Being No. 1 in the World
U.S. leaders tell us that we got to be Number 1 in the world. The historic belief in American exceptionalism–we are different than other nations and should lead the world–fuels such sloganeering.
OK, Number 1 in what? Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? We are. On Americans having more guns than citizens in other nations? We are. On obesity? We are. Obviously, the goal of being no. 1 depends upon which race you compete in.
Columnist Fareed Zakaria recently summed up the U.S.’s rank in global races.
“According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), our 15-year-olds rank 17th in the world in science and 25th in math. We rank 12th among developed countries in college graduation (down from No. 1 for decades). We come in 79th in elementary-school enrollment. Our infrastructure is ranked 23rd in
