Roy Schimelpfenig (“Expose love for your country,” Our Readers’ Views, July 1) claims that the U.S. is the greatest and freest nation in the world. The facts don’t support his statement. By almost any metric, we’re nowhere near the top, well, except in military spending.
We came in only 17th out of 178 in economic freedom (Wall Street Journal, 2018). The U.S. scores badly in education: 40 out of 72 in mathematics, 25 of 72 in science, and 24 of 72 in reading (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2015). As for health: the U.S. ranked 46th in maternal mortality (Amnesty International, 2010). We do come in first for child deaths by automobile accident and firearms, with overall child mortality 57 percent higher than other high-income countries (NPR.org, 2019), but that doesn’t seem like something to brag about.
The U.S. is 45th out of 180 in terms of press freedom (Reporters Without Borders, 2020). We’re 25th out of 167 on the democracy index (The Economist, 2019), 21st out of 128 on the rule of law index (World Justice Project 2020), and 23rd out of 198 in corruption perception (Transparency International, 2019). We’re 12th out of 138 in infrastructure quality (World Economic Forum), and 60th out of 138 in road safety (World Health Organization, 2019).
So tell me again about how we’re the best country in the world.
