Why America is not “Great”
All opinions expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of HSDA or The Progressive Teen.
Why America is not “Great”
When has America been great? Just ask yourself that. When has America truly served the interests of all, and not just the interests of those at the top? America has failed to live up to its potential. Many who would argue otherwise point to our outstanding GDP and our record levels of investment before COVID 19, or to how we were one of the first countries that gave its people a voice. In theory, the government is only as powerful as the people who support it — all great ideas, but ones we fail to live up to. The America that was created was meant to be great for those who are male, for those who are white, and for those who are rich. We fail to live up to our ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. America to this day still needs to rectify the problems that face us in the 21st century, instead of being blinded by our sense of nationalism and patriotism. If we are to truly be great, it’s time to open our eyes to America’s flaws.
Hardcore nationalists are honestly some of the most ignorant people I have ever talked to. They love to claim America is the greatest country in the world with nothing to back it up. We may be the wealthiest and we have the most powerful military in the world, but how do those two things translate into what makes a country great? “Greatness” is not about how much wealth or power a country has — it is how they use it. Whether it is healthcare, labor standards, systemic inequity, racism, or socio-economic mobility, America ranks in the bottom half of developed countries.
When we look at our labor standards, they are some of the most horrendous in the world. 1.2 million Americans get paid a wage of $7.25. Let us take the hourly wage one would earn at Burger King in America versus one in Denmark. The hourly rate of a job at Burger King in America is 7.98. The rate in Denmark? 20 dollars an hour. Amazingly, in the wealthiest country in the world, Burger King can only pay its workers $8 an hour. Why can workers in Denmark who work at Burger King be paid more? It is because Denmark and much of Western Europe has laws in place that require their companies to pay their workers fairly. Unionization is also quite normal in European countries and unions aren’t held back by legislation. A lot of people will say “well it’s their fault they can’t be paid better! They need to find a better job.” First off let me ask them this — is there any full-time job one works that should not allow them to rent a single room apartment and cover the costs of healthcare, utilities, and food? I don’t think so. In the richest country in the world, people should be able to afford basic housing and be able to pay for healthcare and food, and other essential utilities.
Now let me turn to one of my favorite topics — healthcare! Our healthcare system, as anything really in our ultra Capitalistic society, is for profit. I hear all the time from defenders of the American healthcare system that our quality of care and cost in relation to other countries is desirable. However, they have nothing else but platitudes to back up their claim. Here is an interesting chart I found:
The chart compares overall expenditures. As you can see, America spends more on healthcare than any developed nation in the world as a percentage of our GDP. This makes us assume that we are paying for the best quality of insurance and that everybody has access to it, which is sadly not the case. Germany, a country that spends 4% less of a percentage on GDP, has 140 thousand of its citizens uninsured. In America, that number is over 20 million Americans.
Now, what about quality? According to the health system tracker, Americans often lag behind when it comes to quality in insurance and quality of care. Many defenders of the American healthcare system point to the long wait times of other countries. However, according to the American Center for Progress, Americans often wait longer to go see the doctor and this is not accounted for when it comes to waiting times. This means Americans, especially those without insurance, actually have comparable wait times to that of other First World countries.
There is also another point, that defenders of our for-profit institution, fail to understand — that healthcare is an inelastic good. An inelastic good is a good whose demand will always remain the same, no matter the price. People cannot go without health insurance, especially if they have pre-existing conditions. Insulin is a wonderful example of an inelastic good. People who depend on it physically can’t forgo it, they have to pay the outrageous price for the drug or risk dying. Because insulin and healthcare as a whole is an inelastic good, companies have no incentive to drive costs down. Healthcare is an essential right that every citizen, especially a citizen of the wealthiest country in the world, should be to enjoy. In the United Kingdom, every person is insured under the NHS. In Switzerland, everybody has to have self-regulated private insurance. Practically every other country in the developed world has made healthcare a guaranteed right. The United States is the exception to that.
I want to now address the big fat elephant in the room. It’s called systemic racism and inequity. A lot of people do not believe it exists. I used to be one. I used to think that racism was wiped from the edge of the earth as I was blinded by the privilege afforded to me as an Asian — a “Model Minority” of sorts. It is now more important than ever for White Americans to acknowledge the privilege they often possess, and to solve issues about systemic racism. However, a lot of Americans are blinded by the fact they think there is equal opportunity in America. They are hostile to opportunity zones and affirmative action as ways to benefit Black and Brown Americans. However, institutionalized racism is still prevalent to this day.
Take the war on drugs as an example. It was started by Richard Nixon as a way to criminalize people who are Black and “the hippies”. Just ask his domestic policy advisor, John Ehrlichman. “You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did.” The war on drugs is a prevalent example of how institutionalized racism exists.
Another great example of racial inequity is redlining. Redlining was the practice of giving white homeowners loans after world war 2 so they could start their all-white neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the government gave pitiful loans to African Americans and people of color which trapped them in housing projects. This practice is of course to this day banned, but because the inequity created by this practice was never rectified, people of color are often trapped in their poor neighborhoods.
Another horrible consequence of this is the funding of our schools. Schools to this day are funded by property taxes. White suburbs often have higher property value and therefore get more revenue from property taxes. This has left white schools often more funded than their counterparts, which has trapped people of color in a vicious cycle of poverty for generations. Rather than solving this, Americans gloat at how “great” we are. America needs to address the number of systemic inequities that still plague us to this day.
One might make the argument that America is a great country due to our Democracy. They claim that our form of government is the best in the world, which is sadly not the case. Voter suppression is still present in America. Companies are using their power and money to buy elections. In California, Uber, Lyft, and Doordash have spent 200 million dollars in an attempt to pass prop 22. Prop 22 would essentially allow for “gig work-based companies” to ban collective bargaining and pay their workers less.
America also has one of the worse voting systems in the First world. We use a voting system called first past the post, in which a candidate only needs a plurality of votes, not a majority. In a lot of developed countries, they have far better forms of representation. For example, in Germany, they use something called “Mixed-Member Proportional System” in which each party has a say in parliament. America’s form of representative democracy is vastly outdated and keeps a two-party system that has damaged the well-being of Americans. The present-day Democratic and Republican parties ultimately stand for the same thing economically. Any other parties besides the main one are labeled as parties who spoiled the election. Our republic is not only bought out by special interests but also fails to represent the view of the people that it is supposed to represent.
Now the question is, what can we do to make America a better place to live in? Vote. Even in our flawed form of representation, we can still get things done. Those at the top who cling to power want us to feel hopeless. The moment we break free of the illusion of the status quo, we open our eyes to the flaws of America. In doing so, we can fix the generation-long wealth and racial inequities that trouble America to this day. However, we need to do this together. Voting is one of the only things that safeguards the American working class from those who are in power. If your vote doesn’t matter, why do people try so hard to prevent you from voting? Ask yourself that before you consider not voting in the next election. One vote is all it takes to make this country great.
