The
USA Is Becoming A Failed State:
Seven
Simple Steps to Turn It
Around
by Pastor Paul J. Bern
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As
I look around me today, I see the United States of America as a
failing country. There are just too many things going wrong with
America today all at once! Failing
to adequately tackle the inherent problems in our economic system:
Failing to reflect on the deep flaws in our system of government:
Failing to repair our image abroad: Failing in education, in health
care, in human rights, and in religious tolerance. In fact, we look a
lot like the USSR in 1990 – except with a lot more big-screen TV’s.
And so I have composed this
week's commentary listing what I view as our worst problems, followed
by some helpful suggestions for solutions to the mess that we
Americans find ourselves in today.
First, a quick word
about president Trump. I have already written at length about my
feelings regarding Donald Trump's handling – or mishandling,
depending on your point of view, of his still-new presidency. But
there is another side to all the hub-bub about president Trump, and
that is the fact that he is a Washington outsider. Trump came into
Washington, DC last January to shake things up, and he has run into a
mountain of resistance from the existing political establishment.
Instead of “draining the swamp”, the swamp has nearly swallowed
up president Trump! But at the end of the day, much of the storm of
controversy about the Trump presidency has been generated by the
press, and at least as much as the Democrats, if not more.
Some people may well
take issue with my contention that the political and governmental
systems are broken, including the courts and penal systems, or even
that we have a great health care system. I respect anyone's right to
those opinions – freedom of expression is one of the few things our
country hasn't managed to screw up in the last couple of hundred
years. But in every case, the data backs me up. Allow me to try and
substantiate my claims first, before suggesting a few possible
solutions. First, let's take a look at the economy: in 2009 alone,
131 banks failed. That number had dropped to 5
in 2016, and there have been 5
more so far in 2017 with more than 6 months to go. The 2008
bailout granted billions of dollars – with strings attached – to
private companies who then used the money to short-sell the market,
make countless billions more, hand the government back its money
(removing the strings) and pay out lavish bonuses while Americans
lost their jobs. Meanwhile, the median family income is less today
than it was in 1970.
Our government,
meanwhile, is no longer run by competing ideologies but by corporate
interests (I include both parties in this category since both are
moneymaking enterprises disguised as political parties). There are
good Republicans who would prefer that your cancer-stricken child had
health insurance. There are responsible Democrats who are horrified
by our country's 'spend now and pay later' approach to finance. But
since they are beholden to their version of a higher power –
corporate America, Wall St. and the almighty dollar – they have
convinced themselves to vote with their wallets, not with their
conscience. At the Federal level, AT&T and Goldman Sachs combined
have contributed over $75M over the last 20 years to both political
parties, and the American Federation of State, County & Municipal
Employees, plus the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
aren't far behind.
Across the world
America's reputation is tarnished, perhaps irrevocably, and yet we
find our President – in the words of former vice-president Dick
Cheney – following the 'Bush Doctrine' of a surge in forces
occupying a foreign country with seemingly little chance of
categorical success. We are seen as an economic and religious bully,
and we don't seem to care. We vilify our political enemies for their
human rights records, and import cheap goods from countries we know
to exploit child labor. We are, to much of the world, intolerable
hypocrites. About this Jesus said, “....you experts in the law,
woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly
carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”
(Luke 11: 46) Isn't this exactly where we find ourselves in 21st
century America?
Apologists for the
American health care system, not to mention “Obama-care” or
so-called “Trump-care”, will continue to defend those systems at
all costs, claiming that so-called 'socialist' states such as
England, France and Sweden (which, incidentally, is actually a
constitutional monarchy governed by a center-right coalition) kill
their citizens at will in order to save money, or make you wait
thirty years for a kidney transplant. Deflecting (especially with
such utter garbage) doesn't make our system any better, and it's
always bad business practice to spend too much time putting down the
competition. When our own kids can't get health care because mom and
dad have no money to pay, something is terribly wrong. Any
anthropologist will tell you that we took better care of our young
when we were Neanderthals – so what's changed? For one in six of
our citizens to remain uninsured is a national disgrace. We deny
basic human rights to our own people! Whom you choose to marry is not
a matter for the government to decide, it is a matter for the
individual (“work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
before the Lord”). So it is for what religion to follow, if any
(although I will continue to vigorously preach pure Christianity as
the only true way to eternal salvation). Some may not like our
choices, but they are inalienable rights and you should be free to
exercise them as you will. Our US Constitution says you can (search:
First Amendment).
As far back as 2005,
statistics showed that hate crimes against Muslims were increasing
50% year-on-year. Even so, the FBI reported that in 2016 hate crimes
against homosexuals had increased 10% from 2015, and those motivated
by religion had risen by 12%. This is outrageous in the extreme as
far as I am concerned. The track we have taken over the last fifty
years has been the wrong one, and America is way past due for a
serious course correction. We have let corruption, greed, fame,
intolerance and a stubborn refusal to acknowledge our problems almost
ruin our nation. We are failing to live the American Dream, and if we
don't start now our children will never even know what it was. I have
several fairly radical ideas. I'm sure you have some of your own, and
I welcome them in the comments below. I have chosen not to expound on
what I personally think the consequences of these actions would be,
as I would be diving headlong into speculation.
1. Immediately and totally stop all corporations from giving money to political parties. Reverse Citizens United and make our elections publicly funded!
2. Make a
promise to our children: you will be well-educated, and you will be
treated with dignity and respect when you are sick.
3. Change the
game. Capitalism is broken and must be replaced, and the smoothest
transition I have found is that of a resource-based
instead of a debt-based economic system. Any time you have less than
1% of America's population controlling the upper 99% of the cash
flow, some legislated redistribution is clearly called for (or maybe
an executive order to that effect). We can start with worker owned
businesses instead of shareholder ownership. Public business
ownership will still exist, but smaller – such as a cooperative –
will be much better in many cases.
4. Take a page
out of the Bible and just treat everyone else with some genuine
respect and unconditional love. If it was good enough for Jesus, it
should be good enough for you. About this the apostle John wrote,
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and
sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends,
since God loved us, so we ought to love one another” (1st
John 4, verses 10-11). True love for each other means unconditional
love with no strings attached! Respect others and yourself as well.
Leave the gays alone. Leave the blacks alone. Leave the immigrants
alone whether you think they're here legally or not. Leave the
Muslims or the Christians alone, too. Even the atheists, despite the
fact that they're all totally lost! Pray for them instead! When
respect departs, enmity is the next train along.
5. Pay for it.
Child labor is inexcusable! If it costs an extra ten bucks, or extra
hundred bucks to buy something that was made by willing workers, pay
for the darned thing! And the same goes for government. You want
health care? Pay for it. More troops? Pay for them. Tax breaks for
corporations? Not a chance, they have way too many of those already.
6. Form
coalitions based on issues, not parties. Not every NRA member is
anti-abortion. Not every tree-hugging hippie thinks that owning a gun
is wrong. When a party tells you how you should think, and what
issues should be thrown together into what bucket, you're a lot
closer to communism than you think you are.
7. Buy
American whenever possible. From what I can tell, the great empires
of yore – from Egypt to Rome to England – were 'first-to-market'
with some manufacturing innovation or other, that led to more
innovations, and greater strides, that in turn led to them becoming
the largest producers of goods in their region. This happened to the
USA from the dawn of the twentieth century until the 'fifties. Then
we began to transform into a service economy, just as those others
did. Producing goods is what is making China become a world
powerhouse, and if we are to compete, we must produce our own.
American goods are always equal to the best even though they are
almost never the cheapest, but if we are to reinstate our status as
the world's greatest country, we need to start by supporting our own
businesses and workers. We're in a really big mess, but if enough
people commit to working together to solve our problems, we can do
anything we set our minds to!
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