America sure has a messed up society

America, also known as The United States, The United States Of America, The U.S or The U.S.A has always had problems in it's society and still does

Our country has a pretty bad educational system. Lots of bullies, un-smart teaching and bad food also take things a bit too serious

Racism is huge and still is today. From police, to school and even jobs. Is just pretty annoying. Why is everything build up on race or nationality?

American women are pretty un-femenine and always have it with the "Ladies first" rule acting also like we men are criminals

Our economy is so freaking messed up. The Economic Policy Institute reports that $45 billion per year in federal, state, and other safety net support is paid to workers earning less than $10.10 an hour. Thus the average U.S. household is paying about $400 to employees in low-wage industries such as food service, retail, and personal care. Walmart's well-advertised $1 raise will cost the company about $1 billion a year. Its profits last year were about $25 billion.

The sordid tale gets even worse, as told by a PBS report: Walmart has spent about $6.5 billion per year on stock buybacks to enrich investors, approximately the same total annual amount billed to taxpayers for food stamps, Medicaid, housing, and other safety net programs for the company's underpaid employees. One more thin

America has to stop with its wars what's the whole point behind them. America should leave the Middle East and North Korea alone.

Does anyone agree with me?

I think your topic needs far more focus. You have basically just stated a bunch of issues with America that aren't really related to each other beyond a sort of being under an "This is happening in America and I don't like it" umbrella. I mean what is this thread set out to accomplish? Do you want to change people's thinking (or perhaps your own thinking) on something specific or do you just want this to be a circle jerk where everyone agrees with each other?

@Serraph105: I want our country to change our thinkings. I don't think our country is the worst. But it sure needs improvement

We're pretty privileged compared to other countries.

For the first time in history, American citizens don't need to worry about war and stupid laws that get you killed. There is always room for improvement. That's what we do as human beings, we grow and mature.

I enjoy living in this country. I work hard, and it pays off. There are not many countries you can actually say that.

Does the US have problems? Oh hell yeah, but it is still a great country to call home.

You forgot about anything associated with religion.

4/20 baby!

Every country has its problems pull ur head out of ur ass

Racism is like a fat guy sitting on a couch, even if you get rid the fat guy, you still have that grove that still lingers long after he's gone.

and in America, that grove is the south.

I liked the parts where bad food is taking things too seriously and racism is "just pretty annoying"

@Samslayer: is just that many of these situations really are a pain in the ass for me. I don't mind religion or racism but I am worried about our economy and learning system

@foxhound_fox: is for our own good

The economy is probably what will most likely put this country out of business.

@Gaming-Planet: exactly see I not complaining just for no reason. I mean I am actually Mexican-Argentine I don't care if they want to be racist. Good if they want to what can I do. Hmm nothing because there gonna do the same thing over and over again. Is the economy, crime and education what worry the most.

I think we do pretty damned good in the field of meteorology and aviation forecasting.

I agree with this statement. We live very comfortably in this country and if you work hard you can actually make something of yourself here. Yes there are problems, especially in terms of things like education but all we can do is improve. We are still world leaders in industry, science and technology. The problems we do have are not easy ones to solve and not many of them have good answers, all we can do is work our hardest to get through them.

@ferrari2001: pffff are you kidding? Science, technology and other industries?

Well it is shrinking. We may have still the lead. But other countries are not far away from taking the lead

Germany is also the world leader in technology. Not America. Europe has more leads than us. So what's really the point of having the lead in those things? Here are ten things Europeans do better than Americans

Jump to Navigation

SEARCH

Search form Search

Home

◀

ENVIRONMENT / FOOD

ECONOMY

EDUCATION

RIGHTS

MEDIA / CULTURE

HEALTH

DRUGS

ACTIVISM

BELIEF

PLEASURE

WORLD

10 Things Europe Does Way Better Than America

Europe is ahead of America when it comes to healthcare, better sex ed and less violent crime.

By Alex Henderson / AlterNet July 9, 2014

Print

768 COMMENTS

Photo Credit: Henner Damke

The term “American exceptionalism” is often tossed around by politicians. Neocons, far-right Christian fundamentalists and members of the Republican Party in particular seem to hate it when anyone dares to suggest that some aspects of European life are superior to how we do things. But facts are facts, and the reality is that in some respects, Europe is way ahead of the United States. From health care to civil liberties to sexual attitudes, one can make a strong case for “European exceptionalism.” That is not to say that Europe isn’t confronting some major challenges in 2014: neoliberal economic policies and brutal austerity measures are causing considerable misery in Greece, Spain and other countries. The unemployment rate in Spain, the fourth largest economy in the Eurozone, stands at a troubling 26%—although Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Iceland have lower unemployment rates than the U.S. (5.1% in Germany, 3.1.% in Switzerland, 4.6% in Iceland, 4.2% in Denmark). But problems and all, Europe continues to be one of the most desirable parts of the world. And the U.S.—a country that is in serious decline both economically and in terms of civil liberties—needs to take a close look at some of the things that European countries are doing right.

Below are 10 examples of “European exceptionalism” and areas in which Europe is way ahead of the United States.

1. Lower Incarceration Rates

Benjamin Franklin famously said that those who are willing to sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither, and the U.S. is more dangerous than most of Europe (especially in terms of homicide) even though it is becoming more and more of a police state. The U.S. incarcerates, per capita, more people than any other country in the world: in 2012, the U.S.’ incarceration rate, according to the International Centre for Prison Studies, was 707 per 100,000 people compared to only 60 per 100,000 in Sweden, 72 per 100,000 in Norway, 78 per 100,000 in Germany, 75 per 100,000 in the Netherlands, 87 per 100,000 in Switzerland, 99 per 100,000 in Italy, 103 per 100,000 in France, and 144 per 100,000 in Spain. Certainly, the failed War on Drugs and the Prison/Industrial Complex are major factors in the U.S.’ appallingly high incarceration rate, and unless the U.S. seriously reforms its draconian drug laws, it will continue to lock up a lot more of its people than Europe.

2. Less Violent Crime Than the U.S.

Major European cities like Brussels, Paris, Berlin and Milan can be very bad for nonviolent petty crimes like pickpocketing. The tradeoff, however, is that much of Europe—especially Western Europe—tends to have a lot less violent crime than the United States. Research conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that in 2012, the U.S. had a homicide rate of 4.8 per 100,000 people compared to only 0.3 per 100,000 in Iceland, 0.7 per 100,000 in Sweden, 0.8 per 100,000 in Denmark and Spain, 0.9 per 100,000 in Italy, Austria and the Netherlands, 1.0 per 100,000 in France, and 1.2 per 100,000 in Portugal and the Republic of Ireland. Russia, however, had a homicide rate of 9.2 per 100,000 that year, but overall, one is more likely to be murdered in the U.S. than in Europe.

3. Better Sex Education Programs, Healthier Sexual Attitudes

For decades, the Christian Right has been trying to convince Americans that social conservatism and abstinence-only sex education programs will reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. The problem is that the exact opposite is true: European countries with comprehensive sex-ed programs and liberal sexual attitudes actually have lower rates of teen pregnancy and STDs. Looking at data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Guttmacher Institute, Advocates for Youth and other sources, one finds a lot more teen pregnancies in the U.S. than in Europe. Comprehensive sex-ed programs are the norm in Europe, where in 2008, there were teen birth rates of 5.3 per 1000 in the Netherlands, 4.3 per 1000 in Switzerland and 9.8 per 1000 in Germany compared to 41.5 per 1000 in the United States. In 2009, Germany had one-sixth the HIV/AIDS rate of the United States (0.1% of Germany’s adult population living with HIV or AIDS compared to 0.6% of the U.S. adult population), while the Netherlands had one-third the number of people living with HIV or AIDS that year (0.2% of the Netherlands’ population compared to 0.6% of the U.S.’ adult population).

4. Anti-GMO Movement Much More Widespread

Anti-GMO activists are fighting an uphill battle in the U.S., where the Monsanto Corporation (the leading provider of GMO seeds) has considerable lobbying power and poured a ton of money into defeating GMO labeling measures in California and Washington State. Some progress has been made on the anti-GMO front in the U.S.: in April, Vermont passed a law requiring that food products sold in that state be labeled if they contain GMO ingredients (Monsanto, not surprisingly, has been aggressively fighting the law). And GMO crops have been banned in Mendocino County, California. But in Europe, GMO restrictions are much more widespread. France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Greece are among the countries that have either total or partial bans on GMOs. And in Italy, 16 of the country’s 20 regions have declared themselves to be GMO-free when it comes to agriculture.

5. Saner Approaches to Abortion

Logic never was the Christian Right’s strong point. The same far-right Christian fundamentalists who favor outlawing abortion and overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 cannot grasp the fact that two of the things they bitterly oppose—contraception and comprehensive sex education programs—reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and therefore, reduce the need for abortions. But in many European countries, most politicians are smart enough to share Bill Clinton’s view that abortion should be “safe, legal and rare.” And the ironic thing is that European countries that tend to be sexually liberal also tend to have lower abortion rates. The Guttmacher Institute has reported that Western Europe, factoring in different countries, has an average of 12 abortions per 1000 women compared to 19 per 1000 women in North America (Eastern Europe, according to Guttmacher, has much higher abortion rates than Western Europe). Guttmacher’s figures take into account Western Europe on the whole, although some countries in that part of the world have fallen below that 12 per 1000 average. For example, the UN has reported that in 2008, Switzerland (where abortion is legal during the first trimester) had an abortion rate of 6.4 per 1,000 women compared to 19.6 per 1000 women in the U.S. that year. And Guttmacher has reported that countries where abortion is illegal or greatly restricted tend to have higher abortion rates than countries where it is legal: back-alley abortions are common in Latin America and Africa.

Clearly, better sex education, easier access to birth control and universal healthcare are decreasing the number of abortions in Western Europe. So instead of harassing, threatening and terrorizing abortion providers, the Christian Right needs to examine the positive effects that sexually liberal attitudes are having in Switzerland and other European countries.

6. More Vacation Time

In 2013, a report by the Washington, DC-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) showed how badly the U.S. lags behind Europe when it comes to paid vacation time. CEPR reported that 77% of private-sector companies in the U.S. voluntarily offered their employees at least some paid vacation time (with 21 days off being the average), but the U.S. has no federal law mandating any time off. And that’s quite a contrast to Europe: CEPR reported that government-mandated paid vacation time in Europe includes 35 days off in Austria, 31 days off in Italy and France, 34 days off in Germany and Spain, 30 days off in Belgium and 29 days off in the Republic of Ireland.

7. Universal Healthcare

The U.S. made a small step in the direction of universal healthcare when Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, but the U.S. is so backwards when it comes to health care that implementing even the modest reforms of the ACA (which doesn’t go far enough) has been an epic battle. Meanwhile, every developed country in Western Europe has universal health care, which is implemented in different ways in different countries. Some European countries have single-payer systems (the U.K. and Spain), while others have public/private systems (France, for example) and others have systems that are essentially private and have employer-based insurance but force insurance companies to adhere to tough and strict government regulations. A 2014 article in The Atlantic reported that with Obamacare, the U.S.’ health care system may end up looking more like Germany’s—which reporter Olga Khazan described as “multi-payer, compulsory, employer-based, highly regulated, and fee-for-service.” But health care reform still has a long way to go in the U.S., where giant insurance companies call the shots and medical bankruptcies continue to be much more common than they are in Europe.

8.Greater Life Expectancy

Easier, more affordable access to quality health care is one of the things that can increase life expectancy, and in much of Western Europe, people are outliving Americans. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), overall life expectancy (factoring in both genders) in the U.S. is 79 compared to 83 in Switzerland (85 for women, 81 for men), 82 in Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Iceland and Luxembourg, 81 in Norway, Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Finland and the Republic of Ireland, and 80 in Malta, the U.K., Belgium, Portugal and Slovenia. It should be noted that in some of the poorer parts of the U.S., life expectancy is well below the WHO’s 79 average and is comparable to what one finds in Third World countries: in 2013, a report by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington found that life expectancy for males was only 63.9 in McDowell County, West Virginia and 66.7 in Tunica County, Mississippi. So in McDowell County, the average male dies 18 years younger than the average male in Switzerland.

9. Mass Transit Systems

For the vast majority of Americans, living without a car is impractical. Public transportation is woefully inadequate in most parts of the U.S., and only a handful of American cities make it easy to be without a car (among them: New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston). But even in those places, a car becomes a necessity in the surrounding suburbs. Europe, however, has some of the best, most extensive public transportation systems in the world. From London to Rome to Paris to Barcelona, mass transit is a way of life for millions of Europeans. And there are many advantages to that: less congestion, reduced air pollution, health benefits (walking is great exercise), a vibrant street scene/sidewalk culture and more productivity in the workplace (getting to and from work is easier when the busses and trains are convenient and run frequently). Plus, making it easier for people to be without a car reduces the number of DUIs.

10. Europeans More Likely to Speak Foreign Languages

Barack Obama offended a lot of xenophobic Republicans when, during his 2008 presidential campaign, he noted that the U.S. lagged way behind Europe when it came to proficiency in a second or third language, but Obama was right—and in 2012, a European Commission report on foreign-language study in the European Union (EU) found that “on average, in 2009/2010, 60.8% of lower secondary education students were learning two or more foreign languages—an increase of 14.1% compared to 2004-2005. During the same period, the proportion of primary education pupils not learning a foreign language fell from 32.5% to 21.8%.” The report found that in the EU, foreign-language study often began as early as six to nine years of age, which is quite a contrast to the U.S.—where foreign-language study is a rarity at the elementary school level and isn’t nearly as common as it should be at the middle school or high school levels.

Alex Henderson's work has appeared in the L.A. Weekly, Billboard, Spin, Creem, the Pasadena Weekly and many other publications. Follow him on Twitter @alexvhenderson.

SHARE ON FACEBOOK SHARE ON TWITTER

REPORT TYPOS AND CORRECTIONS TO 'CORRECTIONS@ALTERNET.ORG'.

768 COMMENTS

by TaboolaSponsored LinksYou May Like

Top 10 Cancer Causing Foods You Eat Every Day

NaturalON

Warren Buffett Reveals His Top 5 Dividend Stocks

Newsmax

Taylor Swift Finally Reveals Her Outrageous Home (Photos)

Lonny

Drivers Feel Stupid For Not Knowing This New Rule

Provide-Savings Insurance Quotes

Cute Women's Sandals Up to 70% Off!

Zulily

83 Rare Photos From The Past You Have to See To Believe

CheckThisYo

by TaboolaSponsored LinksRecommended

Top 10 Cancer Causing Foods You Eat Every Day NaturalON

Taylor Swift Finally Reveals Her Outrageous Home (Photos) Lonny

Drivers Feel Stupid For No… Provide-Savings Insurance Quotes

Cute Women's Sandals Up to 70% Off! Zulily

83 Rare Photos From The Past You Have to See To … CheckThisYo

20 Stars Who Are Aging Terribly…#6 Will Make … PressRoomVIP

What is Facebook's Atlas ad server, how it work… Business Insider

Something better than LASIK? Meet the Visian I… Visian ICL Blog

TODAY'S TOP STORIES

5 Right-Wing Lunacies This Week: Bill O'Reilly Hits Peak Paranoia

6 Natural Ingredients for Cleaning Your House Without Making It Toxic

Jon Stewart Unloads on Fox News in Exclusive: “Watching These Channels All Day is Incredibly Depressing"

The Worst of Our Corrupt Congress Was on Display This Past Week In Washington

How '420' Became the Big Day for Weed Smokers Across America

Conservative Councilwoman Caught Slapping 6-Year Old Special Needs Student's Face

Remembering Judith Malina: One of America's Great Radicals of the Theater

Jeb Bush's Sleazy Political Payback to Dubya's Donors

Best of the week

MOST READ

Man Kills Himself Holding 'Tax The 1%' in Front of Capitol—and Nobody Hears About It

The Fascinating Reason There Are No Female Genitals on Statues

The Numbers Are Staggering: U.S. Is 'World Leader' in Child Poverty

Deputy Who Accidentally Shot Restrained Man Is a Wealthy Exec Who Pays to Play Cop

WATCH: Terrified ‘Tea Party Patriot’ Realizes He Could Lose Obamacare If GOP Wins in 2016

Professor Live Tweets Her Son's Abstinence Only Sex-Ed Class with Hilarious Results

Bill Maher’s Bigoted Atheism: His Arrogant Shtick Is Just as Ugly as Religious Intolerance

10 Myths Many Religious People Hold About Atheists, Debunked

Texas Woman Invokes Religious Freedom Argument to Fight $2000 Fine for Feeding Homeless

These Kids Were Almost Snatched Away by Child Protective Services Because Their Parents Let Them Walk Home Alone

ALTERNET ORIGINALS

Stoned is the Way of the Walk: 24 Classic Reefer Songs for 4/20

5 Right-Wing Lunacies This Week: Bill O'Reilly Hits Peak Paranoia

The Worst of Our Corrupt Congress Was on Display This Past Week In Washington

[ X ]

Like Alternet on Facebook

OUR MISSION

WHO WE ARE

ABOUT IMI

FOUNDATION SUPPORT

PRESS INFORMATION

WRITER GUIDELINES

PRIVACY POLICY

ADVERTISE ON ALTERNET

CONTACT US

DONATE

LOGIN

follow AlterNet on twitterbe an AlterNet facebook fansubscribe to our rss

From a website

@jun_aka_pekto: thats not enough. The rest of the world has more leada than us.

^ Yea I have a hard time taking you seriously when you find some random not cited clearly biased article and post the entire freaking thing on an internet forum. Go troll elsewhere.

@magicalclick: OK look I am just letting you know that I live in Texas. I heard Maine was nice so I really wanna move there. Anyways from what country are you?(you said you were a first-gen immigrant) so where are you from? My guesses are either Germany or The United Kingdom

@ferrari2001: I am not trying to troll I am just trying to prove a point but anyways I guess is just the south

Sometimes wrap their flag around my body to feel like one of them; the freedom causes tingles.

@magicalclick: ok thanks

Why would you guess Germany or the UK? Those are both great places to live.

Be thankful we're not like the Islamic State Of Iraq where we have ISIS killing their own people. Never mind, we have gangs.

Good enough to me. It's my bread n butter. Looking at the bright young folks coming in to the field, a little kick in the butt and they'll do well.

Where do you live at to make such a blanket assessment? Where I am, there are still many kids who care about their future and making a go at it.

@xdude85 said:

Yes i can see then thats why your government no matter the political party continues to ruin in other countries on the claims of bringing FREEDOM and DEMOCRACY.

America for all its faults is the only place I want to live.

@-paranorman-:Texas

@jun_aka_pekto: ou yeah I am glad we don't at least have those ISIS has. I also don't think America has the worst economy. Probably Greece

America does have its problem but all countries have them, and to be honest i would pick America to live in over any other country in the world. So no i dont agree with you´r post.

@Jacanuk: Ok whatevs well at least we're not like the Middle East that's for sure.

It's getting worse year by year...

@magicalclick: This is a viewpoint that frequently gets ignored by many people in America and across the globe.

You could say many of the same things for just about every country/continent on the planet. South America is a violent, corrupt mess. Europe's economy is in pretty bad shape. Japan is suffering from a looong recession with an aging population. Most of Asia is a bunch of sweatshop labor. China and India are overpopulated.

Really, who is in better shape than the U.S.?

Worst of all is that they censor nudity and curse words.

Every society always has had and always will have problems. Be glad we don't have political prisoners locked up like Cuba does or a one-child policy like China.

As far as bullies, I'm pretty sure every country has bullies and meanies and jerks that like to pick on other people and some of them never outgrow that. I don't have a problem with Wal-Mart buying back its stock or "enriching its investors", corporations kind of have a duty to make sure their investors make a decent return. Sure they could probably pay better, but I don't see their accounting books so I don't know how much room they have to do so, and if they really wanted to they could probably cut some of their jobs.

As far as wars go, the U.S. military dominance is probably what is preventing there from being any major large-scale wars. There are small scale, localized wars, but overall the world is a much more peaceful place in the past 60 years than it has been before. It's called the "Pax Americana". The U.S. played a key role in saving much of the world from domination by the Nazis, Imperial Japan, and the Soviets, so that's a huge plus. As one user above has said, Taiwan basically owes their independence to the U.S., and I would say the same thing for S. Korea and Kuwait, and also the Iraqi Kurds owe a lot of their self-rule to U.S. intervention.

Man you have no idea what a messed up society is ....

As a person who lives in a third-world shithole , living in 'Murica is like a dream for me .....Enjoy your life !

lmao that's a terrible argument. "Be glad you don't live in a shithole!" Why are China and Cuba the benchmarks the US needs to compare itself to? That's quite a low bar and says a lot about the country.

@Aljosa23: You're right Cuba and China are low bars. They are just the first two countries I thought of. My point is that every society has problems and most of the things the TC was complaining about don't seem like a big deal to me. Of course the U.S. does have its problems, for example in Texas the law allows doctors and hospitals to remove feeding tubes from patients even if the patient or the patient's family is against this, and I find the whole practice of removing a patient's feeding tube and letting the person die from lack of nutrition (i.e. starve) really cruel. But overall the U.S. has the largest economy and the strongest military and is a fairly safe place to live, and has a variety of regions and climates and the government generally recognizes the rights of its citizens unlike in many places in the world. Sure we have some issues having to be careful of terrorist attacks, but that is relatively new to us, mostly post-9/11 while in some European countries have been dealing with such issues for decades, for example Italy with the Red Brigades, Ireland with IRA, and Spain with Basque separatists. I mean there have been some small scale domestic terrorism in previous decades in the U.S. like with the Weather Underground, Black militants, or animal rights/environmental extremists, as well as occasional right wing attacks (which tend to garner more media attention but from what I understand are not particularly numerous, most of the domestic terrorist attacks in the U.S. have been by animal rights or ecoterrorist groups).

@ferrari2001: @lucianocasanova:

My guess is that he copy-pasted the whole webpage using Ctrl+A (or Cmd+A if he's using a Mac), he really should'v at least trimmed away the unrelated stuff at the end, I mean what does Lasik surgery or Taylor Swift's "outrageous" house have to do with his argument that Europe is better than the U.S. And as far as the article itself goes most of the areas where it says Europe is better is really just opinion. Sure Europeans may be more likely to speak a second language, but is that really that important (and probably in many cases that second language is English because of the influence that American culture and economy exerts on the rest of the world makes non-English speakers want to learn the language that Americans speak) or they have more public transport. And if oppostion to GMO is higher in Europe, is that really such a good thing, haven't GMOs reduced malnutrition and famine and hasn't "golden rice" been a great benefit for combating Vitamin A deficiency in many Asian countries?

Sometimes I wonder how human beings can be so cruel to other human beings.

Humans aren't the only species on the planet yet we treat each other poorly and especially other species.

http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/88250-how-can-human-beings-be-so-cruel-to-other-human-beings-split-from-canadians-aliens/