10 Disturbing Facts About "Exceptional" America

1. 65% of Americans say news organizations focus on unimportant stories [4] rather than on important ones (28%).

[4]

 

2. More express concern over civil liberties [5] (47%) than protection from terrorism (35%) for the first time in Pew Research Center polling.

[5]

 

3. 3% of Americans still connect to the internet at home via a dial-up connection [6].

[6]

4. During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4% [7].

[7]

 

5. For the first time in more than four decades of polling on the issue, a majority (52%) of Americans favor legalizing the use of marijuana [8].

[8]

6. 15% of American adults do not use the internet or email [9].

[9]

7. 56% of U.S. adults say they would not want to undergo medical treatments to slow the aging process and live to be 120 or more [10], but roughly two-thirds (68%) think that most other people would. 

[10]

 

 

8. In 23 of 39 nations surveyed, a majority or plurality of the people say China either already has replaced or eventually will replace the U.S. as the top superpower [11].

[11]

 

9. One-in-ten (7.7 million) children were living with a grandparent [12] in 2011. Approximately 3 million of these children were being cared for primarily by that grandparent.

[12]

10. In 2012, 36% of the nation’s young adults ages 18 to 31—the so-called Millennial generation—were living in their parents’ home [13].

[13]

 

Via Pew Research [14]