America IS Exceptional: Count the Ways

1. The U.S. imprisons more people per capita than any other country. As of the 
end of 2015, the United States had the highest incarceration rate in the world,
with 716 people per 100,000 behind bars; the comparable rate was 475 in Russia
and 121 in China. The U.S. has five percent of the world’s population but 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2016 black Americans represented 12 percent of the U.S. adult population but 33 percent of America's prison population.

2. The United States is currently the only country in the world where juvenile offenders
may legally be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

3. The U.S. spends more money ($560.4 billion in 2015) on its military than any other country and more than the combined defense budgets of the next nine largest countries in the world.

4. The U.S. is number one in the world as measured by our willingness to project
violence, meaning military action, on nations and organizations whose
values and policies we reject.

5. The U.S. spends more money on healthcare than any other country yet has higher rates of illness/disease per capita than any Western European country, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand.

6. U.S. rates of infant mortality exceed those of every Western European country, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

7. People in the U.S. have more weapons per capita than in any other country.

8. More people die annually of gun violence in the U.S. than in any other country.

9. More people in absolute numbers and per capita are murdered in the U.S. than in any other country.

10. Per capita and in absolute numbers, more black people in the U.S. die in custody or at the hands of the police than in any other country.

11. A smaller proportion of the U.S. electorate votes in national elections than in any other developed country.

12. U.S. college students borrow more money for their education than do students in any other country.

13. Income inequality in the U.S. is greater than in any other developed country.

14. America has lower social mobility than most other developed nations.

15. The CEO-to-worker pay ratio in the U.S. exceeds that of any developed country.

16. The U.S. spends less on social support for families (welfare) than any developed nation.

Conclusion: People who claim that America isn’t EXCEPTIONAL don’t know what the Hell they are talking about. America, it's a wonderful country.