I came across this article while looking for expat news to tweet. I know we’ve discussed American exceptionalism quite a bit and could easily blame most of this lack of knowledge on indifference (“Hey, who cares, everybody knows America is the greatest place on earth, why should I care or bother about anybody/anyplace else?”) but the author gives perplexing statistics that really surprised me.
In addition to Sarah Palin claiming she could see Russia from her house (see http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/seealaska.asp for explanation of how SNL involved in creating misquote) and Paul Ryan referring to Canada as “overseas,” maybe it’s not such a big jump???
“A 2007 study conducted by a George Washington University researcher showed that our seeming indifference about other countries and cultures begins at a very early age in American school systems.” Among some of the findings (emphases mine):
- 25 percent of U.S. high school students who were bound for college couldn’t name the ocean that lies between California and Asia
- 80 percent of the surveyed students didn’t know that India is the world’s largest democracy
- 80 percent of the surveyed students couldn’t point out places like Israel on a global map
A separate 2012 survey conducted by the nonprofit education company World Savvy, along with the International Baccalaureate Organization demonstrated:
- 78 percent of the students didn’t know that Mandarin is the most commonly spoken language in the world
- 45 percent thought the most common was English
- 77 percent of respondents couldn’t identify Canada as America’s largest trade partner
- 72 percent had no idea what region Afghanistan was in
“And the kids aren’t the only ones to blame, as many American adults also seem to have a huge lack of interest in learning about other countries, how those countries live, and the languages they speak — which certainly isn’t the case when it comes to other countries knowing about American ways and people.”
I cannot imagine that the education system has gone that far downhill. I’m in my late 50’s and perhaps fortunate in having gone to Catholic schools (though there’s no way I would have agreed at the time). In university, many of my friends had gone to public schools and they certainly seemed to be very well educated. So what has happened? Why are the schools so bad? What other reasons could there be for such a lack of knowledge and incentive?
Congressman Ron Paul is the most honest politician in DC. He is the
one who speaks truth to the lies of both Republicans and the Democrats:
@Badger, thanks for referring to my post,
In particular, I feel that this equating citizenship with taxation perverts the concept of citizenship. I see citizenship more as membership in a society, a commitment to a society, with rights and responsibilities, which has a variety of aspects and affects one entire life.
But I see the US people of today are seeing tax as the main component of citizenship, and most definitely they seem to believe that avoiding/evading tax is main reason why people choose (or chose) to have a different citizenship – an attitude which apparently began to take root only in the 1990s.
Hence, back in earlier decades most people couldn’t care less if you left (and the few that thought poorly of expatriates seemed to have had at worst a “good riddance to bad rubbish” attitude. But you have to be a confident country to feel that way. Now, it’s all about demonising former USCs as tax avoiders/evaders.
The message that theUS legislators and media is pushing, and the people are accepting, is that money/tax is far and away the most important component of citizenship. I believe that is a crass perversion of the concept of citizenship. It kind of makes me wonder how this heavily one-dimensional re-charactisation of the basic concept of citizenship fits /will fit into the overall picture of life there, how people there perceive /will perceive themselves as members of society.
@pacifica, re; “a crass perversion of the concept of citizenship”:
Every time they refer to us as ‘not paying what we owe’, and
‘burdening other Americans’, appealing to domestic patriotism, envy and parochialism, it is a deliberate lie and conscious tactic
– they know perfectly well that we generally owe nothing, and that it
is fellow American residents and American corporations (ex. those
incorporating in Biden’s state of Delaware, or General Electric, or
Wells Fargo bank) that are actively devoting resources to evade and
avoid paying US taxes while enjoying US benefits. This is a conscious war of propaganda against those outside the US, scapegoating and exploiting us.
Do most patriotic US citizens volunteer to pay double taxes and volunteer to be at heightened jeopardy for penalties with zero US tax assessed? Good luck with finding volunteers vying for that prize.
The IRS own Taxpayer Advocate says that taxpayers have the right not to pay any more than they owe. And how is it a ‘patriotic duty’ of only some citizens to report on perilous FBAR and other forms required mainly by those living abroad, including many duals? So to demonstrate good citizenship, we’re not only at elevated threat of double taxation, perilous information reporting penalties, punitive treatment of our legal post-tax assets, and incomprehensibly complex and labyrinthine forms? One set of citizenship conditions for those inside the US, and another for those outside. That only confirms that they equate taxation with citizenship, (or pretend to).
And if they allowed us to resolve this conflict by just giving up our US citizenship – without all the 5 years and additional IRS tax hoops and 450. fee, that would be fine by me. But they insist on having it both ways of course. Confirming again that it is about taxation and revenues, not ‘citizenship’ in any sense. While not giving a rat’s ass about any other so-called ‘rights’ of the US citizenship that we don’t actually enjoy, and which they try to prevent us from giving up in the abstract. That demonstrates that they value tangible taxation above any other aspect of citizenship.
Yes, despite knowing that many of their fellows in the US pay no more than they have to, and actively work to minimize tax or find loopholes to exploit, and despite knowing that we don’t even live there, or use any US services, the US government, politicians like Levin et al. and the IRS and Treasury have been extremely successful at mischaracterizing us abroad – playing to the crowd, and whipping up public outrage. They know perfectly well that we’re already paying full taxes where we live. They know that it would be much harder to gain sympathy if they just stated that their intent is to double tax us and to invent reasons to charge us penalties – which no-one in their sane mind would consider patriotic. There is no duty to be double or overtaxed. There is no patriotic or citizenship duty to allow oneself to be penalized and exploited. There is no patriotic duty to have to forego benefits in your home country just because the US refuses to extend to us the ability to use the tax breaks authorized by the tax agencies where we actually live.
Well, here’s another explanation (warning, a bit crude for some people):
http://front.moveon.org/the-george-carlin-clip-every-american-needs-to-see/#.UBQZ57Lhm9Y.twitter
The US lost one of its best. George Carlin told it like it is.
*@Calgary411, The US is going to lose alot of good people.. US!!
*Indeed it will be a greater loss than most people, especially Congress, realizes.
But they opiate themselves because there are still many more that want to get in than want to get out. Wait until the Cubans start arriving by the thousands under the new regulations effective in January which eliminate the requirement for an exit visa to leave Cuba. Most will come via 3rd countries, like Mexico. Informationin the Miami Herald today indicates interviews for tourist visas to visit the US are already scheduled into 2015, so that is going to be far too long for most people to wait. No idea what the waiting time is at the Canadian Embassy in Havana is for a Canadian tourist visa.
Under the Cuban Adjustment Act as soon as they touch US soil, whether or not the have a visa, they can receive permission to work and a social security number in less than a week, and qualify for a green card after one year. I cant help but wonder if this may change.
But at least when Cubans leave they are no longer required to file Cuban income tax returns or pay taxes to Cuba on their world wide income when they leave. In that area they have surpassed Americans in their freedom to leave their native country.
@ Saddened,
Lose a lot of good people indeed, just like Great Britain did when they tried to force citizenship-based taxation onto their own ex-pats back in 1776.
It didn’t work out so well for the Brits but at least they learned not to try it again. Its too bad the once victimized Americans didn’t learn anything from it and have now ironically become the greatest abusers of all.
Gary Johnson described tonight that he vetoed law after law of well meaning New Mexico legislation (ex. all pet stores must walk their dogs at least 2 hrs per day) because he personnally knew that his administration was taxed with creating the police action which must enforce the law. Too bad FATCA was to be policed by a book reading Ivy Leaguer. Idiots in the Congress, idiots in the White House. Collateral damage at my home.
@Whoitssteve…
You might not have seen this comment by Lex on another thread, and there might be something there for you to take onboard. 🙂
Could one video sum it up better? Maybe some should NOT be allowed to vote. LOL
@Just Me Priceless! They sound so believable too.
I don’t know where else to post this. Blaze tweeted a few days ago about a new 10-part series, “Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States.” Episode 2 is on The Movie Network tonight at 8 pm Eastern. Episode 1 is available On Demand. I am thinking it could be useful in our discussions with Homelanders.
“Out of America: Oliver Stone’s new 10-part TV series is blasting apart the
sacred myth of American exceptionalism. It’s not perfect, but it’s a
start.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/hollywood-director-lays-into-uncle-sam-8326335.html
http://www.themovienetwork.ca/series/oliver-stone/schedule
Interesting. My sister just sent me an Amazon.com gift of this book on Kindle, a renunciation gift. I’m really looking forward to reading it. Thanks for the information, nobledreamer.