I left the United States. I am now an expat. I strongly believe that I am happier where I am now. I am also healthier and in every way, far better off. By every measure, I am far better off.
I am often asked why I did it.
As most people inside the United States have no idea why I would leave “the land of the free”, and “the best nation on the earth”. They ask me why. They ask me what was my reason for leaving, and why (in God’s name) would I ever even considering leaving the United States for Communist China. As if, I am crazy and have completely lost my mind.
Well, I didn’t lose my mind.
"There’s a lot more freedom than you are led to believe (especially if you come from America)." -What was the greatest shock to you when you came to China
I didn’t just casually leave. I was pushed out. America chewed me up and spit me out. Broken and torn with only the clothes on my back I entered China. Starting from scratch, in my mid-fifties, I started from ground zero; from scratch and built up a life in a land that I couldn’t even speak the language.
I am thriving here.
But it wasn’t easy.
Facebook has long claimed that its mission is to develop social infrastructure and — *gag* — build community. That no longer passes the giggle test. What they really want to do is follow people around the Internet, collect and organize what they learn and sell that information to the highest bidder. -NY Post
I am not going to go into all the many boring personal details, details that I don’t want to revisit, on why I left. Instead I will cover the most important parts. The final “straw” that “broke the camels back”, and spit me out to a far away land alone and penniless.
Introduction
There are many things good about the United States, and many things that are wrong with it. If you, the reader, are unaware of this, then why bother reading this? Every place has both and good aspects.
Watching FBI agent Peter Strzok battle with Congress, my initial reaction was pure anger. His repeated, arrogant insistence that he had done nothing wrong despite tons of evidence to the contrary convinced me he deserved immediate firing — if not the firing squad. Gradually, though, anger gave way to amazement as Strzok grew increasingly combative and condescending. Given his predicament, the sneering and smirking were stupid, and yet he persisted. Who is this jerk, I wondered, and how in the hell did he get to be a big shot at the FBI? And why are taxpayers still paying for the privilege of his malignant presence on the FBI payroll? My answers can be summarized in four names: James Comey, Jeff Sessions, Rod Rosenstein and Christopher Wray. They are chief culprits in the death of public trust in the Department of Justice. -Michael Goodwin
One of the reasons why I left was because the United Stated has turned into a third-world, banana republic, shithole. It’s true. By every measure it is a 1960’s style Bulgarian police state, with the corruption levels comparable to 1970’s Africa, only with the latest in high technology surveillance technology.
I no longer wanted to live in such a place.
There was no way that I could recover any sort of decent life within this kind of environment. I needed to go to a place where I could thrive and where my skills and abilities were appreciated. Through chance, as an engineer, I went to where the factories were. I went to China where factories sprouted like weeds, and where my talents were needed and respected.
Anyway, a person living in a third world shithole doesn’t realize that it is a shithole. They think it is fantastic. After all that is all that they know. To see just how far the United States has fallen, you really need to step outside of the United States and take a good hard look at your life.
You need to stand outside and peer in.
Here are the characteristics of a “Third World”, or “Banana Republic” nation. See how many of these characteristics define America today. Text extracted from Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog (alternative version on Zero Hedge HERE). Information editing for clarity an personal points. I strongly suggest the reader visit the OfTwoMinds blog for some excellent analysis.
Consider the points. They are all valid.
1. Most assets are concentrated with the elite. Ownership of stocks and other assets is highly concentrated in entrenched elites. Most save money though bank programs.
The average household is disconnected from the stock market and other measures of wealth. Only a thin sliver of households own enough financial/speculative wealth to make an actual difference in their lives. Most barely have any savings.
2. The Infrastructure is poor and falling into disrepair. The infrastructure of the nation used by the many is poorly maintained and costly to operate. This occurs because entrenched elites plunder the funding to pad their payrolls, pensions and sweetheart/insider contracts.
3. The elite have their own systems. The financial/political elites have exclusive access to parallel systems of transport, healthcare, education, etc. The elites avoid trains, subways, lenders, coach-class air transport, standard healthcare and the rest of the decaying, dysfunctional systems they own that extract wealth from the debt-serfs.
They fly on private aircraft, have their own healthcare and legal services, use their privileges to get their offspring into elite universities and institutions. They have access to elite banking and lending services that are unavailable to their technocrat lackeys and enforcers.
4. Lavish funding for elitist structures. The elites fund lavish monuments to their own glory disguised as “civic or national pride.” These monuments take the form of stadiums, palatial art museums, immense government buildings, etc. Meanwhile the rest of the day-to-day infrastructure decays in various states of dysfunction.
5. There are only two classes in a stratified society. There are two classes that only interact in strictly controlled ways. They are [1] the wealthy, (who live in gated, guarded communities and who rule all the institutions, public and private,) and [2] the debt-serfs. The debt-serfs are divided into well-paid factotums, technocrat lackeys and enforcers who serve the interests of the entrenched elites.
Most nations of the world are populated by the haves and have nots but few can be seen so graphically than in Mexico. These shocking aerial photos starkly show up the economic divide in some parts of the nation. The gap between the wealthy and the poverty-stricken is very wide in Mexico, but that gap doesnt necessarily translate into physical distance, as this striking ad campaign by photographer Oscar Ruíz and Publicis Mexico boldly illustrates.
The campaign, which goes by the name Erase the Differences, was put together to raise awareness, and includes four aerial photographs in all. Each photo shows how close beautiful housing developments are to poverty-stricken areas, and even though the images are not Photoshopped, you would swear that at least a couple of them were composites, but its claimed they are not, reports petapixel.com.The photographs do most of the talking, but in case the point isnt clear, each image is accompanied by a caption that reads: This image has not been modified. Its time to change that.
The debt-serfs are the rest of the populace who own virtually nothing and have zero power. The elites make a PR show of being a commoner only to burnish the absurd illusion that debt-serf votes actually matter. (They don’t.)
6. Cartels and monopolies extract the wealth of the nation for personal gain. Cartels and quasi-monopolies are parasitically extracting the wealth of the nation for their elite owners and managers.
Google: quasi-monopoly. Facebook: quasi-monopoly. Healthcare: cartel. Banking: cartel. National defense: cartel. National Security: cartel. Corporate mainstream media: cartel. Higher education: cartel. Student loans: cartel.
"The forces of tyranny are winning. Our banking, financial, political, and media structures are wracked by corruption and controlled by a “few” insiders for the benefit of themselves and their cronies. Smedley Butler said war was a racket, but every institution is now a racket, with a corrupt powerful cadre of evil men reaping riches at the expense of the many. Their rackets are based upon nothing but lies and the continued blissful ignorance of the masses to their flagrant criminal activities." -Zero Hedge
I think you get the point: every key institution or function is controlled by cartels or quasi-monopolies that serve the interests of the few via parasitic exploitation of the powerless.
7. The elite maintain control through repressive government. The elites use the extreme violence and repressive powers of the government to suppress, marginalize and/or destroy any dissent.
There are two systems of “law”: one for the elites ($10 million penalties for ripping off the public for $10 billion, no personal liability for outright fraud) and one for the unprotected-unprivileged.
Those who are not members of the elite are often handed “tenners” (10-year prison sentences) for minor drug infractions, renditions or assassinations (all “legal,” of course). There are institutional forces of violence. For instance, to bust down your door on the rumor you’ve got drugs, confiscate your car because we caught you with cash, so you must be a drug dealer, and so on, in sickening profusion.
"Those pulling the strings of our ever-degrading society share many of the same traits – superficially charming, pathologically deceitful, manipulative, accepting no responsibility for their actions, lacking empathy, absence of guilt, no humility, dishonest, treacherous, having a grandiose sense of self-worth, and prone to dangerous destructive risk taking. These are the people who rise to power when citizens become lazy, disinterested, willfully ignorant, distracted by social media, dumbed down by government run education, and easily led to believe falsehoods peddled by a media doing the bidding of the psychopaths in power." -Zero Hedge
8. Dysfunctional institutions utilize unlimited power to extract money. Dysfunctional institutions with unlimited power to extract money via junk fees, licensing fees, parking tickets, penalties, late fees, etc., all without recourse.
Mess with the extractive, parasitic bureaucracy and you’ll regret it: there’s no recourse other than another layer of well-paid self-serving functionaries that would make Kafka weep. All bureaucracy is a sign that the culture and society is in decline.
9. A huge army of bureaucrats that siphon money from the system. The well-paid factotums, bureaucrats, technocrat lackeys and enforcers who fatten their own skims and pensions at the expense of the public. Meanwhile they slavishly serve the interests of the entrenched elites and embrace the delusion that they’re “wealthy” and “the system is working great.” These deluded servants of the elites will defend the dysfunctional system because it serves their interests to do so.
The more dysfunctional the institution, the greater their power, so they actively increase the dysfunction at every opportunity.
"Wall Street banking executives, rating agency executives, mortgage lenders, government apparatchiks, corrupt politicians, and captured central bankers wrecked the worldwide financial system in 2008, while conducting the largest control fraud heist in history. They reaped the riches on the way up and when it inevitably blew up, crushed the life savings of the peasants and should have bankrupted the Wall Street perpetrator institutions, they shifted the losses to taxpayers. Not one culprit of this earth-shattering fraud went to jail. The Deep State circled the wagons, protected themselves, and used their propaganda media to paint false narratives regarding the causes and perpetrators. Wall Street won. Main Street lost, again." -Zero Hedge
The USA is definitively a 3rd World nation. Read the list above and then try to argue the USA is not a 3rd World nation. Try arguing against the facts displayed in this chart:
I know it hurts, but the reality is painfully obvious: the USA is now a 3rd World nation.
The Realization
Living in a Third World nation is not really bad if that is all that you know. However, I was raised in an America that was not only a first-world nation, but was THE preemptive first-world nation hands down. I could see the changes. They we obvious. They were visceral.
Over the years the alarm bells in my head were getting louder and louder. I started to distract myself from them. I relished in the new technologies and software games that were being released. I dealt with my family and tended my tomatoes. Yet, the clamoring progressively got worse and worse…
The people who I talked to were, for the most part, unaware of any negative trends. To them, everything was just fine and rosy. It just seemed that I was absolutely alone in this appraisal. They told me not to get so upset with things. It will be fine, they reassured me.
Personal Issues and Retirement
After spending over 20 years in a corporate, I find that many of those are true. The pay was excellent, the benefits were excellent, but...that’s where “excellent” ended. I often referred to that job has wearing “golden handcuffs”...hated the job, the commute, etc., but loved the pay. When I got out of the military at the ripe old age of 22, my Dad wanted to set up a electrical business...there was a building boom on, and I probably could have retired at 45...but, being young and stupid, I thought I had better ideas about how to make a living. Had I followed his suggestion, and manual work would have been a little harder, at first, but I could have worn jeans and a t-shirt instead of a coat and tie, have the time (and funds) to take nice vacations, and probably have a much nicer home and cars. I guess we live and learn...albeit too late. -FR Comment
There is a saying in China. It is called the twelve year curse; the Ben Ming Nian. The idea is that there are non-physical aspects of our reality that are influential on our physical life. These aspects are cyclic and change every twelve years. They occur when you are 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, and if you are fortunate to live beyond that, when you are 84.
The Ben Ming Nian is a difficult time as your are at a point of imbalance in your life. It is considered to be inauspicious or unlucky. People need to take great care of their actions and their emotions.
At the time of my 48th birthday, my Ben Ming Nian reached nuclear levels. My mother died, my beloved pets died, I had a divorce, I was embroiled in sibling disputes of the family property, all of my personal property was confiscated, my vehicles were seized or mysteriously destroyed, I lost my boat, I lost my swimming pool, my bank accounts were drained, and on top of all that, I was retired from MAJestic (with all of what that entails). It was a horrific time. Any one item is considered a significant stressor in the DSM handbook, I had about twenty things going on at the same time.
Like I said, there is no need to enumerate in detail any of these events. Just know that it was a rough time for me…
When you have nothing
I lost everything.
I mean… everything.
During this time, I suddenly came to the realization that I had nothing. I lost everything. All my education, experience, patents, friends, relationships, property, possessions and purpose were gone. They were all stolen, destroyed or withheld. Everyone played a role, with the largest roles taken by those closest to me, and the United States Government.
I came to the realization that all that I worked for was naught. I could have skipped school and went fishing all day, got married and stayed working in the coal mines, and I would have been better off. The entire life that I had lived was a lie.
I had blindly followed the promises that we provided to me. I ate them up “lock stock and barrel”.
I was a dupe. I was a fool. I was a smart ignoramus.
I could have been a lazy joe, just eating drinking, and fishing and I would have been far better off than who I had become.
But you know what…
That realization was freeing. I realized that since I no longer had anything holding me back, that I could do anything that I wanted. I was free to do anything, eat anything, be anything, go anywhere.
I could start my life anew.
So I Left
I had no ties holding me back. Few friends. No possessions aside from the clothes on my back and some personal papers. I moved to a new country to start a new life, with new friends and new experiences. I left the United States and I moved to communist China.
I moved to communist China, of all friggin’ places!
Communist China, contrary to what you might read, is not a third world shithole. Today, it is a modern nation, with more in common with Japan than (say) Mexico. The people are nice, smart, attractive, and hard working. They need talented people like myself.
So I moved there.
Sure beats bagging groceries at Cosco or collecting welfare benefits.
In Hindsight
Life is what you make of it.
Life is like a big sea. Sometimes it is calm and clear and serene. Sometimes it is choppy. Sometimes it is a typhoon.
Sometimes you ride the waves in joyous abandon, while at other times you hang on for dear life.
We can see the clouds on the horizon, and it is up to us to prepare for the storm that may, or may not, hit.
The life we live is only lived by one person; yourself. The life other people live, is only experienced by themselves. We might look at them and comment on it one way or the other. But when we do so, we are simply observers on a nice calm island watching other people ride out a storm holding on to dear life on a rickety old raft. We are often too judgemental, as we are living within our own bubble of reality; our own island of comfort.
"The first 45 minutes of Office Space is the most accurate documentary about American corporate life ever filmed." -FR Comment
We haughtily raise up our head and pronounce, “that would NEVER happen to me. I am too smart. That person is a fool.”
Yah. In fact, ask any prison guard. One of the most common statements made by inmates is how they thought that they would never go to prison. “So, I was driving while drunk. I did it one thousand times before. It was just bad luck that I ran over that mother and infant.” Or, “I was only smoking weed, you know it’s legal in California.”
We cannot judge anyone. We just cannot as we are not experiencing their reality. We can only judge ourselves; our actions and our life.
Life is what you make of it…
Summary
For me, and my situation, it was best to start off new in a new life. I had grown accustomed to living in a first-world nation. It was what I knew. It was what I expected.
However, it was not what was happening.
http://www.geociti.es/CapitolHill/Senate/1120/article1.html I see that in this cutthroat society, based on a "greed is good" philosophy, unlimited profit seeking, selfishness, fraud and greediness for money dominates everywhere. Money is absolutely the bottom line for everything. In America, the rich are truly rich and the poor are hopelessly poor. In my opinion, the United States today has the most advanced system of private tyranny. Private corporations have enormous power in this country and they take advantage of an apparently legal slave labor, terribly exploiting the working class people. Corporate bosses earn millions while workers struggle to survive without living wages. From my point of view, the majority of jobs here today are still extremely exploitative. The U.S. minimum wage is ridiculous. Working for $5 an hour is slavery and nothing else. Therefore, poor people and homeless people make up a significant portion of the population in this country. Millions of hard-working Americans live permanently at the edge of poverty. There is no doubt that economic injustice is the most important issue of today's America. The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and all the people in the middle are just falling down. I see that people in this society are secondary to corporate power and profits. Freedom for market dominates over freedom for people. In fact, at least 80 percent of Americans are simply robbed by this exploiting system. I've noticed how American corporate propaganda always surely emphasizes that in European countries - "welfare states"- people have to pay a much higher taxes. In fact, taxes in most of Western Europe, even in Scandinavia, are just slightly higher than an average 34 percent of income Americans pay. The main thing is what people receive in return for their taxes. In European social- democracies everybody has a "cradle-to-grave" comfortable feeling of security and care. Question: What are citizens of this country getting for their tax dollars? Answer: Next to nothing! People's taxes support armament instead of basic human needs here.
America was devolving into a third-world tyrannical dictatorship which more resembled a 1960’s Bulgaria, with elements of a 1970’s banana republic, only with high-technology surveillance and police force. To make matters worse, a non-citizen was elected President. And, he was hell-bent into complete destruction of the United States.
His attitude was “what mine is mine, what yours is mine, and if you don’t like it, Fuck You!”.
So here we have elected this person to take control of the executive branch of the government. Suddenly he becomes a pop hero. He starts breaking all kinds of laws, and with the full backing of the American main-steam media he gets away with it. No one finds it odd, or strange.
Everyone excepts it.
It becomes normal.
The behavior that was depicted in movies only a decade earlier, now becomes acceptable and normal…
No one raises any concern. No one cares.
He proceeds to initiate a race war. He enacts all kind of progressive initiatives, all in direct defiance of the Constitution, and yet no one does a single thing. The head of the DOJ, and NSA directly lie to Congress. They are discovered as lies, and they are permitted to get away with their lies. They now live in comfortable mansions, free of concern and consequences…
The new America takes root.
The third-world vision for America is embraced and implemented in places such as Baltimore, Detroit, and San Francisco. San Francisco is now literally a shit-hole with public defecation and ease of illegal drugs and illegal immigrants…
The worst elements of a third-world shit-hole is now embraced and has become mainstream. Fat obese black girls wagging their enormous asses has become not only normal but popular. Especially with them putting down men, fathers and good-honest labor. This is the new vision of America. It is the direct opposite of the America that I grew up in.
I know that I cannot change anything. The systems are in place. The powerful run everything and I am just one tiny person trying to find the exit out. They changed a Republic into a Democracy before I was born, and now it is following the natural progression…
The Democracy is now tying to become full-on Socialist. With Communism being the end game.
"According to Marxist doctrine, socialism is a stage of society between capitalism and communism where private ownership and control over property are eliminated." -Walter Williams
Of course, through a Democracy, they have implemented Socialism. Socialism is being implemented today, in a prelude to full-fledged Communism.
All this, while the masses are led into the cattle cars…
I didn’t want to live in a third world nation. I wanted to live the kind of lifestyle that I grew up in. I knew the futility in fighting forces of many magnitudes larger than my abilities. So, I took a deep breath. I held my nose. I made a deep heart-felt prayer, and made a switch.
So I made a switch.
Conclusion
This is a story about what I did in my situation. This is a story of my reality and my life.
It is not about YOUR life.
You must live your life and make your decisions based upon what you know. You might not do what I have done because your life is quite different from mine. Good for you. I only urge you to take care of your life and your needs selfishly. For no one understands you better than you, yourself.
Do what is best for you, and to heck with everyone else.
Best of luck.
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Posts Regarding Life and Contentment
Here are some other similar posts on this venue. If you enjoyed this post, you might like these posts as well. These posts tend to discuss growing up in America. Often, I like to compare my life in America with the society within communist China. As there are some really stark differences between the two.
More Posts about Life
I have broken apart some other posts. They can best be classified about ones actions as they contribute to happiness and life. They are a little different, in subtle ways.
Stories that Inspired Me
Here are reprints in full text of stories that inspired me, but that are nearly impossible to find in China. I place them here as sort of a personal library that I can use for inspiration. The reader is welcome to come and enjoy a read or two as well.
Articles & Links
- You can start reading the articles by going HERE.
- You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
- You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
- You can find out more about the author HERE.
- If you have concerns or complaints, you can go HERE.
- If you want to make a donation, you can go HERE.
Notes
- Composed 10JUL18.
- SEO review 11JUL18.
- Release and Post 11JUL18.
- Update 13JUL18.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1251165880081428480
I enjoy your posts , I am Bill Gray from Tenn. and My wife is from Taiwan . I went to Taiwan for 2 weeks in 2017 it was very nice. It’s small 46% the size of Tenn. with 24,000,000 people.
I read one of your posts about how run down America is and how much better China is on infrastructure and I believe you . That is a lot because we ( not the people but the politicians in league with the corporations) chose to export our manufacturing and jobs to China because of greed for money and no Love of Country ,so sad. Pus China has subsidized there business besides having a developing country with lower labor rates. The world is currently learning about the dangers of depending on another country Too much for vital supplies. There will be a major reassessment of this around the world after this horrible situation . I am 68 and have owned several small businesses but currently I own a sports/neighborhood Bar That I drew the blueprints for and built 18 years ago , it was voted in the top 5 best bars in the state of Tn. However it is now shut down and I don’t know if it will ever open again ,time will tell. I agree with you that the Chinese people are wonderful but disagree on the CCP , I still believe Freedom of religion , speech, and the rule of law are all important in a civil society and are a natural right. The CCP’s way of dealing with decent as seen in the attached video is nothing I can go along with. The Nazis did that type of suppression also. I agree the left in America has taken us the wrong direction in so many ways but The CCP is too far the other way. Democracies are messy and a king or dictator is the most efficient form of government but both have the potential to go very wrong and nothing is perfect however I believe in the words , A Government should be “For the people and BY the people” which at present neither government has accomplished . I voted for Ross Perot and for Trump. Ross Perot was right in saying that special interest money was destroying our democracy and it has because it’s the vehicle by which the US corporations and China plus any other country buys off and corrupts our Government . If this practice was outlawed and term limits set Americas government could once again be for the people and by the people . The ancient and rich Chinese culture is wonderful but it’s a shame and a crime the CCP destroyed so much of it, yet it still remains preserved in Taiwan, but they want to destroy that too.
Thank you for that.
I know well what you are talking about, but listen to me. The illusions that you have about the “repression” in China is all third hand from American propaganda. I am an American, and been living here in China almost constantly for the last 15 years. I never see any of the bullshit that you read about in America. In fact, that is one of the biggest shocks that an American has when he comes to China. You have freedom.
It starts with small things…
Being able to smoke when you want and where you want. Being able to drink alcohol without being carded or within defined time limits. No taxes. No excise taxes. No fees. And very little regulation. Not having to wear seatbelts.
Then it starts to build.
The nice clean roads, the lack of trash. The nice police and the gentle and respectful way that they talk with you. The lack of political correctness. The way that everyone works together.
Then it starts to hit home.
How cheap everything is without a billion hands in the till. No taxes, fees, or extra costs. Not having to report to the government. Keeping your earnings secret, and the lack of manipulation in the media. The long lunches with a nap break. The calm and easy way that people go to work without the stress.
You start to ask questions…
Why are American bottles of Coke-cola only filled 85% to the top, when they are 100% filled in China? Why can a pack of cigarettes cost under a dollar in China where they are ten times that amount in the States? Why do you still have to pay for the Mass pike (I-90) at the toll booth when the constriction costs were all paid in full twenty years ago? Why isn’t the full amount of social security deductions (8% + 8% = 16%) shown in the paycheck? Why do Americans only get 1 to two weeks vacation, when the rest of the world gets 4 to 8 weeks paid vacation?
Then your eyes start to open up.
You start to compare. China high speed bullet trains with Amtrak. China’s new modern cities with Baltimore, San Francisco and Cleveland. The trim slim busty Chinese women compared to the American tubs of lard. The children speaking two languages and doing calculus in sixth grade. Finally…
You look at your life. Your health, and your happiness.
What you read about China is so off the wall incorrect, that you would be best served to Read the National Inquirer instead of American mainstream press. It’s more accurate. And Taiwan is about 10 years behind the mainland in culture, society and technology and falling behind fast. I attribute it to it’s inefficient and corrupt government.
You are right about most of your complaints. The only thing is that you miss the barn in terms of who to blame. Fox News and the corporatist greedhead lawbreaking Republicans who break laws and squeeze the system for their own short term benefit (simultaneously underfunding essential services) while they outsource labor and favor military style law and order… they are the culprits. Mentioning media and government without specifying the obvious suspects is an omission that undermines your objectivity and clarity.
Hillary and Obama conspiracies? Not close to the traitorous Trump/McConnell crime family who are the nadir of Reaganomics at the heart of the USA’s decline since the 80s.
You cite Nordic countries as providing value and services for each tax dollar spent; that is exactly what Dems have sought to provide and the GOP fights with disinformation and infowars against common sense. Nordic style healthare? Obamacare tried to establish that, and Bernie wants it too. It’s Repubicans that sabotage such initiatives and underfund the public education system while stoking division and ignorance, obviously. Studies prove this.
Who balloons the deficit and wastes tax dollars on wars of choice? Not necessarily Dems.
I live in China too and agree with you a lot in terms of your depictions of its benefits. Of course, it is a totalitarian conservative nation rife with elite corruption and abuse of technocratic oppression as well, but at least the elites know how to improve the average person’s standard of living at the same time (for now).
This is unlike the GOP which simply steals outright. The recent fight by Trump’s admin to account for where the COVID bailout money went is proof. They don’t want accountability, and they undermine the government they run while handing the reigns to short term self serving sycophants that are essentially asking foxes to guard the henhouse at every turn.
At least Obama’s recovery after Bush degregulation and greed caused the great recession was accounted for, profitable, and led to some new laws that sought to curtail corporate abuse of the financial system. Those were the same laws the GOP fought and have now recinded, thus making it easier for them to drain the public trust once more.
It’s a cycle of crime by conservatives and then a recovery engineered by the liberal minded adults in the room we’ve seen since the 1920s– and that’s why markets consistently outperform during liberal administrations and why public services and trust increase during the same. No wonder the number of convicted felons for GOP administrations is so lopsided vs liberal admins.
So… you are close to seeing the full light of the causes of America’s decline since you diagnose the symptoms well. You just have to take it to the logical conclusion and pin the culprits to the wall the way the facts indicate rather than posting demonstrably false Ben Garrison cartoons while giving a pass the majority of Republicans that actively have eroded all that was once functional in the USA. Best of luck!
Since I wrote that, I have seen the absolute corruption of the American “Conservative” movement. It’s really difficult for me to want to have anything to do with the non-stop barrage of anti-China propaganda. The “stimulus package” of trillions of dollars that went to Republican cronies, and the latest moves by the so-called “conservative movement” to tighten the shackles of what little freedoms remain for Americans.
Now, if I might be so bold, is to agree with your view whole heartedly.
I no longer wish for a conservative leader, or a progressive liberal leader. I am oh, so past that. I want it all over. It’s a mess that is not my problem, and I want it effectively neutered so that it will not bother anyone else ever again. I am talking about “nuking it from orbit… just to be sure.”
Incidentally, if you want to see my posts regarding the decline and fall of the American Empire, then you can go to my ENORMOUS SHTF Index.
Sorry Kal, but there is very little truth in your post. The 2008 crash was caused by gutting of lending practices by Clinton and Barney Frank. They FORCED lenders to lend money to unqualified borrowers so people of certain skin colors, perversions, and other idiotic characteristics could get mortgages. See YouTube video: “Peter Schiff Mortgage Bankers Speech Nov/13/06” – it’s the best video on the internet. This is the same way Democrats qualify people for jobs, college admission, government grants and how they pick who to vote for. This is why ALL (no exceptions) Democrat cities are cesspools of debt, crime, debauchery, rot, decay, etc. They can’t stomach the radical idea that people should be hired or voted-for based on merit!! They are ruining the USA but we’re waking up – see Jan 6, 2020 – that wasn’t even a warm-up. 😉
Obamacare has very high premiums, very high deductibles – and covers everything under the sun, much of which, few people need. It is awful insurance – but it was designed to be awful so it would fail and then they could put in single-payer, which will be a bureaucratic nightmare, where you have to wait months or years for any treatment – many will die because of it. YouTube video: “3 Jonathan Gruber Videos: Americans “Too Stupid to Understand” Obamacare” Best option would be to keep Obamacare (but no mandate), AND to allow any insurer to offer any plan they wanted with not government requirements. That way people could pick the plan that is best for their situation. Top-down control does not work for millions of patients – we all have different needs.
Socialism/communism has worked in zero countries. No system is perfect, but USA capitalism has been the best in the world BY FAR. Nobody is pounding on the door to get into socialist/communist nations; but people AROUND THE WORLD want to leave socialist/communist S-holes and come to America. Unfortunately, America’s light of freedom for the world is scheduled to be extinguished on Jan 20, 2021 – possibly forever. Say bye bye to many small, weak nations in the western Pacific as China and Russia take them over – they know our Alzheimer leader will be asleep in the basement (when he isn’t having his diaper changed) while they dominate the world.
Welcome to 2021!
Skimmed most of your article. It was long and I should have taken notes as I forget my thoughts quickly, but I’ll give a few quick thoughts based on what I remember:
1 – Your picture of Detroit “infrastructure” is not typical of much in America. I’ve seen the same boarded up brick neighborhoods 20 years ago there – you don’t stop at stop signs in those neighborhoods! That blight was most likely a direct result of decades of incompetent Democrat control. Much of that being because they vote based on skin color, not on qualification for their leaders – but I repeat myself – that is a Democrat trait – get a job based on color, gender identity, sexual perversion, inability to speak engrish, blah, blah, blah. Am I right? This occurs in every US City, but I think Detroit likely resulted in the worst case of decay.
2 – I would not live in China – no guns. No way. They are not free people. They are sitting ducks whenever the goobermint decides it’s time.
3 – Many of the problems we have today were caused by liberalism. Liberal schools dumbed down the people to the point that they think a dude with a weiner can claim to be a woman, and vice-versa; or that a white woman can claim to be a Cherokee, or a black person, etc. It does not get any stooopider than that! Far too many of our youngsters are abject morons thanks to liberal child-abuse in schools. They teach them that socialism/communism is better than capitalism; when, in fact the US with 5% of the world population has more nobel prizes in the sciences/medicine and more gold medals in sports than most of the rest of the world combined. They teach them how awful we are to take the land from the indians, but don’t bother to tell them that is how essentially every nation on earth was formed. So too many kids come out of school totally useless.
4 – Part of our economic decline is likely due to exporting our jobs overseas – for whatever reason – unrealistic union wages perhaps. One of the best Youtube videos on the internet is titled “Peter Schiff Mortgage Bankers Speech Nov/13/06“. Worth a watch. He describes the decline in America that you described.
5 – It is also true that many Americans have stocks/mutual funds, etc in their 401Ks – it’s not just the elite. See pewresearch dot org fact-tank article: “More than half of U.S. households have some investment in the stock market”. Yes, many of us are just about broke. For many, that’s due to poor choices. Many urban areas here have minimum wages nearing $15/hour – not a lot, but one person can survive on that.
Sorry to read of your life difficulties that wiped you out. I guess divorces, etc can do that. The most common thing to wipe people out financially is probably poor choices. I get the impression that you are somewhat bitter about your circumstances in America and that’s understandable. I think the article is over pessimistic on America, and overly optimistic on China. Parts of China are probably not bad, but it’s still a commie nation, you aren’t free, and I’ll bet in many parts people still live in huts and heat/cook with yak dung. Am I wrong? And what about those concentration camps? An excellent youtube video comparing China and America is titled: “China vs. America” by a South African dude and the channel is called “serpentza”. As a second amendment supporter, I love it because at 12:55 he points out that they have as many or more mass murders as America – they just do it with knives – usually in kindergarten classes!!!
America isn’t a 3rd world nation just yet – we’re close – and after 4 years of idiotic Democrat control, starting in 9 days, my guess is we will be, and we may be in CW2. CW2 is probably our best bet for freedom at this point – and you are right – take it to the leadership, not your neighbor, BUT after conservatives take back the leadership, we will have to boot OUT all liberals from the school systems, and all government jobs.
Good luck over there. Let us know where we can locate rich Chinese investors who will pay outrageous prices for our houses. It’s time to retire! 🙂
OH, one other thing – tell everyone how awful America it – we are tired of furryners coming over here taking our jobs. 😉 Furryners. 🙂
This is your first mistake. Nothing on MM is designed for skim-reading. That is a technique that you use of the American media to plow through the chaff and get to the meaty wheat. Everything here is in great detail, with backup references. Newbes have a tendency to skim read and them complain that the articles are too long. Then they rush off with long comments insulting things that they haven’t read in detail. Like you. I mean, you just admitted this, right?
Look I get it. America is great. yada. Yada. Yada.
You are just a Pavlov’s dog. I;ll bet you that when you drive, that you instinctively look down at your speedo when you see a police officer. Or that you question whether or not to have an extra slice of cheese on your burger because you don’t want to spend too much money… taxes and all. Or, that your employer hasn’t had Christmas parties with alcohol in years, or given out bonuses. Or that you drink coffee that costs more than 25 cents a cup.
Face it, and admit it. America is a for-profit nation, and you are the slave-serf commodity.
Well. I’ve spent 40 years in the USA, and 20 years in China. I would consider myself an expert. Most people who repeat the American media narrative, like you have a big fat ZERO years of experience. Now, I argue that in order to keep Americans in Check and corralled inside this massive prison that they be fed a pack of lies. And when newbies come, one of the first things they do is regurgitate the lies. And when someone who has direct first-person experience counteracts those lies they stand incredulous.
Yeah you are really off the wall wrong. China looks more like a scene from the 1960’s cartoon “The Jetsons” more than anything else. You should check out the videos, and compare them to what constitutes videos (there aren’t any) in the Western press. As far as freedom goes… Hows that yearly reporting all your income to the government going? Not once, you son of a bitch, stood up to the IRS and told them to shove it! Because you have the 4th amendment. And your guns? Make me fucking laugh. What are you gonna do? Oil them forever, dust them off every holiday and proudly display them as freedom? Bullshit. You are just a caged animal. How can there be 10,000 laws about guns AND a 2nd amendment? Why! The entire purpose of the IRS is to INFRINGE on the 2nd amendment.
And yet you hollar about how “free” you are. When in fact, you have zero freedoms.
Hows that first amendment working out for ya? What about the second? How about the ninth? Oh, and of course, that 10th amendment?
China is refreshing. Guess what? The money doesn’t go into the oligarchy hands where they can buy their 50th mansion. It goes to the people and it shows. But don’t believe me. Check out the videos. You know, the videos that Donald Trump banned everyone from watching…
Videos of China
A total and complete load of horse manure. I have a complete write up on this here…
The (so called) “Uyghur issue” within China; it’s history and contemporaneous situation.
After reading this comment: I’ll bet in many parts people still live in huts and heat/cook with yak dung. Am I wrong?
So, I simply went on to my porch, and took this picture…
They say that a picture says a thousand words. You can talk to me until you are blue in the face about how shitty China is and how great America is. It’s gonna roll off my shoulders. Life is a personal thing.