USA! USA! USA!

The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).
The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).
Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

>>29
Counterfactuals are for retards. If history was changed enough so that America didn't exist, who knows what else would have changed? Would Germany even unify? Who knows.

>>32
I wouldn't say "catching up." Anyone who has a chance to gtfo of that country and go "west" (read America, Europe, even New Zealand for godsakes) would gladly give a testicle to do it. China is growing stronger on a whole, but academically it's still far behind. More importantly, they have to stop worshipping white people. Really. It's getting ridiculous.