The New York Times published a video by senior producer Nayeema Raza and Taige Jensen questioning America’s greatness.
“America is the richest country in this club, but also the poorest,” the video stated about the country’s standing among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, a collection of 36 of the richest countries in the word.
The video went on to criticize the levels of poverty and education in the U.S., pointing out that the country ranks 19th in high school science, 20th in reading, and 30th in math.
“That does not add up well,” it said, adding that America is sicker and fatter than other nations, along with a higher infant mortality rate.
The video went on to question America’s freedom moniker.
“Turns out a lot of countries have freedoms, and while we boast about them, using our rights is a different story,” the narrator stated, pointing to a 2017 article which reported the Economist Intelligence Unit’s 2016 “Democracy Index” ranked the U.S. as a “flawed democracy.”
The video then made a list of things the U.S. tops the world in, including civilian gun ownership, mass shootings, TV-watching, prescription drug abuse, prison population, and almost topping China in “environmental damage.”
Near the end of the video, the narrator compared U.S. income inequality to Pakistan and Nigeria.
“It’s gotten to a point where I think there are specific times and places where you can confuse America for a developing country as elections are tampered with, water can’t be drunk from taps, citizens don’t trust uniform officers, infrastructure is crumbling, and where a dual system is emerging when public services are for sale for the highest bidder. You see this in countries like Pakistan or Nigeria where the rich don’t worry about the sad state of electricity or police because, well they have generators, private security. Or in America where the Kardashians rent their own firefighting force.”
“How great America is really depends on how rich you are,” the video continued. “America may once have been the greatest, but today America: We’re just okay.”
