Call me a pessimist. Call me an angry liberal. Call me unpatriotic. Call me any derogatory term for a person upset with the direction our country is going in, but you can never call me uninformed. Our fair country, the United States of America, is knee-deep in a metaphorical pile of excrement, body parts, oil and missiles, and lately I've felt less and less optimistic about our state.
Sidenote: If there are any Feds reading this, please don't take this as anything more than an opinion. I'm just a blogger, not a terrorist...
1. We are engaged in three wars.
Between Afghanistan, Iraq, and now our newfound military front in Libya, the United States is spreading itself thin in terms of our armed forces. After 10 years and over
$1 trillion spent on military costs, the 'War on Terror' has yielded next to nothing in answers for the 9/11 attacks, much less broken up any part of the new 'axis of evil' George Dubya duped the world into believing in. Imagine that. We've been at war for over a decade now, and still have nothing to show for it but dead soldiers and civilians, a U.S. funded puppet state in Afghanistan that's rife with corruption, and a loss of faith from the world community. Now that we've engaged Libya, and still have no plans to get out of Afghanistan or Iraq, I can only imagine the carnage that can ensue. Not to mention, the U.S. is on a fast track to conflict with North Korea. If we think the Middle East has some WMD's, then I'd hate to see what Kim Jong-Il has up his sleeve. Simply put, we've focused too much on the military over the last decade, especially economically, bringing me to the next point:
2. Our domestic economic policies aren't helping.
If there is any person whose opinion on finance and the economy I'm going to trust, it's got to be Warren Buffet. The man simply knows money. And guess what? Warren Buffet says
the recession isn't over, and won't be for some time considering the steps our government is taking. Take a look around. Unemployment is still rampant and job creation is stalling. The amount of Americans filing for bankruptcy is still rising. Our national debt is still rising, while our GDP is stagnant. And the worst part? Our government is enacting policies that will probably add to our deficit.
If it's not the richest Americans getting tax cuts widening the gap between the haves and have-nots and turning the U.S. into a nation of classes, then it's our egregious military spending putting us in the hole and bringing us closer to nuclear holocaust. If it's not CEO's bonuses jumping 30%, then it's state governments attempting to block unions while not cutting their own pay. If it's not a RoboCop statue being erected in the economic wasteland of Detroit, then it's the government dragging its feet in a budget-saving health care plan. Our government blasts the country's spending habits when it spends its money on ridiculous things that don't serve to improve our nation, and instead set us back.
3. Dependence on oil is still the precedent.
Energy is what runs everything. Repeat that. ENERGY RUNS EVERYTHING. It runs our transportation, every appliance and piece of technology we use, and every resource we need, needs artificial energy to work. That said, our dependence on oil is sickening. Of all Western nations, we use the most oil while producing the least. Additionally, the world's oil reserves are set to be running low in the next 30-40 years, with the world reaching it's
peak oil production in the past few years. That means the world, and more importantly the U.S., is going to have to find a new method of energy production. Ironically, we continue peddling money into oil subsidies and oil companies, rather than invest in sustainable energy. At this rate, we'll be in the dark faster than you can flip a light switch.
4. Our education system and infrastructure are failing.
If you're reading this, I'm going to assume that you're reasonably educated and can formulate a complete thought on paper without awakening the spirit of Mr. Ed. However, for a lot of American youth, that's not the case. Since 2000, the United States has fallen behind most of the industrialized world in reading and math, two subjects that we excelled at starting in the 70s. Additionally, we're at our lowest rate of college matriculation and graduation in over 30 years (you could blame the recession). No, I'm not saying the U.S> has become a nation of idiots, but we're getting closer to that title by the day. With even the SAT beginning to show signs of lower scores, it's obvious that something isn't going right in our schools as of late, which should seriously affect the country's future, and inevitably our ability to understand what's even going on in our country...
5. Political engagement is down, while political ignorance is up.
According to
Newsweek, Americans are becoming more and more politically ignorant, with more than 30% of Americans being unable to name our own Vice President, 44% unable to define the Bill of Rights, and 73% unable to identify why the Cold War was fought and 6% unable to circle our own Independence Day on a calendar. Excuse me? In this nation so hell-bent on patriotism and national pride, people have no earthly clue what's going on! No wonder they vote for legislation that hurts them financially, allow warmongering politicians to draw us into foreign conflict and listen to idiots like Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin spew misinformation. In the 60s, 70s and 80s our industrial might was enough to keep us afloat, because the rest of the world was simply playing catch-up. Now that the Internet has ushered in the information age, it's a necessity for the U.S. to know not only what's going on in our own country, but also the rest of the world... And we're failing terribly.
I won't sit here and say that I've lost all hope in our fair country. However, it's disconcerting to see so many ills in our country that are easily fixable with some smart leadership and engagement from our citizens. At the same time, with the way things are looking, a move to Canada might be just what the doctor ordered. They don't look like they're doing too badly.
The U.N. seemed to think so, and I trust their judgment a lot more than the U.S.'s at this point...
