Selfishness Pays ... with interest [improved & super-updated]

"We deserve ours ... and all you other people can get in line behind us and wait till we're done."

The US is the greatest country on earth, right? The rest of the world is jealous, and that's why they hate Americans. Americans enjoy the highest standard of living and are the wealthiest people in the world, right?
Wrong ... in fact, the US isn't even close.

Standard of Living
1. Norway
2. Sweden
3. Canada
4. Belgium
5. Australia
6. United States
7. Iceland
8. Netherlands
9. Japan
10. Finland
-source

Snoozing in The American Dream Land
-U.S. students scored lower on science/literacy than their peers in 16 of the other 29 OECD jurisdictions and 6 of the 27 non-OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] jurisdictions - source

-The US ranks #21 in Litericy (behind Armenia and Barbados)

-The US is the world's largest debtor nation.
"In recent years, the US trade deficit has reached roughly 6% of the GDP, a level former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker calls unsustainable." -wiki

-Every US citizen owes the federal government $$30,378.80 (babies and children are citizens, so figure about $79,000 per taxpayer). "Poor" countries like China and India are lending money to the US to service its debt)
Check out the National Debt Clock here.

-The second most expensive item in the US budget (after Defense spending) is paying interest on the national debt ... more than $1 billion per day in 2006. (NASA's annual budget is about $15 billion per year)

-Though accounting for only 5 percent of the world's population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world's energy -more energy info here

-The US ranks #45 in both Life Expectancy and Suicide Rates

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I'm not crossing the line into politics, but look at today's headlines.

I hope it's not s sign of things to come that OPEC and other global oil suppliers, worried about the shrinking value of the dollar, might start asking to be paid in currencies other than dollars. Or that Great Britain is mussing with the idea of "constructive accommodation" with Islamic Shariah law.

Meanwhile Congress borrows another $168 billion to stimulate the world's greatest consumers into spending themselves even further into debt.

Don't get me wrong: Americans enjoy tremendous political freedom and have greater economic opportunity than any country in the world. Still I wonder if the US is the greatest country on earth ... or maybe just the most selfish.

I guess we'll find out when the bills come due.