Six Ways America Is Like a Third-World Country

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/22453-six-ways-america-is-like-a-third-world-country

1. Criminal Justice

We all know the U.S. criminal justice system is flawed, but few are likely aware of just how bad it is compared to the rest of the world. The International Center for Prison Studies estimates that America imprisons 716 people per 100,000 citizens (of any age). That's significantly worse than Russia (484 prisoners per 100,000 citizens), China (121) and Iran (284). The only country that incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than we do is North Korea. The U.S. is also the only developed country that executes prisoners - and our death penalty has a serious race problem: 42 percent of those on death row are black, compared to less than 15 percent of the overall population.


3. Healthcare

A study last year found that in many American counties, especially in the deep South, life expectancy is lower than in Algeria, Nicaragua or Bangladesh. The U.S. is the only developed country that does not guarantee health care to its citizens; even after the Affordable Care Act, millions of poor Americans will remain uninsured because governors, mainly Republicans, have refused to expand Medicaid, which provides health insurance for low-income Americans. Although the federal government will pay for the expansion, many governors cited cost, even though the expansion would actually save money. America is unique among developed countries in that tens of thousands of poor Americans die because they lack health insurance, even while we spend more than twice as much of our GDP on healthcare than the average for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a collection of rich world countries. The U.S. has an infant mortality rate that dwarfs comparable nations, as well as the highest teenage-pregnancy rate in the developed world, largely because of the politically-motivated unavailability of contraception in many areas.

6. Infrastructure

The United States infrastructure is slowly crumbling apart and is in desperate need for repair. One study estimates that our infrastructure system needs a $3.6 trillion investment over the next six years. In New York City, the development of Second Avenue subway line was first delayed by the outbreak of World War II; it's still not finished. In South Dakota, Alaska and Pennsylvania, water is still transported via century-old wooden pipes. Some 45 percent of Americans lack access to public transit. Large portions of U.S. wastewater capacity are more than half a century old and in Detroit, some of the sewer lines date back to the mid-19th century. One in nine U.S. bridges (or 66,405 bridges) are considered "structurally deficient," according to the National Bridge Inventory. All of this means that the U.S. has fallen rapidly in international rankings of infrastructure.

[catbyte]

1. Grand Rapids, MI streets are something right out of a Third World country

I worry about my Jeep's front end every time I go to and return from work. The moon crater-sized potholes are unbelievable. Rick "The Dictator" Snyder gave his buddies all the tax breaks they wanted at the expense of the rest of us. I hope to hell enough Michiganders are fed up and throws his ass out in November.

[Laelth]

2. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[DetlefK]

3. Reminds me of a method of terrorism I read about in a novel.

Don't remember which one. It was sci-fi, in the near future.

That terrorism was carried out via mass-infiltration by covert-agents who then sabotaged the infrastructure: They cut or stole cables, they loosened screws... a million tiny bites. Not enough to be recognized as sabotage, but enough to be a severe drain on economy and transportation.

Just imagine a railway-track in the middle of nowhere and somebody methodically loosens the screws holding the tracks together, night by night, for a full month.
A catastrophe waiting to happen and it was achieved on little to no budget.

Or what if somebody methodically scrapes the protective paint of all sorts of iron beams and wires and sprays them with a saltwater-rust-solution. If it goes unnoticed, they will start to rust and years or decades later a terrible accident will happen, costing lives, money and time.
A catastrophe waiting to happen and it was achieved on little to no budget.