Worldwide Currency: We’re Number 1
Since the end of World War II, the US dollar has been the most influential and significant currency in the world. There are, however, challenges to the dollar’s supremacy. Keith Rockwell, former chief spokesman for the World Trade Organization, sees three challenges:
“The most direct threat comes from a growing group of emerging countries that resent Washington’s weaponization of the dollar on global markets and payment networks. A second threat arises from technology, as central banks around the world work to develop their own digital currency networks. Another threat stems from the possibility that political grandstanding on Capitol Hill over the budget may undermine efforts to raise the debt ceiling and could subsequently lead the U.S. to default on its loans.” .
Political grandstanding was on full display during the 118th Congress. Republicans, holding a slim majority in the House of Representatives and feeling the pressure from its far-right wing, brought the United States to the brink of defaulting on its debt obligations in June 2023. As Rockwell has written, “the mere suggestion that some members of Congress are prepared to make a political point by allowing the nation to default is the kind of thing that rattles investors and shakes global confidence in the US.” The far-right wing faction collected its pound of flesh but the debt ceiling was raised and would not be visited again until after the 2024 presidential election. And in the new 119th Congress, grandstanding, threats and political pressure will undoubtedly be at the forefront.
The dollar dominates as the largest international reserve currency. During the first quarter of 2023, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported that 59.02 percent of the world’s official exchange rate reserves were held in US dollars; 19.77 percent were held in Euros; 5.47 percent were held in Japanese Yen; 4.85 percent in UK pounds sterling; and 2.58 percent in Chinese renminbi. In 1999, the share of US dollar assets in central bank reserves was 71 percent, the year the euro was launched; in 2023, the dollar has dropped to 59 percent.
The Chinese renminbi is the world’s fifth-largest payment currency, third-largest trade financing currency, and fifth-largest international reserve currency. While its importance and influence has grown over the past two decades, it has far to go to replace the dollar as the dominant international currency. As Eswar Prasad of Cornell University and the Brookings Institution wrote in 2020, “While the renminbi has the potential to become a significant reserve currency, it is unlikely to attain safe haven status in the absence of far-reaching reforms to China’s institutional and political structures.”
Sources: Keith Rockwell, “An Exorbitant Privilege Now at Risk? The Once (and Future?) Almighty Dollar,” Wilson Center, May 1, 2023, https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/exorbitant-privilege-now-risk-once-and-future-almighty-dollar; “Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves,” IMF, https://data.imf.org/?sk=e6a5f467-c14b-4aa8-9f6d-5a09ec4e62a4; Serkan Arslanalp and Chima Simpson-Bell, “US Dollar Share of Global Foreign Exchange Reserves Drops to 25-Year Low,” IMF Blog, May 25, 2021, https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2021/05/05/blog-us-dollar-share-of-global-foreign-exchange-reserves-drops-to-25-year-low; Junhua Zhang, “Prospects of the Yuan Unseating the Dollar,” GIS Reports, August 21, 2023, https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/yuan-unseating-the-dollar/; Eswar Prasad, “The Renminbi Rises but Will Not Rival the Dollar,” Brookings Institution, October 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-renminbi-rises-but-will-not-rival-the-dollar/.
Value Added Tax in OECD: We’re Number 38 (Don’t Have It)
First introduced in France in 1954, by 1960 there were fewer than ten countries worldwide that implemented the Value Added Tax (VAT); by 2022, it has become an important source of revenue in 174 countries. The VAT is a common form of consumption tax that is due at every stage of a product's manufacturing from the sale of the raw materials to its final purchase by a consumer. The OECD notes that “the spread of VAT has been among the most important developments in taxation over the last half century.” The VAT is attractive because it is capable of raising enormous amounts of revenue. In the United States, with consumption close to 70 percent of the GDP, even relatively small tax rates could capture a great deal of money.
In 2010, former Federal Reserve chairman and advisor to Barack Obama, Paul Volcker, suggested that higher taxes, perhaps a VAT or a carbon tax, might be needed to close some of the nation’s deficits. Obama said he wouldn’t rule out a VAT, despite his campaign pledge not to raise taxes on couples making $250,000 or less. It didn’t take long for the Senate—Republicans and Democrats alike--to strike back, voting 84-13 on a proposal sponsored by John McCain (Republican-Arizona): “It is the sense of the Senate that the Value Added Tax is a massive tax increase that will cripple families of fixed incomes and only further push back America’s economic recovery.” Conservative media, think tanks, and lawmakers joined forces to fully reject the notion of a VAT; but so, too, did Democrats object to such a new tax.
The possibility of a US federal VAT are slim: lawmakers on both sides of the ideological aisle are chary about introducing a new tax, even if it were to replace or modify existing federal taxes. Further, each state has its own taxing policy, and trying to coordinate and compromise with state legislatures would be an extraordinarily difficult task, full of complexities and political pitfalls.
Altogether, the OECD countries rely the most on consumption taxes, principally the VAT. In 2021, consumption taxes averaged 32.1 percent, social insurances taxes were 25.7 percent, individual income taxes were 23.9 percent; corporate taxes were 9.8 percent, and property taxes were 5.6 percent.
Sources: Consumption Tax Trends 2022: VAT/GST and Excise, OECD, n.d., https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/6525a942-en/1/3/1/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/6525a942-en&_csp_=9be05a02fe0e4dbe2c458d53fbfba33b&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book#figure-d1e568; Walter Alarkon, “Value-added Tax Has Some GOP Backers,” The Hill, May 3, 2010, https://thehill.com/policy/finance/68445-value-added-tax-has-some-gop-backers/; Howard Gleckman, “Conservatives and the VAT,” Tax Policy Center, April 2010, https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/conservatives-and-vat; Daniel Bunn and Cecilia Perez Weigel, “Sources of Government Revenue in the OECD, 2023,” Tax Foundation, February 23, 2023, https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/global/oecd-tax-revenue-by-country-2023.
Tax Obligation: We’re Number 33
When looking at other OECD countries, the US tax obligation of 26.6 percent of GDP is well below the average. Denmark has the highest percentage of GDP (46.9 percent); France is 2nd (45.1 percent); followed by Austria (43.5 percent), Italy (43.3) and Finland (43.0). The United States comes in as 26th. Chile, Ireland, and Mexico are the only OECD countries that collect a smaller percentage of taxes than the United States.
Individual states and their localities develop their own means and levels of taxation. Altogether, there are some 11,000 sales tax jurisdictions in the United States, and residents face combinations of income tax, property tax, excise tax, sales tax, and a wide variety of fees. Currently, seven states (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming) levy no income tax. This compares with several states that levy high individual income taxes: California (13.3 percent), Hawaii (11.1 percent), New York (10.9 percent), New Jersey (10.7 percent), (Oregon (9.9 percent), and Minnesota (9.8 percent). In addition, twelve states tax Social Security benefits (Colorado, Connecticut, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia).
Source: Tax Revenue, OECD, https://data.oecd.org/chart/72Cy: Jim Probasco, “Nine States with No Income Tax,” Investopedia, March 21, 2023, https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0210/7-states-with-no-income-tax.aspx.
Defense Spending: We’re Number 1
By 2022, total military expenditures throughout the world topped $2.24 trillion according to the Stockholm International Peace Institute. The sharpest rise in defense spending in 2022, a 13 percent increase, came from European countries in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In all, the $876.9 billion spent by the United States constituted about 39 percent of the entire world’s military spending.
The United States military budget in 2023 was $876.9 billion (3.5 percent of GDP). China was 2nd, with an estimated military budget of $292.0 billion (1.6 percent of GDP). Russia was 3rd, with $86.4 billion (4.1 percent of GDP), and India was 4th, with $81.4 billion (4.1 percent of GDP).
Source: “World Military Expenditure Reaches New Record High as European Spending Surges,” Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, April 24, 2023, https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2023/world-military-expenditure-reaches-new-record-high-european-spending-surges. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2023/world-military-expenditure-reaches-new-record-high-european-spending-surges.
General Government Debt as Percentage of GDP: We’re Number 4
The United States is certainly not the only country compelled to borrow money. In fact, during the pandemic years, nearly all the OECD countries were compelled to borrow funds. What becomes troubling is the accumulated level of indebtedness compared to the country’s GDP. Interest on the national debt was $640 billion in FY2023, was bound to grow as indebtedness grows and as interest rates climbed higher. The United States is not the most vulnerable, but it is close to the top when comparing national debt as a percentage of GDP.
Japan ranks 1st in general government debt as a percentage of GDP, coming in at 255 percent of GDP. Greece is 2nd (192 percent), and Italy is 3rd (173 percent). The United States was 4th, with government debt at 144 percent of GDP. France (117 percent) was 6th, the United Kingdom (104 percent) was 12th, Germany (77 percent) was 19th, and Australia (70 percent) was 21st.
Note: The OECD defines general government debt as the sum of the following liability categories (as applicable): currency and deposits; debt securities, loans; insurance, pensions and standardized guarantee schemes, and other accounts payable.
Source: “General Government Debt 2022,” OECD, https://data.oecd.org/gga/general-government-debt.htm.
National Budget, Percentage of GDP: We’re Number 20
As one would expect, the United States, with the highest Gross Domestic Product would also have the largest national budget. In 2021, the US ranked number one, followed by China, India, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Brazil, and Canada. But in terms of per capita spending, the US ranks 9th among OECD countries and as a percentage of GDP, it ranks 20th.
Norway has the highest per capita spending in the OECD at $37,204, followed by Austria ($36,254), Belgium ($35,244), Denmark ($33,379), and France ($32,379). The United States ranks 9th, spending $31,538 (using 2021 data). The OECD average for 2022 was $23,881. In terms of percentage of GDP, France ranked 1st.
Source: Luxembourg tops all countries with $62,084 pending per capita. “General Government Spending,” OECD, https://data.oecd.org/gga/general-government-spending.htm#indicator-chart.
Family Leave Policy: We’re Dead Last
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), signed into law by President Clinton in 1993, was considered a significant piece of legislation. For the first time in the United States public agencies and private companies with fifty or more employees were required to provide for their workers up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave, along with continued health care coverage, for the birth or adoption of a child, to care for an opposite-sex spouse, a parent, a sick child, or for the workers themselves. However, the FMLA did not cover about 40 percent of the workforce, particularly those who worked for companies with fewer than fifty employees or they had not worked long enough, 1,250 hours, during the previous year. FMLA was supposed to be a first step; but, from the federal policy perspective, it was the last.
Twenty-one years later, in a June 2014 radio address, President Obama lamented that “Only three countries in the world report that they don’t offer paid maternity leave. Three. And the United States is one of them. It’s time to change that. A few states have acted on their own to give workers paid family leave, but this should be available to everyone, because all Americans should be able to afford to care for a family member in need.” The two other countries? Oman and Papua New Guinea. But there has been no revamping of the Family and Medical Leave Act, no effort by Congress to address the need until early in the Biden administration. In 2021, a deeply divided Congress was considering a Democratic Party family leave plan that gave twelve weeks of paid coverage. The proposal faced opposition from Democrats Joe Manchin (West Virginia) and Kirsten Sinema (Arizona) along with unified obstruction from Republican lawmakers.
Family Leave throughout the World: According to the World Policy Analysis Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, the average paid maternity leave throughout the world in 2019 was twenty-nine weeks, while the average paid paternity leave was sixteen weeks.
Of the 186 countries offering leave for new mothers, just one country (Eswatini, formerly called Swaziland), offered less than four weeks; of the 174 countries offering leave for personal health concerns, just twenty-six offered four weeks or less.
Sources: Tara Siegel Bernard, “In Paid Family Leave, U.S. Trails Most of the Globe,” New York Times, February 22, 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/23/your-money/us-trails-much-of-the-world-in-providing-paid-family-leave.html; Barack Obama, “Bringing Our Workplace Policies into the Twenty-first Century,” The White House, June 21, 2014, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2014/06/21/weekly-address-bringing-our-workplace-policies-21st-century; Claire Cain Miller, “The World ‘Has Found a Way to Do This’: The US Lags on Paid Leave,” New York Times, November 3, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/25/upshot/paid-leave-democrats.html; World Policy Analysis Center, Fielding School of Public Health, UCLA, https://ph.ucla.edu/faculty-research/centers-programs/world-policy-analysis-center.
Artificial Intelligence: The Emerging Challenges
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for decades, but with the launching of generative AI apps, like ChatGPT which debuted in December 2022, policymakers have become much more interested in understanding both the benefits and dangers of this rapidly developing tool. AI generally has been defined as “machine learning models developed through training on large volumes of data in order to generate content” in the form of images, text, and audio. Or, as the European Parliament puts it, “AI is the ability of a machine to display human-like capabilities such as reasoning, learning, planning and creativity.”
For years, thought leaders in the cyberworld have touted the advantages of artificial intelligence: AI can help avoid human error; it can be available 24/7; it can be a form of digital assistance instead of relying on human interaction; it can perform repetitive tasks; it can formulate unbiased decision-making; it can be deployed in risky, dangerous situations; it has a wide variety of applications in medicine and disease prevention, along with other promising developments.
But for years, leaders in the cyber world have warned against the excesses and the unregulated nature of AI. This one-sentence warning from the Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit organization, has been signed by more than 350 AI scientists, executives, researchers and engineers: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, which is part of the European Union’s digital strategy to “ensure better conditions for development and use of this innovative technology.” EU rules were first proposed in April 2021, setting up a classification system, according to the risks involved. The European Parliament’s priority is to make sure that AI systems in the EU are “safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly. AI systems should be overseen by people, rather than by automation, to prevent harmful outcomes.”
The EU rules will ban AI systems as “Unacceptable Risks” if they are considered a threat to people. Such unacceptable risks are (1) cognitive behavioral manipulation of people or specific vulnerable groups (for example, voice-activated toys that encourage dangerous behavior in children); (2) social scoring: classifying people based on behavior, socio-economic status, or personal characteristics (for example, systems allowing law enforcement to predict criminal behavior using analytics); and (3) real-time and remote biometric identification systems, such as facial recognition.
Then in late October 2023, President Biden issued an Executive Order on AI, the most sweeping and comprehensive affecting this new industry. The Biden administration asserted that the Executive Order “establishes new standards for AI safety and security, protects Americans’ privacy, advances equity and civil rights, stands up for consumers and workers, promotes innovation and competition, advances American leadership around the world, and more.” The administration stated that it had consulted widely with Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the EU, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, the UAE, and the United Kingdom, as well as ongoing discussions with the United Nations.
The Biden administration acknowledged that, despite the comprehensive nature of the Executive Order, that much still needed to be done the Congress, and done without delay. However, then came a change in administration. Immediately upon entering office, Donald Trump issued an Executive Order “eliminating harmful Biden Administration AI policies” that “hinder AI innovation and onerous and unnecessary government control over the development of AI.”
Sources: Laurie A. Harris, Artificial Intelligence: Overview, Recent Advances, and Considerations for the 118th Congress, Congressional Research Service, August 4, 2023, R47644, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47644; “What is Artificial Intelligence and How is It Used?” European Parliament, June 20, 2023, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20200827STO85804/what-is-artificial-intelligence-and-how-is-it-used. “Statement on AI Risk,” Center for AI Safety, n.d., https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk (accessed October 24, 2023). “EU AI Act: First Regulation on Artificial Intelligence,” European Parliament, June 8, 2023, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20230601STO93804/eu-ai-act-first-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence. Liz Landers and Luke Barr, “How Obama Helped President Biden Draft the AI Executive Order,” ABC News, November 3, 2023, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-helped-president-biden-draft-ai-executive-order/story?id=104608286. “President Biden Issues Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence,” The White House, October 30, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/30/fact-sheet-president-biden-issues-executive-order-on-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-artificial-intelligence/.“Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Takes Action to Enhance America’s AO Leadership,” The White House, January 23, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-takes-action-to-enhance-americas-ai-leadership/
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for decades, but with the launching of generative AI apps, like ChatGPT which debuted in December 2022, policymakers have become much more interested in understanding both the benefits and dangers of this rapidly developing tool. AI generally has been defined as “machine learning models developed through training on large volumes of data in order to generate content” in the form of images, text, and audio. Or, as the European Parliament puts it, “AI is the ability of a machine to display human-like capabilities such as reasoning, learning, planning and creativity.”
For years, thought leaders in the cyberworld have touted the advantages of artificial intelligence: AI can help avoid human error; it can be available 24/7; it can be a form of digital assistance instead of relying on human interaction; it can perform repetitive tasks; it can formulate unbiased decision-making; it can be deployed in risky, dangerous situations; it has a wide variety of applications in medicine and disease prevention, along with other promising developments.
But for years, leaders in the cyber world have warned against the excesses and the unregulated nature of AI. This one-sentence warning from the Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit organization, has been signed by more than 350 AI scientists, executives, researchers and engineers: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, which is part of the European Union’s digital strategy to “ensure better conditions for development and use of this innovative technology.” EU rules were first proposed in April 2021, setting up a classification system, according to the risks involved. The European Parliament’s priority is to make sure that AI systems in the EU are “safe, transparent, traceable, non-discriminatory and environmentally friendly. AI systems should be overseen by people, rather than by automation, to prevent harmful outcomes.”
The EU rules will ban AI systems as “Unacceptable Risks” if they are considered a threat to people. Such unacceptable risks are (1) cognitive behavioral manipulation of people or specific vulnerable groups (for example, voice-activated toys that encourage dangerous behavior in children); (2) social scoring: classifying people based on behavior, socio-economic status, or personal characteristics (for example, systems allowing law enforcement to predict criminal behavior using analytics); and (3) real-time and remote biometric identification systems, such as facial recognition.
Then in late October 2023, President Biden issued an Executive Order on AI, the most sweeping and comprehensive affecting this new industry. The Biden administration asserted that the Executive Order “establishes new standards for AI safety and security, protects Americans’ privacy, advances equity and civil rights, stands up for consumers and workers, promotes innovation and competition, advances American leadership around the world, and more.” The administration stated that it had consulted widely with Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the EU, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, the UAE, and the United Kingdom, as well as ongoing discussions with the United Nations.
The Biden administration acknowledged that, despite the comprehensive nature of the Executive Order, that much still needed to be done the Congress, and done without delay. However, then came a change in administration. Immediately upon entering office, Donald Trump issued an Executive Order “eliminating harmful Biden Administration AI policies” that “hinder AI innovation and onerous and unnecessary government control over the development of AI.”
Sources: Laurie A. Harris, Artificial Intelligence: Overview, Recent Advances, and Considerations for the 118th Congress, Congressional Research Service, August 4, 2023, R47644, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47644; “What is Artificial Intelligence and How is It Used?” European Parliament, June 20, 2023, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20200827STO85804/what-is-artificial-intelligence-and-how-is-it-used. “Statement on AI Risk,” Center for AI Safety, n.d., https://www.safe.ai/statement-on-ai-risk (accessed October 24, 2023). “EU AI Act: First Regulation on Artificial Intelligence,” European Parliament, June 8, 2023, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20230601STO93804/eu-ai-act-first-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence. Liz Landers and Luke Barr, “How Obama Helped President Biden Draft the AI Executive Order,” ABC News, November 3, 2023, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/obama-helped-president-biden-draft-ai-executive-order/story?id=104608286. “President Biden Issues Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence,” The White House, October 30, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/10/30/fact-sheet-president-biden-issues-executive-order-on-safe-secure-and-trustworthy-artificial-intelligence/.“Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Takes Action to Enhance America’s AO Leadership,” The White House, January 23, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-takes-action-to-enhance-americas-ai-leadership/
Metric System: We’re One of Three Countries Not Adopting It
Americans are outliers when it comes to measurements, clinging to the old Imperial system rather than the metric system. At one time in the 1970s, the American government experimented with the metric system, but it never caught on. Americans prefer miles (not kilometers), gallons (not liters), and Fahrenheit (not Celsius). In 1975, Congress enacted the Metric Conversion Act, which declared that the metric system was “the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce.” The law did not mandate conversion, noting that it was “completely voluntary.” It also developed a US Metric Board to help educate the American public and to implement a conversion.
Nearly every other country in the world has adopted the metric system. In fact, just three countries in the world—Myanmar, Liberia, and the United States—officially cling to the Imperial system. Not even the country most associated historically with the Imperial system—the United Kingdom—has stayed with it, although there are plenty of informal uses.
Ironically, the America system of money is based on 100s, a metric measurement. Thomas Jefferson proposed that American money be based on divisions of 100; thus, the United States became the first country in the world to “metrify” its coinage. Today, the euro, adopted nearly everywhere in Europe, is based on the metric system; even the British pound sterling is based on its own metric system, with 100 pence (pennies) per pound.
Why, in today’s nearly global acceptance of the metric system, would anyone object to the US joining the rest of the world? Historian Stephen Mihm argued that national pride is at stake. “The adoption of another country's weights and measures—or in the case of the metric system, the rest of the world's weights and measures—seems an infringement on national sovereignty. That the system in question has a long and distinguished history as a pet project of Francophile, cosmopolitan liberals probably doesn't help make it appealing to American conservatives.”
Source: Mihm quoted in Yoni Appelbaum, “Who’s Afraid of the Metric System?” The Atlantic, June 6, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/06/whos-afraid-of-the-metric-system/395057/.
Americans are outliers when it comes to measurements, clinging to the old Imperial system rather than the metric system. At one time in the 1970s, the American government experimented with the metric system, but it never caught on. Americans prefer miles (not kilometers), gallons (not liters), and Fahrenheit (not Celsius). In 1975, Congress enacted the Metric Conversion Act, which declared that the metric system was “the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce.” The law did not mandate conversion, noting that it was “completely voluntary.” It also developed a US Metric Board to help educate the American public and to implement a conversion.
Nearly every other country in the world has adopted the metric system. In fact, just three countries in the world—Myanmar, Liberia, and the United States—officially cling to the Imperial system. Not even the country most associated historically with the Imperial system—the United Kingdom—has stayed with it, although there are plenty of informal uses.
Ironically, the America system of money is based on 100s, a metric measurement. Thomas Jefferson proposed that American money be based on divisions of 100; thus, the United States became the first country in the world to “metrify” its coinage. Today, the euro, adopted nearly everywhere in Europe, is based on the metric system; even the British pound sterling is based on its own metric system, with 100 pence (pennies) per pound.
Why, in today’s nearly global acceptance of the metric system, would anyone object to the US joining the rest of the world? Historian Stephen Mihm argued that national pride is at stake. “The adoption of another country's weights and measures—or in the case of the metric system, the rest of the world's weights and measures—seems an infringement on national sovereignty. That the system in question has a long and distinguished history as a pet project of Francophile, cosmopolitan liberals probably doesn't help make it appealing to American conservatives.”
Source: Mihm quoted in Yoni Appelbaum, “Who’s Afraid of the Metric System?” The Atlantic, June 6, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/06/whos-afraid-of-the-metric-system/395057/.
Broadband Performance: We’re Number 9
Some 8.5 million locations in the US that lack access to broadband connections. Looking at their balance sheets, broadband companies like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and Charter Communications are reluctant to provide access to rural communities, with small populations, and the need for large investments to provide service to them. The lack of such service became particularly evident during the COVID pandemic.
In June 2023, the White House announced that $42 billion would be divided up among the states and US territories, making high-speed Internet access available universally by 2030. The funds—the largest ever spent on the Internet in the US—came out of the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, deemed the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program. Nineteen states received allocations of over $1 billion, with these states receiving the most funds: Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
Along with the issue of access is that of broadband speed. In the most recent analysis, the United States ranked 9th in Megabits/second speed. Romania, Switzerland, Denmark, Thailand, and Chile led the list of having the fastest broad band speed.
Sources: Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw, “US to Spend $42 Billion to Make Internet Access Universal by 2030,” Reuters, June 26, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-detail-plans-42-billion-investment-us-internet-access-2023-06-26/. “Biden-Harris Administration Announces Over $40 Billion to Connect Everyone in America to Affordable, Reliable, High-Speed Internet,” White House, June 26, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/26/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-over-40-billion-to-connect-everyone-in-america-to-affordable-reliable-high-speed-internet/. Internet Speeds by Country, 2023,” World Population Review, n.d., https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/internet-speeds-by-country.
Some 8.5 million locations in the US that lack access to broadband connections. Looking at their balance sheets, broadband companies like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and Charter Communications are reluctant to provide access to rural communities, with small populations, and the need for large investments to provide service to them. The lack of such service became particularly evident during the COVID pandemic.
In June 2023, the White House announced that $42 billion would be divided up among the states and US territories, making high-speed Internet access available universally by 2030. The funds—the largest ever spent on the Internet in the US—came out of the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, deemed the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program. Nineteen states received allocations of over $1 billion, with these states receiving the most funds: Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
Along with the issue of access is that of broadband speed. In the most recent analysis, the United States ranked 9th in Megabits/second speed. Romania, Switzerland, Denmark, Thailand, and Chile led the list of having the fastest broad band speed.
Sources: Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw, “US to Spend $42 Billion to Make Internet Access Universal by 2030,” Reuters, June 26, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-detail-plans-42-billion-investment-us-internet-access-2023-06-26/. “Biden-Harris Administration Announces Over $40 Billion to Connect Everyone in America to Affordable, Reliable, High-Speed Internet,” White House, June 26, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/26/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-over-40-billion-to-connect-everyone-in-america-to-affordable-reliable-high-speed-internet/. Internet Speeds by Country, 2023,” World Population Review, n.d., https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/internet-speeds-by-country.
Semiconductor Manufacturing: We’re Number 5
In 1990, some 37 percent of advanced semiconductor chips were manufactured in the United States; by 2020, the percentage had fallen dramatically to just 12 percent. Not only had production fallen, but the US lacked the capability to produce the most advanced chips in volume. Foreign competitors, particularly China, have invested heavily in this vital industry, fueled by government subsidies.
ASML in the Netherlands is the only manufacturer in the world making microchips that are essential to produce semiconductors. These microchips contain billions of transistors, making the chips faster, more powerful, and more energy efficient. ASML (for Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography) employs EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography to create the tiny circuitry found in computer chips, and its most recent tool, a High NA EUV, the size of a double-decker bus and costing $350 million, will help develop a new generation of even smaller and faster chips. The giant chip makers, TSMC in Taiwan, Samsung in South Korea, and Intel in the United States, rely on the ASML technology and products. Everything from smart technology found in automobiles and mobile phones, to augmented reality, and artificial intelligence rely on EUV technology. In 2024, an Intel facility near Hillsboro, Oregon, using High NA EUV technology, was under production and a major TSMC plant in Arizona was near completion.
One estimate finds that within the next decade, there will be a 53 percent increase in the demand for such semiconductor chips. For many policymakers in the US, these daunting facts showed how imperative it was to enact legislation boosting the US semiconductor industry.
In July 2022, through a rare bipartisan vote, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, designed to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research and development, and tax credits for chip manufacturing. To protect domestic competitiveness in this field, the CHIPS Act provided safeguards to ensure that those companies receiving federal funds could not build advanced semiconductor production facilities in countries that present national security concerns. As the Biden White House noted, “America invented the semiconductor, but today produces about 10 percent of the world’s supply—and none of the most advanced chips. Instead, we rely on East Asia for 75 percent of global production. The CHIPS and Science Act will unlock hundreds of billions more in private sector semiconductor investment across the country, including production essential to national defense and critical sectors.”
As Reuters noted, “The CHIPS Act will have a broad impact, bolstering US leadership in wireless technology, and CHIPS funding will benefit not only US chip manufacturers, but also U.S. universities, K-12 STEM educational programs, and regional hubs among other advancements in innovation.”
Sources: “The ‘NA’ in the name refers to numerical aperture – a measure of the ability of an optical system to collect and focus light. And it’s called High NA EUV because we’ve increased the NA from 0.33 in our NXE systems to 0.55 in EXE systems. The higher NA is what gives the systems their better resolution.” In Christine Middleton, “Five Things You Should Know About High NA EUV Lithography,” ASML, January 24, 2024, https://www.asml.com/en/news/stories/2024/5-things-high-na-euv; “EUV Lithography Systems,” ASML, n.d., https://www.asml.com/en/products/euv-lithography-systems. “Semiconductor Manufacturing by Country,” World Population Review, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/semiconductor-manufacturing-by-country. “CHIPS and Science Act Will Lower Costs, Create Jobs, Strengthen Supply Chains, and Counter China,” The White House, August 9, 2022, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/09/fact-sheet-chips-and-science-act-will-lower-costs-create-jobs-strengthen-supply-chains-and-counter-china/. CHIPS is an acronym for “Creating Healthy Incentives to Produce Semiconductors.” Michelle Schulz, “Passage of the CHIPS and Science Act: What does This Mean for US Export Controls? Reuters, September 7, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/passage-chips-science-act-what-does-this-mean-us-export-controls-2022-09-07/.
In 1990, some 37 percent of advanced semiconductor chips were manufactured in the United States; by 2020, the percentage had fallen dramatically to just 12 percent. Not only had production fallen, but the US lacked the capability to produce the most advanced chips in volume. Foreign competitors, particularly China, have invested heavily in this vital industry, fueled by government subsidies.
ASML in the Netherlands is the only manufacturer in the world making microchips that are essential to produce semiconductors. These microchips contain billions of transistors, making the chips faster, more powerful, and more energy efficient. ASML (for Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography) employs EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography to create the tiny circuitry found in computer chips, and its most recent tool, a High NA EUV, the size of a double-decker bus and costing $350 million, will help develop a new generation of even smaller and faster chips. The giant chip makers, TSMC in Taiwan, Samsung in South Korea, and Intel in the United States, rely on the ASML technology and products. Everything from smart technology found in automobiles and mobile phones, to augmented reality, and artificial intelligence rely on EUV technology. In 2024, an Intel facility near Hillsboro, Oregon, using High NA EUV technology, was under production and a major TSMC plant in Arizona was near completion.
One estimate finds that within the next decade, there will be a 53 percent increase in the demand for such semiconductor chips. For many policymakers in the US, these daunting facts showed how imperative it was to enact legislation boosting the US semiconductor industry.
In July 2022, through a rare bipartisan vote, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, designed to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research and development, and tax credits for chip manufacturing. To protect domestic competitiveness in this field, the CHIPS Act provided safeguards to ensure that those companies receiving federal funds could not build advanced semiconductor production facilities in countries that present national security concerns. As the Biden White House noted, “America invented the semiconductor, but today produces about 10 percent of the world’s supply—and none of the most advanced chips. Instead, we rely on East Asia for 75 percent of global production. The CHIPS and Science Act will unlock hundreds of billions more in private sector semiconductor investment across the country, including production essential to national defense and critical sectors.”
As Reuters noted, “The CHIPS Act will have a broad impact, bolstering US leadership in wireless technology, and CHIPS funding will benefit not only US chip manufacturers, but also U.S. universities, K-12 STEM educational programs, and regional hubs among other advancements in innovation.”
Sources: “The ‘NA’ in the name refers to numerical aperture – a measure of the ability of an optical system to collect and focus light. And it’s called High NA EUV because we’ve increased the NA from 0.33 in our NXE systems to 0.55 in EXE systems. The higher NA is what gives the systems their better resolution.” In Christine Middleton, “Five Things You Should Know About High NA EUV Lithography,” ASML, January 24, 2024, https://www.asml.com/en/news/stories/2024/5-things-high-na-euv; “EUV Lithography Systems,” ASML, n.d., https://www.asml.com/en/products/euv-lithography-systems. “Semiconductor Manufacturing by Country,” World Population Review, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/semiconductor-manufacturing-by-country. “CHIPS and Science Act Will Lower Costs, Create Jobs, Strengthen Supply Chains, and Counter China,” The White House, August 9, 2022, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/09/fact-sheet-chips-and-science-act-will-lower-costs-create-jobs-strengthen-supply-chains-and-counter-china/. CHIPS is an acronym for “Creating Healthy Incentives to Produce Semiconductors.” Michelle Schulz, “Passage of the CHIPS and Science Act: What does This Mean for US Export Controls? Reuters, September 7, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/passage-chips-science-act-what-does-this-mean-us-export-controls-2022-09-07/.
Global Innovation: We’re Number 3
The Global Innovation Index, co-founded in 2007 by Soumitra Dutta, dean of the Säid Business School at Oxford University, uses eighty indicators to track global innovation in over 130 economies. Dutta noted that “We are witnessing exponential progress in digital technologies and many fields of deep science. This is providing a boost to innovation across sectors and holds the hope of providing solutions to some of our world’s complex problems in climate, food, health and related challenges.” For the thirteenth year in a row, Switzerland was ranked as the most innovative of all the 130-plus economies surveyed; Sweden was ranked 2nd. The United States was ranked number 2 in 2022 but slipped to number 3 in 2023.
Sources: Global Innovation Index 2023: Switzerland, Sweden and the US Lead the Global Innovation Ranking,” Säid School of Business, Oxford University, September 27, 2023, https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/news/global-innovation-index-2023-switzerland-sweden-and-us-lead-global-innovation-ranking; Global Innovation Index Database, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 2023, https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo-pub-2000-2023-section1-en-gii-2023-at-a-glance-global-innovation-index-2023.pdf.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the largest technology trade association in North America, since 2018 has published a worldwide ranking of innovation. In its 2023 report, focused on 17 categories, encompassing 40 separate indicators. In these evaluations, the United States exhibited a decided leadership role. Looking at several categories, the US ranked number one in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, drones and advanced air mobility, and telehealth and telemedicine.
Source: “2023 CTA International Innovation Scorecard,” Consumer Technology Association, January 2023, https://cdn.cta.tech/cta/media/media/advocacy/scorecard/2023-cta-international-innovation-scorecard.pdf. Also earning plaudits from the CTA were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the European Union
The Global Innovation Index, co-founded in 2007 by Soumitra Dutta, dean of the Säid Business School at Oxford University, uses eighty indicators to track global innovation in over 130 economies. Dutta noted that “We are witnessing exponential progress in digital technologies and many fields of deep science. This is providing a boost to innovation across sectors and holds the hope of providing solutions to some of our world’s complex problems in climate, food, health and related challenges.” For the thirteenth year in a row, Switzerland was ranked as the most innovative of all the 130-plus economies surveyed; Sweden was ranked 2nd. The United States was ranked number 2 in 2022 but slipped to number 3 in 2023.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the largest technology trade association in North America, since 2018 has published a worldwide ranking of innovation. In its 2023 report, focused on 17 categories, encompassing 40 separate indicators. In these evaluations, the United States exhibited a decided leadership role. Looking at several categories, the US ranked number one in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, drones and advanced air mobility, and telehealth and telemedicine. Also earning plaudits from the CTA were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the European Union
Sources: Global Innovation Index 2023: Switzerland, Sweden and the US Lead the Global Innovation Ranking,” Säid School of Business, Oxford University, September 27, 2023, https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/news/global-innovation-index-2023-switzerland-sweden-and-us-lead-global-innovation-ranking; Global Innovation Index Database, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 2023, https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo-pub-2000-2023-section1-en-gii-2023-at-a-glance-global-innovation-index-2023.pdf. “2023 CTA International Innovation Scorecard,” Consumer Technology Association, January 2023, https://cdn.cta.tech/cta/media/media/advocacy/scorecard/2023-cta-international-innovation-scorecard.pdf.
Spending on Research and Development: We’re Number 4
President Dwight Eisenhower was a firm believer in Research and Development (R&D) investments and knew that private industry could not bear the burden of such expenditures by itself. R&D basically covers three types of activity: basic research, applied research, and experimental development. Simply put, R&D has been described as the “generation of new knowledge.” It was up to the federal government and Republican Eisenhower to push for more federal expenditures. As journalist David Leonhardt observed, the “Eisenhower investment boom has no peer in US history, at least outside a major war.” He was able to be both a “fiscal conservative and a president who nearly tripled R&D spending” between the early 1950s and the early 1960s.
In 1964, the US government provided about two-thirds of all domestic R&D funds; by the 2020s, that federal contribution had slipped dramatically, with just 21 percent of R&D funds. Nearly all the remaining R&D funds were provided by private business. In 2021, federal R&D funds account for less than 1 percent of GDP.
As a percentage of GDP, the United States ranks fourth in the world, after Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan in investing money in Research & Development.
Note: The OECD defines gross domestic spending on R&D as “the total expenditure (current and capital) on R&D carried out by all resident companies, research institutes, university and government laboratories, etc., in a country. . .This indicator is measured in USD constant prices using 2015 base year and Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) and as percentage of GDP.”
Sources: “Gross Domestic Spending on R&D,” OECD, https://data.oecd.org/rd/gross-domestic-spending-on-r-d.htm (accessed October 30, 2023). Stephen James, “What is R&D? Its Role in Business and How It Relates to R&D Tax Credits,” ForrestBrown, October 13, 2009, https://forrestbrown.co.uk/news/what-is-r-and-d/; David Leonhardt, “Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America,” New York Times, October 17, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/17/magazine/us-public-investment.html (accessed October 30, 2023). See, also, John Walsh, “The Eisenhower Era: Transition Years for Science,” Science 164 (3875) (April 4, 1969): 50-53, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1726957; Gary Anderson and Francisco Moris, “Federally-Funded R&D Declines as a Share of GDP and Total R&D,” National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, NSF 23-339, National Science Foundation, June 13, 2023, https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23339#:~:text=The%20ratio%20of%20U.S.%20research,funding%20sources%20for%20domestic%20R%26D.
President Dwight Eisenhower was a firm believer in Research and Development (R&D) investments and knew that private industry could not bear the burden of such expenditures by itself. R&D basically covers three types of activity: basic research, applied research, and experimental development. Simply put, R&D has been described as the “generation of new knowledge.” It was up to the federal government and Republican Eisenhower to push for more federal expenditures. As journalist David Leonhardt observed, the “Eisenhower investment boom has no peer in US history, at least outside a major war.” He was able to be both a “fiscal conservative and a president who nearly tripled R&D spending” between the early 1950s and the early 1960s.
In 1964, the US government provided about two-thirds of all domestic R&D funds; by the 2020s, that federal contribution had slipped dramatically, with just 21 percent of R&D funds. Nearly all the remaining R&D funds were provided by private business. In 2021, federal R&D funds account for less than 1 percent of GDP.
As a percentage of GDP, the United States ranks fourth in the world, after Israel, South Korea, and Taiwan in investing money in Research & Development.
Note: The OECD defines gross domestic spending on R&D as “the total expenditure (current and capital) on R&D carried out by all resident companies, research institutes, university and government laboratories, etc., in a country. . .This indicator is measured in USD constant prices using 2015 base year and Purchasing Power Parities (PPPs) and as percentage of GDP.”
Sources: “Gross Domestic Spending on R&D,” OECD, https://data.oecd.org/rd/gross-domestic-spending-on-r-d.htm (accessed October 30, 2023). Stephen James, “What is R&D? Its Role in Business and How It Relates to R&D Tax Credits,” ForrestBrown, October 13, 2009, https://forrestbrown.co.uk/news/what-is-r-and-d/; David Leonhardt, “Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America,” New York Times, October 17, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/17/magazine/us-public-investment.html (accessed October 30, 2023). See, also, John Walsh, “The Eisenhower Era: Transition Years for Science,” Science 164 (3875) (April 4, 1969): 50-53, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1726957; Gary Anderson and Francisco Moris, “Federally-Funded R&D Declines as a Share of GDP and Total R&D,” National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, NSF 23-339, National Science Foundation, June 13, 2023, https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23339#:~:text=The%20ratio%20of%20U.S.%20research,funding%20sources%20for%20domestic%20R%26D.
Electric Vehicles Market Share: We’re Number 21
During the first half of 2023, Tesla ranked as Number 1 (Model Y) and Number 2 (Model 3) in the worldwide EV market. The next four positions were held by the Chinese company BYD. Chinese companies held twelve of the twenty top spots in EV sales during this time. Chinese EV manufacturers are producing highly sophisticated, beautifully designed, and most importantly, affordable vehicles, that are rapidly filling markets throughout the world—except for the United States. In May 2024, the Biden administration imposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs. President Biden justified the move to protect American jobs and market share, arguing that the Chinese “are flooding the market. It’s not competing—it’s cheating.” Indeed, the threat was real. Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley was “shocked” in a 2024 visit to China, seeing first-hand the extraordinary improvement in manufacturing, design, and features in Chinese EVs. Ford, which until very recently had been the second ranked EV producer (behind Tesla) in the United States, had been losing an estimated $36,000 on each of the 36,000 EVs it had delivered to its dealers during the third quarter of 2024. General Motors postponed plans for a $4 billion electric vehicle plant to be opened in Michigan.
The government of China has determined that the production of EVs would be a strategic investment, providing economic benefits as well as reducing air pollution and dependence on foreign oil. By 2022, the automobile company BYD had sold 1.85 million EVs, becoming the world’s second largest producer, behind Tesla; in 2023, BYD became the world leader in fully electric cars. Its best-selling EV, the Seagull, sells for around $11,000. Currently, the Chinese consumer can choose from almost 300 models; in addition, 80 percent of the top EVs sold in China are made by Chinese companies. Like Norway, China has offered a series of subsidies and tax breaks, both for the manufacturers of EVs and their customers, often making EVs cheaper than ICE vehicles. For BYD, the Chinese government had invested $2.6 billion from 2008 through 2022; the company was also given critical assistance from American investor Warren E. Buffet, who bought 10 percent of BYD in 2008, giving the company a critical infusion of cash. The central government also has invested in 760,000 public fast-charging stations and 1 million public slower-charging stations—more than the rest of the world combined. It also adopted a variation of the California zero-emissions mandate to eventually replace subsidies.
As journalist Joel Jaeger noted, “policies mandating 100 percent EV sales are the single most effective policy to drive the transition. Currently, sixteen countries including Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom, have some form of policy mandating 100 percent EV sales in 2035 or earlier.”
Sources: José Pontes, “World EV Sales Now 19% of World Sales!” CleanTechnica.com, August 2, 2023, https://cleantechnica.com/2023/08/02/world-ev-sales-now-19-of-world-auto-sales/; Mike Colias, “What Scared Ford’s CEO in China,” Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/ford-china-ev-competition-farley-ceo-50ded461; Biden quote from Natalie Sherman, “Biden Hits Chinese Electric Cars and Solar Cells with Higher Tariffs,” BBC, May 14, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-69004520; David Shepherdson and Nathan Gomes, “Ford Cuts F-150 Lightning Production as EV Demand Softens,” Reuters, January 19, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-reduce-f-150-lightning-production-2024-01-19/#:~:text=Ford%20lost%20an%20estimated%20%2436%2C000,sales%20of%20gas%2Delectric%20hybrids; Keith Bradsher, “How China built BYD, Its Tesla Killer,” New York Times, February 10, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/business/byd-china-electric-vehicle.html; Joel Jaeger, “These Countries Are Adopting Electric Vehicles the Fastest,” World Resources Institute, September 14, 2023, https://www.wri.org/insights/countries-adopting-electric-vehicles-fastest#:~:text=The%20top%205%20countries%20with,%25)%2C%20according%20to%20our%20analysis.
Topping the list of EV adoptions is Norway, which in 2022 saw 87.8 percent of its new automobiles as EVs; in 2013, that figure was just 6.1 percent. Iceland is 2nd, with 56.1 percent new car adoptions (1.3 percent in 2013); Sweden is tied for 2nd with 56.1 percent adoption (0.7 percent in 2013); Denmark is 4th, with 38.6 percent adoption (0.3 in 2013), and Finland is 5th, with 37.5 percent adoption (none in 2013).
The United States comes in 21st place, with 7.7 percent EV adoption in 2022, with a 0.16 percent adoption in 2013.
But with the second Trump administration, electric vehicles were no longer a priority. Trump, two months before taking office for his second term, vowed to get rid of the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases. His close adviser, Elon Musk, heartily agreed. “Take away the subsidies, it will only help Tesla,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns. The elimination of the tax credit would most likely hurt General Motors, Ford, Rivian, and Stellantis—the weakest American rivals to Tesla. On January 20, 2025, his first day in office, Trump cancelled the EV tax credit. Edmunds.com, an automobile purchasing guide, warned that “the potential elimination of the federal tax credit for electric vehicles by the Trump administration—without another form of incentive to replace it—could derail the trajectory of EV sales in the United States.”
Sources: Executive Order, “Unleashing American Energy,” White House, January 20, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy; /Kate Gibson, “Trump’s Win Could Sharply Raise the Cost of Electric Vehicles. Here’s Why,” CBS News, November 15,2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-elon-musk-donald-trump-ev-tax-credit/.
During the first half of 2023, Tesla ranked as Number 1 (Model Y) and Number 2 (Model 3) in the worldwide EV market. The next four positions were held by the Chinese company BYD. Chinese companies held twelve of the twenty top spots in EV sales during this time. Chinese EV manufacturers are producing highly sophisticated, beautifully designed, and most importantly, affordable vehicles, that are rapidly filling markets throughout the world—except for the United States. In May 2024, the Biden administration imposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs. President Biden justified the move to protect American jobs and market share, arguing that the Chinese “are flooding the market. It’s not competing—it’s cheating.” Indeed, the threat was real. Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley was “shocked” in a 2024 visit to China, seeing first-hand the extraordinary improvement in manufacturing, design, and features in Chinese EVs. Ford, which until very recently had been the second ranked EV producer (behind Tesla) in the United States, had been losing an estimated $36,000 on each of the 36,000 EVs it had delivered to its dealers during the third quarter of 2024. General Motors postponed plans for a $4 billion electric vehicle plant to be opened in Michigan.
The government of China has determined that the production of EVs would be a strategic investment, providing economic benefits as well as reducing air pollution and dependence on foreign oil. By 2022, the automobile company BYD had sold 1.85 million EVs, becoming the world’s second largest producer, behind Tesla; in 2023, BYD became the world leader in fully electric cars. Its best-selling EV, the Seagull, sells for around $11,000. Currently, the Chinese consumer can choose from almost 300 models; in addition, 80 percent of the top EVs sold in China are made by Chinese companies. Like Norway, China has offered a series of subsidies and tax breaks, both for the manufacturers of EVs and their customers, often making EVs cheaper than ICE vehicles. For BYD, the Chinese government had invested $2.6 billion from 2008 through 2022; the company was also given critical assistance from American investor Warren E. Buffet, who bought 10 percent of BYD in 2008, giving the company a critical infusion of cash. The central government also has invested in 760,000 public fast-charging stations and 1 million public slower-charging stations—more than the rest of the world combined. It also adopted a variation of the California zero-emissions mandate to eventually replace subsidies.
As journalist Joel Jaeger noted, “policies mandating 100 percent EV sales are the single most effective policy to drive the transition. Currently, sixteen countries including Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom, have some form of policy mandating 100 percent EV sales in 2035 or earlier.”
Topping the list of EV adoptions is Norway, which in 2022 saw 87.8 percent of its new automobiles as EVs; in 2013, that figure was just 6.1 percent. Iceland is 2nd, with 56.1 percent new car adoptions (1.3 percent in 2013); Sweden is tied for 2nd with 56.1 percent adoption (0.7 percent in 2013); Denmark is 4th, with 38.6 percent adoption (0.3 in 2013), and Finland is 5th, with 37.5 percent adoption (none in 2013).
The United States comes in 21st place, with 7.7 percent EV adoption in 2022, with a 0.16 percent adoption in 2013.
But with the second Trump administration, electric vehicles were no longer a priority. Trump, two months before taking office for his second term, vowed to get rid of the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases. His close adviser, Elon Musk, heartily agreed. “Take away the subsidies, it will only help Tesla,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns. The elimination of the tax credit would most likely hurt General Motors, Ford, Rivian, and Stellantis—the weakest American rivals to Tesla. On January 20, 2025, his first day in office, Trump cancelled the EV tax credit. Edmunds.com, an automobile purchasing guide, warned that “the potential elimination of the federal tax credit for electric vehicles by the Trump administration—without another form of incentive to replace it—could derail the trajectory of EV sales in the United States.”
Sources: José Pontes, “World EV Sales Now 19% of World Sales!” CleanTechnica.com, August 2, 2023, https://cleantechnica.com/2023/08/02/world-ev-sales-now-19-of-world-auto-sales/; Mike Colias, “What Scared Ford’s CEO in China,” Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/ford-china-ev-competition-farley-ceo-50ded461; Biden quote from Natalie Sherman, “Biden Hits Chinese Electric Cars and Solar Cells with Higher Tariffs,” BBC, May 14, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-69004520; David Shepherdson and Nathan Gomes, “Ford Cuts F-150 Lightning Production as EV Demand Softens,” Reuters, January 19, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-reduce-f-150-lightning-production-2024-01-19/#:~:text=Ford%20lost%20an%20estimated%20%2436%2C000,sales%20of%20gas%2Delectric%20hybrids; Keith Bradsher, “How China built BYD, Its Tesla Killer,” New York Times, February 10, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/business/byd-china-electric-vehicle.html; Joel Jaeger, “These Countries Are Adopting Electric Vehicles the Fastest,” World Resources Institute, September 14, 2023, https://www.wri.org/insights/countries-adopting-electric-vehicles-fastest#:~:text=The%20top%205%20countries%20with,%25)%2C%20according%20to%20our%20analysis. Executive Order, “Unleashing American Energy,” White House, January 20, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy; /Kate Gibson, “Trump’s Win Could Sharply Raise the Cost of Electric Vehicles. Here’s Why,” CBS News, November 15,2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-elon-musk-donald-trump-ev-tax-credit/.
Best International Airports: We’re Number 18
In 2014, Vice President Joe Biden said that if he blindfolded someone and took her to La Guardia Airport in New York, she would think she was in “some third world country.” Indeed, for years, American airports had been neglected, with private and public funds not keeping up with demand and with needed improvements and repairs. International surveys, like the one conducted by Skytrax, showed, year after year, that American airports were being outclassed by new and improved airports in Asia and Europe. Since 1999, Skytrax, an airline and airport review and ranking consulting firm based in London, has been conducting customer satisfaction reviews on some 550 airports throughout the world. Its rankings are based on a wide variety of factors, including the airport’s website, getting to and from the airport, attitudes of airport staff, cleanliness of restrooms, lost luggage services, children’s play areas, WI-FI access and speed, and perceptions of airport security and safety.
The best America could do was the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, ranking 18th worldwide. The best airports were Changi Airport (Singapore), Doha Hama International Airport (Qatar), Tokyo Haneda International Airport (Japan), Seoul Inchon International Airport (Korea), and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (France).
Other American airports in the 2023 ranking were Houston Hobby International Airport (Number 32); Houston George Bush Airport (35); Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky (46); San Francisco International Airport (48); New York La Guardia International Airport (57); Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport (62); Los Angeles International Airport (63); Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (66); Denver International Airport (71); New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (88); Phoenix International Airport (94); Boston Logan International Airport (96); and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (99).
Sources: “Biden Compares La Guardia Airport to ‘Third World,’” New York Times, February 6, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/nyregion/biden-compares-la-guardia-airport-to-third-world.html. Skytrax World Airport Awards, 2023, https://www.worldairportawards.com/worlds-top-100-airports-2023/.
In 2014, Vice President Joe Biden said that if he blindfolded someone and took her to La Guardia Airport in New York, she would think she was in “some third world country.” Indeed, for years, American airports had been neglected, with private and public funds not keeping up with demand and with needed improvements and repairs. International surveys, like the one conducted by Skytrax, showed, year after year, that American airports were being outclassed by new and improved airports in Asia and Europe. Since 1999, Skytrax, an airline and airport review and ranking consulting firm based in London, has been conducting customer satisfaction reviews on some 550 airports throughout the world. Its rankings are based on a wide variety of factors, including the airport’s website, getting to and from the airport, attitudes of airport staff, cleanliness of restrooms, lost luggage services, children’s play areas, WI-FI access and speed, and perceptions of airport security and safety.
The best America could do was the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, ranking 18th worldwide. The best airports were Changi Airport (Singapore), Doha Hama International Airport (Qatar), Tokyo Haneda International Airport (Japan), Seoul Inchon International Airport (Korea), and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (France).
Other American airports in the 2023 ranking were Houston Hobby International Airport (Number 32); Houston George Bush Airport (35); Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky (46); San Francisco International Airport (48); New York La Guardia International Airport (57); Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport (62); Los Angeles International Airport (63); Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (66); Denver International Airport (71); New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (88); Phoenix International Airport (94); Boston Logan International Airport (96); and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (99).
Sources: “Biden Compares La Guardia Airport to ‘Third World,’” New York Times, February 6, 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/nyregion/biden-compares-la-guardia-airport-to-third-world.html. Skytrax World Airport Awards, 2023, https://www.worldairportawards.com/worlds-top-100-airports-2023/.
Best Urban Public Transportation Systems: We’re Number 15 and 17
When it comes to urban transportation, in local customer surveys, no city in the US comes in the top ten. The best is New York City (ranking 15th among major cities worldwide) and Chicago (17th).
Berlin ranks 1st, with 97 percent customer satisfaction; Prague is 2nd (96 percent); Tokyo is 3rd (94 percent), Copenhagen is 4th (93 percent) as well as Stockholm (93 percent). New York, at 15th, has a customer satisfaction rating of 83 percent Chicago, ranking 17th has a rating of 82 percent.
Source: “19 Cities with the Best Public Transport in the World—According to Locals,” Timeout, April 3, 2023, https://www.timeout.com/travel/best-public-transport-in-the-world.
When it comes to urban transportation, in local customer surveys, no city in the US comes in the top ten. The best is New York City (ranking 15th among major cities worldwide) and Chicago (17th).
Berlin ranks 1st, with 97 percent customer satisfaction; Prague is 2nd (96 percent); Tokyo is 3rd (94 percent), Copenhagen is 4th (93 percent) as well as Stockholm (93 percent). New York, at 15th, has a customer satisfaction rating of 83 percent Chicago, ranking 17th has a rating of 82 percent.
Source: “19 Cities with the Best Public Transport in the World—According to Locals,” Timeout, April 3, 2023, https://www.timeout.com/travel/best-public-transport-in-the-world.
High-Speed Train Networks: We Still Don’t Have Any
Early in the Obama presidency, Congress passed the $797 billion stimulus package which included a plan for federal high-speed rail investments. Major US cities were to be linked by high-speed rail. By January 2012, the Obama administration had put in more than $10 billion in federal money for high-speed rail development. But some state and local officials were balking. The governors of Wisconsin (Scott Walker), Florida (Rick Scott), and Ohio (John R. Kasich)—all Republicans—gave back billions of federal dollars, denouncing the programs as creations of big federal government and as economically unfeasible.
In California, the only high-speed rail project that actually began construction ran into major problems. The high-speed train project, an 800-mile system, was expected to be completed by 2020, but has been pushed back to 2033. In the meantime, by 2040, the population of California is projected to be over 54 million, another 17 million more than in 2010. In addition, the cost of the project has now tripled, to nearly $100 billion. Another $202 million was pumped into the project through the Infrastructure Act in September 2023. The project is limping along, way over budget, experiencing maddening delays.
By contrast, high-speed rail service, “bullet trains,” are common in other advanced countries. Railway Technology reported that the fastest trains operating today are in service in China, Germany, France, Japan, Morocco, Spain, South Korea, and Italy. Not in the United States, where the closest thing to a high-speed train would be Amtrak’s Acela, operating between Washington, DC, New York, and Boston. Amtrak planned to spend $2.3 billion to replace its aging Acela fleet and improve railway tracks, but the project is already three years behind schedule. Amtrak was contracted with the French rail manufacturing firm Alstom to develop and manufacture twenty-eight new high-speed train sets, but have run into delays because they have not met Federal Railroad Administration safety requirements. Finally, in January 2024, on the fourteenth try, the new trains passed the federal safety tests. The new Acela service is scheduled to begin operating in June 2024, with trains running at 257 km (160 miles) per hour, much faster than the older Acela trains. Amtrak will be receiving $22 billion from the Infrastructure Act.
So confident in its high-speed network of trains, the Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV), the French government in April 2022 banned short-haul domestic flights in the country. The aim was to curb France’s carbon emissions from aviation, and despite complaints from businesses in the aviation sector, the program is moving ahead with government funding and support, and other European countries are looking at the possibilities of greater reliance on short-haul train travel rather than airlines. Throughout Europe, passenger rail service is booming, with a 50 percent jump between 2021 and 2022.
Sources: David Shepardson, “US Passenger Railroad Amtrak High-Speed Acela Program Facing New Delays,” Reuters, October 3, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-passenger-railroad-amtrak-high-speed-acela-program-facing-new-delays-2023-10-03/; Peter Nilson, “French Short-Haul Ban Only Possible Thanks to High-Speed Rail,” Railway Technology, September 27, 2022, https://www.railway-technology.com/features/french-short-haul-ban-only-possible-thanks-to-rail/?cf-view; Paige McClanahan, “In Europe, Trains Are Full, and More Are on the Way,” New York Times, January 4, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/travel/europe-new-trains.html. “The 10 Fastest High-Speed Trains in the World,” Railway Technology, https://www.railway-technology.com/features/the-10-fastest-high-speed-trains-in-the-world/?cf-view.
Early in the Obama presidency, Congress passed the $797 billion stimulus package which included a plan for federal high-speed rail investments. Major US cities were to be linked by high-speed rail. By January 2012, the Obama administration had put in more than $10 billion in federal money for high-speed rail development. But some state and local officials were balking. The governors of Wisconsin (Scott Walker), Florida (Rick Scott), and Ohio (John R. Kasich)—all Republicans—gave back billions of federal dollars, denouncing the programs as creations of big federal government and as economically unfeasible.
In California, the only high-speed rail project that actually began construction ran into major problems. The high-speed train project, an 800-mile system, was expected to be completed by 2020, but has been pushed back to 2033. In the meantime, by 2040, the population of California is projected to be over 54 million, another 17 million more than in 2010. In addition, the cost of the project has now tripled, to nearly $100 billion. Another $202 million was pumped into the project through the Infrastructure Act in September 2023. The project is limping along, way over budget, experiencing maddening delays.
By contrast, high-speed rail service, “bullet trains,” are common in other advanced countries. Railway Technology reported that the fastest trains operating today are in service in China, Germany, France, Japan, Morocco, Spain, South Korea, and Italy. Not in the United States, where the closest thing to a high-speed train would be Amtrak’s Acela, operating between Washington, DC, New York, and Boston. Amtrak planned to spend $2.3 billion to replace its aging Acela fleet and improve railway tracks, but the project is already three years behind schedule. Amtrak was contracted with the French rail manufacturing firm Alstom to develop and manufacture twenty-eight new high-speed train sets, but have run into delays because they have not met Federal Railroad Administration safety requirements. Finally, in January 2024, on the fourteenth try, the new trains passed the federal safety tests. The new Acela service is scheduled to begin operating in June 2024, with trains running at 257 km (160 miles) per hour, much faster than the older Acela trains. Amtrak will be receiving $22 billion from the Infrastructure Act.
So confident in its high-speed network of trains, the Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV), the French government in April 2022 banned short-haul domestic flights in the country. The aim was to curb France’s carbon emissions from aviation, and despite complaints from businesses in the aviation sector, the program is moving ahead with government funding and support, and other European countries are looking at the possibilities of greater reliance on short-haul train travel rather than airlines. Throughout Europe, passenger rail service is booming, with a 50 percent jump between 2021 and 2022.
Sources: David Shepardson, “US Passenger Railroad Amtrak High-Speed Acela Program Facing New Delays,” Reuters, October 3, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-passenger-railroad-amtrak-high-speed-acela-program-facing-new-delays-2023-10-03/; Peter Nilson, “French Short-Haul Ban Only Possible Thanks to High-Speed Rail,” Railway Technology, September 27, 2022, https://www.railway-technology.com/features/french-short-haul-ban-only-possible-thanks-to-rail/?cf-view; Paige McClanahan, “In Europe, Trains Are Full, and More Are on the Way,” New York Times, January 4, 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/travel/europe-new-trains.html. “The 10 Fastest High-Speed Trains in the World,” Railway Technology, https://www.railway-technology.com/features/the-10-fastest-high-speed-trains-in-the-world/?cf-view.
Stuck in City Traffic: We’re Numbers 2, 4, 8, and 10
Over thirty years ago, economist Anthony Downs highlighted the problems of automobile congestion in cities and suburbs, with a book titled Stuck in Traffic. A second edition came out in 2004, appropriately titled, Still Stuck in Traffic. In this second edition, Downs noted that “traffic congestion has almost surpassed bad weather as a malady that is universally discussed but rarely improved through public policies,” and that “this constantly intensifying nature of congestion is extremely frustrating to the millions of citizens who daily endure it. They keep asking, ‘Why doesn’t somebody do something about this misery?’”
Building more roads is not the solution, but raising gasoline taxes, raising the prices on city parking lots, congestion price and toll schemes, increasing funding for public transportation are met with little enthusiasm.
In what cities do people spend most of their time stuck in traffic? In a 2022 study, INRIX Research determined that people would be trapped in traffic for 156 hours a year in London. Chicago was second worst (155 hours), then came Paris (138 hours). Boston was 4th (134 hours), New York City was 8th (117 hours), and Philadelphia was 10th (114 hours). Surely, Los Angeles couldn’t be too far behind these top ten.
Sources: Anthony Downs, Stuck in Traffic: Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1992); Still Stuck in Traffic: Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2004), vii. “2022 Global Traffic Scorecard,” INRIX Research, https://inrix.com/press-releases/2022-global-traffic-scorecard-uk/.
Over thirty years ago, economist Anthony Downs highlighted the problems of automobile congestion in cities and suburbs, with a book titled Stuck in Traffic. A second edition came out in 2004, appropriately titled, Still Stuck in Traffic. In this second edition, Downs noted that “traffic congestion has almost surpassed bad weather as a malady that is universally discussed but rarely improved through public policies,” and that “this constantly intensifying nature of congestion is extremely frustrating to the millions of citizens who daily endure it. They keep asking, ‘Why doesn’t somebody do something about this misery?’”
Building more roads is not the solution, but raising gasoline taxes, raising the prices on city parking lots, congestion price and toll schemes, increasing funding for public transportation are met with little enthusiasm.
In what cities do people spend most of their time stuck in traffic? In a 2022 study, INRIX Research determined that people would be trapped in traffic for 156 hours a year in London. Chicago was second worst (155 hours), then came Paris (138 hours). Boston was 4th (134 hours), New York City was 8th (117 hours), and Philadelphia was 10th (114 hours). Surely, Los Angeles couldn’t be too far behind these top ten.
Sources: Anthony Downs, Stuck in Traffic: Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1992); Still Stuck in Traffic: Coping with Peak-Hour Traffic Congestion (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2004), vii. “2022 Global Traffic Scorecard,” INRIX Research, https://inrix.com/press-releases/2022-global-traffic-scorecard-uk/.
Road Quality: We’re Number 17
The US received high marks in terms of road connectivity, ranking Number One in road connectivity, according to a survey conducted by the World Atlas. Altogether, there are 4.2 million miles of highway in the US, including Hawaii and Alaska. Just 1 percent of the road network is made up of the Interstate Highway system; but that 1 percent carries 25 percent of all auto and truck traffic. Along with the Interstate system are 175,000 miles of major roadways, maintained by both the federal government and state governments. About 77 percent of the American roadway is maintained by local governments and 19 percent is maintained by state governments.
The World Economic Forum, through its Executive Opinion Survey, asked 14,000 business leaders in 144 countries to rate the quality of their country’s road system. Just one question was asked: rate the roads on a scale of 1 (underdeveloped) to 7 (extensive and efficient by international standards). In the most recent World Economic Forum survey, the road quality in the US was given a score of 5.5 (out of 7), and the US ranked 17th in the world in quality of its roads. One estimate was that 200,000 miles of major highways were in mediocre condition and in need of critical repair and that nearly 8 percent of bridges were structurally deficient.
Ranking highest in road quality were Singapore, Netherlands, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Japan, and Austria.
Sources: “Top 10 Countries with the Best Road Connectivity,” World Atlas, n.d., https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-10-countries-with-the-best-road-connectivity.html#:~:text=Road%20Network%20In%20The%20United,one%2Dquarter%20of%20the%20traffic. GlobalEconomy.com, https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/roads_quality/; data from World Economic Forum.
The US received high marks in terms of road connectivity, ranking Number One in road connectivity, according to a survey conducted by the World Atlas. Altogether, there are 4.2 million miles of highway in the US, including Hawaii and Alaska. Just 1 percent of the road network is made up of the Interstate Highway system; but that 1 percent carries 25 percent of all auto and truck traffic. Along with the Interstate system are 175,000 miles of major roadways, maintained by both the federal government and state governments. About 77 percent of the American roadway is maintained by local governments and 19 percent is maintained by state governments.
The World Economic Forum, through its Executive Opinion Survey, asked 14,000 business leaders in 144 countries to rate the quality of their country’s road system. Just one question was asked: rate the roads on a scale of 1 (underdeveloped) to 7 (extensive and efficient by international standards). In the most recent World Economic Forum survey, the road quality in the US was given a score of 5.5 (out of 7), and the US ranked 17th in the world in quality of its roads. One estimate was that 200,000 miles of major highways were in mediocre condition and in need of critical repair and that nearly 8 percent of bridges were structurally deficient.
Ranking highest in road quality were Singapore, Netherlands, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Japan, and Austria.
Sources: “Top 10 Countries with the Best Road Connectivity,” World Atlas, n.d., https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-10-countries-with-the-best-road-connectivity.html#:~:text=Road%20Network%20In%20The%20United,one%2Dquarter%20of%20the%20traffic. GlobalEconomy.com, https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/roads_quality/; data from World Economic Forum.
Percentage of Electricity from Nuclear Power: We’re Number 6
The first US commercial nuclear power plant went online in 1957 and most of the subsequent plants were built in the 1970s through the 1990s. At its peak in 2012, there were 104 nuclear reactors in the United States; many of them were built decades earlier and were approaching the end of their useful life. Since 2012, about twenty reactors have been decommissioned and only two new reactors, Vogtle Unit 3 and Unit 4 in Georgia, have gone online. In 2021, there were a total of 93 nuclear power plants, generating nearly 20 percent of America’s electricity.
In 2011, following the nuclear power disaster in Fukushima, Japan, the German government determined that it would close its nuclear facilities. Eight of seventeen units were closed in 2011, and in 2021, six units were still operating. Then by 2023, all such units were shut down, despite protests that the Russian invasion of Ukraine might put Germany’s energy supplies at further risk.
One of the major, unresolved issues for commercial nuclear power plants is the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. The Nuclear Waste Policy Act (1982) had authorized the Department of energy to determine a geologic repository for a permanent disposal; after much political wrangling, the remote and geologically inert site of Yucca Mountain in Nevada was chosen as the permanent disposal site for the entire commercial nuclear industry. This did not sit well with Nevadans, many of whom called the legislation the “Screw Nevada” bill. About $7 billion had been collected from energy companies for nuclear waste depository fund, and most of that had been spent preparing the Yucca Mountain site. But when President Obama took office in 2009, powerful Senate majority leader Harry Reid from Nevada convinced the administration to abandon the Yucca Mountain plan. Congress has not come up with a plan for a permanent storage site since. Meanwhile, some 72,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel, and growing every day, was stored at 80 sites scattered about in thirty-four states.
The United States is not alone in failing to solve the spent fuel problem. “No country, including the United States, has a permanent geologic repository for disposal” of spent nuclear fuel, according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service analysis.
The United States generates 771 TWh of electricity through its 93 nuclear power plants; this accounts for 19.6 percent of all electricity generated throughout the country. China is second with 383 TWh from 55 nuclear power plants, accounting for 5.0 percent of its electricity. France is third with 363 TWh from 56 nuclear plants; but France comes in first place for the percentage of its country’s electricity (69.0) coming from nuclear energy.
Sources: Lance N. Larson, “Nuclear Waste Storage Sites in the United States,” Congressional Research Service, US Congress, April 13, 2020, https://sgp.fas.org/crs/nuke/IF11201.pdf.
World Nuclear Association, https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/nuclear-power-in-the-world-today.aspx
The United States generates 771 TWh of electricity through its 93 nuclear power plants; this accounts for 19.6 percent of all electricity generated throughout the country. China is second with 383 TWh from 55 nuclear power plants, accounting for 5.0 percent of its electricity. France is third with 363 TWh from 56 nuclear plants; but France comes in first place for the percentage of its country’s electricity (69.0) coming from nuclear energy.
Sources: Lance N. Larson, “Nuclear Waste Storage Sites in the United States,” Congressional Research Service, US Congress, April 13, 2020, https://sgp.fas.org/crs/nuke/IF11201.pdf.
World Nuclear Association, https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/nuclear-power-in-the-world-today.aspx