Most of us have been sold the idea that America is #1, and to be honest, it’s not hard to believe. After all, we’re the world’s leading military superpower, we have democracy and the media is constantly pushing stories and features about how great we are. But are we really that great? We all (or most of us) love this beautiful country, but when you look at where the U.S. stacks up next to other countries, we’re actually pretty behind the times. We spend so much money on our military that thousands of American public schools don’t get the funding that they need, students have to basically sell an arm and a leg to attend college, and the government can’t even provide universal healthcare for its citizens. Yes, we are great, but that doesn’t mean that these issues shouldn’t be addressed, and we should be looking at these 11 countries for examples.
1. Austria: Paid Vacation
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As college students, we love summer break, but we know that our extended breaks are going up in smoke once we start working full-time. Not in Austria. This small European country, known for its beauty and famous composers, offers the most paid vacation days of any developed country in the world. Every worker is guaranteed 22 days minimum of paid vacation days and 13 paid holidays. American workers, on the other hand, aren’t entitled to a single day off with pay. Any paid vacation time you get will be out of the kindness of your boss’s heart.
2. Italy: Universal Healthcare
The average cost of cancer drugs in America is $10,000, and they can be more than four times as expensive. Unless you have the money for it, cancer is going to ruin you both physically and financially. Italy, however, offers universal healthcare to all of its citizens. Healthcare is considered a human right rather than a commodity, and the national health plan covers routine check-ups, medications and hospital visits. The World Health Organization also ranked Italy in the top ten with regards to quality of health services, while the U.S. fell behind at 37th place. When you live in a country where healthcare is so ridiculously high and it’s not even the best available, it’s pretty obvious that some major changes are in order.
3. Canada: Personal Freedom
Canada ranks in first place for personal freedom on the 2015 Legatum Prosperity Index. Just to be clear, the LPI defines personal freedom as the extent to which freedom of expression, belief, association and personal autonomy promotes higher income and well-being. Although we’re used to America being called the “land of the free," the United States is actually ranked at 15 when it comes to individual freedom. John Ibbitson, writing for The Globe and Mail, claims that Canada’s geographic isolation and lack of immigration contribute the most to its tolerant culture.
4. Norway: Prison System
When it comes to prisons and incarceration, the U.S. looks medieval compared to Norway. The country’s Halden Prison is a 75 acre facility that provides inmates with their own houses, fully equipped kitchens (sharp objects included), videogames and an environment of normalcy. The prisoners and guards even get along just like friends. The focus of the prison system is to rehabilitate the inmates rather than punish them, and the results are astounding. As of 2014, Norway’s incarceration rate stood at 75 per 100,000 people, while America’s was at 707 per 100,000. Furthermore, criminals that get sent to Norwegian prison tend to stay out of trouble, and only 20 percent of criminals are ever re-arrested. Compare that with the U.S., where a whopping 76.6 percent of ex-cons are sent back to prison within five years.
5. France: School Lunches
We all know that America is slacking when it comes to school lunches, but with the lack of funding in many public schools, there’s not a whole lot we can do about it. However, we could take some lessons from how the French do it. In France, elementary school cafeterias are held to a much higher standard. Every meal goes through a dietician, who makes the necessary changes to ensure that they are healthy and well-balanced. All meals are prepared daily using fresh ingredients, as opposed to the pre-frozen, generic-brand pizza that I lived off of as a kid. In addition, French public school kids even get a menu from which they can decide what they want to eat. Meanwhile, American school kids are probably stuck with eating a PB&J and a CapriSun.
6. Germany: Free College Tuition
If you want to go to college but don’t want to end up paying back your debt for the next few decades, you’ll want to go to Germany. The government pays for your education whether you’re a German citizen or a foreigner studying abroad. In addition to having free college tuition, German universities offer more than 900 different English-language courses on subjects ranging from engineering to social sciences. American students can complete all of their studies in a high quality university, visit a beautiful country with stunning sights and culture and avoid the horrors of college loans. American college tuition rates have gone up 500 percent since 1985 and are still rising, but Germany has all of your higher education needs covered.
7. Finland: Education System
No other country in the world has reformed their education model quite like Finland. Finnish schools assign trivial amounts of homework, they’ve done away with standardized tests and the classroom environment from primary to secondary school is friendly and relaxed rather than austere and rigid. As a result, Finland has one of the best education models in the world. They have adopted a more personalized education system which places the individual as the main priority. This progressive attitude forms a stark contrast to American schools, which often take baby-step approaches to education reform and perpetuate the problem of having bad teachers by offering them tenures. Imagine a world where kids only do 15 minutes of homework a night and grow up to be doctors and lawyers. That world is Finland, and our country’s so-called education reformers should be taking notes.
8. Iceland: Feminism
First and foremost, I am not claiming that Iceland is completely devoid of any gender discrimination. Even the most progressive countries in the world are bound to have some bad apples, but if you’re still dreaming of living in a world free of gender discrimination, Iceland is the closest you can get. After a feminist protest in 1975, in which 90 percent of the female population participated, Icelandic society changed forever. They elected their first female president in 1980, and re-elected her three more times due to her popularity. In 2009, they elected their first openly lesbian Prime Minister, and what’s even more surprising is that her sexuality wasn’t even an issue in her campaign. Women also have equal representation in government, with over 40 percent of Parliament seats held by women. The U.S., on the other hand, has women in less than 20 percent of seats in Congress. Next time someone tells you that our country is treating men and women equally, kindly remind them about Iceland.
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9. Denmark: Childcare Services
A huge problem in our country, especially for women, is the cost of childcare services. Millions of mothers struggle every day to hold a job and raise their children, but in Denmark, the government pays for your kids’ daycare. This allows mothers to return to work and save a ton of money that would be spent on making sure their children are properly supervised. All Danish households pay no more than 25 percent of the cost of childcare services, and lower-income families can even get them for free. According to the OECD, Denmark ranks fifth out of 34 countries for female employment.
10. Netherlands: Sex Ed
Yes, the Netherlands does sex education better than us. Why? Because they actually teach people how to have healthy sexual attitudes, not the abstinence until marriage mantra that has dominated most American learning institutions. This claim can be argued, but the statistics speak for themselves. As Kelly J. Bell wrote in the Inquiries Journal, “Teens in the US have higher rates of pregnancy and abortion than any European country (Lottes, 2002). Young women in the United States experience intercourse at a younger age, use less effective contraception, and report higher rates of using no contraception at all than young women in every other industrialized country (Lottes, 2002)." In addition, more than half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unwanted or unplanned. In the Netherlands, teen sexuality is normalized rather than tabooed. Youths are taught to embrace their sexuality rather than suppress it. Sex is discussed openly among friends, family, and teachers, and these kinds of conversations are absolutely crucial for an adolescent’s development.
11. Every Other Country: Paid Maternity Leave
I saved this one for last because it is such an outrage. Seriously, how far behind can America get? A woman goes through a grueling nine-month ordeal which culminates with her delivering a living, breathing human, along with having to take care of her baby on a 24/7 basis for the next nine months, and that’s not a good enough reason to give her paid leave?! EVERY other developed country on the planet recognizes the importance of rearing a child, but in America, we expect our women to just go broke while they raise their children. Even as a man, this makes my blood boil. Paid maternity leave is a necessity, not a commodity, and our society needs to do away with antiquated legal measures like these and get caught up with the times. We are living in a new world where we know that all humans are created equal, and all mothers deserve to be able to raise their children while maintaining a steady income.
