Jack of all Days

Whose No. 1? No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is “No. 1,” “the greatest.” Well … this is the country you really live in:

• The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
• The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
• Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the Earth. Seventeen percent believe the Earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).
• The World Health Organization “ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. [was] … 37th.” In the fairness of health care, we’re 54th. • “The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens” (The European Dream, p.80).
• Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That’s six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)
• “U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower” (The European Dream, p.81).
• The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
• Women are 70% more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).
• “Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its work-force in the 1980s. … In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1%” (The European Dream, p.39). Yet Americans work longer hours per year than any other industrialized country, and get less vacation time.
• “Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined” (The European Dream, p.28).

The USA is “No. 1″ in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.

Italy’s mama’s boys: The Italian government is handing out grants to help mommys’ boys leave home. The move comes after economists warned almost 60% of young adult Italians stayed at home and were not marrying, having children or building up homes of their own. Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa says part of a two billion euro provision in the 2008 state budget will be used to help young people move out of family homes. He said: “Let’s get these big babies out of the home.” Many young people say they cannot afford to move out of home so the government has announced plans to make more affordable accommodation available and build more public housing. EU figures show that 56% of 25 to 29 year-olds still live with their parents in Italy, compared to 21% of Germans and just five per cent of Swedes.

Blame it on the rain: The weather shouldn’t affect life satisfaction, right? Oh, but it does. In one study, people called on sunny days were more satisfied with their lives than people called on rainy days. This suggests that people are using their current mood, which is largely caused by temporary external factors (in this case, the rain), to evaluate their life satisfaction. In other words, when we’re doing something difficult like rating our overall life satisfaction, something that doesn’t come very naturally, we tend to rely on our current mood, even if that mood is influenced by factors that are, for the most part, irrelevant to our overall life satisfaction — like the weather.