That's in part because the quality of life is better in the ten countries above us. See the rankings here.
Let's not fail to notice that most of the countries in the top ten on this list have a much stronger socialist element than the U.S. has; they have a communitarian ethos rather than an individualistic one. Just saying.
Kevin Lewis has a weekly space in the "Ideas" section of the Boston Sunday Globe in which he provides a compendium of recent "surprising insights" from research in the social sciences. In today's selection, he includes the following:
The phenomenon of helicopter parenting — being over-protective and over-involved in the lives of one’s children — has gotten plenty of attention from talk shows. Nevertheless, there hasn’t been much research on its consequences. Now, we have a study. Several hundred college students were asked how much they agreed with statements like “My parents supervised my every move growing up” and “It was very important to my parents that I never fail in life.” Students who reported more agreement with these kinds of statements also reported significantly less psychological well-being, and reported using significantly more medication for psychological reasons.
LeMoyne, T. & Buchanan, T., “Does ‘Hovering’ Matter? Helicopter Parenting and Its Effect on Well-Being,” Sociological Spectrum (July/August 2011).
Note to parents: back off. Here's more on that subject.
You have to be comatose to be unaware of the grotesque income inequality that prevails in contemporary America. Take a look at the disturbing data (here and here), documenting the extent of the inequality and the rate of change over time.
This insanity was brought home powerfully to those of us in the Boston area this week when Wednesday's Boston Globe carried a front-page article detailing the $8.6 million in compensation that Blue Cross / Blue Shield of Massachusetts paid in 2010 to Cleve Killingsworth, the chief executive officer of the non-profit organization who resigned abruptly in the Spring of 2010 at the urging of the board. This was after BC/BS posted back-to-back operating losses in 2009 and 2010 totaling $215 million.
What is wrong with this country? What is wrong with Blue Cross? Are we really supposed to believe that it takes compensation at that level to find a competent executive to lead this organization? That's absurd.
Moreover, the gap between the top 1% and everyone else hasn't been this bad since the Roaring Twenties.
Go to this article in Business Insider, containing this and fourteen other graphs about the dramatically worsening wealth gap in America.
(h/t Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars)
The Onion offers a visual take at the situation.
