United States of Denial

For some time I've been coming across evidence - both statistical and anecdotal - of major decline in the US, showing the increased inequality of its citizens and as compared to the world. Much of this seems to be due to the self-serving and myopic policies of the Republican party. This ranges from threats to education and health care to substantive failures in the democratic process caused by failure to vote, fierce bi-partisan fighting and the control of government by wealthy individuals and corporations.

The worst part is that it appears that most Americans don't seem to see it or if they do, they either don't care or deny it. Are they living in the United States of Denial?

Anyway, below are some of the sources I've been reviewing:

General Scorecard
The New York Times article "Empire at the End of Decadence" by CHARLES M. BLOW was published on February 18, 2011. It contains this interesting graphic.

The Growing Divide between Rich and Poor

This article in Mother Jones has some telling images and shows just how much richer the richest are getting - and how their increasing wealth comes at the expense of the average american 

Source

When Boing Boing referenced the above article, it generated some great comments. My favourite response to someone saying that "Becoming wealthy through the American ideals of hard work and perseverance is not a myth" is by pauldavis, who wrote

The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".
Of all western industrialized countries, when looking at the likelihood that someone born into the N-th wealth quintile will move out of that quintile during their lifetime, the USA scores lowest.
That doesn't mean there aren't dozens or even hundreds of anecdotes to tell, like yours - clearly there are. But from the perspective of social policy, politics and governance, it means that on aggregate across the whole country, if you're born into the 2nd quintile, you're overwhelmingly more likely to die there than you would be in any other western nation.

Decreasing Democracy

One of the  more is this more evident that in the goings-on seen in Wisconsin and the actions of the new union-busting governor, Scott Walker. See:

• http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-labor-union-decline
• http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/opinion/21krugman.html
• http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/03/04/gov-scott-walker-has-lost-the-war/

Lowering Transparency 
Not only does the "Land of the Free" have, per capita, more people in prison than almost anywhere else, but they often treat these prisoner shamefully.   The treatment of Bradley Manning - while at the same time the US supports the internet driven transparency for the overflow of despotic nations

War on Women
Republicans in the House of Representatives are mounting an assault on women’s health and freedom that would deny millions of women access to affordable contraception and life-saving cancer screenings and cut nutritional support for millions of newborn babies in struggling families. And this is just the beginning.

From http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/opinion/26sat1.html?src=me&ref=general