I’m doing some “Swedish death cleaning,” dumping old files and articles. I came across one from the San Jose Mercury News from April 21, 1991. That’s 33 years ago. It was entitled “We’re No. 1! We’re No. 1!”
The article began with all the ways the U.S. was behind other countries. For example we were No,. 17 in children immunized against polio. The article went on to explain that we should not despair; we were still # 1 in many areas. I’ll quote:
Among Western industrialized nations, we’re No. 1 in percentage of children living below the poverty line, No. 1 in teen pregnancy, No. 1 in murders of males between 15 and 24, No. 1 in murder by handguns for all ages, No. 1 in percentage of population incarcerated, No. 1 in percentage of commuter trips made by private auto rather than public transport, No. 1 in per capita energy consumption and No. 1 in emissions of air pollutants.
I don’t have statistics on where the U.S. stands today, but I’ll bet we are still No. 1 in quite a few of those categories. Luckily Mr. Musk and Trump will make us great again.
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