American Exceptionalism, Putting a Price on Everything

[Jefferson23]

Weekend Edition
December 17 - 19, 2010


By DAVID MACARAY

Although there are many (too many to list) superb categories in which the United States is undeniably “exceptional,” there are several important categories where we lag behind the world.

By “lag behind,” we don’t mean the U.S. simply falls a bit short of the leaders; we mean the U.S. is not even on the same page. And by “the world,” we’re not referring to countries like Sweden, Norway, Germany and Switzerland; we’re referring to places like Latvia, Estonia, Guatemala, Honduras, Pakistan and Haiti.

Dr. Jody Heymann is director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy, chairwoman of the Project on Global Working Families, and adjunct professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. Recently, Dr. Heymann and her team put together some statistics comparing America with the rest of the world. Among their findings:

177 nations guarantee paid leave for new mothers; the U.S. does not.

74 nations guarantee paid leave for new fathers; the U.S. does not.

132 nations guarantee breastfeeding breaks at work; the U.S. does not.

163 nations guarantee paid sick leave; the U.S. does not.

48 nations guarantee paid time off to care for children’s health; the U.S. does not.

41 nations provide leave that can be used for child education needs; the U.S. does not.

33 nations provide paid leave to care for adult family members; the U.S. does not

in full: http://www.counterpunch.org/macaray12172010.html