For those that continue to cling to the idea that the US remains a world model of social advancement check out the following indexes. One is the Gini index which measures income distribution in the society and the other is the index of corruption in society.
Given that the American dream is all about anyone being able to "make it", it would figure that we'd be pretty good on income distribution. And given our role as perpetual tutors of democracy for the unwashed, we would figure to be pretty good on corruption.
Well on the Gini (inequality) index we are 45th from the bottom or 57th from the top of 102 countries on which there is full data. Our most immediate neighbors on the list are Uganda, Jamaica Uruguay (slightly worse) and Ivory Coast, Cameroon Iran and Nigeria (slightly better). Outstripping us easily are places like Russia. Morrocco, Portugal, Poland, Greece, Romania.
See for yourself: http://www.photius.com/rankings/economy/distribution_of_family_income_gini_index_2010_0.html
As for the corruption index we are 22nd from the cleanest countries at the top and our neighbors there are Chile and Belgium (slightly better) and France and Uruguay (slightly worse)
http://transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2010/results
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