Going Down the Tubes

A few days ago I read a report about some sort of index (sorry, no link) that ranks nations around the world in regards to peace, nonviolence, citizens opinions about feeling secure and overall prosperity. The US, not surprisingly, wasn't ranked very high. The author noted that we shouldn't view the index as being all bad since we did come in ahead of Somalia!

Today I found another article featuring an index -- the Corruption Index. Again, the US didn't even make the Top 20 (the higher up the list, the less corrupt).

Iraq and Afghanistan rank near rock-bottom in an index of corruption in 178 countries that found that nearly three- quarters of the countries surveyed showed serious corruption problems.

Iraq ranked 175 and Afghanistan 176 in the global index, just above Burma (Myanmar) and Somalia. These were the same ranks they achieved in 2009.

The United States, while still in the top 20 percent of the world index, fell from 19th in 2009 to 22nd this year, again failing to score in the top 20. That put it behind Canada, Barbados and Chile in the Americas.

The survey was carried out by watchdog group Transparency International (TI) in Berlin. To form its index, TI compiles surveys that ask businessmen and analysts, both in and outside the countries they are analyzing, their perceptions of how corrupt a country is...

I think it's quite illuminating that the opinions sought did not come from everyday citizens. No, the opinions utilized to compile the index came from "businessmen and analysts".

Can you just imagine how far down the list the US might be if average voters had their say?