Shenali D Waduge

 While corporate America via think tanks, lobbies and promoted through media get their installed leaders to declare wars, start conflicts, manufacture & sell arms to both sides and then encircle, invade or occupy nations in bids to further acquire profit and expand imperial domination, the mighty nation of America is crumbling apart. By the time corporate America gets to the end-station China apart from the foot soldiers created via evangelical cults Americans would be too impoverished, sedated, suicidal, obese and lack any sense of patriotism to defend their nation. A closer look at the statistics foretell a very gloomy story for America and partner nations in Europe too.

Americans may like to believe that the rest of the world looks up to America, but in fact the rest of the world is laughing at America. Americans are today physically, mentally, emotionally, morally & ethically, financially and politically defunct. If they are not addicted to food, they are addicted to shopping via credit card, tv, prescription drugs. All these added with time is like a time-bomb with values crumbling, traditions being replaced by new liberal experiments which have created a deteriorated American society.

Some alarming statistics

The corporates have found it lucrative to make Americans ill because money is generated for them via pharmaceutical industry / health care facilities & prisons!

American health

• More than one-third (34.9% or 78.6 million) of U.S. adults are obese. This number is said to go up to 42% by 2030. In 1962 only 13% Americans were obese.
• Medical costs related to obesity annually is $147billion & likely to rise.

Mental illness

• 7 million adults suffered some sort of mental illness in 2012
• An estimated 13 million American adults (approximately 1 in 17) have a seriously debilitating mental illness
• An estimated 2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older or about one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.
• 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18% of the population suffer anxiety disorder (Anxiety disorders cost the U.S. more than $42 billion a year, almost one-third of the country’s $148 billion total mental health bill)
• 7 million, 3.5% suffer post traumatic disorders

Suicides

• suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for the deaths of approximately 30,000 Americans each year
• Suicide rates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth and adults in the U.S. are three times higher than national averages
• The economic cost of suicide death in the U.S. was estimated in 2010 to be more than $44 billion annually.
• show that at least 90% of teens who kill themselves have some type of mental health problem, such as depression, anxiety, drug or alcohol abuse, or a behavior problem

American children: 4million US children suffer some sort of anxiety disorder.

• Approximately 50% of students age 14 and older who are living with a mental illness drop out of high school
• Children aged 3-17 years currently had:
• ADHD (6.8%)
• Behavioral or conduct problems (3.5%)
• Anxiety (3.0%)
• Depression (2.1%)
• Autism spectrum disorders (1.1%)
• Tourette syndrome (0.2%) (among children aged 6–17 years)
• Adolescents aged 12–17 years had:
• Illicit drug use disorder in the past year (4.7%)
• Alcohol use disorder in the past year (4.2%)
• Cigarette dependence in the past month (2.8%)

What’s Causing the Rise in Mental Health Disorders

Toxic exposures: (Including agricultural chemicals; air and water pollutants; chemicals in personal care and household products; excessive vaccinations; heavy metals; prescription drugs, and more) research from 2009 discovered that infants who lived in homes with vinyl floors were twice as likely to have autism five years later, compared to those with wood or linoleum flooring. Vinyl floors can emit chemicals called phthalates, which are widely used plastic softeners found in much more than just vinyl flooring.

Hairsprays, perfumes, cosmetics, toys, shower curtains, wood finishers, lubricants, certain medical devices and more all contain phthalates. Researchers have suggested the chemicals may contribute to autism by disrupting hormones not only in small children but also in the womb. Mercury pollution is widespread from the burning of fossil fuels, but the use of thimerosal-containing vaccines and dental amalgams—both of which contain mercury—also cannot be overlooked as major sources of individual exposure to this neurotoxin. Electromagnetic fields (EMF): These come not only from cell phones and cordless phones, but also from electrical outlets and Wi-Fi. Cultured or fermented foods have always been highly prized for their health benefits, which we now understand is linked to their probiotics content. The advent of processed foods dramatically altered the human diet, and we’re now reaping the results in the form of rapidly rising chronic health problems.

American veterans

• There are 2 million veterans
• Suicides are surging among America’s troops, averaging nearly one a day
• More than 6,800 troops have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11 and more than 3,000 additional service members have taken their lives in that same time
• US drugging its military – The military spent at least $2.7 billion on antidepressants alone in the decade after 9/11,
• Patients treated by Veteran Affairs dept was up 29 %, narcotics prescriptions were up 259 %
• between 2009 and 2013, the Defense department increased its number of therapists by 43 percent, to 9,425
• June 2010 internal report by the DOD’s Pharmacoeconomic Center said 213,972, or 20 percent of the 1.1 million active-duty troops surveyed, were taking some form of psychotropic drug — antidepressants, antipsychotics, sedative hypnotics or other controlled substances
• as many as 900 narcotic pain pills a month and 1,000 milligrams of morphine a day, which is 10 times the level she believed was safe. (Dr. Basimah Khulusi)
• after the deployment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the volume of drugs prescribed by doctors of the medical service of the department for veterans’ affairs, has grown by 270 % 

Education / Knowledge

• Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States – a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day.
• About 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school
• S., which had some of the highest graduation rates of any developed country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries
• Almost 2,000 high schools across the U.S. graduate less than 60% of their students.
• In the U.S., high school dropouts commit about 75% of crimes
• When NEWSWEEK recently asked 1,000 U.S. citizens to take America’s official citizenship test, 29 percent couldn’t name the vice president
• Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.

Employment & Poverty

• Americans aged 16 and older not participating in the labor force hit 92,898,000 in
• in January 2009, there were 80,529,000 Americans who were not participating in the workforce, which means that 12,369,000 US citizens have left the workforce
• More than one-third of the U.S. workforce is aged 18 to 34.
• 40% of America’s workforce will be freelancers by 2020 (more than 60million)
• Between 2009 and 2012, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of temporary employees rose by 29%. A survey of the 200 largest companies found that temporary workers represented, on average, 22% of their workforce
• Of the 46.5 million Americans living in poverty, 20.4 million live under half the poverty line. millions of Americans live on less than $2 a day.
• A crude comparison of Shaefer and Edin’s estimates with the World Bank’s official $2 a day poverty estimates for developing economies would place the United States level with or behind a large set of countries, including Russia (0.1 percent), the West Bank and Gaza (0.3 percent), Jordan (1.6 percent), Albania (1.7 percent), urban Argentina (1.9 percent), urban China (3.5 percent), and Thailand (4.1 percent). Many of these countries are recipients of American foreign aid.

American law & order

• 1,163,146 violent crimes / 8,632,512 property crimes (2013)
• 3million prisoners costs around $32,000 per inmate per year

American lifestyle

• An average American family purchases 200pounds of meat per individual each year
• Average American watches 28hours of television each week (but doesn’t know what is happening in the world!)
• US corporations sell more fast food & soda than anywhere else in the world
• Average American drinks more than 600sodas a year.
• Americans take more prescription drugs than anywhere else in the world
• US has the highest number of illegal drug use – In 2013, an estimated 24.6 million Americans aged 12 or older—9.4 percent of the population—had used an illicit drug
• Only 51% of Americans above 18 are married (Pew Research) in 1960 it was 72%
• America has the highest divorce rate in the world. Singles now outnumber married people in America. About 50.2 percent — or 124.6 million American adults — are single. about 40 to 50 percent of married couples in the United States divorce
• 1 out of 4 teen girls in the US has at least one sexually transmitted disease.
• US has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the world! 750,000 a year! percent of all high school age students, and 62 percent of high school seniors, have had sexual intercourse; almost nine million teens have already had sex
• US has the highest child abuse death rate in the world!
• US produced more pornography than any other nation in the world! The financial cost to business productivity in the U.S. alone is estimated at $16.9 Billion annually. 40 million American people regularly visit porn sites. 25% of all search engine queries are related to pornography, or about 68 million search queries a day. About 200,000 Americans are porn addicts”. According to National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, 2010, 47% of families in the United States reported that pornography is a problem in their home. 68% of divorce cases involve one party meeting a new paramour over the internet while 56% involve one party having an obsessive interest” in pornographic websites^xv
• Consumer debt in America increased by 1700% since 1971. In total, American consumers owe: $11.85 trillion in debt.
• US has the highest credit card debt – Average credit card debt: $15,706. Total credit card debt – $890.9 billion
• US has the highest mortgage debt in the world – Average mortgage debt: $156,333. Total mortgage debt $8.17 trillion
• US has the highest student loan debt in the world – Average student loan debt: $32,953. Total student loan debt – $1.19 trillion
• US has the highest plastic surgery rate in the world!
• one-third of American children – a total of 15 million – are being raised without a father. Nearly five million more children live without a mother. While married couples with children enjoy an average income of $80,000, single mothers average only $24,000. While married couples with children enjoy an average income of $80,000, single mothers average only $24,000.

Exactly how rich are the Top 1%?

Table 1: Income, net worth, and financial worth in the U.S. by percentile, in 2010 dollars

Wealth or income class	Mean household income	Mean household net worth	Mean household financial (non-home) wealth
Top 1 percent	$1,318,200	$16,439,400	$15,171,600
Top 20 percent	$226,200	$2,061,600	$1,719,800
60th-80th percentile	$72,000	$216,900	$100,700
40th-60th percentile	$41,700	$61,000	$12,200
Bottom 40 percent	$17,300	-$10,600	-$14,800

From Wolff (2012); only mean figures are available, not medians.  Note that income and wealth are separate measures; so, for example, the top 1% of income-earners is not exactly the same group of people as the top 1% of wealth-holders, although there is considerable overlap.

• The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent

Taking these stats it is obvious that the nation is completely in a total mess while corporate media shows a total different picture. Whether America is ruled by its people or corporates is a good question to ask and the solutions can be found in the manner the declining American society has become a means of revenue for American corporates!

Matt Bruenig at The American Prospect did the calculations and determined it would take $173.5 billion to bring those Americans just above the official poverty line. US corporations only paid 13% of their profits in the Federal corporate income tax. US spends $550 Billion towards alleviating poverty but how come Americans are so poor? If you take the figures of the companies that profits from the manufacture and sale of arms and the sub-business they make people will be shocked….there is much kept hidden from the ordinary American people today subject to various laws on the pretext of protecting them when in reality these laws are brought to control the American people once they find out the truth!

So you really must wonder where Americans is likely to be when they do encircle China! While China is steadily building up its nation partnering development with neighbors America’s gun-ho attitude on the one hand does not compliment the dwindling status of people values/mentality/physical and social conditions!

Let’s call it NEMESIS… KARMA in action.

Shenali D Waduge

Sources:

American Foundation for Suicides

National Institute of Mental Health

Anxiety Disorders Association

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

World Hunger

Crime in America

American civil liberties union