America: What we are, what we've become

I've written a little bit about this before, what we are, as America lately, what with the imbalances of our government and country.

Here are a few more tidbits on what we are and who we Americans have become, this time from the website Common Dreams:

For starters, according to the article (link at bottom, as usual): "We're near the bottom of the developed world in children's health and safety."

That was a stunner to me. Didn't we always think "We're number one!"? What happened to being "the richest country in the world"? What happened to having the highest standard of living in the world? Isn't that who we are? Don't we want to take care of our children's health and safety?

Or do we, instead, want to make absolutely sure that our health care corporations stay in a "free market" so they can do--and charge--whatever they please?

What and where are our priorities?

Second: "We've betrayed the young people who were advised to stay in school.

Over 40% of recent college graduates are living with their parents, dealing with government loans that average $27,200. The unemployment rate for young people is about 50%. More than 350,000 Americans with advanced degrees applied for food stamps in 2010."

Once more, what are our priorities?

For our children, for the next generation, for them, let alone for the nation, don't we value education? Isn't it more important that we keep top-notch education affordable, rather than letting corporations of all kinds--schools, book manufacturers, banks, etc.--make tons of money off them. And us?

Third: "The main source of middle-class wealth has been largely wiped out," as most of us so well know.

"American homeowners owe almost as much as the students, with $700 billion of debt over and above the value of their homes."

Here again, it seems we value and want to reward corporations--and the wealthy--before we protect the "common man", the working person, the middle- and lower-classes.

Does that make any sense? Does that seem like smart, productive priorities to you?

Fourth: "We give prison sentences for smoking marijuana, but not for billion-dollar fraud."

They write more--a bit more--about this at the original article but it's nearly that there isn't even any need for it. How much more gross inequality and unfairness can you get than that?

Finally, "You can have health care, if you pay for it."

Three statistics on American health care:

--More than 50 million of us have no health care at all because our system, being "free market Capitalism", leaves it up to us to get insurance and those people don't have it and can't afford it;

--We pay more, as a nation and as individuals, than any other people and nation in the world;

--We are ranked, again, nationally, 37th in the world, at best, in mortality rate. We are more likely to die younger here in the US than in 36 other nations.

Here again, we put our corporations and business and so, the wealthy, ahead--far ahead--of the common good for the nation. This is a health care system that patently isn't working. At least it's not working for the majority of the nation. Strange, dysfunctional priorities.

Their conclusion (at least part of it):

"Privatization simply hasn't worked for health care, mortgage banking, higher education, or prison management. There is little incentive for profit-motivated firms to invest in disadvantaged or underemployed Americans."

My conclusion:

Given all this and then that, on top of this, we spend more--$711 billion dollars per year--on "defense" than any other nation in the world, it seems more indications of strange, unnecessary, unsustainable and very nearly crazy priorities.

What it boils down to is that I don't think we--the American people--know or realize what kind of country we are, who we are, who and what we've become. Further, I don't think most people know what got us here or how we get out of it.

To me, the one most important thing we need to do is get the big money of corporation and wealthy out of our political system and government. We need true, stringent, tough, accountable campaign finance reform so our legislators and their legislation and so, our laws and government can no longer be bought. Until we do that, until we get this big, ugly money out of our system, nothing will change. Everything will remain the same. It will be government for the wealthy and corporations instead of for the average worker and schmoe on the street, so to speak. It will remain government for the top 1%. I think we all know this.

We need to get the money out of the system.

The fact is, we're not on a good path. We need to change that. And it will--has to--come from us, the people, in order to change.

Link to original post: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/14-0