Japan is Much Freer Than the United States #2

This part two of an article I wrote about how the USA is not a free country at all anymore and that Japan is a much better place to live hands down.


I received several mails from irate Americans who just can't handle the truth about how much of a hellhole that country has become. One guy even wrote::


I find it amusing that this blogger constantly ballyhoos the importance of facts and then writes an editorial with the provocative headline above without any exercise of facts save you can smoke in restaurants and drink at the beach-- if that's your definition of freedom, then I feel sorry for you. This is black-and-white writing, emotional, if not hysterical.

If you're going to be provocative at least put a little effort into it. This just feels like lazy writing. And your characterization of Japan is maudlin.


Look who is talking about being maudlin! Check the rear view mirror for knee-jerk emotional reactions, my friend. Why do I need to re-state old facts that everyone - who has been paying attention - already knows? Take off the rose-colored glasses and read on....


Here's some selected tidbits from Lew Rockwell.com from an article entitled, "Number One? 20 Not So Good Categories That the United States Leads the World." Here's your freedom facts. (Read them and weep): 


#1 The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the largest total prison population on the entire globe.


#2 According to NationMaster.com, the United States has the highest percentage of obese people in the world.


#3 The United States has the highest divorce rate on the globe by a wide margin.


#5 The United States has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.


#6 There are more car thefts in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world by far.


#7 There are more reported rapes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.


#8 There are more reported murders in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.


#9 There are more total crimes in the United States each year than anywhere else in the world.


#10 The United States also has more police officers than anywhere else in the world.


#11 The United States spends much more on health care as a percentage of GDP than any other nation on the face of the earth.


#12 The United States has more people on pharmaceutical drugs than any other country on the planet.


#13 The percentage of women taking antidepressants in America is higher than in any other country in the world.


#16 The United States has the largest trade deficit in the world every single year. Between December 2000 and December 2010, the United States ran a total trade deficit of 6.1 trillion dollars with the rest of the world, and the U.S. has had a negative trade balance every single year since 1976.


#17 The United States spends 7 times more on the military than any other nation on the planet does. In fact, U.S. military spending is greater than the military spending of China, Russia, Japan, India, and the rest of NATO combined.


#19 The United States has the most complicated tax system in the entire world.


#20 The U.S. has accumulated the biggest national debt that the world has ever seen and it is rapidly getting worse. Right now, U.S. government debt is expanding at a rate of $40,000 per second.


I'm being maudlin when I rail on what the USA has become? Ha! I'm maudlin!? These facts I have linked to above are old news. It is astounding, though, that many Americans seem blissfully unaware of them. If anyone should know these facts, the Americans should.

Oh, and if that's not enough, at Lew Rockwell.com there's more. Read: "Number One? 20 Not So Good Categories That the United States Leads the World." Also,   a reader wrote to Lew and added on the blog:

About that USA #1 article you published. Curiously the author didn't mention the USA as:#1 in nuke and other WMD stockpiles.

#1 in WMD sales to other countries

#1 in lawsuits and lawyers per capita and, of course,

#1 in invading other countries!

Smoking & drinking are small things? Yes. That's why Japan blows away the USA for freedom. In the USA you can't even do these small, trivial things. Is that my definition of freedom? Yes. What's yours? (Feel free to choose from the multiple choice list above).