U.S. Ranks Dead Last In Overall Social Spending

No doubt we are at the top of the list when it comes to military spending. Something to be proud of ---- NOT.

Taxes in the United States are lower than they have been at any time since the 1950′s.

At the same time the United States spends more on its Department of Defense each and every year than all of the money every single other developed industrial nations COMBINED in the world spend on all of their military armed forces PUT TOGETHER.

If we slash the budget for the DOD to 5% (1/20) of what we currently presently spend,

(We would still quite easily be more than capable to have an maintain what is an would continue to be by far and away the most technologically advanced and best trained armed fighting force in the known recorded history of our developed and industrialized western civilization) and at the same time restore tax rates to where they were they were in the mid-1950′s and early 60′s (taxes did not start to plummet until the 1970′s).

We would have enough tax revenue, and enough of an annual budget surplus that we would not have to worry about not having enough money for the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services.

(That is, until the 2050′s or 2060′s at the very least)

The public Educational system in this nation, as first proposed by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson at the turn of the 19th Century, is the very definition of a successful government program, by far and away the most successful in the history of the United States of America.

The only reason that the rest of the countries in the industrialized developed world routinely beat the snot out of us to a bloody pulp on a predictably regular basis in every single last quantifiable measurement of academic proficiency is that each and every last one of the governments (SOCIALIST DEMOCRACIES, I might add) of the nations in the Western developed “civilized” world spends significantly substantially, exponentially more on their public educational systems than we ever have, And it’s for no other reason because their governments have more money to spend on such things as their Education and Health and Human Services systems Because the taxes that the citizens in those Western developed nations pay to their government are what tax rates in the Unites states were back at the end of the Second World War.

The unavoidable conclusion being that the difference between the worlds BEST public educational system.

(Those in the Socialist Democracies of Northern and Western Europe [Greenland, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark all have literacy rates between 75% in Denmark and 100% in Iceland])

And the failing public educational system (which is not next-to-last, but is instead rather DEAD LAST according to every single last quantifiable measure of academic achievement and proficiency) is precisely the exact same thing that makes the difference in every other sector of our society, MONEY.

More specifically, the revenue generated by higher tax rates paid by citizens to their government.

Just as an example of what it is that I am talking about:

For one-fourth of the annual budget appropriation allocated each year for the Department of Defense at the Pentagon, we could eliminate university tuition and provide free college education to every high school graduate incoming freshmen for a number of several decades.

This is not making an apples to apples comparison. The figures for the US are looking at 'top line' federal spending and not including the various separate funding streams or state, county, and local benefits. Other countries don't have nearly the amount of separate income streams as the US does, and are thus all inclusive (much more efficient that way).

7.2% of GDP is $1,052,640,000,000 yet outlays for Social Security of $641,540,609,916 in 2010 and Medicare of $458,273,721,511 alone add up to more than that number.

But we are number 1 in PIGS!

Ahhh numbers. Thank you.

good stuff

We all know the real cause of the deficit problem is not unbridled spending (except perhaps the military budget), it is the lack of revenue being generated by continued reduction in taxes, subsidies, and write offs to the large corporations and top 2% in our country..

the SOCIALIST nations of Northern, Central, and Western Europe are, on a regular basis, roundly trouncing the United States of America in every measurable qualification of economic, social, and governmental success

The United Kingdom of Great Britain, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway

just to name a few of the many more

if you combine the populations of every single nation in all of Western Europe, you would arrive at a number approximately comparable to the current present population of the United States of America

The number of gun-related deaths in western Europe each year can be measured in the thousands
the same number in the United States is measured in the HUNDREDS of thousands, if not the millions
The same basic rule applies in every conceivable measure of the strength, health, and well-being of a society anyone can think of, from math and science education to disease, from teen pregnancy to drug and alcohol abuse, from literacy to higher education admissions and graduations

The disagreements and arguments that we have in this country over subjects such as the so-called quote-en-quote “War on Drugs”, Equal Rights for Homosexual individual, female’s reproductive rights to the freedom of choice,

not to mention, to say nothing of, by far and away above and beyond all others the uniquely and quintessentially American contrivance of the mass-delusion known as “Intelligent Design”, which is widely considered to be the punch-line to many a very quite humorous and funny joke and practical prank in most, if not all, other parts of the English-speaking world.

The lack of unity and hypocrisy that we as Americans display publicly on these issues, among many, many others, utterly confounds and mystifies most of the rest of the developed industrialized world, as most, if not all, of the most successful and prosperous nations in the world have already long-since resolved any and all such trivial and ultimately utterly meaningless deliberations
the fact that we have not flabbergasts and astounds most of the people of Western Europe in particular

WHY?

Because they have social systems, such as those for education and health care, which prevent any such conflicts from ever having arisen anywhere in their respective nations

and they predictably beat us to a pulp on a pretty regular basis in every single last quantifiable measurement of success and prosperity.

with any proper education beyond an Elementary School level, the question of “does evolution occur in the natural world, becomes childish

and yet we here in America have significantly substantial fractions and percentages of our young people “graduating” from Twelfth-Grade High Schools all over throughout our country who are utterly incapable of knowing how to read or write their own names

In any adequate health care system, the issue of whether or not a woman should have the right to decide whether or not to have children she does not want should never even exist

yet in the right here in the good-old US of A we have Medical doctored murdered and assassinated (shot) on a depressingly regular and disturbingly predictable basis, of about one every ten years or so, who are killed BECAUSE they are ready, willing and able to perform a fairly uncomplicated, efficient and expedient medical procedure which has been, and is (for the present moment, at the very lest, still perfectly legal under the code of law that govern this country and we have a whole entire multi-media corporate conglomerate empire which is solely and sincerely dedicated in its entirety to lionizing the individuals who carry out these brutal slayings as “true American Heroes”

Is it, indeed, any wonder that the nations of the English-speaking world, and of Western Europe in particular, look upon the United States of America, the origin, birthplace, and cradle of modern democracy as we know it, as a global worldwide pariah, desperately lacking in even the most basic of societal infrastructure, and sorely trailing distantly far behind the rest of its global competitors throughout the globe in ever conceivable measurable standard of development and social sustainability?

Why is it, then, when the vast majority of the most successful and prosperous nation in the world are sustainably societally strong SOCIALIST Democracies, with societal infrastructure far superior to any the Americas has ever devised, that there is an entire corporate media conglomeration ([the so-called, quote en quote Republican "Tea Party" GOP and its Public Relations division, the Australian-billionaire and Saudi-Prince own Faux "News network]) wholly devoted and committed to the singular purpose turning the word “Socialist” into something approaching an unutterable curse?

Just more proof that we're being taken over by Socialists! GAH! When will you people see these signs!!!

*resumes watching Glenn Beck* *drools on lapel*

you think we could not get much worse but the gop will do there damn-est to do just thank

Shewww... I had to go through 2 websites to find out OECD is:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

With a graph of social spending against military spending, it ought to make a shockingly good image...

The fact that the US ranks last in Social Spending is not by accident, it's by design..Republicans primary goals, dating as far back as Ronald Reagan, were to abolish most or all Social Programs, and cut taxes for the Rich...

Yet we're #1 in military expenditures

Rank Country Military expenditure, 2010[2] % of GDP, 2009

1 United States 687,105,000,000 4.7%

2 People's Republic of China 114,300,000,000 2.2%
3 France 61,285,000,000 2.5%
4 United Kingdom 57,424,000,000 2.7%
5 Russia 52,586,000,000 4.3%
6 Japan 51,420,000,000 1.0%
7 Germany 46,848,000,000 1.4%
8 Saudi Arabia 42,917,000,000 11.2%
9 Italy 38,198,000,000 1.8%
10 India 34,816,000,000 2.8%
11 Brazil 28,096,000,000 1.6%
12 South Korea 24,270,000,000 2.9%
13 Canada 20,164,000,000 1.5%
14 Australia 19,799,000,000 1.9%
15 Spain 15,803,000,000 1.1%

Great post !

Blame the right-wing Republicans because they just HATE social services. They do not want their taxes helping the less fortunate, especially since they believe this is mostly minorities including women and children. If one believes in helping others then the Republicans call him or her a Socialist.

The US spends less on social programs than socialistic countries. Go figure! Was someone paid to do this research? Next they will research the sun sets in the west.

swindled by Goldman-Sachs and the like... BenjaminDover, Greece Portugal and Spain were not the only ones.... They also ransacked our economy as well... Hmmmm I wonder what religion the folks at Goldman-Sachs practice???

The only problem with Greece, Portugal,Spain and the rest is they were swindled by Goldman-Sachs and the like, then bond traders decided that if they could crash the economies of these countries they could make money on the deals. Fucking banksters playing masters of the universe, destroying the social contracts of sovereign nations and our allies.
I've got a shovel and I know how to use it, let's put these banksters in their place.
End the Plutocracy!

This need to be shoved into the faces of Every Republican Mafia Member and their Masters, as well as force fed, with size 900 needles, if needed, into every member of Tea Baggers skulls.

I am going out on a limb here bundlebear... Throwing in the Old SP pun on words... "Pundints!!!!" Had to get that out!!!! =)