What a shit show. Before the virus, just like before the housing crisis and other issues, people have pointed out failings of the U.S. and they were brushed off by people with the attitude of “nah, can’t be, the U.S. is the greatest country”. But now with COVID-19, it has shown what a complete mess of a state that the U.S. is in, as clear as can be. It is barely functioning it seems and really shows that no, all these questions about the U.S.’ ideology, operations, organization, etc. are not just conspiracy theories. The failings are very real and apparent. But yet, I see almost no real concern among anybody. It feels like a twilight zone in which everyone’s just seemingly cruising along while all these warning signs are everywhere. Unemployment is a nightmare, supply chain inefficiencies are high, gun sales are at an all time high, stock market is bullish, real estate and small business are tanking, etc. I just don’t understand what’s going on, and it is very scary.
My check for paying my landlord was late this month because it was in the mail for over three weeks. It took the RMV almost two months to reply to my inquiry through their official email system (their phone system just hangs up on you and tells you to call back tomorrow). I haven’t seen my fiancée in almost a year now because of lies and inefficiencies in the visa system. Just nothing is normal. Everything is slow. There is no one to get help from. The only option to even attempt to rectify an issue in the U.S. is to hire (i.e. dump thousands into) a lawyer. We, the people and poor, are rather powerless.
It’s just all confusing and scary as to how powerless and vulnerable we all are to the giant corporations and few politicians who run this country. And now with COVID-19, it’s even scarier because of how little anyone cares. There’s a real sense of just burnout or apathy or both.
Perhaps Americans are less worried about the long-term functioning of their state because the 19th and early 20th century saw protracted unemployment and economic busts and a weak central government, but the republic never fell and soon great economic prosperity (at least for the white majority) returned.
One could perhaps spectulate that had it not been for FDR and the social-cohesion consequences of total military mobilization in WWII, class warfare would have driven the US to breakdown in the 1930s and 1940s.
What confuses me the most is that people seem to have accepted the status quo. After all, it is your money that pays for all the government expenses and you can directly influence how this money is allocated through elections (municipal, state, federal levels). But somehow the electorate is unwilling to express their disagreement in elections.
> What confuses me the most is that people seem to have accepted the status quo.
That concerns me as well. However, despite my concern, I’m not sure what to do about it other than vote, which seems a hopeless way to go about doing things given what my fellow voters are doing.
It feels the only way to make a real change in this country is to become obscenely wealthy and then enact change via that.
And I would say my concern is greater than my confusion because I accept that corporations and the government have engaged in decades long propaganda that got us here.
> shown what a complete mess of a state that the U.S. is in
I have found people more likely to believe that covid is fake or over exaggerated than leadership issues.
> real estate... tanking
Actually in some areas real estate is booming, driven by the lowest interest rates ever. Maybe that leads to different ways of viewing the situation as well.
The article seems like a bunch of whining to be honest and an effort to call out winners based on best guesses of what's the best approach.
The US is reserving doses for a 2nd shot. Other countries are not, like the UK. The UK is allowing 2nd doses far later than was tested in trials. Is that the best approach? Maybe. But we don't know right now.
It's certainly trendy as hell to trash how the US is handling Covid - and don't get me wrong, there is certainly room for improvement. But there are plenty of countries who are dropping the ball and flying under the radar (as a Canadian - I'm looking at my own country and the numerous mistakes made so far; Covid has absolutely exploded in the past 2 months, turning us from a good example to a disaster).
And suffice to say it's American companies - Pfizer, Moderna, who led the way in get vaccines to market. Yes, BioNTech had critical technology, but they needed a major pharma company to bring it to the 10 yard line.
Now let me tell you something about Europe ... the EU pre-ordered, among others, 300 million doses of a Sanofi vaccine that turned out to be dud (very poor efficiency in the elderly at least) and must be remade.
So we are significantly short of vaccines now and unless other pharma corporations do wonders to their production, it will take us a lot of time to vaccinate, because even extra orders cannot be manufactured so quickly.
Add the usual local levels of incompetence - and in my country (CZ) the talk is about vaccination running until September.
I envy the British and the Americans right now. Not to talk about Israelis, they are somewhere else already.
My check for paying my landlord was late this month because it was in the mail for over three weeks. It took the RMV almost two months to reply to my inquiry through their official email system (their phone system just hangs up on you and tells you to call back tomorrow). I haven’t seen my fiancée in almost a year now because of lies and inefficiencies in the visa system. Just nothing is normal. Everything is slow. There is no one to get help from. The only option to even attempt to rectify an issue in the U.S. is to hire (i.e. dump thousands into) a lawyer. We, the people and poor, are rather powerless.
It’s just all confusing and scary as to how powerless and vulnerable we all are to the giant corporations and few politicians who run this country. And now with COVID-19, it’s even scarier because of how little anyone cares. There’s a real sense of just burnout or apathy or both.