America: The Grim Truth

http://americathegrimtruth.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/america-the-grim-truth/

Americans, I have some bad news for you:

You have the worst quality of life in the developed world – by a wide margin.

If you had any idea of how people really lived in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia, you’d be rioting in the streets calling for a better life. In fact, the average Australian or Singaporean taxi driver has a much better standard of living than the typical American white-collar worker.

I know this because I am an American, and I escaped from the prison you call home.
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If you’re “lucky,” you might even land a job good enough to qualify you for a home loan. And then you’ll spend half your working life just paying the interest on the loan – welcome to the world of American debt slavery. America has the illusion of great wealth because there’s a lot of “stuff” around, but who really owns it? In real terms, the average American is poorer than the poorest ghetto dweller in Manila, because at least they have no debts. If they want to pack up and leave, they can; if you want to leave, you can’t, because you’ve got debts to pay.

All this begs the question: Why would anyone put up with this? Ask any American and you’ll get the same answer: because America is the freest country on earth. If you believe this, I’ve got some more bad news for you: America is actually among the least free countries on earth. Your piss is tested, your emails and phone calls are monitored, your medical records are gathered, and you are never more than one stray comment away from writhing on the ground with two Taser prongs in your ass.

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I wish I could post more, but I suggest following the link. The commentary is sadly true, but I very much disagree with the conclusion: Get out now. Hell no, I'm going to stick around and be annoying. I'm not going to leave a country with tens of thousands of nuclear warheads in the hands of Sarah Palin and think I'd be safe somewhere else.

If I were younger, though, I'd get out.

Everything the writer says is true.


Cher

I'm more hopeful than the author but only because events in Greece, Iceland and even Wisconsin make me think the public is capable of pushing back.

Where is this place of ultimate freedom in which the author of the article currently resides?

Some of his criticisms of the US are valid, some less so.

The criticism of our health care system is spot-on. Regrettably, the insurance industry
has many times more money than the whole Democratic party, so there is little chance that anything
will be done about that.

Being the "no vacation nation" is causing more unemployment and hurting our own tourist
industries as our people have no time to visit them. Perhaps a more enlightened vacation
policy could be encouraged by some adjustments to the amounts charged to companies for
unemployment compensation, since such policies would reduce unemployment. Companies that
overwork too-few employees and discourage them from taking any vacation should pay more.

There is nothing uniquely American about home mortgages, nor are they mandatory, even here.
If you'd rather deal with landlords than banks, be a renter. You have that same choice in
most other countries. My personal experience with banks has been better than with landlords.

they're all better than the US. And, more importantly, this one is getting worse, and more rapidly.

It is illegal to have gay sex, you go to prison. If a cop suspects you of drug use, he can arrest you and run drug tests, if you are positive for anything in any level, prison is required. The author uses drug testing as a sign of degradation here, and I agree. But the author also avoids the truth about Singapore on that one, and many other issues. That cabbie who is doing so well, hope he's not gay, you know what I mean?

And you're deluding yourself if you think you can stop the slide. Look at the poor Wisconsinites. All of their camping & petition-signing & marching have added up to absolutely nothing. And that's more than a hundred thousand of them.

OTOH, if someone as crazy as Palin takes over, you can bet that the sane 9/10th of the world will safeguard themselves.

I have two years until elligible for a sabbatical. Then we're gone.

move IMO. I had options to leave years ago and I did not. I think we're on a really slipper slope and I'm concerned of the disasters the 2012 election could bring. I thought the article was excellent. It will never reach enough Americans, but the article was pretty spot on IMO. We need to change course, I'm hopeful we will, but I have my doubts.

that when you spend any time in Europe or other places aboard and them come back to the U.S. it feels as if you are entering a "Third World" country. This is by design as our country has been hijacked and reduced to a giant form of casino capitalism.

why they live here they will say 'because it is the freeest country'? I think that is absurd rhetoric. Most people, in every nation, live where they were born because of family, language, all manner of things that come to mind far before some concept like 'which nation is more free'. I've never heard anyone but a far right wing idiot say something like that. Lots of generalities as well. Some fools buy houses, because they want roots. That is not compulsory, and I know folks in other countries with large mortgages as well. No one tests my piss, or any piss in my entire industry. Does any DU know even one person who has been Tasered for a 'stray comment'? I don't. Yet the writer says we are all 'never more than one stray comment away' from writing on the ground. This is hyperbole of the worst kind.
Of course, the protests in the UK had no abuses, no arrests. There have never been any policing response to a protest in Greece, never. Nor in France.
Those who jet set for a life and go from nation to nation are tourists in each. The author does not bother to allow for comparisons and contrasting as he does not mention which nations he is touting. He mentions Singapore, where gay sex is illegal as some form of paradise. So if asked why I would not live there, I'd mention that my kind are against the law there, no matter how large the cabbies life might be. So there are millions of Americans right there would would not mention 'American freedom' but sure would mention 'I am illegal in this place you say is better in every way'.
Let's talk Singapore and the author's 'they test your pee' routine. Well, in Singpore, they will test your pee at customs coming in if you look high. The police, if they 'suspect' drug use, can arrest anyone and then test their pee! Any positive result of any kind carries one year mandatory minimum. So this author is touting Singapore, probably the single most urine sniffing government on Earth, while claiming America is worse because of urine sniffing. It is amusing.

To whine that there is drug testing here while praising Singapore is just nonsense. To claim that a place where being gay is illegal is wonderful is what it is. What it is, not sure. But we be bad because some businesses test for drugs, Singpore is good, although the government itself can piss test virtually anyone at any time. Some schools there test the urine of all foreign students.
So, grain of salt all all of that.

his premise is correct. Our country is no where near the best place in the world to live and to hear "WE'RE NUMBER ONE" adnauseum is sickening. We are only number one at building and executing the war machine.

illegal to be gay and the police can drug test you for suspicion as being better than here, in part because employers drug test here, some of them. So the premise is 'America sucks because some employers drug test, yet Singapore rocks while their police are empowered to drug test on a whim while they arrest gay people. How is that correct in any way?
I personally do not hear 'we're number one' all the time. Sorry about that, chief. This is not about 'number one' this is some nut saying a hugely repressive society is superior, and doing so not by point to point comparison but by hyperbole and selectivity. Drug testing is bad here, I agree. But it is worse in Singapore. It it is a mark against us, it is 10 against them. And gay sex is a crime there, so if you are straight, and like the cops to be able to demand your pee at will, then sure, 'better' for you.
He's saying that a place where gay people are illegal is a lovely place, dude. And he's fine with their piss testing on a huge, wide basis, he overlooks for the sake of his argument.
This is nonsense, to a huge degree. I am a person who has traveled the world my whole life. It is possible to be both better and worse than the US in terms of living and loving. Singapore is to me, a hell hole of bigotry and fascism. To say that is not to credit the US, it is to put the blame on Singapore for their own policies and actions. You seem, as does the author, to see other countries only in terms relative to the US. That is sort of naff. A nation is not 'better or worse' compared to us, kid, they are what they are all on their own. As are we.
But 'the trains run on time' has never really impressed me as an argument for overlooking oppression and restrictions and making some minorities into criminals.

statement that ANY american would say america is the freest country on earth. I certainly dont and many people I know dont.
Get out now? How the fuck would one do that anyhow? Most of us are stuck here, even if we DID want out.

They're not going to riot in the streets.

You're certainly not speaking for me or my family and friends, nor, I might add,

the hundreds of thousands who "rioted in the streets" in the late sixties

and early seventies to bring down an unjust war.

I was tear-gassed in anti-Vietnam War demonstrations so many times that I lost count.

Once I took part in a protest to try and physically block a nuclear destroyer from sailing to Vietnam. We paddled out in little rowboats and canoes, into the choppy Raritan Bay off Leonardo, NJ, and tried to make a blockade around this gigantic ship, while Coast Guard crews tried to pull us out of the way with grappling hooks. We were risking our lives to try and keep more nuclear warheads out of the war zone. I ended up in a hospital E.R. with injuries when my hand got caught between a Coast Guard boat and the canoe I was in.

If you did anything like that, then you can call me a sheep.

than to apply it to other Americans.

in the last ten years. I know how bad it is here. But it can't be repeated often enough.

invited to travel to their country for a final round of interviews.

not only is the company very appealing, but the work is right up my alley, but i must admit that the cherry on top, is the fact that it is a chance to start a new life in another country.

america has tragically become a real scary place to live, especially when i consider my children's future.

of course, they may not, in the end, even offer me the job, but i must say that i, and my family, are incredibly excited by the prospect, nonetheless.

when i reflect on this, i am deeply saddened about the current state of america, and it's future, considering the trajectory it has been on for the past 3 decades, and i would have never have imagined that i would be even considering this opportunity when i was first starting out.

well, wish me luck DU :hi:

Good post