The Greatest Country in the world… For Who?

The by line by every politician, “we live in the greatest country in the history of the world!” but the real question: is it really the greatest for everyone? Can everyone truly look inside themselves and say yes, this country Is great for me an I’m living my best life here.

In reality there’s only a few metrics that the western world can go by. The first is going to have to be how much mobility is there between being poor and destitute and being able to work up to being extremely rich and powerful. After all the American dream is if you work hard you can go from being the Janitor to being the CEO of the company by the time you retire. The second is can I afford to educate myself to get to that point and the third is will I be able to afford my health coverage if I fall ill any step of the way.

The reality Is not only is it extremely hard to do this but, in most cases, if you are born destitute chances are you are going to stay poor and destitute even if you work like crazy to move up. The reason there is little class mobility, most people who start off at the lower levels of income or even in the middle class they are more likely to either stay in the poor class or dip into the poor classes from the middle class than their grandparents or great grandparents. One of the biggest reasons is access to quality education, over the last 2 decades the quality and money given to public K-12 education has decreased and in some places the budgets have been cut by more than half, usually in the districts where schools cater to children who are brought up in working class or section 8 housing.

The other reason is the Job Market in this country has changed Dramatically and having a degree no longer matters as much. The Market for jobs that pay a living wage have since the 1980’s went the way of the dodo bird. Call it job outsourcing, call it automation, call it the movement to a service-based economy. But whatever you call it the majority of people getting into the workforce on average have to work 2 or more jobs at 40 plus hours a week to get by. This is unsustainable for multiple reasons, first a person who is young can probably do that go out for drinks go to school on the computer part time and still be able to bark at the moon. The issue isn’t when you are young it comes about when you get older and you still have to work those two jobs take care of children and pay off your student loans on that MBA you got even though there are no managers positions open in your area. On top of the fact that if and when you get sick you will become whipped out fiscally and most likely end up on the street. Considering the fact that the average wage for a Full-Time worker is still 7.25 in most states which it has been since 2009 the last time the federal minimum wage was increased to account for inflation goes to show you that maybe we aren’t getting paid the amount we need to actually live.

The next claim you can get educated and get a better job. All that needs to be said about this can and has been said by better authors and activists of the millennial generation than myself. As a member of this Generation all I ca tell you is secondary education is a farce. There I said it, but its not to upset everyone its true. I have met more people who have gotten ok jobs and careers mind you they aren’t millionaires, but there able to get by as it where with no Bachelors degree than I have met folks with a bachelor’s degree that are doing well. What do I mean by this, well if you look at the debt ratio to income ratio for people who get very lucky without college degrees versus the folks who worked there butts off in college to get a decent job in their field the answer is day and night in most cases. Average debt for millennials in the last decade who left college was between 500k to 100k from high end to low end in some cases depending on where they went or if they went on to pursue a masters or doctorate, they world get saddled with nearly a million dollars’ worth of student loan debt. All of this before they even got into the working world, and with no guarantee that they would even get a job after they graduated that would pay them enough to pay down the bare minimum on there debts and have enough left over to pay rent, utilities and feed themselves without needing a part time job at the end of the day to pay for the rest of the necessities. So, if college and higher ed is a way out of your current economic class you better think again. All of this goes without saying that those who got trade jobs are probably doing better except for the next issue.

Healthcare isn’t cheap, in fact we are the only democracy in the world right now that doesn’t guarantee healthcare as a human right to its citizens. So say you got the better trade degree and a good job in a trade and you either are given a healthcare plan by your employer or bought one off of a private exchange you would think, “I’m good everything will be fine” until you get that heart attack that lands you in the hospital and rehab for a month, then you loose your job and the bills they keep coming because lets face it someone’s got to pay the bill and when you loose your job you cant pay for that fancy private healthcare anymore because your money isn’t coming in nor is your mortgage getting paid and the interest rises up and eventually you wake up one day with a past due notice on your house loan, the banks calling on your overdue balance on your credit card. And the hospital calling on your outstanding fees that even if you get into a payment plan with them remember you lost your job how will you pay it off?

You see dear reader by these three metrics its easy for many to think, yes, I can do anything in this country because its great! The government stays out of my life and doesn’t force me to pay an unburden some tax to help give kids free college education, or other “takers” free healthcare that they should pay for. The issue with that thinking is we are all one or two bad incidents away from being out on the street. And while yes college can be a lifeline to many the chances are your just as well off going into a trade, and even if everything goes right, we are all human and we all get old and break down eventually. It is called being mortal and in every step of the way our country’s government could give a crap less. This government doesn’t care if you live or die because you’re just a number on a piece of paper. you pay a 25% tax rate already that goes to giving money to Corporations so the CEO’s can line their pockets and then they turn around to bribe politicians to vote their way in congress, the state legislature and in town halls all over this country, and they know you will blindly obey and protect that rhetoric of “we are the greatest nation.”

If that makes you mad dear reader, I ask you do not be mad at greedy men and women. Be mad that you keep falling for it! Because you have the power collectively, the rich and powerful only make up 1% of the hundreds of millions of hard-working Americans that live in this nation. That means there is more of us then there are of them. So, if you want your country to actually be different join a new party and run! Get your friends together next year and run as an independent, green or apart of the Peoples Party. Throw the two parties out of your town halls and state governments. Then do it again federally and again and again and again. Rise and rise again until the powerful have no power over your lives! Do it until the elected officials you vote for ask you for your opinion before they ever even dream of writing a bill to screw you and your friends over. If this is a Democracy then Fight for it! Politics isn’t a spectator sport; you have all the power you just need to believe in it! Because together We will make this Nation the Greatest Country the World has ever seen!