Are we the best nation on Earth?
Americans take pride in American dominance the way Yankee fans take pride in the number of World Series trophies they've won over the years. We have a certain arrogant swagger that is born from winning. Nothing breeds confidence like success.
But the Yankees are a sports team, not a nation. Sports have winners and losers and the outcome is cut and dry. Life on the other hand isn't so clear-cut. What do we use to define this "number 1" status?
Is it because we are the land of opportunity? We are told from the time we are a child that anyone can grow up to be President. That anyone can go from the poorhouse to the penthouse. We are sold on images of rags to riches stories. But are they real? Not necessarily.
Recent studies have shown that upward mobility is on the decline in the U.S.
A classic social survey in 1978 found that 23% of adult men who had been born in the bottom fifth of the population (as ranked by social and economic status) had made it into the top fifth. Earl Wysong of Indiana University and two colleagues recently decided to update the study. They compared the incomes of 2,749 father-and-son pairs from 1979 to 1998 and found that few sons had moved up the class ladder. Nearly 70% of the sons in 1998 had remained either at the same level or were doing worse than their fathers in 1979. The biggest increase in mobility had been at the top of society, with affluent sons moving upwards more often than their fathers had. They found that only 10% of the adult men born in the bottom quarter had made it to the top quarter.
The Economic Policy Institute also argues that social mobility has declined since the 1970s. In the 1990s 36% of those who started in the second-poorest 20% stayed put, compared with 28% in the 1970s and 32% in the 1980s. In the 1970s 12% of the population moved from the bottom fifth to either the fourth or the top fifth. In the 1980s and 1990s the figures shrank to below 11% for both decades. The figure for those who stayed in the top fifth increased slightly but steadily over the three decades, reinforcing the sense of diminished social mobility.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Temple Stark
AFter the inflammatory headline, a good relection on what No. 1 means.
A good read. Thanks very much. Temple
2 - Michael J. West
A great post, one worth reading carefully and thinking about. I truly enjoyed it.
And I wanted to say that now, before Anthony Grande comes and tells you that just by asking the question, you hate America.
3 - The Cranky Liberal
Your right, I hate America. Yep. That must be why I want to badly to have it's reality match it's dreams. I guess I must hate my child, my mom and my wife the same way ;)
Thanks for reading.
4 - Scott
A good read, cranky liberal.
5 - Justin Berry
I would go for the socialist solution of national healthcare if we keep the same insurance companies that we have today.That way every taxpayer chooses his or her own insurance plan and the government foots the bill out of our tax dollars.I am however opposed to the idea of state run healthcare, as its too much like welfare. and new orleans is a good example of the dangers of getting people "hooked" on government assistance.
6 - 1Potato
Are you saying the Canadian health care system is better?
7 - Justin Berry
Im no judge of the canadian health care system as I am not Canadian. Therefore not qualified to discuss their issues.(no dog in that fight.)
8 - 1Potato
GENETICS
The ultra rich and underclass problem has a lot to do with genetics.
This is the great internet, right? Where we don't have to be politically correct, right?
In a nutshell, Jewish people (no disparagement whatsover meant here)
are about 2% of the population but comprise about 50% of the billionairs and 40% of nobel prize winners. Why? Their culture teaches it is desirable to marry and procreate with the most intelligent and/or successful person possible. In contrast, in my area, it is culturally cool, if you will, to marry and procreate with the "bad boy" or thug. I am not sure it is a low self esteem issue or the challenge to "change" or "tame" the bad boy or whatever, but intelligence does not enter in.
Since intelligence is largely genetic, and since it is a great indicator of wealth and success, these cultural customs or habits matter a great deal.
I don't want to mention any groups by name, but some come to mind. I like these people a great deal and they are not stupid; however the gap will widen if they don't see to it that intelligence is "selected" for as in other groups.
This, I believe, is a serious problem for the future. I do not think it is good for certain groups, for example Jews, to get so far ahead of everyone else that the gap seems unbridgeable (resentment doesn't help anyone). So we either ask Jewish people to start marrying dumber people so others can catch up, or others must start practicing a bit of eugenics through better procreation.
This may sound cold, but I believe it is factually based. I am sorry, but Bill Gates inherited his intelligence, as did Einstein. This may seem like a rant but when it comes to the gap between the classes I think genetics is the elephant in the room. I am a big believer in individual will power and all that, but we are talking overall averages here.
9 - Keith Sikora
I once asked a friend of mine whether he thought intelligence was based more on inheritance or on the environment. He replied, "providence."
10 - alpha
Oh you cranky liberals! Always thinking of freedom, liberty, and some guy named James Madison. Why can't you be happy with Madison Avenue?
What is the matter with the rich getting richer and the poor getting nowhere? It worked in Venezuela.
Eric O. should lasso this Keith Sikora. Intelligence and wealth might have something to do with..."providence". Possible.
More wealth for the wealthy might have something to do with the current governing clique. It is hard to believe but there are people in Washington who want to make rich people happier and richer. What could be wrong with that?
11 - Leoniceno
1Potato, although I think you probably mean well, your comments have a somewhat anti-semitic tinge. There has never been credible data to support your assertion that different racial and ethnic groups might have differing intelligences.
12 - Shark
Blogcritics is #1!
...Where a guy [edited] gets to think out loud about the genetic influence on wealth acquisition.
[Shark spits out window IN ANY DIRECTION and hits a few thousand retarded sports jocks making gazillions of dollars]
====
[edited]
13 - Shark
Edible Tuber: "...when it comes to the gap between the classes I think genetics is the elephant in the room. I am a big believer in individual will power... but we are talking overall averages here."
[edited]
14 - Dave Nalle
Seems to me the entire concept of classifying any nation as #1 is sort of silly, as is striving to be #1 as an overall description of a nation.
In individual areas the quest to be the 'most whatever' nation is likely to do irreparable harm to a nation. It IS possible to be too caring and too generous, and too productive. Too much of anything can lead to serious economic and social problems.
I'd rather have a country where the government tries to be less rather than more - how about we try for the least intrusive and least oppressive and least noticable government. Then we can let our individual citizens focus on acbieving superlatives for themselves.
Dave
15 - 1Potato
Leoniceno:
Read The Bell Curve (Hernstein & Murray, 1994).
But even without the studies, the truth is obvious. Ashkenazi Jews are dominant well beyond their numerical representation in the fields of intellect. How else do you get Freud, Einstien, Marx, Husserl, Deridda, Feynman, Wittgenstein(2/3rds Jewish), Kafka, and many many others (the list is virtually endless), the absolute intellectual pinnacle in virtually every field (some fields, like psycoanalysis, entirely invented by Jews), all in the last century? Add Issaac Assimov, Chagal, Bobby Fisher, Eisenstien, Woody Allen, Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Salk, Chomsky - this is all off the top of my head, didn't even consult a "famous Jews" site.
No group comes close. Gosh, how anti-semetic of me to point out Jews are intelligent(I'm Jewish on my mother's side, btw).
Jewish people have been practicing eugenics (de facto) for centuries. And it has paid off. They marry 1)other Jews, and 2) the most intelligent Jew they can find. This is a deep part of their ethnic identity and culture. Some have argued this intellectual competitive mate-searching has itself become a genetic trait through selection. In other words, Jews are not only smart, they are heat seeking missles for smart spouses.
There is never really a good time to talk about genetics. But it does relate to the ultra-rich, underclass issue. Genetics have a particularly large effect on the very top. What separates Bill Gates from the next tier of 1000 secondary geniuses is a couple of IQ points. So at the top the edge matters.
But it matters at every level as well. A very low IQ will keep you in the underclass (especially if you are ugly and can't sing!), whereas a little more intelligence will at least get you to the middle.
I am not trying to be cruel or insulting to anyone. But this discussion is taboo in the MSM.
And who does that hurt? Who do you think?
16 - 1Potato
Shark:
So what part don't you get?
That there exists a correlation between wealth and intelligence?
Eugenics?
It's hard to read your posts, chunks of them keep getting deleted.
[edited]
17 - Voltairean
It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind
Voltaire
18 - Dave Nalle
Chomsky alone is enough to negate the intelligence of at least 10 other brilliant jews.
But to your other point, I'd argue that at the top a couple of points of IQ doesn't actually matter nearly as much as other more obscure qualities like creativity, adaptability and pragmatism which aren't necessarily linked to pure intelligence.
Dave
19 - voltairean
Dave, you forgot the most important one - LUCK! Being in the right place at the right time is huge. Having parents that graduated from college or, even better, graduate school will have a ginormous impact on your life. Hell, if you are really lucky, you will be one of the few (3% or so of the world population) born in the United States.
What are the odds of someone getting so lucky as to be born in the U.S. to white, middle class, college educated parents, who have a home paid off and enough money that one parent can stay home with the kids. Here's a guess: less than .oooooooo2%. Maybe I'm off by a few decimal points, but there is no doubt that that would be a lucky set of circumstances.
1potato, the reason why posts like yours are tobaoo is because they are merely couched racism. Oh, and your hypothesis that intelligence is linked to genetics as put forth in the book The Bell Curve was thoroughly debunked when the book was published. And before you disagree with me, I might add that I am a full Jew and thus smarter than you, at least according to your post, I think.
As to the broader question posed here, no statistic will give you an answer because it is a personal observation. For example, Cranky Liberal lists GDP as pne measuring stick. However, I may prefer a country that is more relaxed and has more vacation time and probably a lower GDP as a result.
In other words, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
20 - The Cranky Liberal
Thanks for all the great comments. Just to clarify - I do not list GDP as a measuring stick for one key reason - the rising income disparity. If th growing GDP only benefits a few, then by itslef, it is meaningless.
What I did bring up was educational spending as it relates to GDP - we need to do more.
Now on to 1potato I can't believe I'm goign to do this becausI do not agree with his statement, but about 2 or 3 months ago the Economist ran a similar article on the Jewish intelligence question. They did raise a point that because the European Jews were often shunted into jobs that required high analytical and or math skills that over time they sort of self selected those traits. They do preform generaly better on IQ tests (once again, according to the Economist) and also suffer from a few genetic health issues that only strike them. They were making the argument that the two were related (the same gene that was responsible for the slightly higher intelligence carried a flaw or something).
Just food for thought at the all you can eat buffett of ideas.
21 - Shark
Who is editing my stuff? And why?
Seems the rules have changed.
22 - Ayu
A great read. As an outsider I could say that mostly people in the other side of the world--where I come from--have always thiought that you Americans are number 1. There are strict limitations to apply for visas, still people are struggling to get in. And the US President is perhaps the only person on earth whom other presidents are dying to shake hands with. It's kinda strange to read that there is anything inadequate there. know grass is always greener on the other side though...
23 - The Searcher
As per usual, intelligence is ignored and socioeconomic status instead receives the fixation, which is barking up the wrong tree, hanging your horse on the wrong post, etc.
Odds are that if general intelligence were included in those studies, you'd see that intelligence has a stronger correlation than SES.
Keith Sikora and 1Potato seem to understand this already.
24 - Dave Nalle
Ah, but Searcher - doesn't SES contribute to intelligence in many ways? It's certainly not just the product of genetics.
And as for people being genetically superior in intelligence, the Jews are not alone. There are those who subscribe to the theory that those of Celtic ancestry are genetically above normal in areas of creativity and self-expression. Certainly within the English speaking world they are disproportionately represented as politicians, poets and novelists. Yet this could just be a cultural tradition of valuing literacy and reading more highly than other groups,, not anything having to do with genetics.
Dave
25 - steve
Personally, I am going to enjoy our remaining status as #1. Thanks to Mr. Clinton, we are importing 8x what we are exporting to China. They are en route to surpassing our #1 status. God help us should they have a coup and change to a Chinese Democracy. So lets all enjoy the ride while it lasts.