Do You Think It's Really Bad In America Today?

very good article. i live in south africa and i look objectively at the usa. i cant get over the fact that people complain so much. they dont realise how privileged they are. you have an actual government. just an example. your petrol goes for just over a dollar a liter. and the average salary is 2000 dollars. here petrol costs equal to 2 dollars a liter and the average salary is 200 dollars a month. we pay thirty percent tax. my hubby is just a mechanic.

Is it? I don't really know. I only rely on news. But in spite of what I read, I still want to work and live in America someday. At present, I am here in a third world country. And getting into America is one of my ultimate dream. Not only for myself but for the sake of my children's future. I want them to have an edge.

I personally don't think it any worse off than any other country. As for what is in office at the moment everyone is complaining yes. But really doesn't matter who is in office people will complain and the press will blow everything out. Good news doesn't sell so make it up or add to it. Some papers that report on the US I think try to make it look worse than it is to get people to hate or not come here. I haven't had a bad 7 years since bush has been in office. yes gas gone up but thats everywhere. Some places is higher than the US. Clinton wasn't any better in his running of the country. I can see in my head what I really want to say but it isn't coming out right so I guess that means I should probably go to bbed now...lol But no it is not really bad in America today.

Maybe in some aspect, it is really bad in America. There are Americans shaping America into a better nation but there are also those turning it like Sodom and Gomorrah. Great people before are fruits of America but nowadays instead of producing great people, America is now producing "Paris Hilton" like Americans. I am sorry to say but she is always in the news the past few days which degrades her fellow Americans. Bush administration says that they are Anti-terrorism but if you come to think of it, in the long run he is the terrorist. Well, it is not yet the end of the world. American can still produce great people.

I have been saying all along that Phil Grahm was right, we ARE in fact a nation of whiners. I'm going to use a quote from another thread I responded in because it fits so well here. "Psychology effects the economy as well as the overall mood of the country and the nature of the media. It is said that if you want others to like and respect you you must first like and respect your self. I firmly believe this is true and applies just as much to us as a nation as it does an individual. turn on the news, or a movie or a Hollywood gala and what do you see? People talking about how horrible we are or how wrong things are. We have no pride any more despite having vastly more to be proud of than not. To listen to some people you would think we live in some poverty stricken, war torn, war mongering, violence plagued, 3rd world nation. what do you think the rest of the world thinks when they see this being spewed on to the world stage? How else are they to think of us. NO wonder the world thinks of us like this, we are decreaing it so."

Yes it can get worse. As more and more company's move to Mexico to other countries for cheeper labor. The country will fall and yes I proud to live here. But my future isn't to brite right now. The lay offs. The company just up and closing there doors. How do you get away from that? My home went from 160. to 132. in the last three years. Obama didn't do that. Half of the comp. I work for is moving to Mexico. So most of the things they talked about are not even made here. So when you buy things not made here we all are forcing are own companies to go else where. Times are going to get tough. Unless you happen to be behind a desk even then your Job maybe gone. So yeas not all of the last 7 just the last 4 have been bad for me. What should we do as US citizians to stop them from moving?

America can always get worse, but so to can it get better. The America economy is not based on the government but can be destroy by it. The American economy is like a garden, it has the ability to turn a seed into a crop, but taxes and regulation are like the weeds. If the weeds of the garden grow without any restrains the crops will die. Socialist are against capitalism like University of Arkansas is against the University of LSU. Never can the two co-exist, one will give away while the other well fade away. Socialism cannot work without government, socialism does not work without the catalyst of government. So socialist need you to believe that capitalism is failing and needs more control from government. The government will place taxes and regulations which over time will kill capitalism which will force government to switch to socialism.

Greetings Sir Rodney, Before I answer your question, I'm compelled to address a particular excerpt from the article. That excerpt is: "As a matter of fact, the U.S. Census bureau estimates that 20% of the uninsured can actually afford insurance, and another 25% are eligible for government coverage, bringing the estimated total of 47 million uninsured down to 26 million. An issue to be worked on, most definitely." Why do we let anyone get away with perpetuating this manipulative lie? There are not 47 million uninsured U.S. Citizens!!! This has been proven time and again. That number includes the 12 to 20 MILLION illegals who are in this country illegally, living under the radar. I live in a border state, with a screaming socialist governor. He has called a special legislative session this month with the intention to ram mandatory state health care coverage down our throats -- which specifically includes the throngs of illegals living in my state. As it stands, he will most likely not be able to get it passed here because even the Democrats in my state recognize how angry the voters are about being forced to provide medical insurance for illegals. Incidentally, the same manipulative game is being played here. The number of uninsured being repeated over and over again absolutely DOES include the illegals! We should not allow ourselves to be deceived when we see that 47 million figure. It is a ruse! A scam designed to curry national support. Remember that figure is an estimate which includes the estimated numbers of illegal aliens living in our country. Again, that estimate ranges between 12,000,000 and 20,000,000, although I've seen the figure as high as 23,000,000. Grrrrr!!! OK, now to more specifically answer your question: My husband and I both grew up poor. Of course, back then so many people were poor that we kids didn't even know that we were poor. When I was 8 years old, my father turned our first garden. I thought that it was exciting and neat that we were eating our own vegetables. Little did I know that we were growing those veggies 'cause we couldn't afford to buy them in the store. In my family, hand-me-downs were cool, it was perfectly normal to have a summer job babysitting, mowing lawns, or whatever we could find. As well, we each had a year-round paper route by the time we were 12 or so. I got my first real job when I was 15, where I worked 20 hrs. per week straight through high school. During the summers I worked two jobs, and never less than 60 hrs. per week. During college, I would work wherever and whenever I could. That's just the way it was. I remember the Jimmy Carter energy crisis. I remember waiting in 1/2 mile long lines to get rationed gasoline. Meaning NO FILL-UPS. I remember when my parents started mixing then drinking straight hickory because coffee was inflated out of their budget. I remember riding my bicycle to the store to buy day-old bread -- because it was half-priced. I remember going to the dairy with my father to buy the just expired milk, because the price of milk had jumped so quickly that my parents could no longer afford to buy milk at the grocery store for 5 kids who drank 2 gallons per day. I remember how broken hearted my sister was that she and her new husband would not be able to afford to buy a house. Even though her new husband made a good living, the real estate mortgage interest rates were 16%. So, they rented a tiny apartment over her mother-in-law's house while they waited for the market to settle back down. I remember my childhood savings account when it was paying 6 1/4% interest. Compounding interest was pretty exciting then. 'Course, the flip side was that the interest rates on borrowed money was oppressively high. Of course, I also remember when things were so lean, that our dinner was bread and dented canned chipped beef in a cheap white sauce. We affectionally called the meal "Sh!t on a shingle". At those really low times we were lucky if we had Tang to add to water, 'cause that's when my parents could no longer afford milk at all. Yup, there were some really lean times. Yet, where it was rough for us in the 70s, we still had it easy compared to the Great Depression. So, if someone wants to say that it couldn't get any worse -- I would gingerly whisper in their ear ... "Shhhhh, Be careful what you wish for, 'cause it can always get worse."

I speak for anyone else but I know that for me and my husband our life was worse under both Jr and Senior Bush's when they were president and much better under Clinton. I will be so glad when Bush is out of the office and out of power and he can take all his corrupt cronies with him when he goes.

I am so in agreement with the linked article and I thank God every night that I live in the USA. I am single, own my own home and have no trouble paying my mortgage (I bought a house large enough for me and fitting my income, with a fixed rate of interest) have sufficient medical insurance, drive a 2 year old car (still new to me). Before I retired I put every salary increase I got into my 401K plan. I can afford to eat out now and then but prefer my own cooking. I do not want for anything. Again..THANK GOD I LIVE IN THE USA happy and comfortable.

The conservatives in America have always known this... The commie liberals never will.

Yes, it really is bad for many people. I'm fully aware that it could be worse but it certainly could be better. I can't disagree that some people have brought many of their problems onto themselves, certainly plenty of people live beyond their means and have gotten themselves into needless debt but at the same time there are many Americans who have done nothing wrong, who have worked their a$$es off their entire lives and have nothing to show for it. I know we can't blame the government for all of our problems but the current Administration hasn't done a thing right, in my opinion. Part of our problems could be summed up quite simply - there is too much greed and too little compassion for our fellow human beings. It's so much easier to blame someone for their troubles than it is to allow yourself to feel anything for them and therefore think something should be done to help them. Annie

What did the bush administration do that is so bad?

Any economic changes put in place take about 10 years to affect the economy so basically every president is dealing with the effects of what happened about 3 terms back. Since each president can only be in office for 2 terms that means that all presidents are dealing with messes they didn't make and/or making messes for a future president. It's not like you can do something today and the economy is better tomorrow or even next year. It takes a long time for changes to take effect. In another 3 or 4 years we'll start to see the effects of George W's reign in office. Right now we are dealing with changes put in place by Clinton, while Clinton was in office we were dealing with changes made by George Senior. If you don't believe me you probably should have stayed awake in some of your economics classes. :)

Great article. Even the poorest in America is rich compared to some in other countries. There are so many resources here for the poor that they can even work their way up out of poverty. I get tired of listening to people complain all the time when they really have no idea. Just the other day I heard on the news that the number of homeless here has declined, now that is good news and proves that something is working. It can get a lot worse and I believe it's going to because God is going to bring this country to it's knees so we have no choice but to turn back to him.