Americans are Spoiled
I am American and see how spoiled Americans are since I have lived many years in Eastern Europe and around the world. I am writing this not to cut on Americans, people who I respect, but rather put life in perspective. Forgive my title, as I am a patriot, but lets look at reality.
I want to give people a sense of how good life is in America, even if you are losing your house, have no job and no car, life is good and to say otherwise just tells me you are one of the spoiled.
- Poor Americans are living like the rich in areas where I live or have been.
- I have even heard poor Americans even own radios and some TVs. – Wow that is rich in my mind.
- Poor Americans have shoes and water to drink – Americans are very spoiled. In Lviv, Ukraine a city in Europe of over a million there is water only a couple hours a day. Try getting up in the winter and fetching water from the well for washing.
- I have seen Americans that have houses with more than one bathroom and certainly not an outhouse, like I see in villages in Europe.
- Americans are very fat, I am sorry. I love America and am a patriot. But I am embarred when I see these fat Americans waddling around town. America is spoiled and soft.
- Americans are spoiled, where I live people can make less than 1000 dollars a year and live. On the other hand I have heard in America people make 15,000 dollars a year and complain. That is a lot of money. Trying living on even 500 dollars a month.
- Americans eat in restaurants more than once every few years. Wow that is more than most people I know. Americans are spoiled.
Read some more rants why I think Americans have more money then they every know. Take this and put life into perspective and stop complaining about the economy and take some entrepreneurial risks. Your life is not ruined by the economy or anything else. Life is very easy in the States even if you are in poverty. Change your mind and be a rugged entrepreeur instead of hunkering down and worrying about your job in corporate America.
See for yourself how rich America and Americans are by looking back at history. If you went back 50 years we would still be OK economically, you would still be richer than most countries in the world. If the economy collapsed and went back to the dark ages 50 years ago, Americans would still be condidered rich.
The economy has boomed and now its a pull back, a natural business cycle that will last another year, if the government is not too socialistic we will recover. I see America as a very rich country like you can not compare to anywhere in the world and to say this is a crisis is not doing honor to all the poor suffering souls of this world who have nothing.
When I travel back to the United States and the incredible homes and cars and people in restaurants it amazes me, I hope that it does not ruin United States and their value system. In comparison to home in other countries, Americans live in mansions, and I am talking about middle class Americans.
I was in the USA a while back and I saw this very large lady in a SUV pulling into a restaurant it looked like the same lady I saw on the news saying ‘it is so bad here in America with this crisis and all’. In Eastern Europe people will go out to eat maybe once a year or every few years. Entire families live in 300 square feet apartments, sometimes many generations and this is normal. Things are changing and the new EU zones are becoming rich but Americans are ruined by wealth.
Not to long ago where I live people would wait in line for hours for bread. My wife remembers when she saw her first Mars bar. She did not know what it was. She studied it and could not figure out what it could be. She walked away puzzled. There was nothing, it was like a desert. People were living on potatoes they grew themselves.
I had some Ukrainian friends stay with me unexpectedly a few years back and they slept on the floor, hard wood and no blankets. They said it was a very good nights sleep. This is Europe, can you imagine how poor the rest of the world is?
I do some consulting and a lady I was working with asked for a discount. She said she has 8,000 dollars in expenses a month and it’s really hard. I told her I was living on 800 dollars a months and I thought life was great. I wanted to tell her to get a life.
Crisis mentality will ruin America
Bird flu, rice crisis, mad cow, global warming etc all crisis that come and go but Americans are so rich. So do not worry about the economy. At worst America will go backward and become like France. But the French are rich too! My point is there is no crisis in America. Ah you say, what if someone loses their job and home? Well then they live like the rest of the world in a small rented flat and use their brain to find a better way of life. This constant crisis mentality will make people believe they things are worst then they are. What is this 1944 in Russia when people were taking wooden beams from their homes and glue and making bread from it to survive? That is a crisis, not America.
Short term pain for Americans – Americans are spoiled
Look how bad it was in history for the world and most people in the world today. Study history, travel around the world. No way. Europe and America is so rich and spoiled most people do not understand this. Americans put more money into their lawn care than many people live on in many parts of the world.
Pessimism and crisis makes headlines, but this is not the 1930s. the world is more complex and the economies will not go back to bread lines.
America will have 1 year of bad growth but 18 months max. But maybe less. The US is so rich people have no idea. What poor is. 1 year of negative growth for such a rich country is nothing that an insult to the real poor of the world when you put labels like crisis on it. This is why Americans are so spoiled.
Look, I studied history. I know how poor the world was. It is not going back. I studied business cycles. they happen every 7 years like it or not. I live in Poland people tell me how back communism was, how poor corrupt police state with threat of invasion from Russia. No way will it be anything like that.
Companies in the USA are innovating and creating new things. Google and Microsoft will become old companies and new one will appear. I love America (I was born there) for the innovation and hard work not the crying about crisis when there is none. Do not let the media ruin your mind by letting you think things have gone bad. Become unspoiled by having some appreciation.
Americans are spoiled and there is no crisis in the US. Stop being afraid of losing what you have and start counting your blessings. Instead of hunkering down during these economic time, go on the offensive and take an entrepreneurial mindset.
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23 responses to Americans are spoiled
I really enjoyed your article. And I agree with you when you say Americans are too quick to label as situation as a “crisis” when there is absolutely nothing critical about it. Americans are always talking about how these times are SO hard. Its laughable.
Time may be relative but wealth certainly is. When I go back to the USA for vacation and I see how incredibly wealthy the USA is compared to the rest of the world, I can not believe it. Sure now everyone, but the poor in the USA are like the rich in other countries.
Are you saying we need to be third world ? You are wrong to the point that we all are spoiled. Labor laws in the states put us where we are.The rest of the world is being taken advantage of by corprate america
I am American and do not mean this as a put down. I love America, but the relative wealth of the USA is high, however, Americans are complaining more than ever. This is fueled by the media’s portrayal of everything as a s crisis or panic.
Living in Eastern Europe now for many years it has opened my eyes to how rich and great America is. I mean in Europe today many people have no money, car, house, water, plumbing and living happy normal lives. What has changed is expectations of wealth in the USA. That is, you need a certain level to be happy.
That being said, you are right the job market is really hard right now. Plenty of 10 dollar an hour jobs but to make more it is harder.
Americans are spoiled - life in perspective
Being poor In America is so different than being poor in Europe. An American, even one who considers himself poor, lives his life like there is no tomorrow. I’m talking about things like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day or stopping by Taco Bell three times a day to get a drink.
These are the things a poor or unemployed European wouldn’t do. I noticed that Europeans generally feel more insecure than Americans.
In the back of their minds they always keep the thought that it could get worse any day and for that reason they try to save as much money as possible. This is why most Europeans have their own houses or flats, or other kinds of property, even if their income is relatively low. It makes you feel more secure when you own something. And once you own something, you start saving for more property that you can give to your children and make them feel secure too.
I do not really see that in America. Even if they make decent money, they will pay rent their whole life rather than sucking it up for a few years and get their own place.
While checking out in Walmart, I often saw twenty something year old Americans with highlights in their hair, wearing Abercrombie t-shirts and brand new Nike shoes , who paid for their food using a food stamp card. They think they are poor because they are on food stamps.
This is how American government spoils its citizens, who are perfectly capable of getting a job, but have no need to get one because it’s so much more convenient to do nothing and still get $400 worth of free food. And trust me, if you want to get a job in America, you will get one without a problem.
It might not be a job you dreamed about, but there is plenty of decent jobs out there.
If you live in the USA be thankful. Not only because it’s a rich country, but because life is easier in America than anywhere else. It’s easy to get a driving license for example, while in some countries it is normal to take the driving exam 6 or 7 times, because it’s that difficult to pass it. You can withdraw money from your bank account without getting out of the car. You can buy yourself a brand new 3-bedroom house for $20 000. If you do not know how to cook you can buy powdered potatoes.
USA is a super convenient and citizen-friendly country, with or without the crisis.
Americans are spoiled - life in perspective
Being poor In America is so different than being poor in Europe. An American, even one who considers himself poor, lives his life like there is no tomorrow. I’m talking about things like smoking a pack of cigarettes a day or stopping by Taco Bell three times a day to get a drink.
These are the things a poor or unemployed European wouldn’t do. I noticed that Europeans generally feel more insecure than Americans.
In the back of their minds they always keep the thought that it could get worse any day and for that reason they try to save as much money as possible. This is why most Europeans have their own houses or flats, or other kinds of property, even if their income is relatively low. It makes you feel more secure when you own something. And once you own something, you start saving for more property that you can give to your children and make them feel secure too.
I do not really see that in America. Even if they make decent money, they will pay rent their whole life rather than sucking it up for a few years and get their own place.
While checking out in Walmart, I often saw twenty something year old Americans with highlights in their hair, wearing Abercrombie t-shirts and brand new Nike shoes , who paid for their food using a food stamp card. They think they are poor because they are on food stamps.
This is how American government spoils its citizens, who are perfectly capable of getting a job, but have no need to get one because it’s so much more convenient to do nothing and still get $400 worth of free food. And trust me, if you want to get a job in America, you will get one without a problem.
It might not be a job you dreamed about, but there is plenty of decent jobs out there.
If you live in the USA be thankful. Not only because it’s a rich country, but because life is easier in America than anywhere else. It’s easy to get a driving license for example, while in some countries it is normal to take the driving exam 6 or 7 times, because it’s that difficult to pass it. You can withdraw money from your bank account without getting out of the car. You can buy yourself a brand new 3-bedroom house for $20 000. If you do not know how to cook you can buy powdered potatoes.
USA is a super convenient and citizen-friendly country, with or without the crisis.
powdered potatoes. Ha ha ha I would not think that this is the product we should be most proud of.
But yes, Basic, good and very fresh quality food is available at very low cost. But to often people choose to much junk and proceed food in America. That is a problem.
Careful on generalizing Europe
Please don’t say “Europe is poor.” Eastern Europe is poor yes, but saying that is an insult to the rich western European countries.
I have been to France, Germany and Denmark and the living standards are similar to that in the USA.
I would say the western world in general is spoiled.
Eastern Europe, Western Europe and American wealth and its effect on people's expectations
Why is poor an insult? I think our religions teach us it is not.
I think if anything Western Europe tends to be decadent. Maybe a little poverty would help a country like France rediscover its moral base? Although I am a libertarian what I see in Western Europe tends to be a little much for even me. But scores of people in Western Europe do have morals, but I have noticed with wealth in Western Europe comes a certain morality. You are right Eastern Europe is the poorer part (but not to the end).
Americans are charitable – I am not down on the USA at all. I wrote the post to put things in perspective. For example there is a lot of good in America. Poor and middle class raise to the occasion and give a lot in terms of percentage of wealth. I have noticed the wealthy are often become socially responsible once they hit a certain level. My Friend Joe is pretty wealthy I would say and seems to have dedicated to helping others.
I think Americans tend to be very geneous when they hit extreme wealth. I have no problem with the rich and I am not jealous, because I know life is not about money and all the money in the world does not make you live 1000 years or give you a happy family life.
Being spoiled is based on economic expectations
I do have a problem with the crying and spoiled attitude that everything is crisis and everyone will suffer if they are not economically at the level they use to be at. Wrong. Poverty in Europe and America does not exist, at least like it does in South America, Africa, Asia. Americans are spoiled, but it is only an economic expectations things.
Wealth is relative to time and place
I am an EU and US citizen and I can compare. I am a capitalist but not greedy or immoral. When I wrote this my point is to wake Americans up that their expectations about wealth and life based on material goods is distorted. This change happened in the last 10 or 15 years the most. I remember in the 1960s it was not to the extend that it is today in the USA. Everyone feels a need to have two cars and a very bit house and a home office filled with gadgets, flat screen TV, iPod, cell phones, eating out a couple times a month or they are not middle class.
Again, you are right that the Western Europe has high living standards, in fact many places richer than most of the USA, but this wealth is mostly built on fake credit in the USA and Western Europe. In ten years the USA standard of living as in Western Europe changed radically and little happened in terms of economic productivity gains or innovation.
Why we had the crisis
Simply after 9/11 the Fed pushed interest rates down to 1% so we could all go shopping again and we did. Boom, everyone was a winner and we all got rich. First sign of trouble people start to cry poverty.
Agree to disagree on Americans being spoiled
I honestly disagree with you in many ways. I have lived in America all my life. When it’s easy to say the same thing about a country over and over again to the point that it’s citizens will also agree, that is sad.
So, when you think about how Americans make much more money than anyone else (even poor), have TV, running water, cars, put it into perspective: To get anywhere in America you need to drive, when there is no well to just go get water, and when the pricing is jacked up compared to anywhere else, what choice to we have but to live on high incomes?
And -America has a population of 300 million +. Are you calling that many people spoiled brats? Let me tell you something. Alot of Americans apply to the perspective you have put. And alot also would rather work hard and give something back and live modestly. Like I said, it’s easy to to lump a whole nation into one cateogory.
Dude, back when it was easy to love America, if you said this kind of thing you’d be hated. Now, when it is easy to say “americans are spoiled” and attack a country (and I understand reasons for doing so), no one is going to speak up and say “I am greatful for what i have had and support my country, even when things seem a tad bit bleak and uncertain”.
I understand why things suck – it’s the people who want to criticize without having an idea to back it who are only contributing to the suck.
Let me put it this way: No country is as simple as it’s slogan. But the lifestyle that is desirable here is also offensive to the many Americans who work hard and have no need for such an extravagant lifestyle.
Not to offend you, but perhaps an extra perspective will do. And the same goes for me too.
Americans need to stop crying poverty and take charge of their own lives
Of course this is a gross generalization and was written a little bit for shock. That being said generally it is true Americans have a nice life. For example, when I am trying to rent a 1,000 square ft apartment or Duplex for my family of three many people are telling me it is too small a space and they do not want to rent it to us. That is crazy and tells you how cushy life in America is.
I wrote the post not because I think America is bad at all. I am American and I love America and am a patriot. I just want to put it in perspective, the crisis, the economic hard times. It is crazy that people are crying poverty and seeing bailouts when America is the easiest country in the world to live in. Nothing better or easier.
I do not want to sound uncompassionate but Americans can do anything they want, including making money and having a great life if they apply their talents to the market and not expect anything from government.
And no you do not need a car in the USA. I live about half my life with and without a car in the USA. You learn to use busses and trains and bikes and live. There are some areas it would be hard but not impossible.
Believe me I have travelled the world and America is such a cushy nice place to live because of economic freedoms. Try living in Russia with no car, no running water or plumbing and only eating potatoes. And Russia is a rich country. I remember when I was in Russia in a medical clinic and they cut your finger with a razor to get a sample of your blood. Go to a medical clinic in Russia the next time you do not feel well.
I have sleep many a night on cold floors, no water or bathrooms in Eastern Europe. American is a nice place.
You need to travel to the slums of Asia and South America and Africa like I have and seen people selling their bodies for food and growing up in heaps of trash. I am not an expert on life but life is hard in most palces in the worl except America. Maybe in some slums in the USA you have it hard.
But it is a liberal lie to tell you you can not do it alone. You can. You can do anything you put your mind to. You can over come any difficulty. I see kids in the USA with iPods and designer clothes doing drugs and depressed. What the f? Life is almost too easy. They need to travel and see the world and put economics in perspective.
It is a lie of the government that people are suffering so much. I will go to the USA and with my family if I wanted could get a job in a week. I will eat potatoes and in modest means if I have to. (I do not have to as I make money online and have investments and trade stocks) but I would have no problem doing this.
People in the USA have to stop crying poverty when real people are suffering around the world. They need to start taking their own economic life into their own hands instead of expecting government to help them, what losers who think so.
Wow,have you ever had a severe mental illness or do you even know what that term means? You talk about the slums in America,but you’ve never been to a true slum in America,have you? If you went to a rent controlled project,you weren’t in a slum. That’s a step above. The Truth is that some people cannot help but be dependant on others. Man,you talk about lies,but you’re full of them. Either that,or you are really uneducated about some realities. I try to respect all people and point of views,but sometimes people like you make me throw in the towel.
Poor is relative and poverty is a political term
Slums? I have lived a good part of my life in cold, dark polluted Eastern Europe where people live on 300 dollars a month or less and prices are the same. I think the average might be 500 dollars.
Poverty is a highly charged political term. I think people generally want to help the poor, but the problem is the best way to do this, in addition to providing basic life in terms of a negative income tax for example is, tell them the message and truth. The truth is you can achieve anything you put you mind to. This is the message of hope and reality.
People in the USA have big expections. My first question is have you ever lived outside the USA? How many stamps do you have on your passport to tell me you see how poor the real world really is?
In contrast to the USA, People in the slums in the USA have TVs – I do not have a TV. People in ‘slums’ in America’ people have beat up old cars, I do not have a car. I have never seen a smartphone, nor do I have anything but skype. But I think you have a phone right?
They have running water and heating the slum. Yes poor people in the USA have running water.
Go to the Ukrainian countryside it is just outhouses and it is below zero for three months straight and no running water. I am not even mentioning Africa or India or China were people work like slaves. I have lived or traveled to too many countries in this world to think otherwise.
Unless someone has a mental illness there is no reason someone with time and patience find work in the USA. Why do all the Mexicans come here and risk their lives to get here?
Ask anyone from Eastern Europe, they say American is a rich easy country to live in. It is.
My wife grew up in a nice place, but she still had eight people in one bedroom and it was small and with two old fashion lumpy beds. She had never seen a candy bar in her life, a Mars bar. When she first saw it she did not know what it was. I think people in the slums in rich America have seen a candy bar. They have bathroom tissue and other things they take for granted but still sing the song of victim.
I am not against benefits to the poor at all. Although I am a Libertarian I believe we should cut military and help the poor. But many people in the USA have never traveled the world and seen the reality of life and how nice we have it here.
Still we have to help the American poor and the states physically with the mentally ill, homeless, children, people with disabilities, and displaced people. But this is a small fraction of the US budget believe it or not. Most of the US budget is waste.
Poor is very relative.
Do you have a car? Really just answer me that? Do you have a TV?
Come on, do you have a cell phone?
Do you have a computer?
I do not understand you point.
Explain overweight American poor.
I will most likely offend many people here but do not be offended if you are overweight, even I am a bit not I moved to rich America.
On last point is, many people do not like Eastern European girls because they are so slim and beautiful. But in the USA I see poor people who are huge and overweight. Explain to me that. My wife and her friends only had a few potatoes to live on, that is why they are thin. But in the USA I see huge poor people driving cars and packing themselves. I am yet to be convinced your definition of poor is the same as mine.
Be grateful for the blessings you have and give to the poor in Somalia than have cable. Come on, cable.
Crying poverty
A one week round trip to Haiti will cure any economically depress American.
Real truth about Americans and wealth
When I arrived in the US in 2005, boy I was surprised how the country was. I felt like I landed in a land of milk and honey flowing non stop. It was like paradise. Great Job with a great working environment, nice friendly people and best of all u guys have lot of freedom which can be felt all over the place.
Sadly I had to leave, but left with fond memories of the U.S.A.
You Americans are the luckiest people in the world.
America is not poor
The USA is a rich country. America is not poor. Some Americans are poor but this can be fixed with a little hard work or effort. Ask any immigrant to the USA or the people who are trying to get into the country at great risk.
All the talk that America is poor or finished, comes from the political arena and debate about the future of American and how it needs to be managed, or not. Just watch the political debates, they will tell you the world is coming to an end unless there is political change. Maybe it is true but again it is all relative, even an economic collapse. It is not like Russia in 1980s or the USA in the 1930s. The USA is not in the condition of the 1930s.
It is not about the absolute level of wealth in the USA. Some people have a vision of the USA being a third world nation, this is only a political metaphor, not a reality.
The thing about The USA is money does not grow on trees. It needs to be earned, and it is always easier to spend money than earn it. Therefore, people feel deprived or impoverished. But the USA is a beautiful country with open land and space covering a large part of the globus.
You can live anywhere and set up a new life fast in the USA. If you want to forget your life in New York you can move to Kansas work anonymously at some shop. If you want to go to Alaska you can, or work in Texas, if you look hard enough you will find a job and be able to pay the rent.
If you can not make ends meat in the USA, you can move to another part of the country that is booming and looking for work.
If your chosen profession is underwater you can choose another. Granted it might not be your first choice but it is a job.
If you compare life in almost any other country, even in rich Europe, America is more desirable.
If you feel down and out in the USA visit another country. I think this point has been made. America is only relatively down.
For wealth to flee out of the country, there has to be a greater downturn than what exists now. This is more of a cycle. The USA will be down and poor if there is a real economic collapse. Then I will start feeling sorry for Americans.
I think to have this magnitude of collapse it would have to be some unforseen natural or man-made event that would be so large-scale the economy and health of Americans would be affected, a near doomsday scenario.
Some people think the currency collapsing would cause this, that is a good question. I think it would have to be a large natural disaster. Until that time I would agree with the above comment that American is not a poor country.
No,America may not be a poor country,but please don’t deny that there are truly poor people who live here. Not working hard enough mostly has nothing to do with a lot of reasons people cannot help but stay poor. Some people have no self-sustaining resources,and deal with mental health issues,such as PTSD and schizophrenia. People cannot help having these diseases,disorders and conditions that leave them unable to pull themselves out of seemingly endless cycles of dependency. I’m not denying that there are lazy people,people who don’t want to work,or people who scam the benefits system,I’m simply trying to point out that there really are poor and needy people here as well,who can’t help themselves.
I know you where replying to that girl who commented, but I would like to say, I, even as a hard nose Libertarian have always said if we cut the waste and fat and military in Washington, then there would not only be fewer poor but more money to help the poor in the form of lets say a negative income tax.
If we got ride of the Federal Reserve and the Income tax there would be almost no poor what so ever. Really people would have so much more money in their bank accounts and businesses would open up with help wanted signs on every street corner.
Mental illness is or other problems like addiction are no small matter. If you want more assistance for these people, fight to cut the bailouts, and the special interests, military, income tax, central banking and the entitlements that destroy our prosperity.
Further the Poor in the USA are like the super rich in many countries or any country in the past. Read a little about history. If you are concerned about people who can not function in society, I am not talking about them.
I am talking about the people who are crying crisis and are feeling sorry for themselves and blaming the government, because they will have to rent an apartment when they are losing their big highly leveraged house and cars.
A Russian view of poor in the USA
I am not denying that there are poor in the USA, but I tend to agree that poverty is relative. If you live in a Moscow slum, a slum in the USA might look great, in fact I know it would. It is not a heartless statement that I say this. It is reality. Poor in America is not really poor compared to Haiti as one commenter wrote.
I guess I have a question for you. Is there a law that says someone has to live in a slum? Or can the people move to another part of the USA and look for a better life? Is there any law or force holding them there in the slum? Any regulation that says they must live there? Is there any wall or fence that keeps people living in a slum and not able to move out of this impoverished city or is it a mental barrier?
If it is a mental barrier they need to find the strength to overcome it.
Many Russians have left everything to move to the USA where they do not speak the language and have no money in their pockets. They dream of this. Winning a greencard for the USA, even to live in a slum is like you winning the big game. It is a dream. Maybe not as much anymore as Russia is getting rich, but generally lets say this. So I have a question.
Why could an American who is a native speaker in English and has an US citizenship with full right to work, not move out of the slum to find an opportunity somewhere else in the USA?
Why do I see on the news strong healthy looking men, who could be moving mountains, with sad or angry looks on their faces in the ‘slums’? These look like healthy men who could do labor or anything they put their minds to.
I just do not understand all this talk about poor in the USA. I think you will find very few Russians immigrating to the USA complaining of poverty. I again do not deny that there are poor in the USA at all, but what in concrete terms is poor? Factor out the mentally ill or other people who to no fault of their own find themselves on the fringe of society. But basically what is poor in the USA to you? Give me a monetary definition and an example.
On another note, I personally do not think the number of people who abuse the system and collect benefits unjustly are as big as people say. I think some people do this, but the USA has a good system of benefits in place for the poor and it is getting better.
It is not the abuse of the system by the citizens that robs the taxpayers of their money but the government waste and not knowing how to apply the money. Russia is a shinning example of graft and corruption. I do not trust most governments.
Benefits in the USA are not like Europe, but try collecting anything from the Russian government.
We can blame the media for our “crisis”.
Agree about poverty mostly
I agree with most of what you have to say,but some of it’s not accurate,at least not entirely. Where I grew up,there could be no mistaking that we were truly poor. Little food,hardly no sanitation,electricity,running water,etc. Guess where this was? That’s right. Good old America. Simple convinces like heat and air were out of the question,and basic necessities,for alto of us,were only when available. As a child,we lived off of less than 300 dollars a month most months,and this was in the mid to late 1990′s. Cost of living is also much higher here than in most of the poorer countries,and even though we have a welfare system,and a fund to help take care of the old and people too disabled to work,to honestly live off of this money,for most people is nearly impossible. You’ve no undoubtedly never seen the side of this country that I have,and though I have a lot more now(smart phone,tv,refrigeration,electricity,etc.)I have not forgotten the less fortunate than myself,and mental health also plays an important roll in being able to appreciate what you have. At the moment I am freezing my hands off because I have chosen cable over heat. Maybe not very wise to most,but keeping busy is more important to me now then keeping warm. XD
Spoiled yes, poor, can be
Well the medium income in America is about 35k?
Many places a gallon of gas is near 4 dollars, a small house can be as much as 300k or 400k, property tax can be outrageous, heat and oil is expensive, electric cost money, you could have student loans from college that got you your job but now you have to pay back, 40 k you will be poverty-stricken with a wife and a kid for sure. A one bedroom apt in many places is 1000 a month, so take your 40k and take away taxes, now your lucky if you have 30k and your apt is 12 k, now you have 18,000 a year for all the things mentioned? food will cost at least 100 dollars a week, so that’s 5200 a year, now you have about 13k a year , now add in your car gas, apt utility bill, a phone bill, car repairs or public transportrt, clothes, and god forbid medical insurance and you have zero money after a few months, you have zero, no food, yet you make too much to qualify for any help from government.
Yet illegals for example have a baby and get 400-600 a month per kid from govt with all benefits etc, so they have three kids and get up to 1800 a month? and don’t have the same expenses as they get food stamps, medical, and diapers etc, they will live better than you. While the american can’t AFFORD to have more kids. Then of course you have the same thing with people on welfare etc which was supposed to be a short-term help program.
So when you say people aren’t poor here that’s wrong, many people make way less than the medium income, and steal and commit crime to survive.
I do however agree that many people are spoiled, and I belive it’s all about education on how to make money, anyone “can” make it here, but most don’t know how.
In some states, you can make 100k a year and easily be broke, because a house or apt can be outrageously priced as well as property taxes, and you can’t just move because you will lose that job etc.
You can be a doctor and owe 300k for college or even more, and even if you make 300k a year on paper, your business expenses may be 200k a year just to stay open! So now you have 100k a year to live on and after tax its down to 60k and your property taxes can be as much as 10,000 a year, now again add in all expenses if you have kids etc, your broke
Cut benefits from the poor so the rest of America can prosper?
Show me exactly how and where illegals can get 600 dollars a month per child. Further, even if this was true, that money is recycled in the economy. It is spent in American stores and the money goes in the pockets of American business owners who spend it again. It is redistributed money. I am not for all that of course but I think money going to children living in the USA which is spend on American businesses is the last thing we should worry about. What about all the Bankers and Real Estate people who got bail out money or the fat cats and big wigs in Washington?
What about military? The trillion dollars spent on Iraq? To destroy and rebuild that country?
Again if you read my website I am a free market libertarian but explain to me why people are so ready to cut benefits to children or the poor and medical care, yet if you mention the war machine which drops bombs in the desert their blood pressure goes up?
Milton Friedman and Ron Paul have both pointed this out. Why in a rich society that we are so ready to attack benefits to the poor yet, have waste on such a massive scale in other places.
Many European countries from the UK to Norway to even Poland have free medical care and free education and benefits to the poor and their economy has not collapsed. Yes countries like Ireland to Greece that bail out the rich banks or have government corruption are in trouble.
Income redistribution forced by the government is not my idea of Utopia, but come on, money for the poor, is the least of this countries problems. Try bailouts and military and waste. I do not know too many poor politicians and people in the military just got a pay raise and contractors have expanded exponentially.
We are a family of 3 and we live in a luxury condo on a semi-tropical island in a rich town in Florida and our fixed costs, everything minus food is under $1,000 dollars a month. I think we spend about 18,000 a year maybe for a luxury fantasy life in the USA on a tropical Island.
I think I could do that in almost any town in the USA or less. I lived many years in Eastern Europe and know that needs are based on expectation. Expectations of a lifestyle and I have noticed Americans have high expectations. They judge people who live poor and live on credit.
Now I am not criticizing Americans at all. I love America. There is nothing wrong at all with having three cars and two houses. I have no problem with wealth and people should not feel guilty. I do have a problem when people complain, yet do not count their blessings. In my mind this is spoiled.
I see many Americans who say it is so bad out there, own cell phones, TVs and cars (none of which I have or use by choice). They drive around yet complain that they are poor. Some of these people complaining live in homes that are bigger than 700 square feet even. I am an unrepentant capitalist but also have realistic expectations about how to live. I have ten books from the library on my desk I am reading and will be at the beach maybe surfing today. In the evening my wife and daughter play board games. We do have Netflix also. You do not need money to have an amazing life. You need a positive attitude.
I think some Americans have a privileged attitude. About that I say, they need to give to charity or something, because if you do not give back to God, God will take it from you anyway.
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