The U.S. had an extraordinarily big number of very low rankings for a country that received such a high overall ranking as #7. For example, the #7-ranked U.S. scored #100 or worse, among all 144 countries, on 6 factors. By comparison, #6 Germany scored #100 or worse on only 4; #8 U.K. also scored #100 or worse on only 4; #12 Denmark scored #100 or worse on only 2 (even though it was overall-ranked far below the U.S.); #14 Canada scored #100 or worse on only 3; and #15 Norway scored #100 or worse on only 3. And, at the top-scoring end, Switzerland scored #100 or worse on only 2; Singapore on only 1; and Finland on only 1.
Perhaps because of America's sheer global political clout, the WEF wished to tilt this country's overall ranking, in order to keep the U.S. inside the top 10. Many of the factors where America didn't score high look substantial, not just minor.
Whereas the WEF's ranking on each of the individual factors might be reasonably accurate, their remarkably opaque, and obviously pro-large-country, overall composite ranking-system, certainly is not at all reliable, and can thus reasonably be ignored.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010 , and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity .
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