Citations for David Cross’s “Why America Sucks at Everything”

The Gravel Institute

CITATIONS

Number of millionaires is from Robert Exley, Jr., “More than 20 million Americans are millionaires. Here’s how they got wealthy.” (CNBC.) 18 million is actually an undercount!

Statistics on Americans’ tax rates including insurance premiums compared to other countries are from Matt Bruenig, “US Workers Are Highly Taxed If You Count Premiums.” (People’s Policy Project.)

Line on America as “least efficient, least effective” healthcare system from Lenny Bernstein, “Once again, U.S. has most expensive, least effective health care system in survey.” (Washington Post.)

Data on life expectancies is from the World Health Organization (WHO), “Life expectancy and Healthy life expectancy.” Data has since been updated by the WHO. The U.S. now has a lower healthy age life expectancy (HALE) than China, Iran, Peru, Panama, Algeria, and Jordan, though it is now roughly tied with Lebanon.

The line on the Mississippi Delta and Appalachia against Bangladesh is from economist Angus Deaton and is quoted in Justin Fox, “How Mississippi Is Worse Off Than Bangladesh.” (Bloomberg Opinion.)

The quote from the UN official on “third world conditions of absolute poverty” is quoted in Jeff Stein, “An explosive U.N. report shows America’s safety net was failing before Trump’s election.” (Washington Post.)

On healthcare administration costs, see Himmelstein et al., “Health Care Administrative Costs in the United States and Canada, 2017.” (Annals of Internal Medicine.)

On current healthcare spending per capita, see World Bank, “Current health expenditure per capita.”

The story of Susan Finley is from Michael Sainato, “The Americans dying because they can’t afford medical care.” (The Guardian.)

Statistics on GoFundMe campaigns is from Gina Martinez, “GoFundMe CEO: One-Third of Site’s Donations Are to Cover Medical Costs.” (TIME Magazine.)

On rates of U.S. social welfare spending, see Matt Bruenig, “The U.S. Spends Far Too Little on Social Welfare.” (People’s Policy Project.)

On deaths of despair and declining life expectancy, see Melissa Healy, “Suicides and overdoses among factors fueling drop in U.S. life expectancy.” (Los Angeles Times.)

On child poverty in the U.S., see Max Fisher, “Map: How 35 countries compare on child poverty (the U.S. is ranked 34th).” (Washington Post.)

The citation for “number of workers earning significantly less than the median wage” comes from “America the Laggard.” (Jacobin.)

CORRECTIONS

For some reason, the United Kingdom and Ireland are presented as one country at 4:34. This is totally unintentional. We are proud supporters of Irish independence.

Data for Canada’s per-capita healthcare spending is overstated as “five times what Americans pay” at 5:03. According to the most recent data, it is closer to two times what Americans pay: Canadians pay $4,994.90 per capita, and Americans pay $10,623.85. Our apologies for the error.