Why are we doing this?
Someone argued the point with me last night that, under certain criteria, we may not be considered a first-world country.
http://www.livescience.com/health/060810_evo_rank.html
It was a bit ironic, but didn't really have a strong counter argument: Our average life span is not at the top of the list (not in top 10) http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762380.html, our health care is not at the top of the list (37) http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html, our education system no longer ranks first http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338, nor has our average I.Q. (ever, 22), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations, http://www.gnxp.com/MT2/archives/000953.html. and our privacy laws are now actually less stringent than other Western countries, http://www.gilc.org/privacy/survey/ (here's a quote "The U.S. has led a worldwide effort to limit individual privacy and enhance the capability of its police and intelligence services to eavesdrop on personal conversations. The campaign has had two legal strategies. The first made it mandatory for all digital telephone switches, cellular and satellite phones and all developing communication technologies to build in surveillance capabilities; the second sought to limit the dissemination of software that provides encryption, a technique which allows people to scramble their communications and files to prevent others from reading them. [fn 43] "). Regretably, I tend to argue my personal opinions without supporting facts to back it up.
On the upside, some of us pay lower taxes.