Now that Barack Obama has returned to his seat in the Whitehouse, perhaps the most important report in his inbox awaiting his attention is news that the American dream is suffering.
The US is no longer, for the first time, in the global top 10 of prosperous nations, according to a recent survey.
More incredibly, the country has fallen eight places in the ‘Entrepreneurship and Opportunity’ sub-index of the Legatum Prosperity Index.
To underline the fall, the index also found that fewer US citizens agree that working hard will result in success.
The European economy score has also dropped with the continuing Eurozone crisis but Asian ‘Tiger Club’ countries have quickly climbed towards the top.
US prosperity slips
Jeffrey Gedmin, president of the Legatum Institute, said: “The index paints a complex picture of what makes a country a success measuring material wealth and a sense of a citizen’s wellbeing because GDP alone cannot offer an entire measure of prosperity.
“We believe you can give a clear view of how countries are prospering by measuring the quality of things like education, health care and social capital as well as opportunity.
“More importantly, the index shows how likely a country is to prosper in the future.”
Apparently, Scandinavian countries are the most prosperous with Norway, Denmark and Sweden taking up the top three spots and Finland coming seventh.
Despite the Euro crisis, European prosperity has increased with Holland, Ireland and Germany each climbing the rankings in eighth, 10th and 14th places respectively. However, the index shows that 24 out of 33 European countries have seen their prosperity decline since 2009.
Asian Tigers roar
Quickly climbing the index is the new generation of Asian ‘Tigers’ such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand all doing well.
But Gedmin explains the index points to some very serious issues that President Obama has to confront.
He said the US national spirit is threatened as fewer citizens see that working hard can bring success -down 3% to 85% since last year.
Rising business start-up costs and a decrease in hi-tech exports has led the USA falling eight places in the ‘Entrepreneurship and Opportunities’ sub-index.
The US government’s approval rating has also fallen since 2009, and worse still their index ranking for its economy has dropped to 20th place – down seven places since last year. America now lies far behind Asia’s economic powerhouses and in behind Germany, which is in sixth position.
