USA: We're Number One

• We have the highest incarceration rate on the planet. With a record-setting 2 million people locked up in American jails and prisons, the United States has overtaken Russia and has a higher percentage of its citizens behind bars than any other country. That's one way to keep unemployment rates low.
• We are the only industrialized country that has not abolished the death penalty. Click here to see which other countries still support state-sanctioned killing.
• We have the highest firearm death rate of all industrialized countries. "The U.S. leads the industrial world in gun suicides, murders, and accidents," says David Hemenway of the Harvard School of Public Health. That's a healthy indicator for the National Rifle Association.
• We have the most expensive health care system in the world, spending $4178 per person in 1998. Our closest competitor, Sweden, spent $2794 per person that year. However, except for South Africa, the US is the only nation in the developed world that does not provide health insurance to all it's citizens. Further, in spite of all the money we spend,
• We have the highest infant mortality rate of all industrialized nations. Babies born in Taiwan, Cuba, South Korea, Liechtenstein, the Czech Republic, and Hong Kong have a better chance of living to their first birthday than babies born in the United States of America. You can see how the world stacks up here.