The USA is going to the dogs! and it's official.

"When the U.S. sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold" Who has not heard that quote. You don't need the brains of Einstein to understand what that quote means, when the US economy is going down, the rest of the world is in trouble. In many ways the UK is a much scaled down version of the US. How we got to be at fifth place is way beyond me. Our once envy of the world National Health Service is rapidly declining. Poverty is on the increase, over one million people depend on free food charities. Adults are living at home into their thirties because even a modest flat/apartment is totally unaffordable, and in real terms earnings have been going backwards for years.

As I said earlier "When the U.S. sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold" The question I am asking myself, is how bad is it going to get? and we still have the prospect of either Clinton or Trump as the next US President.  

As Bloomberg reports, Iceland and Sweden share the top slot with Singapore as world leaders when it comes to health goals set by the United Nations, according to a report published in the Lancet. Using the UN’s sustainable development goals as guideposts, which measure the obvious (poverty, clean water, education) and less obvious (societal inequality, industry innovation), more than 1,870 researchers in 124 countries compiled data on 33 different indicators of progress toward the UN goals related to health.

The massive study emerged from a decadelong collaboration focused on the worldwide distribution of disease.

About a year and a half ago, the researchers involved decided their data might help measure progress on what may be the single most ambitious undertaking humans have ever committed themselves to: survival. In doing so, they came up with some disturbing findings, including that the country with the biggest economy (not to mention, if we’re talking about health, multibillion-dollar health-food and fitness industries) ranks No. 28 overall, between Japan and Estonia.

A reader comments.

"The U.S. is Number 1 in plenty of categories. It's Number 1 in prescription drug ingestion.  The U.S. makes up only 6% of the world's population, but its citizens ingest 80% of the worlds prescription drugs.  The U.S. is also Number 1 in incarcerations.  Again, with only 6% of the world's population, the U.S. has 25% of the world's imprisoned.  And, although I can't prove it statistically, having gone to Walmart, I think it's safe to post that the U.S. is Number 1 in having the greatest percentage of the world's scooter people.  That's why when Walmart remodelled its stores, it made the isles wider.  See you at the Golden Corral, fellow Americans." 

More on this article here.

If the stats quoted for US pharma drugs use, is anywhere near accurate, the mind boggles. 

The full Lancet report can be read here. 

Have a cheerful weekend folks. 

Eddie