MAKE AMERICA GREATER

The 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, campaigned on the slogan “Make America Great Again (MAGA).” To the majority of Americans, the country was already great, so it didn’t make sense that we should make it great, again. But it did not take long for most thoughtful Americans to realize that the Trump slogan really means “make America white again.” 

America is a great country for a variety of reasons. This fact is incontrovertible. As a nation, America has achieved great things and been a global leader in many respects. America never stopped being great, so making it great again has always been a puzzling idea.

However, in many areas, America can and should be greater! 

This is a message I would like the Democratic Party to push, using the term “make America greater.” Many of the current Presidential candidates talk about some of these issues, but I think the message needs to be put into clear context, and it is not. 

One aspect of America’s greatness is its economic power. America controls a 24.3% share of the world economy, the largest of any country. China has the next largest share at 14.8% [1]. America's Gross Domestic Product is also the highest in the world at 24.4% followed by China at 16.1%. For both of the above rankings, no other country is above 10%. 

American military might is also something that makes America great. America is ranked number 1, followed by Russia and China at 2 and 3. [2]

Donald Trump can tout the greatness of Americas economy and military, and these are true; they do not need to be made great again. Economic and military greatness do not, however, make a country great regarding other metrics that have significant meaning to citizens. In fact, many of the benefits of a strong economy go mostly to the wealthiest Americans, so it is a false metric for most people. 

And being the world's leading military is great, but America is also the world's largest arms dealer, and arms sales are increasing worldwide; I don't think that is great! 

source: https://www.statista.com/chart/17316/share-of-global-arms-exports-by-country/

Below are some examples of how America can (should) be greater. I encourage readers to go to some of the links to see the source information, as some of it is eye-opening. 

Donald Trump and his administration, and the Republicans in Congress are certainly not doing anything that will make America greater. It has to be said that the information below is the result of many years, even decades, of not making America greater by both political parties; so yes, something has to change. 

Health Care: 

As shown in the table, America ranks last (11th) in overall health care rankings of 11 developed nations, and also is last in access to health care, health care equity and health care outcomes. America is next to last in administrative efficiency. The health care process ranks 5th of 11.[3] In a ranking of 190 countries, American health care ranked 37th.[4] Certainly American health care can be greater than it is now.

Education:

America ranked 14th in a study that looked at math, science and reading [5], and 20th in a ranking of the best education systems worldwide. [6]. Not so great, needs to be greater.

Incarceration:

America ranks 1st in the world on the number of people in prison per capita at 655 per 100,000 population.[7] Even worse than this ranking is the racist aspect of America’s justice system, as shown below.[8] 

Wow! Doesn't that make you feel that America is great? We're number one!

Poverty, Wealth, Unemployment and Homelessness
The percentage of Americans living below the national poverty line is 12.3%, which puts America at 166th out of 196 countries (i.e. 165 countries have a higher poverty rate; 30 countries have a lower poverty rate).[9] America ranks as the 12th richest country [10], and has the 6th highest income inequality. [11] And America has the 4th highest poverty gap of 35 countries (The poverty gap is the ratio by which the mean income of the poor falls below the poverty line).[12]

The American unemployment rate, at 3.70%, is the 45th lowest (June 2019 numbers) of 182 countries.[13]

America has about 550,000 people considered to be homeless; this is 0.17% of the population. Of 56 countries, America has the 30th highest rate of homelessness, based on percent of population.[14]

Yes, America can be greater.

Women in Politics
America ranks 30th out of 35 countries for the percentage of women in politics, at 16.7%. Only Mexico, Japan, Slavic Republic, Korea and Turkey have lower percentages than America.[15]

Infrastructure

America ranks 23rd for quality of infrastructure (2011 data).[16]

Freedom of the Press

America is rated 48th out of 140 countries for press freedom by Reporters Without Borders (2019).[17]

Safety and Gun Deaths

America ranks 65th least safe, using an index that combines war and peace, crime, and natural disasters.[18]

America is rated 2nd highest for total gun deaths at 37,200 (2016) a year. America is rated 20th highest in gun death rate at 10.6 per 100,000 population according to one source;[19] and 11th at 10.54 per 100,000 by another source.[20]  

The firearm homicide rate for 23 high-income nations places America 1st (highest) at 3.6 per 100,000 and 2nd for non-firearm homicide rate. America has the highest total homicide rate at 5.3 per 100,000 population, and the highest suicide by firearm rate at 6.3 per 100,000 population, and the 7th highest total suicide rate at 12.4 per 100,000 population. The total firearm death rate for America is the highest at 10.2 per 100,000; the next highest is Finland at 3.6 per 100,000 (2016 data).[21] 

  

I'll stop here, because you get the point. Do I hate America? Should I go back where I came from? Ha! I am simply pointing out the fallacy of the basic premise of Donald Trump, that America needs to be great again. America should be greater in so many areas of our society. We know what they are, and we need to work on them.

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[1]. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/03/worlds-biggest-economies-in-2017/

[2]. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/power-rankings

[3] https://www.internationalinsurance.com/health/systems/

[4] http://thepatientfactor.com/canadian-health-care-information/world-health-organizations-ranking-of-the-worlds-health-systems/

[5]. https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading

[6]  https://www.currentschoolnews.com/education-news/best-educational-system-in-the-world/

[7].  https://www.statista.com/statistics/262962/countries-with-the-most-prisoners-per-100-000-inhabitants/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate
[8] https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_race.jsp
[9]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty[10]  https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/worlds-richest-and-poorest-countries
[11] https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm#indicator-chart

[12] https://data.oecd.org/inequality/poverty-gap.htm#indicator-chart
[13] https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/unemployment-rate

[14]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeless_population

[15] https://data.oecd.org/inequality/women-in-politics.htm#indicator-chart

[16]  https://photius.com/rankings/infrastructure_quality_country_rankings_2011.html

[17] https://rsf.org/en/ranking_table?sort=asc&order=Ranking

[18] https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/non-economic-data/worlds-safest-countries-2019

[19] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/theres-a-new-global-ranking-of-gun-deaths-heres-where-the-u-s-stands

[20] https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-highest-rates-of-firearm-related-deaths.html

[21] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-u-s-gun-deaths-compare-to-other-countries/