The United States is Exceptional - Unfortunately

(Disclaimer: La Tonique Media LLC does not represent any political ideology. While we do not espouse any political beliefs, we do seek to provide a balance perspective by incorporating voices from both sides of the political spectrum.)

By Stepan Gauvreau

“...the American Republic stands today as the greatest, most exceptional, and most virtuous nation in the history of the world,” President Trump proclaimed on July 4th, 2020.  In a lot of ways, he is not wrong in saying that the United States is exceptional, much to the detriment of poor, rural, sick, and uneducated Americans, not to mention minorities and people of color. 

Despite Trump’s superfluous and vapid superlatives, the message he is preaching is one that resonates deep within the American ethos. Americans are raised with the idea that this country is exceptional, that it stands above the rest by virtue of its founding, molding, and position in the world.  

Comparing the United States to the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)–an intergovernmental organization with 37 of the world’s most developed and economically advanced countries–the United States is exceptional in many key ways. The litany is long and painful, but several indicators vary drastically from those of most of the other OECD member states.

In the OECD countries, real household income tends to grow faster at the top decile of income distribution. The United States is not unique in this aspect, but it is, however, at the bottom of the list for real household income growth for the bottom decile.  The bottom decile of the United States and Germany tie for second to last place with an appalling .1% real growth over the last several decades. 

Wealth inequality, too, has skyrocketed. In 2000, the middle 40% and top 1% of the wealth distribution curve in the United States each claimed roughly 31% of America’s wealth. In 2016, the top 1% shaved off an additional 5% from the middle 40%. The bottom 50% remains at a negligible level, while the top 9% has been able to cling on to its wealth. The United States again outpaces fellow OECD members in high wealth inequality and low mobility. The ideas of a meritocratic society and the American dream are being shattered–or revealed to have been a lie–by high inequality and low economic mobility, which are creating caste-like divisions.   

A Look At Income Inequality In The United States | TIME

Economic inequality alone does not separate the United States from its developed peers. The rates of police killings in the United States are far higher than in other democracies. Despite crime rates being relatively low, U.S. police kill Americans at more than three times the frequency in Canada, the country with the next highest rate of police killings. The rates of incarceration in America are astoundly high, with dismaying rates of imprisonment for women and minorities, who are disproportionately profiled, arrested, and sentenced. 

With the highest rate of incarceration per person in the world, even some autocratic regimes do not compete. Rates of crime, in fact, have been declining in America since the ‘90s, and racial disparities among prisoners are also shrinking, fortunately. Though trends of disparate application of U.S. justice are slowly reversing, the United States still stands far above its peers in police killings and rates of incarceration. 

Failures in the justice system are matched by rampant inequalities in the healthcare system. Relative to the populaces of fellow developed countries, Americans have lower life expectancy, less–but steadily increasing–access to health care, a greater number of consultations skipped due to associated costs, and higher rates of obesity and smoking. While Americans pay relatively little out-of-pocket expenses and the health spending in the United States is much higher than in many other OECD countries, the United States still lags behind in health indicators, including adequate access. 

Vast inequalities pervade the American healthcare apparatus, in which rural and minority communities are less likely to receive adequate care. Low rates of postsecondary education and insured status, and high rates of poverty and mortality plague both minorities and rural Americans. In Baltimore, the life expectancy in poor, largely Black neighborhoods can differ by as much as 20 years from rich, mostly white neighborhoods. Black and indigenous women experience two to three times more pregnancy-related deaths, and the United States ranks high for the number of avoidable deaths among other advanced economies. Racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to get infected and die from COVID-19 as a result of discrimation, lack of access to healthcare, occupation type, education and income gaps, and crowded housing.

 Rural families, too, face challenges. They often must travel great distances to reach adequate care, a problem compounded by the comparatively low number of doctors per person in the United States. Even in rural communities, racial and ethnic minorities experience higher morbidity rates. And as diversity in rural communities is increasing, these trends are unlikely to reverse. Though the reasons for healthcare inequality are multifaceted and complex, America still performs poorly in providing for the health of its citizenry, relative to its cohort. 

Stifled economic mobility; biased policing and sentencing, especially among minority communities; and unequal access to healthcare, for rural and BIPOC Americans alike, are interrelated. Each represents a facet of a system that has failed to uphold the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

Digging into the extensive, systematic inequalities and the failures of our governance and economic system are not an affront to supposed American preeminence–at least it should not be. As a nation, we must look to our allies and friends to determine how we may better provide for our citizenry. Only by admitting where there is room for improvement can the United States make important gains to make good on the promise it made so long ago. Blind belief in American exceptionalism–unencumbered by self-critical thought–destines the American experiment to fail. Let American exceptionalism be found in an ability to reflect, remember, and self-correct. Rectifying historical and contemporary inequalities and injustices is the only way to move forward–together.

Stepan is a political writer for La Tonique.