| freedquaker said: For the last 20-30 years, things have changed big time. Just look at any economic statistics, US has started to lag severely. The wage rates are trailing, inequality is on the rise, health care system is shattering, and the education quality is suffering, not to mention the decades old infra structure. Just take a look at the following statistics and you'd be hard-pressed to believe that this is supposedly the leading country in the world! http://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/CN%20-%20United%20States.pdf |
You forgot to mention things at which the U.S excels though. Cost of living and marginal cost of living are much lower than other first-world countries. Economic mobility is at an all time high.
The link you posted shows the U.S. is above the OECD average in practically everything.
Some interesting quotes in your link:
"At the same time, the payoff for obtaining a higher education degree is much higher in the U.S. than in most OECD countries.
For example, over the course of his working life, a tertiary - educated man in the U.S. can expect to earn almost USD 675 000 more than a man with no more than an upper secondary or postsecondary non-tertiary education–far more than in any other country.
Meanwhile, a woman with tertiary education in the U.S. can expect to earn almost USD 390 000 more on average, an amount approached only by tertiary-educated women in Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom
Over the last decade, the earnings advantage of tertiary graduates over high school graduates has increased in the U.S.from 181% to 184% among men and from 169% to 175% among women . All told, the net present value of obtaining a higher education –that is, the long term economic benefits, minus the associated costs – is almost USD 330 000 for a man in the U.S. and more than USD 168 000 for a woman. Only in Portugal is this amount higher"
"Overall, the net public return in the U.S. amounts to USD 232 779 for each tertiary - educated man, and USD 84 313 for each tertiary-educated woman. For men, this public return is higher than in every country but Hungary; for women, it is the 7th-highest return among OECD countries"
And that is without conisdering non-economic factors to quality of life that should be considered.
