Princess Ymir's knightess
Wanted to add something funny before the bitching starts... 
Pro-Freedom Fanatic
There you have it, the fruits of right-wing policy.
You exist because we allow it and you will end because we demand it.
It's official. The Republicans are winning the race to the bottom.
edited 28th Oct '11 3:17:11 PM by TheRichSheik
Byte Me
edited 28th Oct '11 4:04:54 PM by kyfhv
Proud Canadian
I'm so unsurprised it's not even funny.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Well, they are almost entirely responsible.
But look at Scandinvia! They dominate.
Also, Canada is #1 for English speaking countries! Take that Aussies!
edited 28th Oct '11 3:22:30 PM by Erock
If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.
edited 28th Oct '11 4:04:47 PM by kyfhv
Decemberist
Erock:
'Bout time the colonial riff-raff got civilised
^^^ That would actually be really nice.
Joyflower, you are intimidating absolutely no one.
edited 28th Oct '11 3:27:15 PM by Pentadragon
Proud Canadian
If this becomes another bitching post about Republicans then I will make your lives miserable espically you Erock
I didn't start, I'm merely defending other people.
Also, for some prespective: two post-Communsit countries are higher then the U.S.
If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.
Decemberist
Whats there to discuss?
Everyone knows this really isn't news
Dutch Lesbian
Proud Canadian
'Bout time the colonial riff-raff got civilised
That riff-raff has a whole point higher then your country
Diva of Virtual Death
@kyfhv
The thing is that fixing a lot of those problems involves stuff like higher taxes on the rich, more equitable freedoms, better funding for everything, setting living wages as the minimum, putting some services into the public realm that it makes sense to be there, more regulations for businesses to be expected to behave responsibly, and so on... which are all things that Republicans and right-wing folk generally are against and refuse to allow.
edited 28th Oct '11 3:30:54 PM by Jeysie
Apparently I am adorable, but my GF is my #1 Groupie. (Avatar by Dreki-K)
edited 28th Oct '11 4:04:37 PM by kyfhv
Never Ask Me the Odds
@kyhfv: I'm going to say improving our education system has to be the no. 1 way to improve the situation. If you get a good education (I'm not talking just the degree, I'm saying that degree has to really mean something), you should be able to get a good job and improve your standing in life. The way we have it now makes it much harder to get out of poverty if you were born to it - your parents have no money so they buy a cheaper house in a worse school district, so you get a bad primary education and have a hard time getting into a good college or getting merit scholarships, and your parents don't have the money to send you to an expensive school anyway. So you end up with a lousy education and a lack of marketable skills or anything that will make you stand out favorably to an employer, all because of where you grew up.
edited 28th Oct '11 3:35:35 PM by TheGirlWithPointyEars
She of Short Stature & Impeccable Logic My Skating Liveblog
Proud Canadian
It doesn't have to debate soemthing. This is not On-Topic debates. This is On-Topic Conversations.
I'd say the #1 thing to improve is the way companies are run, how they pay their employees, and the obsession with making a big profit at the cost of everything else.
edited 28th Oct '11 3:37:27 PM by Erock
If you don't like a single Frank Ocean song, you have no soul.
I changed accounts.
Surprise level: 0.
I am now known as Flyboy.
Karkadinn
Let us take the complaining about complaining about Republicans and make an inquiry. Given the metrics of the topic, is there any plausible way you can blame this on A) the Democrats or B) argue that apolitical forces are primarily responsible? Alternatively, can you come up with a good reason to object to the source and reject the thread's premise?
Furthermore, I think Guantanamo must be destroyed.
|like a boss|
Do you have any idea how thoroughly against the rules this is?
Reported. Don't make empty threats over the internet, not only does it not work, it's pathetic.
go ahead and do every stupid thing you can imagine
Decemberist
Erock, its annoying though that Canada and not the United Kingdom is the number one country in teh Anglosphere >.>
Dutch Lesbian
Proud Canadian
|like a boss|
The UK has them cameras, though.
Personally I think it was a bipartisan effort to get us where we are now. Whether or not *more* blame lay on one side or the other is perfectly irrelevant, this is just further information telling us what we already know—that we need to get out of where we are now.
go ahead and do every stupid thing you can imagine
Decemberist
Them cameras that mostly privately owned and can't be pointed onto private land?
Dutch Lesbian
I think I speak for all of us when I say, "Well, at least we're slightly better than Greece".
Maybe if we get lucky we'll be able to challenge South Korea or Slovakia in a few years.
When it comes to social justice — defined here as the ability each individual has to participate in the market society, regardless of their social status — the United States ranks near the bottom of 31 developed countries, the Thursday report from Bertelsmann Foundation found.
It's one thing if you live in a market economy where everyone has the same shot at success. It's quite another if fortune favors the fortunate. And the new survey found that when it comes to "equal opportunities for self-realization," the U.S. ranks 27 out of 31 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development member states, well behind not just Northern European countries like Norway and Denmark, but even countries like Hungary, Poland, Italy and France. The only countries whose citizens fare even worse are Greece, Chile, Mexico and Turkey.
The new report comes just a day after the Congressional Budget Office validated another key precept of Occupy protesters: The income gap between the rich and poor in the U.S. grew precipitously from 1979 to 2007, the report found, with the top 1 percent of earners seeing their incomes spike by 275 percent.
The new survey on the developed countries also echoes the findings of OECD's own 2010 report on social mobility, which found that, contrary to America's reputation as the "land of opportunity," it is now much harder to climb the socioeconomic ladder between generations in the U.S. than in many other developed countries.
Chart
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The social justice index measured six indicators of "socially responsible" capitalism. In all of them, the U.S. was ranked in the lower half of the countries examined. It fared particularly poorly in four.
The U.S. was third to last in poverty prevention, trailed only by Chile and Mexico, due to its "alarming" poverty levels. Whereas in Denmark, only 1 in 27 children lives in poverty, for instance, in the United States that rate is above 1 in 5. And as the report puts it: "Under conditions of poverty, social participation and a self-determined life are possible only with great difficulty."
On the health index, the U.S. was ranked 23 out of 31 countries — other countries did much better when it came to providing access to quality health care not simply based on socioeconomic status. And the U.S. infant mortality rate is unusually high, the report found.
When it comes to "intergenerational justice" — a measure of how well or poorly the current generation is doing at passing along problems to the next generation — the U.S. ranked 20 out of 31.
Nineteen of the 31 countries were also ranked higher than the U.S. when it comes to equal access to good-quality education — "another essential factor in providing equitable capabilities and opportunities for advancement," the report said.
The U.S ranked slightly higher on indicators of "social cohesion" and "labor participation."
All in all, the U.S. ranked near Mexico in several indicators. By contrast, Canada was the top performer among the non-European OECD states. "Its high ranking can be attributed to strong results in the areas of education, labor market justice and social cohesion," the report concluded.
Northern European countries led the study in overall rankings, with the report concluding that the "universalist" welfare states there are "most capable of providing equal opportunities for self-realization within their respective societies."
edited 28th Oct '11 3:14:34 PM by Pentadragon