America Sucks?

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I see a lot of comments on here (some of my creation) about how bad things are going here in the Late, Never Great United States. I was, in fact, about to post one! Then I had a flashback memory of my visit to my mother's native country.

The propeller-driven plane that we flew over there (from a slightly larger country), acted up while we were over the ocean, and we almost crashed. At the airport, some of our luggage was stolen. The "police" expected bribes to help you.

My mother's family (there were a LOT of them), lived in tin-roofed huts. Water was collected in drums or hauled from a distant, dirt-choked well. The bathroom was a small hut at the edge of literal jungle. Snakes and other critters often set up shop in its relative coolness. You had to lob a few rocks at it to scare em out.

I could go on, but you get the point. Americans have no idea how good they have it, even during the admittedly lackluster Obama/ Trump years. We are blessed.

I know exactly how good I have it. And I remind my kids constantly how lucky they are to be living here.

(Moved to Random as it doesn't fit in News/Current Events category).

My country also has its problems, but is better off than many. We are so fortunate in many ways.

Americans are some of the most blessed people in history. I am grateful to have been born here.

Sure, America is great, but I'm still retiring to the Philippines.

any particular reason why?

At one time, The US of A was a great place to live.

Nowadays, greed and avarice (exemplified by Gordon Gekko) rule the day. Need proof? START WITH THE SELF-SERVING MOTHERF!CKERS THAT SERVE IN THE EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE BRANCHES AT ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT!! !

The business world isn’t much better. These days, the days of socially responsible businesses like Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream are dead (now that Ben and Jerry’s is owned by UniLever.)

If I had my druthers, and the cash, as a budding hermit, I’d blow this country for a deserted island.

Here is my issues with the USA.

A. America behaves as a cult and America itself is a civil religion that others don't tolerate any kind of questioning and criticizing. You're always the problem. The society is never wrong on anything.

B. It claims to be this individualistic based culture where one can be true to oneself. It is not. Like a number of countries it actually is a conformist culture.

C. America claims to be a Christian nation when it really is not. In fact, the whole worship of capitalism and free enterprise opposes Jesus's teachings like the love of money is the root of all evil, love God with all your heart and mind and love others as you do yourself.

D. If you can't afford medical care you're pretty much f****d.

E. There is no sense of community. It's all about personal responsibility and pulling oneself by his bootstraps. Hardly anyone is willing to help or guide you if you are down.

F. There is to much political correctness and even on here on WP there is to much PC.

G. Work is not something to just achieve a goal. It is an intrinsic value onto itself. If one is not stressing out working one is considered lazy.

H. The people don't think and don't want to think. There is little to no critical thinking.

I. Materialism has become a panacea. There is no spirituality at all and the churches that do exist are fake and phony. They don't actually do what Jesus wants.

J. America lies. It makes the claim that anyone can succeed if they work hard but is that really true? How many people rise up from poverty vs those who remain in poverty?

K. What does a homeless man in the USA have that a homeless man let's say the homeless in the poorest regions of Africa doesn't have?

It’s more fair to compare America to other first world countries

L. America thinks that it is more important that I learn things like the "quadratic formula", how King Henry the 8th died, etc, etc then learning how money functions, how stock market works, how to make yourself employable including interviewing skills, budgeting, what bills are, how taxes work, how to choose health insurance conflict resolution, etc etc. In fact, a lot of the world or the first world deems this stuff as more important. And, even when these things are taught they're considered electives. Why is it deemed more important that I learn to dissect a frog instead of learning how to get a job? Seems ass backwards to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xe6nLVXEC0

M. Let's not forget this gem as to why America sucks. People in the USA seem to have this idea that I must be positive and confident all the time. Instead of addressing the matter at hand, attempting to help solve the matter or even disagreeing with me and explaining why I'm told I'm being to negative. I should believe in myself more. The people refuse to do the things with me that would lead to more confidence and positivity. Telling me to simply be confident or positive as though it is turning on the switch doesn't work. This was one of the reasons I simply left voc rehab for good. They, like a number of people couldn't conceive that it wasn't my attitude that was the issue. It was that I really have a disability that impacts me in multiple ways. They literally can't or will not do the thinking outside of their own boxes. It's like telling me all I have to do to add numbers is to believe in myself yet they're not showing me how to do it properly. Or, they can't conceive that I really did try to do something over the years and I really literally can't do it. I didn't need more confidence or positivity I needed intricate guidance as to what I was supposed to do succeed in IT. People will not or can't tell me. Even when I look it up online the information is so scant.

N. And, that's another thing that sucks about America as well. A lot of times the information online is either scant or wrong (how does one evaluate truth from error and should he spend all day doing this). Yet, people don't want to be bothered and instead will tell you to look online. And, what if one doesn't get what he is reading, the information is extremely scant to you and the information one needs is not online at all, and let's not forget what if one can't think of the words to put into the search engine? Now what does one do?

O. Empathy. It has this whole emotional intelligence BS. Here is the thing. Emotions are not objective. They're subjective. And, there will be conflicts. The problem with empathy is who is one supposed to be empathetic towards? If my father needed something and my wife needed something and there would be no way to satisfy one without not satisfying the other for whom do I take care of first? Another thing, is it right to tax a person and give to another who is poor. Conservatives don't think so. They see it as stealing. I as a liberal see it as being a part of society, a part of the social contract and to me I think it is right to help the poor. Who's right? By being empathetic towards one group are we unempathetic towards another? Does empathy lead to immorality. Conservatives see taking from one group to give to another to prop them up as theft and theft is immoral. It begs the question. Should empathy be a sole guide to making political decisions and personal decisions in one life. A number of people seem to think this way. I think a wise society needs more like reason, logic, morals, etc. And, this goes back to the thing of which people don't think and don't want to think. What we need is a wise society that is caring, moral and logical. You need the trifecta of these three things. American society is none of these things.

As food for side on empathy: Individual groups do fit some of these things based on my impression. Liberals are very caring but less moral and less logical. (A lot of the social welfare programs they want to do. How would they pay for. Conservatives have a point on this.) Conservatives are less caring, more moral (with trump sometimes I wonder) and do have a bit of logic in them. Libertarians are more caring, more moral and less logical (They are extremely naive with their whole platform and how the free market is. In their mind, the free market could solve or at least reduce a lot of the problems like poverty) Objectivists as in the Ayn Randians are less caring, less moral and do have some logic to them. Selfishness is their virtue so one can appeal to their selfishness to get things done with them.

I think I'm more of a centrist then.

We don't learn about Kings of England in the US. The quadratic formula, biology (dissection), etc.... the sciences and maths are IMPORTANT to be taught in school otherwise you end up with a bunch of blokes that only care about consuming and not understanding anything. If people don't develop critical thinking skills they end up just listening to whatever their favorite politician spoon feeds them. Practical skills that you listed are also important.

I think your criticism is direct toward K-12 education yes? These programs are generally lacking. America poorly invests in its education programs unless at the university level or a private school.

Yes we do have it pretty good and even the poor people have it good as well compared to 3rd world countries.

I also think our healthcare sucks because too many people believe it's socialism and think everyone should pay for their own care. But yet they are fine with paying for public schools and police stations and fire departments.

I also see how flawed capitalism is. I am not saying people shouldn't have to earn their own money and everything should just be handed out. I think there needs to be balance and not greed. One other problem with capitalism is it keeps people poor.

Our minimum wage sucks, it has not kept up with money inflation so technically, people made more back then on minimum wage. Colleges were also a lot cheaper back then too and my mom was able to work full time and study and go to school and even practice as a nurse while working but her parents still helped pay for her school. She also lived in her own apartment while a student. She finished college at 22 years of age but she also studied in the summer too and this was in the 1970's when she graduated. It's not this easy anymore.

It was an analogy.



Which is what we have today anyway.

Let me say this first.

People throw terms like critical thinking and critical thinking skills around all the time. I don't even get the impression that a number of people who throw these terms around even really understand what they mean. So, from here. These are my questions to those including educators throw these terms around.

a. What is critical thinking and critical thinking skills?

b. And, do we learn "critical thinking skills" from some theoretical text book or out in the field?

c. And, even with critical thinking which I do think is extremely important people would still have to want to use it. My experience is people don't vote with logic or reason but with their values and emotions. I've debated with conservatives using logic, facts and figures to show why some of their thinking and "facts" are flawed. They're as emotional as the liberals they claim as emotional when it concerns their way of life and beliefs. Liberals are the same way. Supposedly the schools are teaching "critical thinking skills."

d. I never said these things aren't important but how important are they compared to tangible, life and practical skills? Personally, I think the tangible, life and practical skills like learning how to do a resume, job interview, etc are more important then some obscure quadratic formula.

e. Supposedly, the millennials and gen z'ers are the most educated bunch of all yet they seem to have all kinds of issues navigating the workplace and real world practical type skills? Why is that? Maybe the focus was to much on some of these academic and critical thinking skills at the expense of these more tangible, practical skills that are desperately needed. They are called narcissists, etc, etc. Why is that? Could it be they were not taught what they needed to know? And, maybe that's because they were learning a whole bunch of abstract academics (which are good) at the expense of the real world, tangible skills needed to function well in the work place?





And, they do so anyway. They lock themselves in their own echo chambers. The desire to think has to be there. A lot of people in my impression don't think and don't want to think.





It is but much more!

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Even then, I think they still poorly invest.

Ok, what do poor people more specifically homeless people in the USA have that those in third world nations don't have exactly? What is the difference between a homeless person in the USA vs one in Uganda for example?

There lies the problem. This is stated about as though it is fact without explaining how or going into specifics?

What do

Homeless in the USA have

https://www.google.com/search?q=homeles ... AXoECA8QAw



that the Homeless in Uganda do not have?

https://www.google.com/search?q=homeles ... US861US861

Poor people still live in big houses compared to places in Europe. They all have a refrigerator and a stove and running water and food. I don't mean big houses like mcmansions. I mean more like 1200 sq foot homes. My sister in law lived in a home that was on low income housing and they paid part of the rent and she paid her share of it and so did my in laws until they bought a mobile home that was rent to own.

Yes we do have a homeless problem as well, it has increased here in Portland around 2013 when rent skyrocketed. We have the nickname "tent city" for their homeless sites. But even as a poor person who isn't homeless you still have it better.

We have programs like foodstamps, low income housing, section 8.