapo
As a "staunch liberal" you're a retard!
obama is a dirty muzzie born in kenya and got through college on foreign aid scholarships meanwhile building seven had to be "pulled" fixed it 'merica!
I'm still trying to figure how he's "teh GaY" and a "mOOslim" at the same time. The two are typically mutually exclusive.
Not in the land of the knuckle-draggers
I'm still fascinated how someone can be both Muslim and Zionist at the same time.
The Saudis seem to pull that one off pretty well.
America....#1 in rate of depression.
Actually, #1 in rate of depression is Finland, IIRC
War on God has failed.
Obama the mocker certainly won't help.
America needs to get back to its genesis block. It has turned its back on Satoshi!
Ye reap what ye hash!
http://thebitcoinchannel.com
Bitcoins are a hilarious idea. Especially when most the the US over the age of 60 has a difficult time typing and life expectancy is climbing. Your satoshis require electricity to have value, it has mind numbing counter party risk vs the petrodollar.
RU-GAY2 is the latest account of the multiple-time banned user f0nestar.
Whowee woo--everyone loves a to be first kid on the block to have a decoder ring. Take a hike! Milestones
Whowee woo--everyone loves a to be first kid on the block to have a decoder ring. Take a hike! Milestones
You can always troll his YouTube channel.
Turnabout is fair play.
https://www.youtube.com/user/weihrauchfan1999
Bitcoin is truly miraculous. It is the only piece of software that is bug-free.
LOL!!!
Yes, they probably do seem strange to a bunch of technophobic geezers. Guess it's a good thing these people don't really decide what does or does not happen.
Apparently Hillary Clinton is one of those technophobic geezers who can't type to save herself. That came out of revelations regarding the email travesty. But she sure as hell had a part in deciding what did or did not happen.
#1 The amount of cement that China used from 2011 to 2013 was greater than the total amount of cement that the United States used during the entire 20th century.
Not only are we crumbling from within, were crumbling from without.
Would it shock you learn China has no wood with which to build anything and thus must use cement? And that 1/3 to 1/2 of the cement they used would be unusable in the US because of its poor quality? And that they're going to have to rebuild many of their structures within 20-30 years because they were so shoddily built?
But go ahead and believe what you will...
Shocking indeed!
With all those exceptional geniuses!!
So where does the wood come from for the 65% of total furniture sales imported from China?
>> where does the wood come from
You have heard of imports?
Can't believe this has to be explained to someone here. Raw materials go from the place they are harvested to places that have cheap labor, where it is turned into cheap, shitty particle board furniture that Americans buy at Walmart.
but you would rather be in the country making the cheap crap than in the one providing the raw material(unless it is oil). normally the raw material provider is an early stage 3rd world economy.
I never buy particle board furniture. I'm completely anathema to it. I don't want that upon which I dine or rest my head to reek of such disposability. Of course nothing lasts forever, but the Ikea stuff just rubs me the wrong way.
We had a couch custom made to fit an odd room. It really makes sense economically. Costs not quite twice wht you pay for at "value city" and lasts long enough to be reupholstered. Like furniture from when I was a kid. We climbed on the back of couches, jumped from couch to couch etc and it still lasted. Try that with a couch from Ashley home furnishings.
Or, pay a woodworker to make your own. You'll like it.
i just came from nyc and all those wood built skyscrapers are amazing.
china built an insanely, incredible number of living and office space since 2000. it will never be matched again and they are only half finished building out with "ionferior concrete" like at the most incredible hydro project in the history of the world in the 3 gorges dam.
And that they're going to have to rebuild many of their structures within 20-30 years because they were so shoddily built?
who give a fuck... in 25year icmb will have cleared the ground...
plus if you wanna talk about your wood houses in the tornado corridor in the usa ...
do not make me laught.
nothing is built to last, if so, economy never produce "next gen".. period.
"The amount of cement that China used from 2011 to 2013 was greater than the total amount of cement that the United States used during the entire 20th century."
Now, unfortunately, there is no place in China left to grow rice, so solly...
Off topic but it's starting:
Report: Saudi Arabia forces bombing rebel targets inside Yemen, US officials tell @NBCNewsWait. I thought it was Saudi Arabia vs. Iran.
I can't keep up anymore.
Still is, rebels in Yemen are Shia, while Saudi supports Sunnies.
Like Al CIAda and ISIS? Oh yeah, them.
I hope the government can fix some of these things.
Depends on what you mean by 'fix', and for whom it will be 'fixed'
#5 In 2014, police in the United States killed 1,100 people. During that same year, police in Canada killed 14 people, police in China killed 12 people and police in Germany didn’t kill anyone at all.
Fascist Totalitarian Authroritarian Militarized Banana Police Sttate.
Fascist Totalitarian Authroritarian Militarized Banana Police State
Sounds like the name of a punk band. I generally don't like punk...
This is the sort of thing Reader's Digest did about a hundred years ago, but they did it better.
Snyder should go to any American prison, and try to find someone he would be happy to have as a new neighbor.
Gee, and that's a bad thing?
Not all the greatest info. Like comparing China's use of concrete cause we all know it's going to build complete shit. What a GDP boost though. Surprised they don't start popping up in the US. Of course, we have so many homeless they wouldn't be empty for long.
"Homeless" is to some extent a function of welfare in the cities. College housing is almost entirely vacant half the year. East Coast beach towns are deserted ten months of the year, and in big trouble. Most small towns have lots of empty housing, but no one will start a soup kitchen there.
#5 .... well, ok our police shot more people than canada, australia, germany, etc., but as compensation the US does have much better rap music.
Better rap music? Yeah and the most fat chicks, but Dude, priorities man, and a sense of what is good, sane, and won't scare the horses;)
Government, being nothing but a criminal syndicate of theft and violence, can only produce four things:
1) Poverty
2) Misery
3) Death
4) Lies
The banksters need to repay us.
"We're going to need a bigger guillotine."
Even their lies are lies.
Payment from banksters and their politician stooges can be rendered in quarts of blood, arms, legs, ears, eyes, tongues, and genitals.
What does #33 have to do with America, is this a reading comprehension test or something?
The number 33 is a favorite for vampires. Or something like that
There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body. If they were stretched out in a single line, you would die.
"...60,000 miles of blood vessels..."
That is a misleading statistical average, as it assumes that politicians and bankers have blood vessels above the shoulders.
"#5 In 2014, police in the United States killed 1,100 people. During that same year, police in Canada killed 14 people, police in China killed 12 people and police in Germany didn’t kill anyone at all."
Who's the real terrorists?
Never, not once, in my life has a Muslim, or other, pulled me over and threatened my life while extracting wealth from me. Not once.
The banksters need to repay us.
Knowing that the Constitution is "the Law of the Land," I always find it funny and ironic when a gun and badge thugs says, 'It's the law.'" No, it is an Unconstitutional legality which your enforcement of makes you guilty of levying treasonous war against "them," us.
Well, don't forget that China executed 2400 people in 2013, including teenage girls for selling drugs. That kind of puts things in perspective.
Once again, China shows it has more economic sense:
- execute the felon after the trial and bill their family for the bullet = $1 profit for the state
- house the felon on death row for 20 years and then execute them = $900K loss
The economically sensible thing to do would be to leave the girl the fuck alone and let her drug business thrive :-) Entrepreneurship and all... Control by any other means is still control. #FuckTheChicoms
You can harvest the organs and sell them.
Kidneys go for about $750 fiatskis...
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/human-kidneys-sale
Shooting them may garner a Dollar for the bullet. But harvesting the Kidneys will yield $1500 for the pair.
Hmmm...Which seems like the better deal?
But the police did ot shoot them!
If the execution is carried out by gun then the police shoot them.
But now they got smart, use lethal injection, and sell human organs.
Amen. But you do realize they hate us for our freedom, right? And that's a pretty flimsy excuse.
Strange Fact #34: World Trade Centers 1 & 2 imploded into its own footprint at free-fall speed with no known resistance which completely breaks all the known laws of physics that the entire World has ever known in the history of Physics that civilization is aware of. What's even weirder is that WTC Building #7 imploded at free-fall speed with no known resistance 8 hours later and no planes hit that building. America is funny weird strange and not just strange IMO.
Physics isn't a strong point in America. a) either physics doesn't apply to america or b) americans don't understand physics ... b is an impossibility, because that would mean all Americans are stupid, therefore a must be the correct answer.
Like no law was ever broken in America, right? Whoever brought down the towers broke a lot of other laws, too.
The North Tower accelerated at about a constant 2/3*g, or 2/3 of freefall, not freefall. One can still conclude it was a demo job, although not quite as easily. See following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjSd9wB55zk
Also, NIST admitted WTC7 fell at free-fall for 2.25 secs, and David Chandler measured 2.5 seconds. Total collapse time was over 6 seconds. Again it doesn't affect the conclusion, but you might as well get the details correct. Video(s) on YouTube also.
Take a look at these comments (Dutch with subs) from a demolition expert regarding #7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6D4dla17aA
He should know.
You mean this guy?
http://www.infowars.com/expert-who-concluded-wtc-7-was-a-controlled-demo...
#35: Janet Yellen is the reincarnation of Moe Howard. nyuck nyuck nyuck
But the woman knows how to drive an economy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwPrwG9IDro
You'll notice the free pass she gets, saving the day!
"Strange Fact #34: World Trade Centers 1 & 2 imploded into its own footprint at free-fall speed with no known resistance which completely breaks all the known laws of physics that the entire World has ever known in the history of Physics that civilization is aware of."
The often overlooked field of Zhysics goes a long ways in explaining it.
The banksters need to repay us.
Zhysics was at work in Sandy Hook, Boston, the Ukraine, and Paris. MH-17 too. The experts in this field can often be seen handing out cookies.
Building 7 jew hating fucktard alert
Brain dead, non thinking asshole alert.
A_tribute_to_you.
Appropriate...LMAO
I guess that Architects and Engineers for 911 truth hates Jews?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOb92R34jxo
I guess that Ed Asner, who hosts the above video, hates Jews?
But isn't he a Jew?
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Asner
Asner was born on November 15, 1929 in Kansas City, Missouri. His Jewish Russian-born parents, Lizzie (née Seliger, 1885–January 16, 1967[2]), a housewife; and David Morris Asner[3] (1877–May 19, 1957[4]) ran a second-hand shop.[5] He was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family.[6][7]
September 11 attacksAsner signed a statement released by the organization 9/11 Truth in 2004 that calls for a new investigation into the September 11 attacks. A brief summary of the reasons for his position appears in a video available on YouTube.[21] Asner confirmed his support for the statement in 2009.[22] Asner also narrated the documentary film The Oil Factor: Behind the War on Terror.[23]
Asner served as the spokesman for 2004 Racism Watch. In April 2004, he wrote an open letter to "peace and justice leaders" encouraging them to demand "full 9-11 truth" through the organization 9-11 Visibility Project.[24] In 2011, Asner hosted the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth documentary on the collapse of 7 World Trade Center that concludes that the building was taken down by controlled demolition.[25]
How many Jewish Architects and Engineers are there who have signed onto AE for 911 Truth?
So FUCK YOU AND YOUR RACISM BumbuSauce.
Tom tom tom...you idiotic numbnuts.
When you cannot dispute the evidence then the ad hominem is employed.
Thank you for you concession.
And stop your God damned race baiting.
The truth is that which matters.
Remember the USS Liberty. We shall not forget.
Is there any silly ass reason you had to have 33 items. Most of them are just padding.
33 is a illuminati number. They are gloating that their plan to destroy America is working.
This piece should have been entitled, " The 33 meaningless facts that most Americans would be bored beyond tears to learn".
Good point.
Most Americans would fail in a battle of wits against the average houseplant.
Women now earn 60 per cent of the bachelor's degrees!
I'd say it's all been MORE THAN WORTH THE SACRIFICE!
Now let's get out there and do something about our long suffering sisters in Hollywood! It's heartbreaking!
Sincerely yours,
Passion, Lesbian Stripper for Young Adults PHd. in Customer Relations, U.N. University, Vegas
"The brain you take to Vegas stays in Vegas!"
Wouldn't they be spinster's degrees??
They need more HR professionals, diversity consultants, and of course affirmative action employees.
Don't you know that women and blacks built this country while the white men sat around on their asses drinking beer, whipping slaves, burning crosses, and beating their women? Straight from eldest daughter's fifth grade teacher, a white woman with an EDU degree.
FUCK YEAH!
prescription drugs kill over 100 000 people each year in usa, probably even manymanymanymany more.
yoga man, yea.
beauty is truth.
Wow!!
"if you have no debt and also have 10 dollars in your wallet that you are wealthier than 25 percent of all Americans?"
I'm rich! Rich I tell you! And I didn't even know it.
Reason #33 why I like MS posts here at ZH.
yea police in china killed 12 people. right.
stuff like this is stuff to be disregarded entirely.
You need to learn how to read. You are no doubt lumping numbers. China may have executed a number of people, but it was not done by the police. They were arrested, given a trial, then executed by the person or people with authority to do so. In the US, we have executions by the police, no trial. You're not biased or anything, are you?
How many shot by the police refused to put their weapons down? ARE YOU DEAF? PUT THE *$#% WEAPON DOWN!
Like the 19 year old girl in Kentucky, who's heinous crime was being at a party where other people were drinking? Verdict? Summary execution.
Steely Dan - Deacon Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck1N1I-LzWc
"Terminus", why they should return to that name, it will be a fitting name when zombies start attacking
I know I know, I'm watching too much walking dead...
I would think that just about anybody in the US has more money than the US treasury, even if they are in debt, because I don't know anybody else with a debt anywhere near 18 trillion dollars, and unfunded into the future to the tune of about 208 trillion dollars. Do you?
When it comes to insane levels of debt, US is #1!!
I'd like to file a formal complaint about this list.
The link in number 25 DID NOT go to a list of the 4 million porn sites. Instead it went to a newspaper or something.
I expect a full refund.
Damn Mike and his lists, I actually forgot about them.
"...strange facts about America ..." cannot begin with phrases like "The amount of cement that China used...".
"The amount of cement that China used" is a sentence about China.
Next! "The state of Alaska is 429 times larger..."
Next! "The city of Juneau, Alaska
Next! "Alaska has a longer coastline..."
ETC.
Who in their right mind believes Chinese police only killed 12 people? So, if they drag a non-violnet citizen off to prison where they dissapear, that's obviously not counted, right?
And which of the nations mentioned allows 20 million illegals/criminals across their border as a matter of normal every day government function?
And which nation in 1965 pused a certain minority group to stop the formation of nuclear familes creating a population of youthes of whhich 72% don't have a dsd living in the house?
Frankly, I am utterly shocked the number is only 1.400.
So ZH is now writing tabloid headlines? What next, "Janet Yellen's skirt fau paux stuns congress"? or howabout, "3 secrets you can learn from Obama's dog" Ugggg. This kind of headline writing is what I would expect to see in a WalMart check out line.
The author of this series of articles - Michael Snyder - is often derided for his penchant for bulleted lists and sensationalistic editorial style.
And it sells.
Win - Win.
I can only conclude ZH includes Snyder's puerile essays for the benefit of aspiring ZHers currently in the 6th grade.
#34 America has a man who puts out scary lists every day.
Is it some kind of message from NSA?
I mean, this article has retured the ZH croud with their usual witty lines. I love it.
And no trolls around.
Is the NSA sending a message to ZH to stick to such articles and not go beyond?
I think you'll find that there are no blood vessels around the hearts of most US leading politicians and few around the brains or backbone of the rest!
I'm pretty sure Howdy Doody was a puppet.
#1 Concrete, not cement. Cement is a component of concrete.
#17 According to one recent survey, 81 percent of Russians now have a negative view of the United States. That is much higher than at the end of the Cold War era.
The other 19% are retarded or in institutions for the criminally insane or simply dying and have worse things on their minds.
I am certain that those 81% of Russians would be shocked to find that MANY Tens of Millions of Americans, if not Hundreds of Millions, will agree with them as they also have a negative view of the United States.
Isn't it amazing just how much those opinions have changed since Obama took office?
Enjoy your freedom Goy, better yet, suit up and fly half way around the world to a place you've never heard of and start killing to protect that freedom.
Americans have become assholes, except for a very few.
Tyrants only understand force.
Funny how there's 33 !!
I would of stopped after 11.5 or 11.3
"'Montana has three times as many cows as it does people."
Montana is where the latest civil rights movement is starting to take hold. Marriage equality. These mocked, put-upon, discriminated against, hated warm-blooded animals just want to marry what they have sex with - their farm animals - as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.
MARRIAGE RIGHTS... NOW!!!!!