Everyone always is impressed when someone accomplishes that coveted award or title of Number One—Numero Uno, which defines the epitome of accomplishment. For many years the USA stood proud at the Olympics, taking home more gold medals than any country. The USA many times has had the honor of being number one in many more categories. However, in recent years, Old Glory may be somewhat embarrassed by many of the Number One spots USA statistics has had her flying in. Let’s take a closer look to see where we shine as Number One.
First and foremost, it seems that the USA quickly is becoming a police-controlled population or state. That dubious recognition is attained from incarceration statistics, which certainly are not enviable. Back in October of 2012, Salon featured the article “US has more prisoners, prisons than any other country.” [1] According to the International Centre for Prison Studies, the USA had 730 incarcerated persons for every 100,000 in population. We ‘towered’ over the second-best rival, the Czech Republic, which had slightly over 200 incarcerations per 100,000 population. The USA outshined Mexico for Numero Uno; Mexico’s rate was 200 per 100,000.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, [2, 3] the USA was Number One in arms deliveries to the world by supplier for the years 1999 through 2006 inclusive. Taxpayers forked over a grand sum totaling $107,672 Millions of constant 2006 U.S. dollars. The USA outshined and outspent its nearest contender, Russia, several times over, since Russia ponied up a measly $38,754 Millions of constant 2006 U.S. dollars. Was that money well spent? Who knows, since it represents what many consider the Republican “Bush-2” war horse machine that got us into inextricable military action. But, it did get us to be Numero Uno!
Probably where the USA ‘shines’ the brightest as Number One is in healthcare statistics. No one beats us in many of the various aspects of those statistics. Let’s see how well we do there.
Regarding percentage of Gross Domestic Production (GDP) spent on healthcare, the USA outranks every country as of 2007 data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) with a whopping 15.3%. Next is Switzerland with 11.6%; then Germany at 10.7%; the United Kingdom at 8.3%; and Japan at 8% — almost half the U.S. GDP. [4] Notation ought to be made that the U.S. Congressional Budget Office projects that total U.S. healthcare spending will reach 31% of GDP by 2035. [5]
Now, let’s compare what we are getting for our GDP outlay as a return on longevity or life expectancy at birth and compared with:
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Lucas 2012 Infos 