Are Americans concerned about living in a decaying society ? It's pretty bad in the US right ?

Question

Been there twice before and I was amazed at how false the old world view about America being the "...land of the free and home of the brave". I found nothing but, overcrowded noisy, polluted cities, a HUGE homeless problem, a country crippled by its own gluttery, a country domestically on its knees struggling to look after its own ! Seriously, you guys have to do something about the number of homeless plaguing the cities SFO & NYC imparticular, nothing like Sydney ! I've never felt luckier living in Australia.

Answer 1

--Ok, you, the Asker, do realize that this is a rather weak attempt at a troll, don't you? Honestly, did you really believe you were going to get any responses of a genuine sort? Nope....most of what you'll get are responses of the chest-thumping "We're Number One dang it!" type....

--And much of this is because...well, ok, everyone else *does* have problems of sorts--France with its disaffected Nigerian youth, Japan with its young shut-ins, the UK with its "chavs" among others, but....

As much as I hate to admit this (and get everyone else here hating on me and thumbing me down), the truth is...we *are* rather the Retarded Stepchild of the Developed World here in the United States. At least our peers out there *do* try to help their own citizens and to protect their own citizens....we don't. *ALL* of our peers in the Developed World's Nations, Canada, the UK, Western Europe, Austrailia and Japan, *ALL* of them have some sort of universal health care plan, *ALL* of them have better public schools that are *NOT* prone to school shootings and high dropout rates, *ALL* of them take better care of their unemployed and displaced citizens, than we *ever* do our own citizens, when our Companies downsize, displace and outsource people by the thousands *each month*, stabbing us in the back even as they *take our money*.

As much as I hate to admit this....the Asker, even with his weak little troll, has a legitimate point here. And why...?

--Because I *don't* live in San Francisco or New York City, ok? And yet my hometown, a fairly mid-sized, humble city in the middle of Illinois (Champaign, if you must know), does have a fairly serious homelessness problem. This isn't just about two Big Cities "out there" on the Left and Right Coasts....this is happening all over, whether cities and towns want to admit it and try to take care of it, or whether they just pull a fast one instead by *kicking people out* with the one-way bus ticket, and making someone *another town's problem*.

--And, we do have some fairly serious economic problems here. BIG government budget deficits, and for what again? BIG trade deficits not just in general, but with *China*, a nation that routinely thinks lead is edible and safe for *kids*, and likes to re-educate protesting college students with *tanks* grinding them up in Tiannamen Square. Oh, and did I mention that the Canadian dollar has become stronger than ours? Say what? O_O

Not to mention, we are getting *hosed* on gasoline and petroleum prices, gouged every time Big Oil feels like it.

Not to mention, we hardly have money to *spend* on infrastructure, whether it's bridges about to collapse and kill people, or whether it's dams, dikes and levees that are *Needed* to keep New Orleans from being *Underwater*.

Not to mention, Wal-Mart, illegal immigration, outsourcings, downsizings and stricter bankruptcy laws are *all* crushing the life out of any sort of notion of self-sufficiency as more and more *working people* are forced into part-time, zero-perk, dead-end labor *AND* being stuck on Welfare too at the same time, in spite of their best efforts (Keyword Search: "Nickeled And Dimed". It's a book, read it.).

Not to mention....Mortgages. Mortgages are rapidly sizing up to be the *next* big Savings and Loan crisis, the *next* big failure of Banking to keep its greed in check. It'll be the *next* time those Bankers come with their pampered hands out, begging for a bailout....one the *rest of us* will have to pay for, all over again.

--Which brings us back to homelessness again. It's one thing when "they" are homeless, and we can call them drunks, or say they're "mental" or "crackheads" or whatnot.

But what happens when people, middle-class working people with kids and *lives*, have their homes foreclosed, and *they* end up homeless en masse? Suddenly, it's not a "they" problem, is it? It starts to sound more like a "we" problem instead, right? Not that anyone's going to care until it's too late, but you know....people can't afford to buy houses anyway. Rents are *high* these days, yes, even for the Midwest.

So yeah...I know. The Question's a troll, but....

It's a weak troll because it has more than a grain of truth to it. The Asker has a point to make, even *if* his own home nation hardly has any water left in it, and even if the 'roos are halfway dried up into *jerky* by now. ^_^ Sucks living on a whole continent of desert when Global Warming is an issue, doesn't it?

But yeah....I don't normally give trolls a star, but this Question *does* have merit in spite of its trolling nature, so I have to do it.

Sorry....you can hate me now. ^_^

Answer 2

I'm sure Sydney has its bad side of town too. you don't have any homeless people i don't believe that for one second. if you had gone to a nice place like a small town. to judge America on what you saw in San Fran or new york is not seeing the real America. i live in a town with a population of 13000 people, its cold an snowy out right now but its a great place to live an raise kids. new york an San Francisco are very poor examples of what we yanks are all about

Answer 3

Oh, Wayne, you're so anti-American that it is amusing to me. I think Australia is great, too, but you need a reality check. When I watch Australian shows on t.v., one thing I do notice is that you-all drive much older cars than we do here. Does that mean all Australians are poor? I also notice that most of you don't have AC while most Americans do and a lot of you still hang your clothes outside to dry. I don't know any Americans who do this anymore. Everyone I know has a clothes dryer. So, it's all relative.

P.S. I think the word you're looking for is "gluttony," since "gluttery" is not a word.

Answer 4

You are misinformed.

According to your government's Cenus you have a 6.4% unemployement rate. The US has a 5.4% unemployment rate. You simply visited bad areas.

Next time you visit, don't stay in the big cities, visit the quiet rural neighborhoods (Montana, Colorado), you'll see a much different picture there.

I've never been to Australia, but I've always wanted to go!

Answer 5

SFO and NYC are not representative of the rest of the US, any more than Sydney is representative of Darwin or Alice Springs.

Answer 6

yeah ain't we just great!!!,whatever are problems are it still doesn't change the fact that were what??... #1 best country in the world!!!, i'm glad u love ur country soo much this way u can stay there

Answer 7

wasnt Australia originally a prison island??????

Answer 8

whatever. u like it so much, make sure you stay there next time.