Two stories today about the state of the United States that really do make you worry. Of course the US is a big place, and there are all those stats that only a small percentage of Americans have a passport (20 per cent according to this site, although I suspect that’s an over-estimate), but you’d think people would be at least a bit curious about the rest of the world, since it has after all been having a big impact on American life lately, in one way and another.
Yet 60 per cent of college-age Americans cannot find Iraq on a map:
The survey, carried out in December 2005, also found fewer than three in 10 think it is important to know the locations of countries in the news; only 14 per cent believe another language is a necessary skill; 47 per cent could not find India on a map and 75 per cent could not locate Israel.
And by the time they are middle-aged they might not be healthy enough to care: healthcare costs almost twice as much in the US as in the UK, yet British health by the time citizens reach middle age is, on lots of measures, twice as good:
“Rates of diseases such as diabetes, lung cancer and high blood pressure among Americans aged between 55 and 64 were up to twice as high as in England. Americans also had higher rates of heart disease, heart attacks and strokes.The study’s authors said lifestyle differences such as smoking, drinking and obesity could not explain the difference. “
The tentative conclusion that the researchers come to is that levels of income inequality are to blame.
Neither study suggests a “healthy” (in the broad sense) society.
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