ranting about american culture

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so what is it with America these days?

we are one of the most corrupt nations in the world, and our economy is going downhill faster and faster.

but, as simple self absorbed people of this great nation, we do not realize what is becoming of our once great place we call home.

we do not realize it because in some strange bit of reality it has failed to truly effect us.

yes, gas prices are high
yes, people are, in some aspects, making less money

but is this the only true effect?

sadly no

a vast majority of us in America will never realize it though, for our neighboring countries are poorer than us, so their goods come cheap

but what about comparing us to the rest of the world, not just Canada and Mexico.

our dollar value is at an all time low, we can, on an American middle class budget, no longer afford to be citizens of the world.

in America we are accustomed to having a dollar menu at almost every fast food restaurant that we pass. in Europe and the entire eastern hemisphere, they have a menu of the food that will only cost you 4 American dollars, and they find that comparable to our system.

in a sad reality it is

our dollar, to the rest of the world is only worth a quarter, or in some cases even less.

as i am here, residing in Denmark for these seven weeks, i have many times reflected upon the last time we were here.

the American dollar was just about dead even with the Danish krone, 10 kr to 1 us dollar

that is not longer an accurate picture

due to our presidents rampant spending of American funds on a war with no apparent end, we are continuously loosing value of our money.

today, i can get 5 krone to one dollar

if im lucky


a simple sweatshirt here cost 400 krone

that's 80 American dollars, but to the Danish people it is costing 40 dollars

i have taken my time to write this for one reason

to get it off my chest

but, now that i am sitting here realizing what i just put into text, i find that there would be no point to be such a critic if i did not offer a solution to our nations problem

i am not saying that i have any expertise in the areas of economics, i am just an observant 17 year old, in Denmark, living on a budget of 1500 us dollars for 7 weeks.

inn my opinion, i think our greatest factor that is hurting our economy is not the Iraq war.

it is not gas
or jobs
or any of the obvious contributing factors

i believe that it is our American stubbornness that is hurting us the most

we become upset when price on things rise, and resort to going to cheaper places.

for example, take clothes, if a sweater goes up in price at jcpennny, we as a whole, in general, will go to macys, or even worse a place such as Steve and Barry

but going for the cheaper prices we don't realize what we are doing

by going to place like Steve and Barry we are supporting Chinese and Indian sweatshops, and putting little to no money back into the spending pool of the American culture
and putting even more in to the pockets of greedy corporate America

when will we learn that we cannot always take the cheapest way out?

there is a price being placed, that we must begin to reach before our country begins to decline on many other factors, and before we fall even further into bankruptcy

right now, that price is in the trillions
some may say less, some may say far more

the latest says around 9 trillion
just to fund Iraq

this is ridiculous

what ever happened to being proud to be an American

i can no longer in a just mind, be proud to be an American

i can no longer support these companies that with every job they are exporting, and every foreign car brought in, are killing our countries status even more

i can no longer buy consumer goods at a low price, knowingly supporting a multi billion dollar industry made up of greed and child labor, which has America tattooed on its back

i can not in a just mind, feel proud to be an American
and neither should you

we kill the free to make them live by our standards of free
and we spend 9 trillion doing so

we drive cars that in Europe comparable models achieve at least 2 times as much fuel efficiency

I apologize to those of you whose time I wasted in having you read this

but it hurts me to see, and live through the effect of this place many of us call home

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