Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 1 (Reporters Zhu Ruiqing, Sun Ding, Xiong Maoling) A report jointly released by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and other institutions shows that in the ranking of the sustainable development index based on a series of indicators such as poverty rate, hunger rate, equality, and health, the United States dropped from 32 last year to 41st this year, ranking behind Cuba .
This is the Capitol building taken on November 19, 2021 in Washington, USA. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Shen Ting)
This is another investigation report reflecting that "the United States is sick". A series of data and reports show that the average life expectancy in the United States is shortened, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, and racism is becoming increasingly fierce. At the same time, gun violence is increasing and military spending is rising. A set of data exposed the failures of the US government in social development and national governance, and the root cause of the problem lies in the institutional decline of " American democracy ".
People's livelihood has declined
"We have had enough!" Since June this year, people from all over the United States have gathered near the Capitol in Washington in the scorching sun, protesting a series of social problems such as racial discrimination and economic injustice. In an interview with Xinhua News Agency reporters, African-American Adriana Gaimon said that racism is becoming more and more serious in the United States under the epidemic, which has led to increasingly serious economic injustice. New York Retired teacher Gloria Brandman said that the rich "take advantage of loopholes" in the tax system, but the poor cannot even afford medical insurance. They can only bear it after being infected with the new coronavirus. "Such inequality has always existed in the United States."
The 2022 "Edelman Trust Barometer" released by Edelman, an international public relations consulting company, shows that the American people's trust in the government is 43, a decrease of 5 points compared with last year. Since 2017, the U.S. index has fallen by 10 points.
Where does the people’s trust in the government come from? The government responds to the people's concerns such as health, development, and safety in a timely manner, and creates a fair and just social environment for the people. However, a large number of facts have proved that the US government is seriously absent and misplaced in these aspects.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US government has slowed down and politicians have turned the blame, resulting in a tragedy of millions of people killed. A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the end of August this year showed that the average life expectancy in the United States dropped by nearly one year in 2021, the lowest level since 1996. The primary reason for this situation is the new crown epidemic. Experts believe that the failure of the United States to fight the epidemic is not accidental. In addition to the reasons why the US government's epidemic prevention policy only focuses on economic interests and ignores people's lives, Phil Landregan, a Boston College epidemiologist, said that the United States systematically neglects public health over the past 30 or 40 years, which ultimately caused this situation.
This is a refrigerated truck that stores the remains of new crown patients in a temporary morgue photographed on September 6, 2021 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Photo by Wang Ying, Xinhua News Agency reporter
In terms of people's livelihood, wealth is constantly concentrated in the hands of a few people, and the rich are richer and the poor are poorer. A report released by the American Diplomacy Society in April this year shows that income and wealth inequality in the United States is almost higher than that of any other developed country, and this trend is intensifying. Between 1978 and 2018, the average salary of U.S. corporate CEOs grew by more than 900%, while the average worker income increased by only 11.9%. A Pew Research Center report also pointed out that income inequality in the United States has continued to intensify since the 1980s. In 1980, the income of the top 10% of households in the United States was about 9.1 times the income of the bottom 10% of households, and by 2018, this ratio expanded to 12.6 times.
On the issue of race, the contradictions are also intensifying. A survey released last year by the Institute of Others and Belonging at the University of California, Berkeley showed that in 2019, more than 80% of metropolitan areas in the United States were more severe than in 1990. For example, 80% of the residents in the urban area of Detroit are African descent, while 90% of the residents in Gross Point, a suburb near the city, are white. Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn, minorities such as Africans have become more vulnerable groups. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that the epidemic has reduced the average life expectancy of African Americans by 2.7 years to 72 years, the lowest level since 2001, with the largest decline among all ethnic groups.
violent growth
On July 14 this year, in Austin, Texas, USA, 52 yellow school buses formed a 1.6-kilometer long spear-shaped convoy, heading towards the office of Republican Senator Ted Cruz. The empty seats on the school bus represent more than 4,000 children killed in U.S. shootings since 2020. According to US media reports, Cruz received more than $700,000 in funding from the National Rifle Association and is considered the spokesperson for the gun-owning group. Manuel Oliver, organizer of the protest, said. "It's time to put children before money."
As people's livelihood data continues to decline, the survey report shows that gun violence in the United States is increasingly rampant, military spending is rising steadily, and the United States is moving further and further on the road of violence.
On May 26, 2022, in Yuvaldi, southern Texas, the United States, people mourned the victims of the shooting. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Xiaoling
In terms of gun control, no matter how many innocent lives are lost, American politicians cannot introduce any substantial measures. According to the poll results recently released by the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago and the Associated Press Center for Public Affairs Research, on average, 2 out of every 10 Americans have experienced gun violence in person or people around them have experienced gun violence. A report released by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Violence Solutions in April this year pointed out that 2020 was the year with the highest number of gun-related deaths in the United States, up 15% year-on-year to 45,222, the highest record since the statistics were found in 1968. This means that on average about 124 people die from gun violence every day.
The United States is the world's number one military power, and its military expenditure has long been ranked first in the world. According to statistics from Germany's Statista Survey Company, US military spending has continued to rise since 2015, reaching US$742 billion in 2021. This figure is expected to rise to $998 billion by 2032. In the global arms sales report released by the Stockholm International Peace Institute in Sweden every year, the U.S. arms exports also rank high. Although global arms trading volume fell by 4.6% from 2017 to 2021 compared with 2012 to 2016, the U.S. arms exports increased by 14% during the same period, and its global share rose from 32% to 39%.
think tank US Progress Research Center once published an article pointing out that the U.S. government needs to understand that no matter how much military expenditure is increased, it cannot buy perfect national security, and the increase in military expenditure will always come at the cost of a relative reduction in expenditure in other areas. The U.S. government should provide more funding to improve the aging infrastructure in the U.S.
Why did the United States go all the way to the blackness on the road to military power? Franklin Spinney, a former Ukrainian official, revealed the truth through the Ukrainian crisis: the US military industry has made a lot of money because of this. Brown University released a report last September stating that since the start of the Afghan War in 2001, the total expenditure of the Pentagon has exceeded US$14 trillion, with one-third to one-half of which goes to military contractors.
"American Democracy" collapsed
In August this year, after former US President Trump was raided by the FBI , the Democratic and Republican parties and supporters of both sides confronted fiercely, and even violent incidents against the FBI occurred. The "civil war" became a hot word on the American social network for a time. The website of the American magazine National Interest said: "A lot of signs indicate that American democracy is in danger."
People's livelihood decline, social torn, and gun violence is rampant, and the drawbacks of "American democracy" are fully exposed. Even in the eyes of Western allies and American people, the United States' "democratic image" has been overshadowed. The International Association for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, located in , Sweden, , released a report in 2021, listing the United States as a "country of regression in democracy."
This is the FBI headquarters shot in Washington, USA on August 15, 2022. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Jie
The collapse of "American democracy" is reflected in the political level, which is endless party struggles and tear.The confrontation between the Democratic and Republican parties over a series of issues such as gun control, abortion, and immigration is becoming increasingly intensified, and supporters from both sides are increasingly unable to tolerate each other. The Capitol Hill riots that occurred at the time of the US government's change in early 2021 were the consequences of the serious intensification of conflicts between the two parties, and were called a symbol of the "pathological democracy" in the United States by the French website of Le Monde.
"For Western countries, intensifying social differences should be a wake-up call... Democratic systems can provide cover for social differences and make them a tool for some people to seek political interests, just as it has happened in the United States and elsewhere in recent years." American University professor Amitav Acharia pointed out in the journal Diplomacy.
American writer Mark Fisher even believes that the country is at the closest state to the brink of civil war since the Civil War.
" Washington Post " columnist Max Butt wrote disappointedly: "We have lived in a backward democracy...we seem to be sleepwalking towards disaster."
