Yesterday I got this feverish text from one of my best friends that read:
This is a big deal in my life, Louis C.K. is one of my favorite stand-up comedians, and his Louie show on FX is one of the best most creative things put on television since the first season of the Chappelle Show. After listening to the interview I was brought back to one of the best stand-up routines that Louie has ever done which was earlier this year when he talked about why so many people in the world hate Americans. His answer?
“America has White People Problems”
What are “White People Problems?” According to Louie “That’s when your life is amazing so you just make s**t up to be angry about.” He goes on to riff about how even our economic downturns are better than the standard of living of most people around the world, and most Americans could lose half their stuff and still be living better than a Canadian.
Now I’ve never been the kind of person that is placated by the notion that things could be worse. But I must admit, for the longest extended recession of the last 70 years the average American is still holding on better than folks did in the 1930s, let alone many people in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa.
Just to put our White people problems into context I looked up the United Nations Human Development Index from 1990 to 2010 (so it includes the recession) to see just where life in the United States falls when compared to folks across the world. The Human Development Index looks at the quality of life in a nation, taking into consideration access to healthcare, quality education, religious even and even the level of discrimination and inequality that your average person faces. You know what I found?
National Rank |
Human Development Index |
National Rank |
Human Development Index Adjusted for Inequality |
Australia |
.930 |
Australia |
.848 |
United States of America |
.900 |
Canada |
.820 |
Canada |
.890 |
United Kingdom |
.785 |
United Kingdom |
.860 |
United States of America |
.772 |
China |
.694 |
China |
.529 |
It turns out that the United States is ranked second overall amongst peer nations (by size, GDP etc.) when it comes to overall Human Development and quality of life. Of course when you take inequality and discrimination into context we drop to 4th but we’re still beating China.
So was Louis C.K. right? Does America suffer from White People Problems? Well compared to other White People Places we seem to be holding our own. Then again when you take discrimination into consideration we’re doing worse but still better than dozens of other countries. It does make you think though. When America has White People Problems it always seems to be those Black folks (those that get discriminated against) that end up suffering the most. Thanks for reminding me Louie!
This article originally appeared online at Politic365.com.