I got to thinking of things that are actually weakening America, as a nation and came up with a short but, I think, rather powerful list:
1) The insanely, absurdly, obscenely, even immorally far-too-high costs of health care in our country and our inability to do anything about it. We pay more for health care in this country than any other people or nation, we have the worst health results of the top 17 industrialized nations and more of us go bankrupt from health costs than any other reason in our country. And one political party wants to do nothing whatever about it;
2) Internet neutrality. Allowing corporations and the already-rich the ability to charge us--and charge us a great deal--for the availability or for faster speeds of the internet. It keeps us from being informed, from being educated, ultimately from being more tech-savvy and from innovating, creating and being competitive;
3) Our insanely high and extremely wasteful defense budget. We outspend the entire world, let alone individual countries, many, many times over. And for what? So we can fight some imaginary World War II? Or III?
4) Campaign contributions. They allow the, again, already-wealthy and corporations to buy our legislators, their legislation and so, our laws, our government and ultimately, us. It's insane. We shouldn't allow it;
5) Our elections and the campaigns for those elections. The campaigns are far, far too lang. England made them only so long---one month. (See link, below). And no political party spends any money whatever on these campaigns. Our campaigns take too much away from our economy, in investment, otherwise, and our representatives don't spend enough time on the issues. Instead, they have to focus on fund-raising (selling themselves to the wealthy and corporations) and to elections and re-elections. We just aren't that bright. Yet, anyway;
6) Our endless wars. Our endless wars are weakening the nation from within and without. It weakens our troops, our military, heck, it even makes our adversaries stronger. How's that for weakening us? This is the 12th year of our war in Afghanistan. And for what? So we can "weaken the Taliban"? Or al Qaeda? Or so we can build back up that country or what? Why are we there? Why are we still there? What have we--or the world--to gain from this lunacy? I'd love to know. What's our goal now? What's the mission? And does our military know? Do our troops know?
7) Finally, because I don't want to just go on and on and I also don't want to merely drone on negatively----the do-nothing Congress. Not only are we weaker because they are, in fact, doing nearly nothing, they weaken us by not proposing and passing a jobs/infrastructure bill so we can get our economy and nation and people working and working well again. This last Congress is estimated by historians to be the least-productive ever. And this coming year, an election year, mind you, where less gets done than usual, they are scheduled, at present, to only work 97 days, total. Out of the whole year. And still get their entire $174,000/yr salary.
Folks, we gotta' get busy.
Society Magazine
