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The\u00a0USA ranks 38th in life expectancy\u00a0<\/a>which is shocking considering that it has the best medical science in the world. \u00a0And this generation is the first one that\u00a0will live less<\/a>\u00a0than the previous generation. The average American is expected to live two years less than, say, the average Spaniard. This is partly because the USA has a medical system that leaves 50 million people uninsured and many others under-insured or worried about losing their insurance (my wife Nina, for example, can\u2019t get medical insurance to have our next baby because pregnancy is considered a pre-existing condition and we moved to USA when she was already pregnant). \u00a0It is also partly because the USA is the nation with the highest percentage\u00a0of its population obese, over 30%<\/a>. \u00a0The WHO studied overall level of health and concluded that\u00a0Americans rank 72 in the world<\/a>. Family structure is also weak as the USA has the\u00a0highest divorce rates in the world<\/a>. Moreover inequality is on the rise: as\u00a0this Wikipedia article argues<\/a>,\u00a0the top earning 1 percent of households gained about 275% over a period between 1979 and 2007, compared to a gain of just under 40% for the 60 percent in the middle of America’s income distribution.<\/p>\nThe USA has a legal system\u00a0that is extremely expensive<\/a>\u00a0and unreliable and tends to favor those with resources to pay for it. The USA spends almost half of what the whole world spends in the military and since WWII (in which the USA did an amazing job), other military interventions have been of dubious value for such a huge investment, especially Iraq and Afghanistan. The USA leads all developed countries in\u00a0executions by death penalty<\/a>, it has a love for guns that makes\u00a0its murder rate<\/a>\u00a0unusually high for a developed nation, it has the\u00a0highest incarceration rates<\/a>\u00a0of the developed world mostly focused on one ethnic group, African Americans. The USA has more people in jail or parole than Madrid has people. \u00a0 And while the USA has most of the best ranked universities in the world, according to\u00a0PISA<\/a>\u00a0scores the USA ranks very poorly compared to other developed nations. The USA is also the largest polluter in the world together with China but\u00a0a leader on a per capita<\/a>\u00a0basis. The American lifestyle is great but not scalable to the world as a whole. \u00a0Replicating this lifestyle on a global basis will lead to extreme competition over resources and high environmental damage.<\/p>\n Yes, the USA is great nation. I am happy to be here teaching at Columbia– this country probably has the most educated elite in the entire world. It has incredible business creativity and it is home to the Apples and Googles of this world and in this sense, they are an example for the whole world to follow. It also has individuals who are among the most driven in the world and who want to succeed and do as much as they can. \u00a0But it has a number of very important issues to address, many of which were not part of the 2012 presidential debates (climate change for example) and which seem to rarely be part of the conversation with many of my American friends.<\/p>\n This article was also published in LinkedIn<\/a>. You can follow Martin by clicking below:<\/em><\/p>\n