A letter proclaiming America as “the greatest nation on earth” got me thinking. While we may have the largest military (you get what you pay for), the most obscenely wealthy billionaires who pay no taxes, and the most guns (close to 400 million), we don’t always do so well. Despite paying the highest amount of our GDP on medical expenses, our life expectancy of 78.6 years ranks about 46th worldwide. You don’t always get what you pay for. One source reported life expectancy in 2015 at 78.9 for white people and 75.5 for Black people, more than a three-year difference. We are indeed the fattest nation on earth. Some two-thirds of our population are overweight, and the obesity rate of around 40 percent is the highest among major nations. Also, when it comes to COVID-19 deaths we are No. 1, with more than 600,000 dead. (But Brazil is gaining fast!)
Maybe I’m getting cynical with age, but as someone who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, the years of the interstate highway construction, a thriving middle class, and cheap higher education for all, it sometimes seems we peaked with the moon landing in ’69, and it’s been mostly downhill since then.
