A Sick Society

In spite of the incessant self-aggrandizing rhetoric, the U.S. is woefully inadequate in fundamental aspects of life, like health care and quality of life. A just-released U.S. report shows that the health of the American people across the board is the worst of 16 peer countries. In all major criteria by which one can judge the health of a society, the U.S. comes in last. In a nutshell: Americans eat badly, don't exercise enough, are sicker and kill one another on a regular basis at a rate significantly greater than other comparable countries.

Most troubling is the fact that children and young people in the U.S. are the prime victims of  a value system that allows or encourages personal choices that are inimical to their well-being.  Consequently, they live poorly and die sooner than their counterparts in other nations of the developed world. So, living in "the richest country in the world" doesn't translate into wellness for the majority of its people.

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