“We should be ashamed,” is an understatement by Charles M. Blow in his Op Ed today in the New York Times entitled “America’s Exploding Pipe Dream.” 

Here are his key words:  “We sold ourselves a pipe dream that everyone could get rich and no one would get hurt — a pipe dream that exploded like a pipe bomb when the already-rich grabbed for all the gold; when they used their fortunes to influence government and gain favors and protection; when everyone else was left to scrounge around their ankles in hopes that a few coins would fall.”

“We have not taken care of the least among us. We have allowed a revolting level of income inequality to develop. We have watched as millions of our fellow countrymen have fallen into poverty. And we have done a poor job of educating our children and now threaten to leave them a country that is a shell of its former self. We should be ashamed.”

But, as the old hackneyed saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words and Mr. Blow has a picture (really a graph) in today’s paper from a recent report entitled “Social Justice in the OECD – How Do Member States Compare?” that proves his words are an understatement, with the US coming in near the bottom in every category measured:

Read the full Op Ed and view the graph here.