I have much the same personal experience as you. Unfortunately, I don't see this for the next generation. I mean go down your list.
- Paid my taxes and have money left to enjoy life.
- I'm watching families with 2 college educated parents struggle to pay the bills.
- Raised three kids who've never wanted for thing.
- Those same families struggle to provide healthcare for their kids.
- Been educated in some of the best schools and universities on the planet.
- Those same families not even considering the best schools because they can't afford it.
- Enjoy a rewarding and interesting career, one that is entirely of my choosing.
- Often finding a job is a major victory, I recently read a report stating that 50% of college grads are working at jobs that don't require a college degree.
- Bought/built homes in four states.
- Home ownership at levels not seen since the mid 60s.
- Have access to among the best health care to be had.
- If you can afford it. More and more less likely.
- Travel the country and the globe weekly.
- If you can afford it. More and more less likely.
- Eat a variety of foods from burgers and fries to delicacies from around the world, all in the U.S.
- If you can afford it. More and more less likely.
- Party like it's 1999 and 1979 at will.
- If you can afford it. More and more less likely.
- Walk America's streets in fear of nobody and nothing
- . Depends on where you live.
- ***** and moan about nearly every injustice I see, and neither I nor my family suffer legally, socially or politically for it. (other than headaches and sadness from the BS I see on this site)
- That remains the same.
- Have never been wrongfully accused of a crime.
- Agrred
- Not once had to worry about the horrors of war, pestilence or famine happening in my backyard.
- Agreed
It's not that country is now a horrible place, just heading in the wrong direction really, really fast .
Red:
That rings to me like two people with college degrees who have overlooked or failed to avail themselves fully of the opportunities they had and are now paying the consequences for it. I'm not at all suggesting that there are not families who experience the "hard time" or "misfortune" you've identified. I'm not saying that "sh*t doesn't happen" for it does, but I am saying the U.S. provides a safety net for folks to whom it does. I am saying that good fortune occurs at the intersection of preparation and opportunity.
I'm not going to sit here in judgment of every single individual who is or who considers themselves to be struggling. I am going to sit here and say that being in that position is the exception, not the norm. And I'm going to say that exceptions and norms are based not on absolute quantities, but rather on the rates at which things occur within a given population. Seeing as in the U.S., the overwhelming majority of folks socioeconomically are middle class or higher, that struggling you identify is the exception, not the norm. Moreover, to the extent that those exceptions are evenly distributed among the population, I think there is nothing going on that rises to the level of the nation "heading in the wrong direction real, really fast."
Yes, I see structural failures in the fabric of our nation that results in "things" going on well for certain groups, and I think those things need to be fixed, especially as I don't believe in allowing "the good to become the enemy of the best." However, I also don't ascribe to the "
Chicken Little" way of qualitative analysis and concluding.
College Degree and Struggling:
There's a nifty little
tool on Pew Research's site that you can use to see how the country's citizens fall based on a few high level dimensions. I encourage you to check it out, most especially for folks in the 30-64 year old age groups and having a bachelor's degree or higher. When one looks at folks in the 18-29 year old cohort, one finds a slightly higher rate of being lower class (economically), but that should come as no surprise seeing given the age one must reach before completing a bachelor's degree or higher.
If you do play around with that tool, you'll find exactly what I stated above: folks who get a college degree are, regardless of race or age, generally middle or upper class (economically). So if individuals fitting that demographic profile are struggling, I'm inclined to believe that is their experience either because "sh*t happened" or because they failed to make the most of the opportunity(s) they have had. You and I both know calamity doesn't happen to most folks most of the time, thus making that possibility the exception, and the nation's greatness or lack thereof is not a function of what are the exceptions, it's a function of what is the norm.
If you can afford it:
I've not directly addressed the items of which you stated "if you can afford it" because that depends on the stuff I have addressed. If one fails to avail oneself of one's opportunities, it's no surprise one can't afford "this or that."
