The American Dream is Dying
Can America be saved? This is a question that anyone living in the United States of America should be asking themselves these days. Between the unemployment rate soaring to ridiculous numbers, the housing crisis, our infrastructure falling down around our heads, and our education system seriously lacking, not to mention so many others issues that are just too long for one hub. America is in a huge heap of trouble.
The unemployment rate in July 2011 was 9.7 percent; that is 25.1 million Americans that are currently unemployed. The number of those unemployed for half a year or more is 6.2 million. The average length of unemployment now stands at 40.4 weeks, the highest since the recession began. According to the National Employment Law Project, 75 percent of U.S. job growth in 2010 was from industries that pay an average of under $15 per hour. The average consumer spends $6,372 a year on food and $16,895 a year to keep a roof over their head. When you are only making less than $32,000 a year before taxes that does not leave a lot of money left over for your other bills. Not to mention if you are supporting other people, like a spouse or kids.
Most of the infrastructure in this country was built between the beginning and the middle of the 20th century. These structures were built to last at a maximum of fifty years. The structures include roads, bridges, sewer systems, water systems, tunnels, and dams, and this is just to mention a few. With our country in turmoil and most of our money being spent to line the bankers and politician’s pockets and on wars around the globe on a yearly basis; there is not much left to fix our infrastructure. As of last year the American Society of Civil Engineers is calling for $120 billion per year more than what is already being spent to keep our structures going. Just to give you some facts so that you can comprehend this a little more, there are approximately 600,000 bridges in the United States. Of those 600,000 bridges more than a quarter of them have structural problems or have outdated designs. You might remember that back in 2007, the I-35 Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed. Jesus de la Garza, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech, was stated as saying “the I-35W bridge was labeled ‘structurally deficient’ for 16 years, that meant it was due for reconstruction at some time in the future”.
Our education system is lacking more now than ever. When I look at education in the United States, I see a declining knidergarten through twelth grade system that is losing competitiveness. It is estimated that only 74.7 percent of the incoming freshman in high school will graduate. That means that more than a quarter of all of our kids will not have a high school diploma. When it comes to Americans between the ages of 20 through 24, 17% of them do not currently have a job, not to mention that there are two million college graduates that are currently unemployed. One of the most serious issues is the shortage of well qualified teachers. Either the districts had to lay off the qualified or certified teachers or they cannot afford them. This is especially crippling in math and science. These two fields are critical to future economic development. There is only a 40% chance that a student who is studying chemistry will be taught by a teacher with a degree in chemistry.
The housing crisis is only getting worst. Since 2006 almost 6 million homeowners have lost their homes. And more than half of them are in danger of losing their homes. Can you imagine 9.5 million people losing their homes? That number is absolutely ridiculous. That means that there has been $9 trillion in home equity that has vanished since 2006. According to the Home Value Index compiled by Zillow, values nationwide have kept falling for more than 50 months. Even more worrisome today is the negative equity in these homes. For those who do not know, negative equity means that you owe more money than the home is worth. An estimated 5.5 million U.S. households are tied to mortgages that are at least 20 percent higher than the current home value.
The future of America is very bleak as of right now. These bureaucratic jackasses on the hill need to get out of their leather recliners and do their damn job! We are spending trillions and trillions of dollars around the world putting in puppet governments or sending our soldiers to die for the prce of oil. We cannot afford a decent education system for our children, who are going to be the future leaders of this country. I could rant on about this for hours but I do not want to waste your time. I will close by saying this. The American dream is dying and it is up to us as citizens of this once great country to get together as a people and demand that the White House gets off of its ass and do something about it. What do you think? Do you have any ideas of a solution to all of these issues described above?
