USA is world's best country

It seems as though his case rests upon healthcare, education, and freedom. I will address these points in my contentions. C1) The United States has the Best Healthcare Most comparisons of healthcare generally rely upon flawed measurements such as life expectancy. Life expectancy is something unrelated to the healthcare system. Race, for whatever reasons, is related to life expectancy. African Americans have a much lower life expectancy whites, Hispanics, and Asians—with Asians and Hispanics living the longest. In Europe, with a predominantly white population, they do not have African Americans and American Indians reducing the average—and no, I am not arguing against multiculturalism. Geography also seems to affect life expectancy, as it varies across the US. A better way to measure the quality if US healthcare is to measure different outcomes with direct links to treatment. A good example of our healthcare system succeeding is breast cancer treatment, “in New Zealand and the United Kingdom nearly half of all women diagnosed with breast cancer die of the disease. In Germany and France, almost one in three dies of the disease. By contrast, in the United States only one in four women diagnosed with breast cancer dies of the disease. ” [1. . http://www.cato.org...] Measures to improve US healthcare by nationalizing it—similar to Europe—will inevitably lead to a decrease in health outcomes. Medicare, government insurance for the old, is universal to those who reach a certain age but offers worse healthcare. “Colonoscopy is a procedure that screens for colon cancer and can prevent such cancer from occurring by removing precancerous polyps. Although colonoscopies were widely accepted and practiced by the late 1980s, Medicare did not give every beneficiary access to one until 2001. ” [2. . http://www.nationalcenter.org...] A recent review of the literature has concluded “the U. S. health care system is the best in the world. … The U. S. has some of the highest breast, colon, and prostate cancer survival rates in the world. … The U. S. is responsible for 53 percent of drug research dollars. ” [3. . http://mb-myc.com...] When actual healthcare measures are utilized, the US healthcare system is the best in the world. We also put the most money into drug research, which is only possible due to some free market forces in our healthcare (though, we are far from a free market healthcare system). The US system is superior to that of other developed countries. C2) Crime Many claim the US has high crime, especially when compared to the UK. Indeed, those statistics at a glance are compelling. We have more total homicides, but this is irrelevant as we must remember we have the third largest population on the planet. Total crimes per 1,000, which controls for population, the UK actually has three times more than the United States [4. . http://www.nationmaster.com...]. It should be noted that webpage claims the US has a higher murder rate, but this is untrue. The UK murder rate excludes cases which do not end in conviction or where the person is not prosecuted. The US counts both of those instances as murder in their official statistics. If we use the UK’s method of crime measurement and compare it to the US, the US has a murder rate of 2.2 per 100,000 [5. . http://johnrlott.blogspot.com...]. The UK often does not include Scotland in their analysis, which “[is] the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America. ” It should also be noted, “In 2003, Canada had a violent crime rate more than double that of the U. S. … Australia and England … have the highest rates of robbery, sexual assault, and assault with force of the top 17 industrialized countries. ” [6. . http://www.gunfacts.info...] Further, Russia has a murder rate of 11.2 per 100,000 [7. . http://en.wikipedia.org...]. The US has a rate of 4.4, or 2.2 if you use the UK method of measurement. The UK has a higher police reported crime rate, a higher assault rate, and a higher burglary rate. It should be noted the US homicide rate has been decreasing, whereas the UK crime rate has been stable or actually increased [8. . http://www.gunsandcrime.org...]. We can see the US has a fairly good crime record when compared to other industrialized countries. One of the other peaceful countries, like Japan, do best us. However, some of their crime policies are very similar to ours [9. . http://en.wikipedia.org...]. C3) Firearms In Europe, save Switzerland (and in the Middle East, Israel) firearms are banned or heavily restricted. Although many claim firearms are bad, the existence of firearms actually benefit the US. In the US, we have adopted many may issue and shall issue concealed carry laws which allow you to carry concealed firearms. This has been associated with reduced violent crime rates on all measures, says a recent literature review [10. . http://crimepreventionresearchcenter.org...]. Thus, our right to firearms ownership gives us a tool to reduce crime and combat criminals, something Europeans cannot utilize. It should also be noted firearms are often used in defense, some estimates suggesting upwards of two million times per year [11. . http://www.hoplofobia.info...]. From this, we can see that firearms are a social good. Other countries—again, except maybe two or three—do not benefit from these laws which allow us to carry and own guns. This is a significant benefit the US has. C4) Taxes Except for a few outlying countries, the US has some of the lowest income taxes in the world. The top marginal tax rates are about 43%. In the UK, they are 50%. In Denmark the number hovers around 60%. Denmark also has a 25% sales tax [12. . http://money.cnn.com...]. Only three countries, Canada, Korea, and Spain, have lower tax rates than the US. Even business havens like Switzerland have higher overall tax rates [13. . http://money.cnn.com...]. C5) Freedom In terms of economic freedom, the US is 12—so only 11 countries best us [14. . http://www.heritage.org...]. Social freedoms are higher in the US, as we have free speech codified into our constitution. In the UK, a priest was arrested for saying homosexuality was a sin [15. . http://www.telegraph.co.uk...]. In Canada, opposing gay marriage is considered hate speech in many cases. Christians have had to spend millions of dollars in order to defend themselves in court cases due to discrimination in regards to their beliefs. Schools are requiring children to learn about same-sex marriage and same-sex actions. They also require children to be taught pro-gay lessons. Even if you support gay rights, this clearly crosses the line [16. . http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com...].