I often listen to the Thom Hartmann radio program, and he has occasionally asked rhetorically why we can’t have nice things in America. His contention is that being the richest nation on the planet, a good number of other countries have many better things than we do in the U.S. This situation reflects choices made primarily by our political system after decades of less than stellar national governance that is not reflective of the needs and wishes of most American citizens. For some time, those we elect have brazenly ignored the wishes and needs of most of their constituents and succumb to appeasing their campaign donors at the expense of working to provide for the general welfare of the people.
Most developed countries have better educational systems, better infrastructure, less expensive and universal health care, have better childcare, have a much higher minimum wage, and overall exist in much happier societies. In the mid-20th century, for much of the U.S. population, we lived in a society where the U.S. was considered the preeminent nation in the world and there was very little that other developed countries did better. Understandably life was not wonderful for lower income and minority individuals who were oppressed for much of the 20th century, but when compared with other developed countries the U.S. fared very well.
There was a time when the American educational system was envied by the world. After many years of neglect, (declining federal and state financial support and greater reliance on local regressive forms of taxation), our educational system now fits neatly in the middle of the pack of developed nations. Certain geographic locations in the U.S. resemble the educational systems of progressive third world nations. If your state ranks at the bottom 25% of outcomes in the U.S., many third world nations would have an equal or better educational system.
Just recently a huge investment was made by the federal government to repair and maintain our long-time neglected infrastructure (roads, bridges, water treatment facilities, rail system, ports, power grid, airports). The infrastructure is what allows the country to provide the means for goods and services to flow throughout the nation and world most efficiently. For many years, engineers have been reporting that many components of our infrastructure had been neglected for far too long. Massive amounts of funding were needed just to maintain what we have in place and much more funding needed to be competitive with other developed countries in the world. The recent federal investment, while a good start, remains inadequate if we are to ultimately be competitive with the developed countries in the world.
While the developed countries of the world struggle with the cost issue and complexities of their universal health care systems, the U.S. struggles with the cost issues and complexities of a dysfunctional highly expensive private health care system, a system largely designed to extract profit from providing health care services for individuals in need. The U.S. spends the most per capita (by a few thousand dollars of any nation in the world) on health care, yet our health outcomes rank in the middle or lower ranges when compared to other nations throughout the world. This area is totally lacking in the richest nation on the planet and will continue to fall short with no real solution in sight due to unproductive political dysfunction.
Most other developed countries of the world do much more to help working parents by providing full or partial subsidization of childcare because they understand well-funded, safe and secure childcare supports a productive work force. The U.S. has done as little as possible and have only reluctantly made any effort addressing childcare.
The declared federal minimum wage lags behind almost all other developed countries, even as most of those other countries provide a much more robust support system for their citizens. It is my belief that had the minimum wage been indexed since its purchasing power peaked in 1968, the Social Security and Medicare trust fund would be solvent for many decades or centuries into the future. The economic wellbeing of most Americans would undoubtedly be better and income inequality would be less of a problem.
Many countries have much happier, content and fulfilled societies. The U.S. has become a very divided and angry society where certain politicians stoke fears, anger, and division. We are anything but happy. There is a small segment of society that wants absolute power and believes an oppressed and fragmented society allows them the greatest opportunity to increase their power and wealth at the expense of most of the population. Among the reasons why we can’t have nice things in this country are strategic political decisions involving Department of Defense expenditures, numerous taxation failings, and a corrupted money-driven political process that allowed the degradation of our society over many years of bad policies, bad legislation and way too many bad legislators. Government is intended to work not against the people but reflect the needs and wishes of most citizens, something sorely lacking today.
