When one takes an in-depth view of what has been happening in and to America it appears that this nation, which should be rapidly advancing into the 21st century is, instead, caught up in a state of regression; and the reason is that it has a government led by politicians who possess absolutely no vision of the direction that this country should take in the future.
Let’s make a brief comparison between the governments of the U.S. and China. Clearly, China is a nation that is racing into the future; America, on the other hand, is standing still, stuck in neutral. China develops 5 and 10-year plans and sets ambitious objectives; I’ve never heard the U.S. government announce any kind of plan for the future, let alone set any specific objectives.
China has a thriving economy while America’s, which once was vibrant and growing, is largely stagnant. China’s economy is being fueled by a manufacturing sector that once belonged to America but now is owned by China. What’s left of U.S. manufacturing is minuscule in comparison.
One of America’s few thriving business sectors can be found in the trucking industry. We see huge truck distribution facilities popping up all over America that operates in support of the massive number of trucks that flood our highways and interstates; why are so many needed? Well, it’s because they are very essential in the distribution of Chinese products. I’m sure the Chinese government greatly appreciates this help in moving their products around this country.
Our democracy should be growing stronger but it is barely alive and this country is well on the way to becoming a full-fledged oligarchy. We have a Congress controlled by Corporate America; our election process is being poisoned by corporate money.
Instead of making universal healthcare a top priority to provide coverage for every American, this backward Congress, now totally controlled by Republicans, is planning to launch attacks on Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare, which if successful, will be devastating to many millions of Americans.
Another of their targets will be Social Security (which just happens to be an entity that funds and operates itself and have nothing to do with government spending) and which should be hands-off to the agents of destruction that inhabit Washington.
Let’s talk about U.S. CEOs who, collectively, earn from 400 to 500 times the median salary for workers. For CEOs in the U.K., the ratio is 22; in France, it’s 15, in Germany it’s 12, Britain is 25, Sweden 13, (Germany 11, and in Japan it’s 10. That is incomprehensible, it’s absolutely ludicrous.
America should be experiencing a significant reduction in the incidence in violence but violence has now become embedded in this society and culture. What other developed nation is plagued by mass shootings of its citizens; which one has children in grade schools and college students that can and have been gunned by crazed individuals who can easily obtain a high-powered gun?
One would think that a country that many like to call exceptional would have an exceptional government but the one we have at this point in time is probably the worst one in the history of this nation.
Almost every advanced nation in Europe and Scandinavia has free tuition or generous subsidies and grants for its students, from the time they enter school to when they attend college. But that’s not true in America in which some 42 million current and former students have, collectively, incurred a massive student loan debt of $1.3 trillion.
Apparently, for these craven politicians, providing free tuition in community colleges and doing something to alleviate the massive student loan debt is totally out of the question, but preparing to give the rich in this country more tax cuts is a far greater priority.
None of the other developed nations of the world have military empires located all over this planet; they are not engaged in invading and occupying other nations; they don’t depose leaders of other nations. But the U.S. military empire stays firmly entrenched all over the world.
What other countries are using deadly drones to fly into the airspace over sovereign nations and rain Hellfire missiles down upon suspected terrorists as well as innocent civilians?
Has any other nation declared itself to be the world’s policeman, playing the role of prosecutor, judge and jury to determine the fate of other nations?
Which other developed country has 15% of its citizens dependent on food stamps and the same number living below the poverty line? Which one has a massive inequality of income in which some 400 Americans own more wealth than 50% of other people in this country?
The U.S., for years has been regressing in world rankings of educational excellence. In a world in which math and science are more important than ever, America continues to be at or near the bottom of the list of the 32 developed nations that are a part of these rankings. That is clearly a sign of a nation regressing instead of advancing.
Instead of developing solar power, the most powerful energy source in the universe, the energy of the future, we have U.S. corporations, with the strong support of this government, using the dangerous process of fracking to extract natural gas and oil from beneath the surface of the earth. This is causing the eruption of minor earthquakes in many states and the contamination of water sources.
Once America was the most respected country in the world it has now become the most feared. People in other nations don’t fear the American people but they do fear its government.
America was once referred to as a “melting pot” in which people of various races and nationalities blended into the society as a whole, but it is turning into a country of great divisions in which racism and intolerance are still very much in place. Certain minorities and religions are still considered to be outliers in this society.
Women in America are still considered to be a cut below men even when they are just as competent and successful in the business world; they continue to earn significantly lower incomes than men for doing the same type work. This gender discrimination should have been ended years ago and is one more sign of a nation which is not advancing but is regressing.
The more jobs we export to other countries, the more we let our education system deteriorate, the more we will see our prisons filled with those we say don’t fit in with this society; America has the greatest prison population in the world. And the situation doesn’t get any better, but just gets worse.
The nation that produced true patriots such as Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Lincoln now has reached the point where it can’t find better presidential candidates than Trump and Clinton. Those giants of the past were statesmen, dedicated to their country to the point that they risked their lives to bring about its independence.
They were stable, rational-minded servants of the people, who put country first. To compare them with the foul-mouthed, hateful, arrogant Trump and a highly faulted Clinton, who has a closet full of political skeletons, is ludicrous. Yet one more example of regression.
This situation, this current condition of our country, must be reversed and America must return to the days when it was rapidly advancing in so many ways. But how to do it when we have a government that, instead of strengthening this nation’s foundations and planning for the future, has no such inclination?
Right now this great dilemma in which this country finds itself seems to be without any solution; 320 million Americans, including the best and brightest minds among us, apparently are helpless to do anything about it. It is entirely possible that the process has now gone too far and cannot be reversed.
If that’s the case then this country, because of the great failures of its government, will have evolved into what is called the “new normal” and people will have to resign themselves to adjust to living in a country in which conditions have changed for the worst but, as unpleasant as they may be, they are here to stay.
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