Myths about America

Myth: America is not a truly free and open society
Fact: The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees freedom of speech and of assembly, freedoms protected by the independent, sovereign Supreme Court. Since the international non-governmental organisation Freedom House began rating countries for freedom of the press and civil liberties in 1972, the United States has always received the highest possible rating in both categories, and the highest possible overall score.[1] According to the Index of Economic Freedom, produced each year by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, the United States has long had one of the world’s freest economies. In 2008, America was ranked fifth of 157 countries, with only Hong Kong, Singapore, the Irish Republic and Australia scoring higher.[2]

Myth: Black Americans are held back in a country plagued by racism
Fact: An overwhelming majority of black, Hispanic and non-Hispanic white Americans express favourable views of each other as racial groups.[3] 22% of Americans have a relative in an interracial marriage.[4] When asked whether it was the case that “Racial discrimination is the main reason black people can’t get ahead” only 30% of black Americans agreed: 53% agreed “Blacks who can’t get ahead are mainly responsible for their own condition”.[5] Contrary to claims that police disproportionately arrest black Americans, comparisons between the race of criminals reported by victims of crime has been found to be consistently in proportion to the race of those arrested.[6] (Also see our briefing on America and Race.)


Myth: America refused any involvement in World War II, when the freedom of Europe was at stake, until the December 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbour forced her to participate
Fact: Pearl Harbour was not the beginning of American support for the Allies. Nine months before Pearl Harbour, the Lend Lease Act was passed. This bill ensured the President of the United States could “sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of” any defence article to the Allied Powers.[7] Prior to Pearl Harbour, $14,281 million was authorised by Congress for Lend-Lease, with $1,082 million going to Britain.[8] Prior to Pearl Harbour, American public opinion had already moved in favour of assisting Britain even at risk of war. Anticipating conflict, the US army had already grown massively in the previous months from 267,767 personnel in 1940 to 1,460,998 by mid-1941. (Also see our briefing on America and the Second World War.)


Myth: Americans allow tens of millions of their fellow citizens who cannot afford health insurance to go without it
Fact: Official estimates of between forty-five and fifty million without insurance are massively exaggerated. These estimates include approximately seven million citizens of other countries, living illegally in the United States. The figure also includes about nine million people eligible for Medicaid, a government programme introduced to guarantee health care for those on low incomes. Another 3.5 million are eligible for other government health programmes. Of the remainder, millions are Americans in affluent households who decide against covering their health needs through insurance. One in five of the uninsured have household incomes exceeding $75,000 and almost one in three have household incomes exceeding $50,000 per annum.[9] The number of Americans who have never had health insurance is below ten million. Perhaps most importantly, by law all Americans have access to emergency treatment. (Also see our briefing on Health care in America.)


Myth: Americans Aren’t Interested in the Environment
Fact: The US has many stringent laws designed to protect the environment, such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, passed as long ago as 1969. Many of these are viewed as doing more harm than good, and they are the subject of much debate as a result, but they are currently vigorously enforced. Air and water quality have improved dramatically since the 1960s[10] and in the case of carbon emissions, growth in emissions has happened much more slowly in the US since 2000 than in the EU-15[11]. (Also see our briefing on America and the Environment.)


Myth: America is exceptionally ungenerous in its aid to developing nations
Fact: The United States government consistently contributes more towards overseas aid that the government of any other country, although in cash terms its contribution is smaller as a proportion of gross domestic product than that of most Western countries.[12] Most impressive, however, is the amount individual Americans choose to give in voluntary donations, dwarfing the amount contributed out of the government budget. US private giving to poor nations reached $34.8 billion in 2006. Next highest were the United Kingdom and Germany, which gave $1.61 billion and $1.35 billion respectively.[13] (Also see our briefing on American aid to the developing world.)


Myth: America is a violent, high-crime society
Fact: The International Crime Victims’ Survey found overall crime to be lower in the United States than in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England and Wales, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Scotland and Sweden. Rates of personal assault or threat of assault were much higher in Canada and twice as high in the UK and Australia. Property crime is similarly low by standards of English-speaking countries. Only when it comes to murder, a very uncommon crime in all developed countries, does America have a high annual rate (5 per 100,000 people). For better or worse, this murder rate is massively concentrated within small sections of society, such as those who trade in drugs.[14] 85% of American counties record no juvenile homicides in the average year.[15] (Also see our briefing on America and Crime.)


Myth: America is dominated by intolerant religious zealots, to the detriment of everyone else
Fact: Freedom of religion for those of all beliefs is guaranteed by the US Constitution. Far from Christianity stifling other views and beliefs, the First Amendment has even been interpreted so strictly as to forbid nativity scenes in public places.[16] Contrary to claims of intolerance, 39% of America’s Catholics and Protestants report having a gay friend.[17] That religion influences current American politics is undeniable – but American politics always has been influenced by religious believers. American history’s greatest social movements - the campaigns to abolish slavery and to ensure women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement - all had explicitly religious figures such as Rev. Martin Luther King at the forefront. America’s record on philanthropy is partly owed to its many religious charitable organisations – World Vision was among the greatest provider of relief after the 2004 tsunami hit Indonesia and her neighbours. (Also see our briefing on Religion in America.)


Myth: The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 were committed by the US government
Fact: Although countless conspiracy theories exist which suggest the governments of the United States or of Israel were truly responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and New York’s twin towers, in numerous video tapes Osama bin Laden himself has claimed responsibility for ordering the attacks.[18] Similarly, theories that suggest a plane crash would not have burned hotly enough to melt the steel structure of the twin towers or that excessive dust was expelled from the towers after they collapsed are hinged on easily refuted claims about engineering and physics. Web sites such as debunk911myths.org provide detailed refutations of these conspiracy theories.[19]

Myth: America’s democratic system is broken
Fact: Separation of powers – legislative, judicial and executive - is constitutionally protected in the United States, and constitutional changes cannot be made without the support of supermajorities in both houses of Congress and of the individual states. In the last two general elections in the US and UK, turnout in the American contest was higher (64% versus 61%).[20] The 2000 Presidential Election was extremely close, but not ‘stolen’. While the US Supreme Court upheld a Florida law requiring that the state choose its presidential candidate by 12 December 2000 and stopped recounts[21], according to CNN, “If a recount of Florida's disputed votes … had been allowed to proceed by the U.S. Supreme Court, Republican George W. Bush still would have won the White House, two newspapers reported Wednesday”.[22]






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[1] ‘Comparative scores for all countries from 1973 to 2006’, Freedom House, at http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/fiw/FIWAllScores.xls

[2] ‘2008 Index of Economic Freedom Ranking’, The Heritage Foundation, at http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/countries.cfm

[3] 'Race, Ethnicity and Campaign ’08 - People…Can We All Get Along?', Pew Research Center, at http://pewresearch.org/pubs/694/race-ethnicity-and-campaign-08

[4] ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’, Pew Research Center, 14 March 2006, at http://pewresearch.org/pubs/304/guess-whos-coming-to-dinner

[5] ‘66% - Personal Factors Limit Black Progress’, Pew Research Center, at http://pewresearch.org/databank/dailynumber/?NumberID=426

[6] ‘Is the Criminal-Justice System Racist?’, Heather McDonald, City Journal, Spring 2008, at http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_2_criminal_justice_system.html

[7] ‘Lend Lease Act, 11 March 1941’, Navy Historical Center, at http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq59-23.htm

[8] See 'Mutual Aid Between the United States and the British Empire, 1941-45', in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. CIX. Part III 1946. – Taken from http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-Civil-WarEcon/UK-Civil-WarEcon-9.html#fn19

[9] ‘Uninsured by Choice: Update’, Devon M. Herrick, National Center for Policy Analysis, 7 October 2003, at http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba460/

[10] ‘Index of Leading Environmental Indicators: 2008 Report’, Steven F. Hayward, Pacific Research Institute, pp.21-32, at http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/docLib/20080401_08_Enviro_Index.pdf

[11] ‘Europe v. America on CO2’, The Wall Street Journal, 14 December 2006, at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116606091947649743.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks

[12] ‘Aid flows top USD 100 billion in 2005’, Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 4 April 2006, at http://www.oecd.org/document/40/0,2340,en_2649_34447_36418344_1_1_1_1,00.html

[13] ‘The 2008 Index of Global Philanthropy’, The Center for Global Prosperity, The Hudson Institute, p.48, at https://www.hudson.org/files/documents/2008%20Index%20-%20Low%20Res.pdf

[14] Based on the article ‘America the Crime-Ridden’, Iain Murray, BritainAndAmerica.com, 9 November 2007, at http://britainandamerica.typepad.com/britain_and_america/2007/11/aspects-of-anti.html

[15] Juvenile Justice Bulletin, October 2001, at http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/187239.pdf

[16] ‘Nativity scene is too religious for New York City schools’, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 February 2007, at http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0222/p04s01-ussc.html

[17] ‘Four-in-Ten Americans Have Close Friends or Relatives Who are Gay’, Pew Research Center, 23 May 2007, at http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/485/friends-who-are-gay

[18] See, for example: ‘Transcript of Osama bin Laden videotape’, CNN, 13 December 2001, at http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/12/13/tape.transcript/; ‘Full transcript of bin Ladin’s speech’, Al Jazeera, 2 November 2004, at http://english.aljazeera.net/English/archive/archive?ArchiveId=7403

[19] A particularly good article discussing the bad science of the conspiracy theories is ‘Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report’, Popular Mechanics, March 2005, at http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html?page=1

[20] 'Census Details Voter Turnout for 2004', Brian Faler, The Washington Post, 26 May 2005, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/25/AR2005052501965.html; 'Blair wins historic third term - majority of 66', BBC, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/constituencies/default.stm

[21] 'One Year Later', Peter Berkowitz, National Review Online, 12 December 2001, at http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-berkowitz121201.shtml

[22] 'Bush still wins Florida in newspaper recount', John Zarrella and Ian Christopher McCaleb, CNN, 4 April 2001, at http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/04/04/florida.recount.01/. Also see 'Florida voter errors cost Gore the election', Dennis Cauchon and Jim Drinkard, USA TODAY, 11 May 2001, at http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2001-05-10-recountmain.htm; 'EXAMINING THE VOTE: THE OVERVIEW; Study of Disputed Florida Ballots Finds Justices Did Not Cast the Deciding Vote', Ford Fessenden and John M. Broder, The New York Times, 12 November 2001, at http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEEDB1338F931A25752C1A9679C8B63; 'Florida recount study: Bush still wins', CNN, at http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/florida.ballots/stories/main.html; 'Newspapers' recount shows Bush prevailed', Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY, 15 May 2001, at http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2001-04-03-floridamain.htm.