
How America’s Quality of Life Imploded - imranq
https://eand.co/why-does-america-have-such-a-uniquely-low-quality-of-life-cda909d647d0
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jimrandomh
> "All these things are simply now unaffordable for the average American. And
> worse, they are skyrocking in price every year. 66% of Americans choose
> between food and healthcare. Do you see what I mean?"

[Follows link]

> "a blockbuster study released Monday by the relief charity Feeding America
> ... involved interviews with 60,000 people whose households are served by
> the charity."

This cites a source which cites a survey of people served by an anti-poverty
charity, and finds they suffer from poverty. Then he restates it incorrectly,
falsely stating that it applies to 66% of all Americans. This is a major
distortion, and it cuts right to the central point of the article.

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dlwdlw
Here's my pop-culture theory:

1/ US is left relatively unscathed after WW2 becoming the remaining
superpower.

2/Unearned power without the corresponding sense of responsibility led to
unsoohosticated methods of locking in interest. Domination oriented.
Assassinating other countries leaders.

3/To rationalize the disproportionate wealth and actions due to innate "just-
world" beliefs the culture evolves to dehumanize others.

4/The dehumanization revolves specifically around democracy and hard work.
Hard work due to puratinical bsckground.

5/When wealth is abundant the externalities can be external. However when the
rest of the world catches up much of the population has no competitive
advantage.

6/The only well off people are those maintaining existing moats. Entrance
requires strong status signalling.

7/The same people are already indoctrined into a fend-for-yourself culture and
are in a bubble where they don't sense they are lucky. The residual
programming is too successful.

8/new "good stuff" is reserved for the deserving. The undeserving are punished
more to goad them to be more successful.

Also, a contrarian thought. It's not the rich who are the problem. They
actually tend to create ecosystems that generate wealth for others because the
capital seeks use.

Instead it's the middle class who can't deal with the guilt created by seeing
the less well off. In their hearts they know they are living off moat surplus.
Their internal rationalizations create systems that make them feel good
instead of doing good. the "punish the wicked" mentality especially creates
disastrous consequences. (e.g war on drugs)

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iei292
Not sure how you can conclude it’s the middle class and not the rich

What good are the middle class to do when they have to work daily to afford
shelter?

Yeah they don’t need a McMansion but most do not.

Numerous studies and polls have concluded the people want to work on feeding,
clothing, sheltering, and caring one another

But we’re induced to grow the fiat economy despite those interests

When the rich are paying pols for tax cuts and to gut the milquetoast
healthcare system, yeah it’s the lazy middle class

We have to keep making cars most people wouldn’t need if the bottom line
hadn’t been helped by sprawl

This humanities fault as a whole for replacing the Bible and Jesus with
economics

It didn’t do shit to break the cycle of abiding the mass delusion

Otherwise your summary is legit and as far I’ve seen, close to the leading
academic positions

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firstplacelast
Is this where coastal elites in one of the most privileged professions of the
21st century declare that there is no problem with American inequality and
lack of opportunity?

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sabarn01
I grew up in Appalachia and the biggest thing in my opinion is the lack of
economic migration. After I spent a year teaching computer science remotely in
Eastern Kentucky I decided we need to not spend another $ on building up the
area but instead help people move away.

\--- Edit spelling wording

~~~
tropo
The middle of the country is of value. Depending on your politics, it is a
place of safety from either ocean intrusion or SLBM launches.

Also, do we really want million of people moving to places like Palo Alto?
Aside from landlords and people with property to sell, would anybody like
that?

Water shortages and pollution are trouble already. Packing in more people just
makes things worse.

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badrabbit
The "social contracts" in european nations reflect those societies as does
lack of one in the US. The author for some reaso correlates the opiod crisis
even though he admits there has never been such a "social contract" in the
history of the U.S.

Moreover,he lumps "strongmen" with "self-help" and religion with no obvious
relation other than people "turn" to them. And generalizes by saying being
"joel osteen enough" is what conservatives mean when speaking of family
values.

This is how democracy works,americans simply don't have the same beliefs and
world views as swedes or portugese.

No strings attached housing for homeless people is cheaper than leaving them
on the streets. Treating drugs as a disease instead of a crime is cheaper.
Earlier retirement of elders allows younger workers with more relevant skills
to join the work force. A more humane prison system would result in less
prisoners (cheaper). So,are americans simply unaware of this? Nope.

"Americans" are a diverse group of people with a diverse set of social
divisions and conflicts. They simply don't think "free housing" or most
anything "free" is a good idea even if free is cheaper than what we have now.
Why should a criminal get treated better? Why can't homeless peoole get a low
paying job just like immigrants? Etc.... That's how americans see these
issues.

The homeless,poor,under privledged are "them" in the eyes of the american
popular majority. In western europe,those people are "us" or "our people".

America spends 20% of it's gdp on the military. Yet spend a bit more to solve
these societal issues and all the powerful (typically older) people would say
"not with my tax money".

That being said,why is everyone so pessimistic? We know these problems. It
might take a decade or more for the demographics to shift enough to where we
can fix these issues but why panic?

Essentially, America needs to be united. Neither the leaders nor the
population seem to have a strong interest in being united,this by itself is
the equivalent of having a terminal brain tumor!

