America #1? 36 Facts That Prove That The United States Is An ‘Exceptional’ Nation

End Of The American Dream

The American Dream Is Becoming A Nightmare And Life As We Know It Is About To Change

By Michael Snyder, on October 13th, 2015

 

Is the United States an “exceptional” nation?  Well, the facts show that we are, but not for the reasons that you may think.  Now that it is election season, we have all sorts of politicians running around proclaiming that America is the greatest nation on the entire planet.  And just this week, Warren Buffett stated that “America’s great now — it’s never been greater“.  But is it actually true?  Is the United States still a great nation?  I would submit that the numbers suggest otherwise.  I love America, and in my opinion there is not much hope for us until we are willing to admit to ourselves just how far we have fallen.  The following are 36 facts that prove that the United States is an “exceptional” nation…

#1 According to a brand new report that was just released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States has the fattest population in the entire industrialized world by a wide margin.

#2 That same report from the OECD also found that we are number one in child obesity.  In fact, at 38 percent our rate of childhood obesity is even higher than our overall rate of obesity.

#3 According to USA Today, the obesity rate in the United States has more than doubled over the past 25 years.

#4The Washington Post has reported that Americans spend an average of 293 minutes a day watching television, which is the most in the world by a wide margin.   And as I have discussed previously, more than 90 percent of the “programming” that we absorb is created by just 6 enormously powerful media corporations.

#5 One study found that the average American spends more than 10 hours a day using some sort of electronic device.

#6 By the time an American child reaches the age of 18, that child will have seen approximately 40,000 murders on television.

#7 The average young American will spend 10,000 hours playing video games before the age of 21.

#8 Out of 22 countries studied by the Educational Testing Service, Americans were dead last in tech proficiency, dead last in numeracy and only two countries performed worse than us when it came to literacy proficiency.

#9 In more than half of all U.S. states, the highest paid public employee in the state is a football coach.

#10 The percentage of wealth owned by middle class adults is lower in North America than it is anywhere else in the world.

#11 Almost half of all Americans (47 percent) do not put a single penny out of their paychecks into savings.

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Hundreds of outraged Air France staff stormed a meeting where Company plans to cut 2,900 jobs were being discussed. Execs had shirts torn from their backs as they escaped the angry mob

No need to get shirty! Air France executive is forced to climb a fence after staff attack him and rip off his shirt when he announces 2,900 job losses

• Air France executives attacked after staff stormed company headquarters
• Company plans to cut 2,900 jobs and 14 aircraft from its long-haul fleet
• HR vice president and long-haul flights deputy had their shirts torn off

Published: 08:46 EST, 5 October 2015 | Updated: 13:17 EST, 5 October 2015

Air France managers have been forced to flee the company's headquarters after being attacked by a baying mob of workers that tore their clothes off.

Hundreds of angry staff stormed the Air France building at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Roissy, near Paris, after the company announced plans to cut 2,900 jobs on Monday.

Two senior executives, Xavier Broseta, Vice President for Human Resources, and Pierre Plissonnier, deputy of Air France long-haul flights, both had their shirts ripped off their backs as they were evacuated through the crowds.

Under attack: A shirtless Xavier Broseta, Executive Vice President for Human Resources at Air France, is evacuated by security after employees interrupted a meeting with representatives staff at the Air France headquarters building at the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Roissy, near Paris

Shortly before the attack, Mr Broseta and Air France Chief Executive Frederic Gagey had outlined a drastic cost cutting plan, which would see 2,900 jobs cut by 2017.

The cuts include 1,700 ground staff, 900 cabin crew and 300 pilots, as part of efforts to lower costs, two union sources said.

Air France also confirmed in the meeting that it plans to shed 14 aircraft from its long-haul fleet, reducing the business by ten per cent, and that it wants to cancel its order for Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

This outraged staff, who are already at loggerheads with the company, and hundreds stormed the building, interrupting the meeting.

  

Mr Broseta and Mr Plissonnier were aided by security as they tried to escape the baying mob

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Thomasville, N.C. : The town of roughly 27,000 people has lost more than 5,000 manufacturing jobs. due to companies that either downsized, relocated or closed.

In Plain Sight, Poverty In America :  NBC NEWS

After jobs move out, hunger takes root in factory town

Wed Jul 3, 2013 9:01 AM EDT

Spencer Bakalar

Cliff Lambeth, right, checks individual bags to make sure each contains a sandwich, juice, fruit and a dessert for the bag lunches He Cares distributes.

Spencer Bakalar

Mike Turner assembles sandwiches to be distributed in the next few hours. Before all of the 300 sandwiches were made, the volunteers ran out of meat, causing them to go back into the sandwiches and cut every slice in half.

By Spencer Bakalar, NBC News Contributor
It is difficult to ignore the six abandoned and crumbling factories that dot the landscape surrounding Main Street in Thomasville, N.C. Less than a half-mile away from the faded storefronts, children race in the shadows of broken window panes, past the empty lumberyards that once brought the town to life.
More than 100 years ago, Thomasville was the furniture industry hub of North Carolina. It was the type of town that created generational jobs where grandfathers, fathers and sons could each work and prosper, knowing that the opportunity for employment would be there for years to come.
"It's all a lot of people ever knew," said Mike Turner, founder of He Cares, an outreach ministry in Thomasville that distributes bag lunches and food boxes to the community.

In the past 15 years, however, the town of roughly 27,000 people has lost more than 5,000 manufacturing jobs. Companies like century-old Thomasville Furniture Industries, Inc., Duracell, and others downsized, relocated or closed.

Spencer Bakalar

Edward McClatchen gives bags to a family in the poorest apartment complex in Thomasville. "This is the last stop before the streets," says Mike Turner.

From 2007-2010 alone, unemployment spiked from 5.5 to 13.5 percent. Today, with an unemployment rate of 9.1 percent, Thomasville still ranks higher than the state and nationwide averages.
Mike Turner was laid off in 2005 from Thomasville Furniture,  but found factory work in nearby town, much like many of his former co-workers.
"All of those guys were struggling," said Turner. "Some of them didn't even know how to read or write. Furniture was all they knew."

Spencer Bakalar

Edward McClatchen, left, and Mike Turner, right, pray with Frank Hill, center. Frank lives alone, but looks forward to seeing Turner every week. "No matter when I see him, no matter what is happening to him, he is always smiling," said Turner.

The town’s economic hardship has since translated into a hunger problem. It touches those who cannot find work, those who are sick, single-parent households, traditional households, the elderly, and children.
And despite the best efforts of Turner, and other local organizations, sparse food donations, unapproved grants, and inadequate funding have made it difficult to provide enough food for the growing number of needy families.
Changing face of hunger
Terri Nelson has seen a huge increase in the number of people coming to Thomasville’s Fairgrove Family Resource Center: from 50 people a month to more than 1,000 in the decade she has worked there.
"The face of hunger has changed,” she said. “Children are most affected because of the economy. Their parents can't find jobs, and if they do find jobs, they work as hard as they can and never make enough."
It’s a feeling Jennifer Beck Powell knows well. A 34-year-old single mom with four kids, Powell lives in Thomasville, where the grim employment prospects forced her to look elsewhere.
Like Turner, she found another job 10 miles away, in High Point.

Spencer Bakalar

Jennifer takes a break during her shift.

Every morning she wakes up at 4 a.m. to take her children to school so she can arrive at Swaim Furniture on time for her 6 a.m. shift.
At the end of the day, after 11 hours on her feet, she picks up her kids from daycare and goes home to help them with homework and cook. Because Powell often works through her 10-minute lunch break, dinner is the first big meal of the day.

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