15 ways America is less than great
America's bridges, roads, and dams are in bad shape. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the US needs $3.6 trillion in infrastructure investment by the end of the decade, and the highest score they gave on their most recent infrastructure report card was a B+. Ten of the sixteen categories received a grade of D or D-.
Despite the bad state of our infrastructure, public spending on construction has been down since the financial crisis.
America continues to struggle on international tests of high school student achievement. American 15 year olds had the 17th highest average reading scores among the 34 OECD nations in the 2012 PISA international examination.
In science, US students fared worse, coming in 20th among the 34 OECD nations.
And in math, American 15 year olds performed even worse, coming in at just 27th best.
Education costs are also rising, with the real average cost of a year of college, including tuition, fees, room, and board, more than doubling since the 1970s. That rising cost of college pushes the American Dream out of reach for many.
Because of a combination of an aging population and residual effects from the financial crisis and Great Recession, a smaller percentage of Americans are working or looking for work than at any time since 1977.
The United States has become more unequal over time. The Gini Index, a commonly used measure of income inequality among households, has steadily risen since the late 1960s.
For more on the Gini Index, click here.
America's income distribution is more unequal than that of other countries, as can be seen in this chart of Gini indexes of post-tax income for the OECD countries and Russia.
The top 1% have taken an ever larger percentage of America's income since the 1980s, and their income share is now at levels not seen since the 1920s.
A big driver of rising inequality in the last few decades is the divergence in real incomes for those at the top and everyone else. While the top 0.01% has seen huge income gains since 1980, wages for the bottom 90% have remained flat.
America is also more violent than its peers, with the fourth highest homicide rate among the OECD nations.
America also has some health problems. The US is tied with Chile for the 8th lowest life expectancy at birth among OECD nations.
America has the highest obesity rate among the OECD nations.
We pay a lot for these less than ideal health outcomes. The United States has by far the highest per capita health care spending in the OECD.
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