
We Are Living in a Failing State - headalgorithm
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/underlying-conditions/610261/
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djohnston
_rolls eyes_. No you aren't. You're living in a state with systemic issues
that perpetuate a growing inequality.

My family left Germany in the 20s. My grandma told me stories of people going
to the bakery with wheelbarrows of cash because the inflation was so dramatic.

Stop it.

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mark_l_watson
A very good write up. The initial premise is something I agree with: that the
virus has shown up existing weaknesses in the US political, economic (income
inequality, taken to extremes), and cultural matters. The pandemic has been a
magnifying glass.

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bawana
The more I read the Atlantic, the more I realize it's a nihilistic rag. Ok,
there are shortcomings, but it seems they only like to trumpet inflammatory
remarks-perhaps they think they are counterbalancing our govt.

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seibelj
This is “narrative reporting” where you start with a premise (US is a “failed
state”) and then cherry-pick events to fit the narrative. It can be
entertaining, but it’s so full of holes it’s Swiss cheese.

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hnburnsy
From the article...

"Firefighters from Indiana drove 800 miles to help the rescue effort at Ground
Zero. Our civic reflex was to mourn and mobilize together."

Headlines from DDG News search...

Fort Myers Nurses Travel to New York City to Help

Real-life heroes: 25 Cleveland Clinic workers travel to New York to help with
coronavirus battle

Tusculum University nursing graduates travel to New York to join fight against
virus

Minnesota nurse on battling coronavirus crisis in NYC: 'I stepped up to the
plate and here I am'

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zepto
This kind of reporting is weird. Yes, the virus is showing up problems.

No, the US is not a failing state.

Europe as a whole is faring almost identically to the US.

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throwaway7877
No, they are not.

How many citizens have lost their health insurance in the US and the EU?

How many citizens, in the IS and the EU, will claim bankruptcy from medical
bills in the next 12 months?

~~~
refurb
So having medical insurance or not determines whether or not a country is a
failed state?

By that logic the US was a failed state before the epidemic. But all you need
to do is think about it a bit to realize that's ridiculous.

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toomuchtodo
The US was a failing state before the pandemic, unless you’re upper class.
It’s just even more so now.

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refurb
Interesting how so many people are so desperate to come here and live in this
failed state they'll enter the country illegally!

Really remarkable.

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toomuchtodo
Not so remarkable.

“The illegal immigrant population of the United States peaked by 2007, when it
was at 12.2 million and 4% of the total U.S. population. Estimates in 2016 put
the number of unauthorized immigrants at 10.7 million, representing 3.3% of
the total U.S. population. Since the Great Recession, more illegal immigrants
have left the United States than entered it, and illegal border crossings are
at the lowest in decades. Since 2007, visa overstays have accounted for a
larger share of the growth in the illegal immigrant population than illegal
border crossings, which have declined considerably from 2000 to 2018. In 2012,
52% of unauthorized immigrants were from Mexico, 15% from Central America, 12%
from Asia, 6% from South America, 5% from the Caribbean, and another 5% from
Europe and Canada. As of 2016, approximately two-thirds of unauthorized adult
immigrants had lived in the U.S. for at least a decade.”

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_the_Uni...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_the_United_States)

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masonic
Those use the Pew numbers, which are known to be bogus because their inflow
numbers come from a study that counted only working-age males, and their
outflow numbers count everybody, even infants. The true net (through 2016) has
always increased, even during the Great Recession.

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toomuchtodo
Please provide a citation backing this assertion.

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Jeema101
I didn't vote for Trump, but I always hoped from the day after the election in
2016 that he'd put the partisan showboating aside and turn to governing. But
it doesn't seem like that ever happened. And we need that now more than ever.

I think in some way, too, people want to feel united. I know I do. But it just
can't ever work when the President calls for unity one day and then reverts to
us vs. them namecalling on Twitter the next.

I really wish there was some way to overcome all of it but I don't know how we
do it.

~~~
jonny_eh
> I always hoped from the day after the election in 2016 that he'd put the
> partisan showboating aside and turn to governing.

What made you think he was even capable of that, let alone was interested?

