OWS folks. Is USA. NUmber 1? Pursuit of Happiness.

US capitalism bamboozles us with statistics. As was once said there are lies, damn lies and statistics. US capitalism wants us to concentrate on a few statistics which are directly relevant to its own priorities. Gross National Product for example. The rise of the Stock market is another. This is the way they want us to think, in their terms, in terms of their priorities. But what about happiness, contentment, security, a good life. After all it is written into the founding documents of the country "The pursuit of happiness." You do not hear this talked about too much on the nightly news of the mass capitalist media.

But even take their own priority, Gross National Product. The US is currently 127th in real GDP growth rate. (NYT). That is close to the bottom.

Then look at the daily life of all of us. What makes our lives half way decent. When Newsweek ranked the "world's best countries" based on health, education and politics the US was 11th. In the quality of life ranking by Nation Ranking the US was 31st. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranks the world's most livable cities and the highest US city was 29th. Mercer's Quality of life survey has the first US entry at 31 and Monocle magazine has only three US cities in the top 25.

On these lists the top performers are concentrated in Northern Europe, Australia and Canada. Nearly all the countries that out do the US spend more on infrastructure. In addition they are more environmentally conscious and offer more social security safety nets and health care to their citizens.

But I can hear you think, these countries are probably sinking into even greater debt than the US. On the contrary. Many of the countries such as Sweden, Luxembourg and Norway all rank high on the lists of fiscally responsible states, well above the US which ranks way down at 28th on the Sovereign Fiscally Responsible Index.

Remember do not be fooled by the selection of statistics and the US is number one propaganda of US capitalism. The US maybe number one for the wealth of its ruling class and number one for the difference in living standards between the working class and the capitalist class, but it is not number one or near number one for the quality of life of its working people. See the article on this blog of yesterday which compares CEO pay and worker's pay and hours worked by US workers and workers in other industrial countries.

Sean.