COVID-19: What is Wrong with America?

From Worldometer, I continue this table to show how new deaths best determine the phase of COVID-19:

DAY     China   Italy   USA   Spain   Germany   S. Korea  WORLD

Apr  21         ?    534   1481      430            86               1        5362

        22         ?    437     931      435          125               1        5008
        23         ?    464   1435      440            54               2        5033
        24         0?  420     718      367            78               0?      4200
        25         0?  415   1073      378            59               0?      4650
        26         0?  260     779      288            19               2        3102
        27         1    333     762      331              9               1        2816
        28         0?  382   1065      301            48               1        2983

Summary:

• Whoops, the World, USA and good parts of Europe showed increases in new deaths.
• Ominously, still somewhat low, but African countries are picking up in new cases.
• Also up are several countries in the Middle East.
• Bangladesh has 549 new cases, Pakistan 697 and Indonesia 415.
• Singapore had a jump of 528 new cases.
• Parts of South America are not reporting.
• Mind you, the USA itself had 11,903 new cases, so those numbers today don't look like much.  But be watchful.  The second most new cases was Russia with 6411.  In comparison, regarding total deaths, the U.S. has 57,862, while Russia only has 867.
• The USA passed a million total cases, now up to 1,022,259, while the World is at 3,105,574.

What troubles me most about President Donald Trump is that no matter how horrible he acts, he still maintains a 35-45% support level.  What is wrong with America?

ABC asked the public what one word describes Trump (they missed pathological liar, but those are two words):

The ten most common words that respondents gave were: "incompetent," "arrogant," "strong," "idiot," "egotistical," "ignorant," "great," "racist," "a------" and "narcissistic."

How different can two leaders be?  Governor Andrew Cuomo blames himself for a variety of mistakes, but is smart, thoughtful, decisive and a lot more.  If those ABC ten terms best describe the President of the U.S., how can anyone with any kind of decency want him to lead the country?  This befuddlement of mine can only be explained by the worrisome conclusion that too many in this country are like him.

Was America great before the invasion of COVID-19?  Yes, in many ways, as for example, we have the most powerful military in the world.  But has it been worth spending, each year on war, as much as the next seven nations, combined?

All that even though we don't have a mortal enemy today.  Yes, our economy seemed to be doing better than anyone else's.  But at what expense?  Our infrastructure, health, education, environment....?

Here is a New York Times summary of:

The Fading American Dream: Trends in Absolute Income Mobility Since 1940 is written by Raj Chetty, David Grusky, Maximilian Hell, Nathaniel Hendren, Robert Manduca and Jimmy Narang:

Abstract

We estimated rates of “absolute income mobility”—the fraction of children who earn more than their parents—by combining data from U.S. Census and Current Population Survey cross sections with panel data from de-identified tax records. We found that rates of absolute mobility have fallen from approximately 90% for children born in 1940 to 50% for children born in the 1980s. Increasing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates alone cannot restore absolute mobility to the rates experienced by children born in the 1940s. However, distributing current GDP growth more equally across income groups as in the 1940 birth cohort would reverse more than 70% of the decline in mobility. These results imply that reviving the “American dream” of high rates of absolute mobility would require economic growth that is shared more broadly across the income distribution.

A Pew poll says the same:

Are you doing better than the previous generation? The Pew Research Center, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C., asked nearly 43,000 people in 38 countries around the globe that question this past spring. Residents in 20 countries said people like them were better off than they were 50 years ago. In Vietnam, 88% felt better off, followed by India (69%), South Korea (68%), Japan (65%), Germany (65%), Turkey (65%), the Netherlands (64%), Sweden (64%), Poland (62%) and Spain (60%). Overall, 43% of people in those countries said they were better off.

Where is the USA?

The U.S. was among the other 18 countries in which people said they were actually worse off than half a century ago. In Senegal, 45% felt this way, followed by Nigeria (54%), Kenya (53%), the U.S. (41%), Ghana (47%), Brazil (49%), France (46%), Hungary (39%), Lebanon (54%) and Peru (46%). Venezuela, which has suffered from political unrest and economic turbulence in recent years, was last on the list. Some 72% people there said they felt worse off than 50 years ago (only after Mexico, Jordan and Argentina).

Another Pew poll taken last year showed:

Eighty-seven percent of Americans are worried about our political leadership.  You can place most of the blame on President Donald Trump.  A future posting will suggest how America can become great again.  You can already guess what will be #1, and certainly re-election would not be it.

About social distancing, some schools in China used an idea from the past for a different reason.  In those days of the emperor, people in the court wore this stick to prevent them whispering to each other:

I couldn't find the Top Songs of 1966, so I'll instead go to the 100 Best Songs of 1966, which will occupy 17 minutes of your life.  Here is a clip of all the #1 Billboard songs of 1966...in 2 min 15 sec.

About the only memorable thing I did in 1966 was to put together what might well have been an inspiration for Woodstock.  Naalehu then had an annual July fair.

Dante Carpenter (of later mayor and Hawaii Senate fame) was chairman of the event.  I sat next to him in our office at the Hutch factory.  He asked me to find something different and extraordinary.  So I talked a bunch of rock groups from the Big Island to participate in the first battle of the bands.  I also provided free tickets of this event to a DJ in Hilo, who gave them out and came to MC the show.  If you did not know, Naalehu is far from Hilo (66 miles), Kona (59 miles of windy road) and Waimea (122 miles). 

With Pro Wrestling, this no doubt became the most attended feature in the history of the gathering.  I could have gone on to become a successful impresario, but went back to graduate school instead.  Conversely, if I had not left, I might well still be in Naalehu, if alive.

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