My daughter mentioned 'first world' problems

[Marthe48]

She was talking about a day she had this week, and realized that the annoyances were minor compared to other places. I said, You are living a first world life. Only you're living it in America."

We both snickered, but I miss the constancy of good products, good service and a stable supply chain. Maybe the horrible events of the last several years exposed a real America and the "Camelot" doesn't exist except as an ideal. But when we thought we were living in paradise, it seemed real, at least for me.


The disgusting behavior of the last decade show that the economic and social well-being didn't include most people and is skin-deep, if it exists at all. But we know what we want, and what we should be aiming for. And all of us Americans should work toward the ideal, not give up on it because it is hard and constant work.

[cilla4progress]

1. I agree with you on the non-material values,

but there was a lot of waste and abuse - not mention facade and corruption - in those times you mention!

[BannonsLiver]

2. I'm always fascinated where people are living who say they don't get those things regularly.

I don’t have any trouble finding good products or services. Never have. Perhaps that’s because I live in an area where people provide those things for money.

[Elessar Zappa]

3. Certain things have been in short supply nationwide,

such as lumber and electronics with computer chips. It’s pandemic related and will eventually return to normal.

[Marthe48]

9. I like Big K (Kroger) diet ginger ale

very low sodium, tastes good to me. I couldn't get it for months last year. Other items like pepperoni, I did without for a long time. The clerk who brought my curbside out said they haven't had frozen onion rings for a long time.

When I order online, I often get messages that things I took for granted before March 2020 aren't available. The stores offer some substitutions, but usually not directly related to what I ordered.

I knew about the lumber, kind of knew about electronics.

[sagetea]

4. Something I've discovered..

America (the US in particular) had a great mirror held up to us.

Some saw in the mirror shame, hanged their heads and vowed to do better.

Some saw in the mirror what they have always seen and vowed to keep fighting.

Some saw in the mirror nothing and they continued to behave badly.

Some denied the mirror existed and screamed 'fake news' at those who saw.

The idea that the US was fair, understanding, and exceptional, was seductive to believe, but never the truth. So many knew this from birth.

It's heartbreaking to realize that so many deny the pain and anguish of others who have been harmed (or worse) by those who do not see beyond the words they are told.

I believe being generationally poor in this country is one of the most expensive things in the world.

sage

[BannonsLiver]

5. It was always horse shit.

America has always been completely overrated. Americans even more so. It took me actually getting out of the country and seeing how the rest of the world lives to drive those points home for good.

[Marthe48]

8. Many of the original colonists

were not earnest, hard-working, or decent. There were religious sects who couldn't practice their faith in Europe. There were convicts, Georgia was apenal colony at first, there were children who wouldn't inherit from their families, just a huge mix of tired and poor, wretched refuse from teeming shores. Emma Lazarus' poem The New Colossus was fitting not just for immigrants coming to America in the late 1800s. The words describe almost all of the people who came here in search of a better life, a more peaceful life. I think the colonists brought disfunction as much as they brought the clothes on their backs, and there has been no couseling for the generational behavior that underlies a lot of the social injustice we live with. Being woke is not just a social breakthrough, it is a theraputic breakthrough and not everyone gets the message.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Missing the "constancy of good products" is definitely a certain kind of FWP.

The disgusting behavior of the last decade show that the economic and social well-being didn't include most people and is skin-deep, if it exists at all.

People who were excluded knew this long before the past decade. I'm trying to figure out your post; it sounds like you're coming to the realization that the promise of America is, in fact, a lie?

[Marthe48]

7. I am 68

I was alive during the Civil Rights movement. I thought civil rights for people was a given. I was wrong.
I saw the Womens' Lib movement take root and grow, thought that was a given. I was wrong.
I saw a lot of social and economic changes unfold and really thought America was the ideal I'd learned to believe in. I wsas wrong.

I haven't sat on the sidelines eating bonbons, savoring my good fortune and ignoring others' in horrible situations. I think I made a difference in some of the lives I touched and maybe set an example on how to treat people. But the blinders are off. There are a lot of people I know who are hateful, racist, selfish, mean and nasty. But my comment to my daughter was the first time I denigrated my country for a long time. I think I was ashamed when I found out about the October Surprise, the Iran Contra Affair, when the ATP union was broken, when marc rich was pardoned, when we invaded Iraq, when Pres. Obama was so badly treated by the horrible people in this country, when someone was installed in the White House who encouraged low acts rather lead setting an example of decency.

I still help where I can and I pick what I can do that will help a person the most, or the community, or the country.

When I was in grade school, I learned that Geo. Washington was The Father of Our Country. Then I learned he had false teeth. Then I learned that he kept an itemized expense account during the Revolutionary War, hoping for reimbursement. I think that peeling the layers off Washinton is a good metaphor for my personal journey.