It’s hard to sum up because it’s hard to describe. Life in the U.S. on the surface is one of material abundance, congruent with our status as a wealthy nation. But that image is a serious headfuck because of how easily it can all be taken away from an individual: Even a relatively minor illness can plunge you into bankruptcy. You’re totally dependent on a car to get just about anywhere. You need it to keep a job, but you could lose it to an expensive mechanical failure at any time. Or, you could get crashed into on the road through no fault of your own, and get plunged into medical debt, lose your car, and your job in an instant. There is no safety net for this. The police aren’t there to protect you. In fact, they could come bursting through your door and kill you at any moment, maybe because they read the address on a warrant wrong, or somebody they want used to live there. Or, they could just take your assets by civil forfeiture because they feel like it. Police take more assets from citizens each year than nominal criminals do. Employers steal more yet through wage theft. Nobody will help you when that happens. People live with the threat of homelessness ever looming in the background, and if the system beats you into it, there’s little societal help. Quite the opposite, many places in the U.S. are actively working to make homelessness a criminal offense, or even subject to summary execution in some places. Even when welfare programs exist, they’re explicitly designed to be humiliating and hard to access.
To use an analogy, lots of people in the world live only a few steps up the prosperity staircase, and Americans are way high above them. However, we’re not on a staircase, we can’t just back down a few steps to a lower standard of living; it’s been cut off. There’s a certain minimum wealth standard enforced by law, custom, and environment. We’re perched on the edge of a cliff, with the constant threat of being forced over the edge.
Even the people in the U.S. slightly further up don’t understand the psychological trauma of this precarious existence, because their backs aren’t up against the precipice. That’s how the U.S. is such a paradox: It’s a shit hole country for so many people, who live with constant fear and anxiety, but so many other Americans can’t see it because they’re just a little bit higher up in prosperity, so they do have room to step back down a little.
(But even then, the upper classes put in insanely long hours at work and spend large amounts of money to secure a wealthy future for their children, for fear that they might fall out of the upper class. I think that’s pretty telling about what it’s like to be working class in the U.S. that it frightens them so badly.)
The part that gets left out of the border-crisis discourse is that millions, in turn, are sneaking back across the border, out of the United States. That’s why the media calls them “migrants” instead of “immigrants.” The net in-migration rate is fairly small, and in many years it’s negative, meaning more undocumented migrants leave than the number that arrive.
It’s true.
Source: sadly, I am one of them.
Jokes aside living in the US is still a lot better than most places in the world. Mostly because most of the world is sht :/
part of the reason most of the world is shit does have strong ties to US foreign policy
Most of the world is shit because of subpar economics. USA is truly special in some regards.
Very true, but it’s just frustrating because our problems here were generally all fueled by greed and were entirely preventable.
Is it really bad? Because the only news I read is here. Can you sum it up?
It’s hard to sum up because it’s hard to describe. Life in the U.S. on the surface is one of material abundance, congruent with our status as a wealthy nation. But that image is a serious headfuck because of how easily it can all be taken away from an individual: Even a relatively minor illness can plunge you into bankruptcy. You’re totally dependent on a car to get just about anywhere. You need it to keep a job, but you could lose it to an expensive mechanical failure at any time. Or, you could get crashed into on the road through no fault of your own, and get plunged into medical debt, lose your car, and your job in an instant. There is no safety net for this. The police aren’t there to protect you. In fact, they could come bursting through your door and kill you at any moment, maybe because they read the address on a warrant wrong, or somebody they want used to live there. Or, they could just take your assets by civil forfeiture because they feel like it. Police take more assets from citizens each year than nominal criminals do. Employers steal more yet through wage theft. Nobody will help you when that happens. People live with the threat of homelessness ever looming in the background, and if the system beats you into it, there’s little societal help. Quite the opposite, many places in the U.S. are actively working to make homelessness a criminal offense, or even subject to summary execution in some places. Even when welfare programs exist, they’re explicitly designed to be humiliating and hard to access.
To use an analogy, lots of people in the world live only a few steps up the prosperity staircase, and Americans are way high above them. However, we’re not on a staircase, we can’t just back down a few steps to a lower standard of living; it’s been cut off. There’s a certain minimum wealth standard enforced by law, custom, and environment. We’re perched on the edge of a cliff, with the constant threat of being forced over the edge.
Even the people in the U.S. slightly further up don’t understand the psychological trauma of this precarious existence, because their backs aren’t up against the precipice. That’s how the U.S. is such a paradox: It’s a shit hole country for so many people, who live with constant fear and anxiety, but so many other Americans can’t see it because they’re just a little bit higher up in prosperity, so they do have room to step back down a little.
(But even then, the upper classes put in insanely long hours at work and spend large amounts of money to secure a wealthy future for their children, for fear that they might fall out of the upper class. I think that’s pretty telling about what it’s like to be working class in the U.S. that it frightens them so badly.)
All that and millions are sneaking across the border to join in the dystopia.
The part that gets left out of the border-crisis discourse is that millions, in turn, are sneaking back across the border, out of the United States. That’s why the media calls them “migrants” instead of “immigrants.” The net in-migration rate is fairly small, and in many years it’s negative, meaning more undocumented migrants leave than the number that arrive.
Well, fuck that’s fucked. Where are the riots? Fuck m and burn m.
I’m sure things are so bad for you
Based on your response- I’m sure you wouldn’t understand if I tried to explain it to you.
Then leave
Sure, just come up with all the shit necessary to leave a country and move your entire life elsewhere!
Its so clear you fools. You morons. You utter simpletons. Jackanapes! Tomfools!
I accept payments for my move from the shit hole fund, just pm me.
No, everyone else leave ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No. Because thats now how it works.
Done. 6 years ago. QoL is far better since.
How bout you leave lol
I like the US, haven’t you heard? It’s the greatest democracy the world has ever known. And I’m not gonna stand here and let you badmouth it
There it is. The classic. I was wondering when I was gonna see that.
Someone had to do it. Happy to serve
Fair enough.