American's Exploding Pipe Dream

[Scuba]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/opinion/blow-americas-exploding-pipe-dream.html?_r=1



..snip..

We sold ourselves a pipe dream that everyone could get rich and no one would get hurt — a pipe dream that exploded like a pipe bomb when the already-rich grabbed for all the gold; when they used their fortunes to influence government and gain favors and protection; when everyone else was left to scrounge around their ankles in hopes that a few coins would fall.

We have not taken care of the least among us. We have allowed a revolting level of income inequality to develop. We have watched as millions of our fellow countrymen have fallen into poverty. And we have done a poor job of educating our children and now threaten to leave them a country that is a shell of its former self. We should be ashamed.

Poor policies and poor choices have led to exceedingly poor outcomes. Our societal chickens have come home to roost.

This was underscored in a report released on Thursday by the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation of Germany entitled “Social Justice in the OECD — How Do the Member States Compare?” It analyzed some metrics of basic fairness and equality among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and ranked America among the ones at the bottom.


..end..


Here's the chart of "sad data". With all the wealth in America, we should be not only sad, but ashamed.


<a href="http://imgur.com/MInc7"><img src="" alt="" title="Hosted by imgur.com" /></a>

[RKP5637]

1. If the US works just a little harder at this I'm sure we can beat Turkey. n/t

[Strelnikov_]

2. "Being a world leader is less about destiny than focused determination" n/t

[dotymed]

3. IMO, "A PEOPLES HISTORY of the UNITED STATES"

by, Howard Zinn, should be required reading for (at least) every American. By reading this we learn of the real reasons for our "revolution" to gain independence from great Britain and the reasons why the founding fathers included equal rights and individual freedoms in "our" Constitution. They were all wealthy landowners who needed the help of the non-gentry to win our independence. It was all a plot to insure that they remained wealthy and in control of America.

By writing our constitution and including remedies for the people, when they felt that the new government no longer benefitted them they, besides guaranteeing their (our) victory over colonialism, also gave future generations (us) a legal standing in changing the way our government works, and our government.

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written, at the time, to "maintain the status quo" that had been established in America and severing the ability of England to change that established order. It was basically written for and by the American Elite. Only through the struggles (wars, protests, deaths, etc.) of the masses, was some actual equality for the non-elite obtained. We must continue this struggle before we are able to actually become the free people that our constitution says we are.

OWS is a continuation of our struggle to realize the "dream" that is freedom and equality FOR ALL. The founding fathers were protecting their (elite) class and using terminology that would incite the "lowly masses" to support them. Okay, we (they) won. Now in order to realize our ambitions (including all people of the world) to actually determine our own fate and be free of the status quo (which was seized by corporations still owned by the wealthy) we must continue this struggle.

When we win (and we will) then citizens of America and the world will be free and able to institute the political and economic system that they determine is right for them. This struggle has been transpiring since the beginning of time. Hopefully, we the people, will triumph and actually be free to determine our own destinies.

[hunter]

4. The U.S.A. is Mexico or Greece with nuclear weapons and a much less generous culture.

The American Dream has always been an illusion for most of our population.

Those who were not "successful" and those who were violently excluded from the upper classes were expected to hide away in closets of self-loathing and not challenge or contradict the straight white authoritarian males who ran the show.

Our supposed primacy as an international democracy has always been a fabrication based on violent repression and starvation of those who oppose the rule of our unelected political power brokers.

Once again we are seeing the true face of our government on the streets as the Occupy Wall Street crowds are forcibly dispersed.

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. kick. eye opening chart.