I’ve recently read some statistics that say that anxiety in America is at an all time high of 20%. Think about that, that is one in five people.
In this country, the poor far outnumber the rich. To make matters worse, we won’t admit how poor we are, so we deny the reality that lives here in our country.
I think America is so much better off than any other third world country – no question. It’s just that we don’t admit to our frailty, and our love for the feudalistic system of the Dark Ages. The rich ravage the poor and own everything worth owning.
Americans pretend that we are all well off. We are so good at pretending. Fully half of our retail system is built around the concept of false wealth and looking like you have it, when you don’t.
We pretend we have power, we don’t use. We pretend we have money we don’t have, we pretend that we are smarter and better, we are not. We have been sold out by Madison avenue. Let’s be clear though, we are the ones who bought into this falseness.
The truth is that we are embarrassingly poor and poverty stricken in this country. We actually don’t realize how much money our society wastes on non-humanitarian endeavors. We don’t need any more nuclear bombs, but our country has committed itself to continually enriching the one per-centers. It’s the one per-centers who are bomb makers, and oil company owners. You and I don’t have that kind of influence and money.
HOWEVER, we want to pretend that we do have that kind of money. We want to be on the Trump side, because that’s the side of the wealthy. Ivanka sells bracelets for $10,400.00. Isn’t THAT the group that we want to be part of? The heavy hitters who can afford anything?
In the meantime, I struggle to pay for healthcare. Yes, I have health insurance, yes I have an Health Savings Account, and still, because I am sick, I can barely afford my healthcare. I have to buy a prescription that is compounded and because it is compounded, my insurance won’t cover it. My physicians are specialists, so I must always pay the higher rate to see them. My procedures are always paid at 80%, and any SMALL and SHORT procedure costs us several thousand dollars.
Republicans talk about how Social Security is not enough and Americans should be saving for retirement. To keep myself working, I have to spend approximately $500.00 to $1,000.00 a month for health care. I have been spending this much for about five years now. How do I save money under these circumstances?
It maddens me that at least 30% of this money goes to enrich healthcare executives. It’s not for healthcare, it’s for profit and for the greed of those one-percenters. The reason for this is that our Congress in the United States of America, is for sale. This congress are retiring as millionaires because the healthcare industry has paid them off. After all Viagra is very, very lucrative.
I don’t understand this. What I really hate about it is that in other countries, politicians and capitalist executives are likely to admit that they work together. It’s only in America that we pretend that capitalism is a good thing. We need to admit that although capitalism has value, it has run amok in America.
Back to anxiety and the prevalence of anxiety in America. Americans may be in denial, but something inside (intuition) is telling us the truth about capitalism in America. We are all an inch away from being homeless and America has no safety net for us.
Because our culture believes in “rugged individualism”, most Americans believe that if you don’t work hard and pull yourself up by your boot straps, then there must be something wrong with you. Because we believe this about ourselves and others, it can be devastating to lose a job. We believe that this is our own fault. More devastating still is the idea that we cannot then find another job to replace the lost job. America is changing rapidly, printers are out of business, paper newspapers are out of business, factories that make records, tapes, and CDs are out of business. Americans blame it on themselves when they cannot create financial success, even when the entire industry they work in has been demolished by change.
We know, we Americans know that nothing will save us. There is nothing in America to help people survive. Churches are trying and don’t make the mark. Food stamps have always had limited application and now trying to attain them can be a nightmare. Americans are dying at the rate of 5 per hour because of lack of healthcare, tens of thousands of Americans are homeless and our own children are often at risk of hunger and going to bed without dinner.
We have anxiety. We know that we are not okay. We know that we are at extreme risk. America is brutal unless you are wealthy. Comfort is difficult to attain, often, it is only the young who have not the left the security of their parents home that feel comfortable and live without anxiety. The only other source of comfortable is for the wealthy or the ignorant.
Being aware of the brutality of our home country is a source of anxiety for millions of Americans.
We have to find a way to regain our hearts and souls in America. We must regain a safety net. If we can’t do it politically, we can do it by stopping blaming ourselves for things that are so much beyond our control. We can take back America by believing in ourselves and by supporting each other in our best efforts. We cannot do this by being “rugged individuals”.
We can be more realistic about our beliefs. People with money are not necessarily smart in any way. They haven’t done anything better or more meaningful than anyone else in America. The single difference is money. Then one must look individually for other differences and put all presumptions aside. Let’s not give away power and wealth by allowing this country to be managed by the greedy and the cheaters. Let’s reclaim America.
