A research team led by a professor at Harvard Business School recently released the Social Progress Index, a study comparing the strengths and weaknesses of countries worldwide. This study analyzes factors relevant to the overall development of a nation by focusing on three dimensions: basic human needs, foundations of well-being and opportunity. Rather than making abstract claims about each of these categories, the study consists of four components that make up each dimension, receiving scores from zero to 100. The researchers calculated these scores by considering “the best and worst global performance on each indicator by any country in the last 10 years.” The study, which says the United States offers the average American relatively little compared to what other countries offer their average citizens, questions why the United States ranks so poorly. The answer? Gross inequality.

While this study alone insufficiently portrays the United States as a nation falling behind, other, more-concentrated studies have compared, among other areas, our health care and education to those of other nations and reached similar conclusions. The United States is constantly referred to as a world superpower, yet the numbers reported by studies indicate otherwise. According to the Social Progress Index, the United States ranks fifth in opportunity, sixteenth in social progress, and thirty-sixth in foundations of well being.

In light of these studies, U.S. politicians must consider why the nation believed to be the best in the world fails to live up to its title. Only after careful analysis of the factors contributing to the United States’ relatively poor rankings and acceptance of the widespread inequality that plagues too many Americans, can the country’s leaders begin to repair internal problems.

While a variety of factors likely contribute to the United States’ relatively poor rankings, income inequality plays the most significant role. The United States has the highest international GDP rate, but the effects of that wealth aren’t felt by the nation’s people. In a recent study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranked fourth in income inequality.

As corporate powers continue to gain authority in an environment where big businesses already control too much, the democratic process further loses its hold on society. The wealthy few possess a more potent voice than the majority of society — the result of such imbalance is evidenced by the United States’ stumbling international position depicted by studies. Rather than promoting the welfare of corporations, elected politicians must serve the majority of society and advocate for policies that decrease the current income gap prevalent in our society and detrimental to our global standing.

Nearly 45 percent of children in the United States come from low-income families. The effects on a child in a low-income family can be felt in all aspects of his or her life, as he is likely to receive worse education and health care than a child raised in a wealthy household. While a certain level of income inequality exists in every country, as one of the most powerful countries in the world, the United States should strive to decrease its glaring income divide. Only then will less wealthy individuals gain access to the same opportunities as those handed to members of the upper class. Only then will America’s ratings rise in studies such as the Social Progress Index. And only then can America truly consider itself to be the greatest nation in the world.

Dan Moritz-Rabson is a contributing columnist. Email him at [email protected].